I’ve met him several times and he’s was nothing but nice to me. Gave me some good advice on some out of state hunts I’m planning. He does hunt for a living full time but I don’t envy that. Having to get up and hunt everyday because that’s how I made a living would not be ideal for me. Now having the out of state contacts would be nice but he’s been doing it for over 30 years.

I guess my experience was different. My son and I went to the NWFT in 2020 and met him at his booth. He very nice and talked with us for probably 10 minutes and even agreed to a picture with my son.

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.

Great post Nathan!

As much as I hate what YouTubers have caused to happen to turkey hunting, I've actually became friends with two known "Tubers". Of course they aren't on Dave or THP's level, but folks who watch turkey hunting on YouTube usually know one or both. Both of these fellows more or less reached out to me knowing my disdain for all things YouTube turkey. Similar to what led up to my meeting with Dave.

One of the Tubers, I could have been much nicer to at the beginning. After knowing him a year or so, I finally realized just how genuine and nice of a guy he was. Sure, we disagree on things related to social media. But man, he is just a nice, real person. And will acknowledge the damage YouTube has caused. Then I became acquainted with another Tuber last year. This dude was nice enough to go SCOUT/LISTEN one morning for me on an area I'd drawn to hunt 15 hours away. He lived about an hour away from the area. That said a lot. I don't know him as well as Tuber #1, but I got to meet him in person last spring and very much enjoyed it. I made a comment or two to his face about my YouTube/social media beliefs and he took them in stride. I'm sure he expected it. But not a hint of arrogance or denial! UNLIKE the one this thread is about. Both those other Tubers and I get along pretty well because they have good personalities, are good people, and are willing to admit they've caused some damage.

You were in public when you met him. I have met him several times in the timber alone. The first time he didn’t know me from Adam’s house cat. Keep in mind, this was on an Alabama WMA that I’ve hunted my entire life. He acted like it was HIS wma and I was a hindrance simply being on it. Lots of things happened in that conversation, including loosing what little bit of respect I had for him. He’s a super douche on many levels.

Dusty thread but interesting. 2018.

I briefly met him. Short dude and quiet/reserved. He was at a TFT event in Tennessee. He mainly just chatted with his buddies and didn’t have anything to do with others. I’m not knocking the guy but not crazy impressed either. Yep…him and hunting public both have really ticked me off when it comes to exploiting the public lands and blowing them up.

If the state wants to screw us with these bait license etc, why not start charging people who profit off public lands.

He about like richard gene..i can see my mamas house in the background of some of his videos…an he aint been knowhere yet on the water that j cant pick out for the most part…everbody says..take someone hunting or fishin..uh uh…nope…they can go play golf an chase youngins playin travel ball…j dont need nk more subdivision winder lickers in the woods

This thing has gone 180* from the beginning.

Loose lips sink ships……YouTubers are parasites and they infected us all with lost hunting opportunities……Screw em. Sorry attention whore bastards

Ran into a Mississippian in Idaho this past spring. Said he had been coming up there for 10-15 years and would stay two weeks with a friend. He would trout fish a week and then turkey hunt a week. He said it had gotten ridiculous. He said ten years go he could hunt public for a week and never see another soul. Now it’s covered up. We experienced the same, ran into probably 7-8 different groups from out of state, all trying to do the US slam and kill in every state. I personally have no desire in any part of my body to kill in every state. If I can hunt in parts of the country that offer what I can’t get in the southeast, that’s about all I can ask for. Making memories with my son and whoever wants to tag along.

Well you do know that your boy Dave spotlighted the hell out of the northwest and wrecking gobblers up there, don’t you?
One of his first videos up there actually showed the field on Onx he was hunting. You could easily trace him.

I only have one boy, that I know of, and he bears my last name. No argument from me that social media and the YouTubers have wrecked turkey hunting across the country. In fact, I wish everyone would quit but me. I’ve hunted turkeys for over 25 yrs and seen the sport go through alot of changes, most not for the good. In the early days when I started turkey hunting the difficulty of consistently killing a turkey weeded out the wannabes pretty early in the year and you could have the woods to yourself after the first week or two. Now, with the technology (cell cams) and the need for recognition and social media acceptance has driven it to a level never seen before and it’s not good. 10-15 years ago public ground I could find 6-7 gobbling turkeys any given morning are now silent. Now, if you were to hear a gobble it was soon followed by owl hooters and peacock calls from several hunters trying to get to him first. It got so ridiculous I gave up hunting the public. I’m fortunate enough to be in a club with family members and close friends that I can hunt turkeys. And I’ve done one out of state trip the past several years. Idk, I’m hopefully for the future of the sport but something has to change.

I’ve been chasing for 30 years or so. It was getting popular before YouTube and social media hunters. It has amped up since so not sure if it’s because of or a product of.
I used to hunt Sam R Murphy because it was closest opener in March 20. We opened April 1. I’d usually kill one or two down there and then they opened the gates and it was on. It got stupid with the people chasing and I quit going. Too many hits busted off of me to count.

It’s parallels duck hunting and the hatred of Duck Dynasty.

Both have benefited from so many customers. Products are hundreds of times better than they were back in the day. Without the numbers the products would’ve never been made.

TSS wasn’t the first to want to shootem a long ways. Mark Basner had a browning 10 gauge with a very long internal choke. Load a 3.5 inch 10 inch the 3 ounces of #3 lead shot and it kill to 80 yards. I toted one off into bottom at Wolf Creek and if it was mine I’d left that sob down in there. Then Nitros hit the scene, those field birds will hurt your feelings.

Is it wrong to capitalize on something you love? If and when you do, burnout will loom

Took me about 25 years to get to the point I did not want to take another pic no matter what.

Everyone’s hunting MY turkeys
Everyone’s hunting MY deer
Everyone’s catching MY fish
Everyone else is ruining MY WMA I’VE hunted for 30 years

Maybe these YouTubers are cheating in some way I’m not privy to but most of their videos end with kills. If they destroyed these areas how do they continue to kill them at these pimped out areas?

Not sure you are seeing the bigger picture. And I don’t see many on here saying MY all the time, just a general discussion.

As for the success - obviously they will show successful hunts. Time and man hours is the key anyway. All a decent woodsman needs is time and chances to take.

While you are pontificating - go ahead and address the pimping of DGT. You cool with that idea being pushed by a few of the more watched groups? Cause I’m not, and I haven’t heard an apology from any of them.

Also, and I’ve mentioned this before - these type of hunters don’t care if a state drops the limit down to 1 bird - they can kill one and move on to the next state. You cool with that happening in AL? Screw that.

They are making a living off the people’s land.
You can’t guide hunts for profit on public land, it’s illegal.
You can’t cut and sell firewood off public land, or grow and sell a corn crop. Why should these individuals be any different?

This