Thread: Social influencers/bloggers/utubers and the effect they have on our sports

Now I realize this is a huge can of worms,but due to recent happenings I have decided its time to put down my thoughts.
a few years ago while watching a duckshooting DVD it suddenly struck me how different what was being shown was to anything I had seen in person over 40 years of waterfowling...and I pondered why.
The biggest difference was the amount of shots fired per bird....3-4-5 shooters all with semi automatic guns all firing 4-5 shots EACH,to drop 3-4-5 birds
gangbanging its been called....
so who wins from this behaviour/way of doing it...simple the folks who make and sell ammunition..so how do they promote it??? they gift ammunition to folks who make videos etc and because its free..woohoo keep shooting.
vastly different to the folks who pay for their own ammunition out of the already tight family budget. not to mention the whole trailer load of decoys..then flocked decoys,then mechanical decoys,then electronic callers...it goes on and on...
I do know of a number of folks who have seen the light and gone back to using the old U/O or SxS and still bagging just as many birds.
I got a pump when steel first came out here as finishing off woundies was hard yakka...now its not so bad,with much fewer finishing shots needed.
right thats duckshooting.
troutfishing has always had a degree of snobbery.... discount or sponsered rods and line ..yip its there too
Back when semi automatic rifles were legal here I recall seeing magdumping used to cook bacon on a suppressor......again only fellas making or selling stuff benifit from that sort of tom foolery.
now in big game hunting the influence is more subtle but its still there,in order to show what I mean I will need to go back a little bit in history.
1940-1950 we had a huge number of deer,MOST people were using open sighted 303brits usually SMLE or a commercially suoped up one...or a post WW2 mauser that had also had a trip through gunsmith..or not.....
then we got better optics but for 20 years it was pretty much the same. the meat hunting days saw the introduction of some really neat cartridges and awesome rifles,lighter and more accurate.... the 4" at hundred that was normal.....changed to a lot of rifles now capable of 1" at hundred,handloading improved a huge amount and became more commonplace,rangefinders and dial up scopes changed the picture more again
fast forward to this century and we now have a huge selection of accurate rifles,a vast amount of great optics,huge pool of knowledge,thermal and night vision is now common place too in advertising,last 2 magazines have more adds for night vision/thermal than anything else....
so what does it have to do with influencers????
well just like duck shooting above..the folks making videos etc are using the stuff a lot..are being ifted or loaned it to try out/use and be seen to do so

what this leads to is a new to sport person THINKING this is how its done..this is normal... watching the Duleys put novice shooter behind rifle and cleanly snot bull thar/tahr at 3-4-500 yards with single round is a pretty thing BUT it doesnt tell half of,let alone the full story..... those rifles and loads have been worked on and worked out to the tenth degree and with known range and dialable optics its doable BUT when you stop and do an add up even roughly..the amount of $$$$$ tied up in gear is absolutely gobsmacking.
to give the Duleys credit less anyone think Im picking on them..which Im not (huge fan) they did a duckshooting episode a year or two back with one crew using old school gear Vs new gear on other crew...and young Willie has done a couple of retro hunts..sako vixen 222 and 4x scope on one and open sighted 303 on another couple.... just showing it can still be done on a budget..using older gear.
I would hazard a guess to say that 60-75% of all deer filmed being shot are now in excess of 300 yards ......slightly different to what I believe is the normal range an animal is taken this disconect works in favour of people selling new flash rifles/scopes/rangefinders/thermals/custom hot ammunition etc

to all you young fellas/new hunters out there..if you take nothing else from this rant,remember this YOU DONT NEED THE FLASHEST NEW EXPENSIVE GEAR to fill your freezer and enjoy your time in the out doors..recently did two polls..one shows that something like 75% of deer are shot under 300 yards and a similar % are shoulder/chest shot....... both of those figure would SUGGEST a rifle capable of 2"/50mm at hundred (yards or meters) will keep your freezer full...if animal is further away,just like Granddad did,you will have to stalk closer.
I sincerly hope this helps someone make up mind or be happy with 2nd hand gear

The 40/50's bit before your time bro. Always laugh taking dudes out with latest rifle and latest scope. Bowl a deer and they bring out some new knife they were told to buy along with their new kit. 2 hours later still hacking at the deer. Use this and watch your fingers. Hell thats sharp. LOL.

Just remember above all else you have no idea how much editing etc goes on with videos, how much is stock footage, recreated etc

The old adage "never let the truth get in the way of a good story" springs to mind on YouTube etc & how much stuff is "given" to people who make videos

"this stuff is the greatest" until someone else "gives" them some thing else to review

Product placements are getting more & more invasive .....turning many videos/shows simply into glorified commercials .....

Hi MD,
Good essay. It's merely progress largely I think. You're right, successful hunting can be done without all the expensive, flash gear but the way the system is geared newbies cannot really be expected to realise that. But over time and with the progress of developed skills they would probably work it out themselves. The great thing about our sport these days is we can set our own levels of gear requirements. We can go with the basic but adequate necessities or conversely the highly technical level requiring substantial investment. In my view, it's all good. One level or the other doesn't make one a better hunter than the other guy, nor does it bear on how one enjoys hunting. The main thing is that guys need to get out there hunting.
Only one thing bothers me a bit which you touched on. That's the use of thermal / night vision equipment. Personally I'm not interested but don't decry those who use that technology so long as their use is within the law. I accept that it has it's place for pest control and wish use would remain for that only. Otherwise I can't help feeling how unsporting it is for simply recreational hunting. Game animals deserve to have some level of sanctity and to deny that is wrong.
Anyway, I know not all will agree and that's fine. I'm just an old guy and my thinking is probably behind these modern times.

Also, speculation, I wonder how those old days hunters, in their day, would have reacted if offered the gear, rifles, ammo available today ? My best guess is they would have thought it better than Christmas and probably couldn't have grabbed the gear quickly enough !

Lots of YouTubers aren't pushing the gear side of things. Some obviously do, but they don't tend to be the ones that make very interesting videos. Anyway, buying crap keeps the economy moving, generates tax revenue, keeps people in jobs etc. I've no problem at all with it Comrade Duck. I spend a lot of time at work, but not actually doing anything, so YouTube is great for me. Far from keeping me on the sofa instead of "out there doing it", I get inspired to get out more.

Where I do think social media could be criticised is that it doesn't present reality. As mentioned, editing makes success look instant which it rarely is in the real world. It comes after a lot of hard work. I think the better content creators show the effort in getting to that point. The "journey" is often more interesting than the end result. That said, we are adults and should have the ability to take everything we see with a pinch of salt.

Having a wife that has worked in the film(editing) industry its an eye opener as to what's actually been done in putting a lot of that type of footage together. She can see stuff a mile away that a lot of us wouldn't even pick up on. How I view that type of thing while It may well not be but its all manipulated until I see it in real life...

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Now I realize this is a huge can of worms,but due to recent happenings I have decided its time to put down my thoughts.
a few years ago while watching a duckshooting DVD it suddenly struck me how different what was being shown was to anything I had seen in person over 40 years of waterfowling...and I pondered why.
The biggest difference was the amount of shots fired per bird....3-4-5 shooters all with semi automatic guns all firing 4-5 shots EACH,to drop 3-4-5 birds
gangbanging its been called....
so who wins from this behaviour/way of doing it...simple the folks who make and sell ammunition..so how do they promote it??? they gift ammunition to folks who make videos etc and because its free..woohoo keep shooting.
vastly different to the folks who pay for their own ammunition out of the already tight family budget. not to mention the whole trailer load of decoys..then flocked decoys,then mechanical decoys,then electronic callers...it goes on and on...
I do know of a number of folks who have seen the light and gone back to using the old U/O or SxS and still bagging just as many birds.
I got a pump when steel first came out here as finishing off woundies was hard yakka...now its not so bad,with much fewer finishing shots needed.
right thats duckshooting.
troutfishing has always had a degree of snobbery.... discount or sponsered rods and line ..yip its there too
Back when semi automatic rifles were legal here I recall seeing magdumping used to cook bacon on a suppressor......again only fellas making or selling stuff benifit from that sort of tom foolery.
now in big game hunting the influence is more subtle but its still there,in order to show what I mean I will need to go back a little bit in history.
1940-1950 we had a huge number of deer,MOST people were using open sighted 303brits usually SMLE or a commercially suoped up one...or a post WW2 mauser that had also had a trip through gunsmith..or not.....
then we got better optics but for 20 years it was pretty much the same. the meat hunting days saw the introduction of some really neat cartridges and awesome rifles,lighter and more accurate.... the 4" at hundred that was normal.....changed to a lot of rifles now capable of 1" at hundred,handloading improved a huge amount and became more commonplace,rangefinders and dial up scopes changed the picture more again
fast forward to this century and we now have a huge selection of accurate rifles,a vast amount of great optics,huge pool of knowledge,thermal and night vision is now common place too in advertising,last 2 magazines have more adds for night vision/thermal than anything else....
so what does it have to do with influencers????
well just like duck shooting above..the folks making videos etc are using the stuff a lot..are being ifted or loaned it to try out/use and be seen to do so

what this leads to is a new to sport person THINKING this is how its done..this is normal... watching the Duleys put novice shooter behind rifle and cleanly snot bull thar/tahr at 3-4-500 yards with single round is a pretty thing BUT it doesnt tell half of,let alone the full story..... those rifles and loads have been worked on and worked out to the tenth degree and with known range and dialable optics its doable BUT when you stop and do an add up even roughly..the amount of $$$$$ tied up in gear is absolutely gobsmacking.
to give the Duleys credit less anyone think Im picking on them..which Im not (huge fan) they did a duckshooting episode a year or two back with one crew using old school gear Vs new gear on other crew...and young Willie has done a couple of retro hunts..sako vixen 222 and 4x scope on one and open sighted 303 on another couple.... just showing it can still be done on a budget..using older gear.
I would hazard a guess to say that 60-75% of all deer filmed being shot are now in excess of 300 yards ......slightly different to what I believe is the normal range an animal is taken this disconect works in favour of people selling new flash rifles/scopes/rangefinders/thermals/custom hot ammunition etc

to all you young fellas/new hunters out there..if you take nothing else from this rant,remember this YOU DONT NEED THE FLASHEST NEW EXPENSIVE GEAR to fill your freezer and enjoy your time in the out doors..recently did two polls..one shows that something like 75% of deer are shot under 300 yards and a similar % are shoulder/chest shot....... both of those figure would SUGGEST a rifle capable of 2"/50mm at hundred (yards or meters) will keep your freezer full...if animal is further away,just like Granddad did,you will have to stalk closer.
I sincerly hope this helps someone make up mind or be happy with 2nd hand gear

Things move on Mickey you couldn't type this on forum 40 years ago is an example, or drive to the bush at the speed you can now .
I don't even own a rangefinder now so understand what your saying about going back to basics, but do the younger generation really copy what they see on hunting shows ?
As others have said most of its just cunning editing, there is some bloody good footage out there, CraigC, Burtonator, Stagstalker to name a few
But who gets their jollies off watching hunting ? Certainty not my cup of tea.
Just go hunting.
I think one thing we definitely have in common with 40 years ago, is the number off deer about !



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My take on it is. Too much time on the internet.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

Just remember above all else you have no idea how much editing etc goes on with videos, how much is stock footage, recreated etc

The old adage "never let the truth get in the way of a good story" springs to mind on YouTube etc & how much stuff is "given" to people who make videos

"this stuff is the greatest" until someone else "gives" them some thing else to review

Product placements are getting more & more invasive .....turning many videos/shows simply into glorified commercials .....

Like hunting programmes.

Influencer, effluencer no difference.

Micky Duck

Wot you said


And having worked in the Interweb before it was one, I view most of these Social influencers/bloggers/utubers etc as:

...don't want to upset anyone - Attention Whores.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

to all you young fellas/new hunters out there..if you take nothing else from this rant,remember this YOU DONT NEED THE FLASHEST NEW EXPENSIVE GEAR to fill your freezer and enjoy your time in the out doors..
I sincerly hope this helps someone make up mind or be happy with 2nd hand gear

ive posted this pic before but here it is again

no flash gear for this youngster when he took his first deer with a dirty old mauser .308 with a dirty old redfield on it his father took a few deer with the same rifle

I guess there is an element of self gratification for some, for others it's about recording memories, certainly there are "professional/sponsored" types and for them it's a job, some are better at it then others. For me reading a blog, watching a YouTube video is no different to picking up a copy of rod and rifle etc, sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it isn't. But like putting down a magazine, I don't have to watch/read.
Where do you draw the line ? There's some great stories on here, reviews etc, in a way they too could be "attention whores"
If you search around often you will find stuff that actually is to your taste but like most things in life you can't please everyone all the time.
I'd rather watch an episode of billy molls mountain man, than 30 seconds of some of the more "commercial" youtubers if I'm stuck indoors.
Just like on this forum some styles of writing appeal to me more than others, levels of reloading that appeal more than others even types of hunting and game that appeal more than others.
I guess what I'm getting at, and trust me it's nothing personal towards anyone each to there own, this place wouldn't be what it is without the stories, youtubers, reviews etc. Just read, watch, practice what appeals to you.
There's something for everyone out there if you seek it, likewise if it doesn't appeal then you won't seek it no one is force feeding anyone.

Originally Posted by turtleSO

My take on it is. Too much time on the internet.

Thanks for writing this on the internet!

I guess the true story is.....you create your own reality.

You watch hunting on youtube = more hunting on youtube.

You dont watch hunting on youtube = more time for actual hunting

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