Of course he is going to be nice to his fan boys. It'd be bad business to not be.

We met in 2021 to discuss the concerns many of us had with what YouTube and social media was doing to turkey hunting. I spent hours upon hours putting together data (draw hunt application #s, license sales, etc) for the meeting. Not long after we arrived, I whipped out the south Florida non-resident draw application data to show him the MASSIVE surge in non-resident applications to the south FL WMAs he'd been pimping out. The surge in applications happened post Pinhoti and the spike was much much greater than other areas in FL. He seriously got pissed, said "Well Florida has always been like that, i've been hunting there 'x' years". Well little did he know i'd been hunting in Florida just 2 years less and it was NOT always like that. I thought our meeting was gonna end as soon as it began. Completely ignored the data and didn't acknowledge the stats i'd put together for other states.

He asked what he could improve on. I told him to simply QUIT NAMING STATES. That would go a LONG way. Once again, he got agitated and the response was something along the lines of "Well I'm a traveling turkey hunter and that's what I do". Fastforward three seasons later and hes still naming states. The YouTubers know people search for states, so it gets them more views. That is why they continue to name.

We chatted probably 1.5 hour total or so. I lost any bit of respect I had for him. He thinks is the the Golden Boy of Turkey Hunting and can do no wrong. I seriously believe he suffers for narcissistic personality disorder. At the end his primary excuse was "Well if not me, it'd be someone else".

Now is a likeable guy to hang out with and drink a beer? Sure! He's obviously a hell of a turkey hunter and loves it as much as anyone. He is funny, we have a similar sense of humor. He poked fun at the other YouTubers. (Then goes on to collaborate with the other major one on a video or two) Poked fun at his fan boys. Heck, even our turkey "biology" thoughts matched up perfectly. We both agreed the dominant gobbler theory was likely bull* !!!!

But I cannot look past the damage he (and the others) have done. If the YouTubers would have simply QUIT NAMING STATES when people told them to years ago, things wouldn't be QUITE as bad as they are now. But they gotta have those views!

I'd honestly have a hard time living with myself knowing i'd helped destroy so much turkey hunting opportunity for others due to my own selfish interests.