Caribou Gear Tarp

Steven Rinella on Joe Rogan Podcast

You mean when he hunts the Duran farm in Wisconsin? What's to be said about that one...

Not sure there is anything to be said about that. It is not taking tags away from other hunters and it does not appear to have any weird racial traditions that the one shot appears to have. I personally do not live or hunt in farm country, but if you have a problem with that then you are going to be kicking a lot of hunters out of the boat. It is no different than hunting mule deer on a private ranch, roosters in farm country, etc.
 
If people like Rinella listened to every random self-proclaimed local expert that warned them about something, they'd probably be afraid to get out of bed. I'll be curious to see if he participates again, but my sense is he (and probably a good number of other past participants) didn't recognize the depth of weirdness with this event prior to showing up. There would need to be a few more skeletons falling from his closet for my assessment of him to change.

FWIW, he didn’t participate in 2018.
 
I feel bad that I'm dragging Rinella through the mud on this, but out of curiosity I emailed Meateater today asking about his participation in the hunt, and received this very brief reply-

Randy,
Thanks for reaching out. Steve participated two years ago because the event raises a bunch of money for wildlife conservation. He chose not to participate this year.
Happy hunting,
The MeatEater crew

It doesn't sound to me like he's interested in justifying himself on this, and it's a pretty disappointing response to what I thought was a thoughtful inquiry.

This also shouldn't overshadow the fact that the Lander One-Shot is the problem, not one person participating in it.
 
That is kind of a bummer Randy. Probably not interested in justifying himself because it wouldn't work out that well. Based on what I have heard him say in his podcast and on his show, he really admires Matt Mead as a politician - maybe it was an invite he didn't feel he should turn down. Who knows. I suppose conjecture is a waste of effort and you're right that the problem is the event itself.


I can't help but think that if something like the Lander One-Shot were happening in Montana there would be a lot more outrage. Maybe due to the abundance of pronghorn in Wyoming.
 
Randy11,

That's all great, it raises money for water for wildlife and that's a real easy thing for Steven to say. I bet he hasn't researched the fact that, at the time he hunted, more than half of the water projects were done in States other than Wyoming. Nice that a Wyoming public resource is being used to raise money for "wildlife" water projects in Texas, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, etc. etc. and even South Africa. Maybe it would be great if those States/countries receiving the benefit of our wildlife hosted the one shot hunt in their state and gave up 80 of their pronghorn tags...

I also think Nameless Range hit the nail on the head, that either Mead or his policy advisors extended a personal invite and he felt obligated.

That's fine, but its still pretty lame to not do some research before you accept an invitation, in particular when you were aware of the problems and had time to bail. It would also be nice if we had a Governor that had the stones to push back on this mess of a hunt too. That may be asking for a bit too much, considering Mead also broke his MOU with the WGBLC and gave away a Governors sheep tag and Governors elk tag outside the agreement. Fun times at the expense of the publics wildlife.
 
I feel bad that I'm dragging Rinella through the mud on this, but out of curiosity I emailed Meateater today asking about his participation in the hunt, and received this very brief reply-



It doesn't sound to me like he's interested in justifying himself on this, and it's a pretty disappointing response to what I thought was a thoughtful inquiry.

This also shouldn't overshadow the fact that the Lander One-Shot is the problem, not one person participating in it.

One year is all you need to do to be a part of the past shooters club which is where the real gravy is.
 
lol wow, thats not the kind of thing I would have expected Rinella to be a part of. Considering how much he dogs on "grand slams" and stuff of that nature, I'm surprised he would want to participate in a tournament. I just fired off some e-mails to MeatEater and First Lite. Kind of disappointing. I'll keep watching MeatEater and listening to the podcast cause I think Rinella is great. Not sure I'll be too keen on buying any First Lite stuff if they duck my e-mail.
 
I love Steve Rinella hes always pretty spot on . I haven yet to read any of his books but Its on my list of to do's

His books are pretty good overall, particularly Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cusine, but I found American Buffalo somewhat irritating. I was actually wishing I hadn't read that book, it started out great and I was pulled in pretty quickly. But I was later finding myself irritated. Rinella, being the ambassador that he is and speaking on behalf if public lands and ethics, talks about how he intentionally trespasses because of difficult access into his hunt area. I get that it was years ago and we all mess up, but he knew exactly what it was doing and it tainted my view of him. I'm sure hes a solid guy and he does wonders for the hunting community, but I just found myself disappointed in him after reading that.
 
His books are pretty good overall, particularly Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cusine, but I found American Buffalo somewhat irritating. I was actually wishing I hadn't read that book, it started out great and I was pulled in pretty quickly. But I was later finding myself irritated. Rinella, being the ambassador that he is and speaking on behalf if public lands and ethics, talks about how he intentionally trespasses because of difficult access into his hunt area. I get that it was years ago and we all mess up, but he knew exactly what it was doing and it tainted my view of him. I'm sure hes a solid guy and he does wonders for the hunting community, but I just found myself disappointed in him after reading that.

I liked the book overall but sometimes found myself wanting to skip some of the historical or research parts of the book to get back into the hunting portion.

I can't seem to remember the trespass part that you're talking about, but I'm thinking it's about staying below the high water mark of the rivers on the way in or out? Can you clarify?
 
I liked the book overall but sometimes found myself wanting to skip some of the historical or research parts of the book to get back into the hunting portion.

I can't seem to remember the trespass part that you're talking about, but I'm thinking it's about staying below the high water mark of the rivers on the way in or out? Can you clarify?

He has one section where I remember him saying that he and his brother had to take cover under some brush so they wouldnt be seen by an airplane overhead because he knew they were trespassing (outside the high water mark) and specifically, in chapter 9, he writes "To get there, I have to cut through a couple of miles of land owned by Ahtna, Inc., or else go all the way back to the mouth of the chetaslina and follow the river up. This presents an unsavory dilemma, because I hate looking at the same ground twice even more than I hate trespassing." And he ultimately decides to trespass the couple of miles. I get it's a tough spot and all, but in my hunter ed classes, I always teach to youth that it is never okay to trespass unless its life or death, so I just felt disappointed in someone I looked up to. Not that he did it once, he did it several times in the book and I just couldn't find a reason why that was okay.
 
I was hoping the discussion here had turned into something interesting. But 4 pages of nitpicking and still going? How petty...
 
Coming soon, Rinella, Prince of Poachers part 2.

It's interesting seeing how differently people respond to a Texan poaching vs someone the hunting community respects(used to respect) like Rinella.

I wonder if the blond haired bearded hunting guy/gal with big hooters has ever taken a pic with Rinella.
 
Coming soon, Rinella, Prince of Poachers part 2.

It's interesting seeing how differently people respond to a Texan poaching vs someone the hunting community respects(used to respect) like Rinella.

I wonder if the blond haired bearded hunting guy/gal with big hooters has ever taken a pic with Rinella.

So you are calling Rinella a poacher? Please explain.
 
Some of the responses in this thread are troubling to say the least. I don't know how anyone expects to preserve hunting by turning around and eating their own at the first chance they get. The outright jealously and resentment that I see sometimes in the hunting community disgusts me.

The character assassination of someone due to their lack of pure adherence to a certain ideology is more in keeping with Stalin's Russia than Roosevelt's America.
 
Some of the responses in this thread are troubling to say the least. I don't know how anyone expects to preserve hunting by turning around and eating their own at the first chance they get. The outright jealously and resentment that I see sometimes in the hunting community disgusts me.

The character assassination of someone due to their lack of pure adherence to a certain ideology is more in keeping with Stalin's Russia than Roosevelt's America.

It's the diverse opinions, formed by hunters from diverse backgrounds (on here), that make this site interesting, IMO.
Would you rather have a place where everyone speaks the exact same language? Sounds like Stalin's Russia to me:rolleyes:.
I don't know how anyone expects to preserve hunting by condoning everything we do just because we are hunters.
I have as much interest, no matter how irritated I am by them, in viewpoints different from mine as I do with folks I agree with.

Maybe censorship is the answer...……...
 
See post #90 and #92. It sounds like he has admitted to purposely trespassing while hunting according to those posters. How do you view that type of behavior?

I read the book and don't remember this at all. I am not sure if I still have my copy lying around home maybe I need to read it again.

I didn't grow up perfect and I am not by any means perfect still. Growing up I did stuff hunting and fishing that I am not proud of. These days I realize how special hunting/fishing is to me. If I was to get a ticket these days it would be pure ignorance. I appreciate it so much and love doing it with my kids that I don't cut corners anymore anyway.

I think Steven is the same. He has mentioned multiple times in his books that he did stupid shit as a kid. I don't think he ever asked for forgiveness or has ever said it was ok. I think he basically called himself an asshole for doing some of the stuff he has done. I appreciate the honesty. Very few people didn't do dumb shit when they were kids, very few people have never sped or intentionally broke a law.
 
Is this the hunt that doesn't allow women to participate? Does Rinella's wife know he hates women?

Sarc aside, maybe he participated to try to understand the tradition and/or change some minds. Rinella talks often about trying to remain open to ideas and experiences he wouldn't normally do (like eating a primate). He seems to look for that characteristic in others as well. Perhaps he saw an opportunity to dialogue. Or he thought it looked interesting and wanted to see what it was about. I'm sure the guy has killed enough pronghorn to not care about the tag.

This forum can be a little puritanical at times. I'm not crazy about all of Rinella's decisions but it's not like there is a pattern of unethical behavior emanating from him to justify a shunning. If this is just constructive criticism then that's fine, carry on. But I'm not going to tell people to de-platform Rinella over this.
 

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