Mikelfies - Thanks for your posts.
I have not weighed in one way or the other, and will not, as it relates to Eastman's. I subscribe to both their magazines, for what that is worth.
I do want to address your point that is brought forth in your example of hunters bashing other people's style or manner of hunting.
It happens on forums. It is human nature that people will talk about such things with passion. Not much can be done about that. I get to read a lot of posts about me and our show on some other forums, and some are not very glowing. I get forwarded emails of people within the industry who are not real keen on our message and style of hunting. But, that comes with the territory.
I know we have our detractors and Eastman's will have theirs. Cannot please everyone and so long as we, and they, are pleasing who they think are the important ones, then that is the path to follow.
In an earlier post, someone mentioned the definition of DIY hunting. I think everyone has a different version of that. I have mine, but it is not relevant, as it is only mine and will differ from many others.
My purpose for jumping into this thread is that I don't want people to be left with the impression that the owners of this site are critical of any kind of HUNTING (Penned shooting, not being in my definition of hunting).
I really don't care if it is guided or self-guided, public or private land, draw tags or Over-the-Counter tags or landowner vouchers. If that is what the guy wants to do, I am happy for them.
The site is focused around the show, which has a theme of self-guided hunting on accessible lands. That is for two reasons.
1. Even when cameras are not running, self-guided is how I do my hunting, and most of my hunting is on accessible lands, even though my CPA firm gives me access to landowners who allow me some pretty sweet hunting spots.
2. When you look at almost 500 TV shows and all of them are built on the same model, it seemed like a good idea to try a model that was the antithesis of the other shows. Therefore, self-guided on accessible lands is the theme of this show. So far, so good.
Neither of those points above are reason to discredit or look down upon any other type of fair chase hunting. I hope you do not get that from my posts, or from the message we promote in the show.
Our goal is to promote this type of hunting, which is the type of hunting for over 90% of hunters in the United States. Some take offense to that, and say we are discrediting guided hunting, or tresspass hunts, or ...... Not the case, or if so, not our intention.
I know this is a bit of a tangent to the original post, but wanted to make sure that even though people may have their opinions about certain styles of hunting and when we promote the style of hunting we do, it does not make it any more wrong or right than other styles.
Carry on.