A GPS, a camera, and the internet are all on one device in your pocket. It is so easy now for a location finder setting in your apps to accurately record where you are posting from or where a photo was taken. That hard-earned stack of greenheads and black ducks automatically tells your ‘friends’ where you were. You just served up all those contacts in your apps the intel that you scouted, knocked on doors, and sweated for. Worst of all, if you did that on a guided hunt you just impacted their livelihood. Here are a few things to consider before you post that hero shot this season.
Check The Tag
There is literally a tag for almost any location these days across any app on your phone. Done correctly, you can pay homage to the area if it is a bucket list hunt, say the Chesapeake Bay or Missouri River. If you make it to Canada or the Prairie Pothole Region, you can actually tag the “PPR” or more broadly a Province. Select a big enough geographic area where you won’t ‘blow it up’. Even if you think tagging the nearby small town or the WMA is safe enough, chances are it isn’t. It might even make a few of the locals upset and odds are you might see a few more trucks in the parking lot or boats on the river the next time you visit.
You can be tongue-in-cheek with these and have a little descriptive fun at the same time. Get a great feed on a soybean field? Tag the “Field of Dreams” even though you may be a thousand miles away. However, a tag might not be the only method to give it away to those that search where your hotspot is.
Call The Shot
Think about how you frame your photo. No, I’m not talking about a nice barn wood frame for that pile picture. Scan the horizon to see if there is a telling landmark or feature in the background. That old saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ rings true if there is a recognizable tree line. If there is a water tower in the background, the discerning eye can figure out whose field you were hunting in. When you go to knock on the door for permission next time you scout, it might be locked down already by someone else. Even virtually, loose lips sink ships. You don’t need to go so far as to photoshop your backgrounds on Mars but a little discretion doesn’t hurt.
@badfishchesapeake
Be Considerate
In addition to appropriate blind etiquette, if you are invited on a hunt without taking the above into consideration when you share videos or photos you are impacting more than your chance to hunt with that group again. On a guided hunt some years ago the guide asked us in the group not to tag the area of where we hunted if we were posting pictures. This is an unfortunate but understandable measure of today. Guides need your discretion to help preserve landowner relationships they have cultivated or to even protect their own property.
This is less about, “don’t tag” or “don’t take photos”, but more on keeping the thrill of adventure. Have fun and be respectful of the area, the resource, and the time others and even yourself have worked to get access. Do-It-Yourself travelers [good for you to see new territory] or those with less experience hunting, when not having the best of intentions, can use this information to blow out roosts and ruin an area for others. So if invited along, be respectful of the relationships and areas that others have developed. If not, do your own scouting and research. Few things are more rewarding than discovering that traffic X or feed on your own.
