AZGFD paying youtubers?

[GreyGhost85]

32 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

How do we or wildlife benefit from this? 

We don’t. It is a detriment to residents and wildlife populations. G&F stuffs their pockets. I’d like to see an actual breakdown of money spent on conservation and habitat improvement. Project to project cost. One line item with a dollar sign doesn’t show anything. I would like to see “X-Tank refill - $15,000, new drinker in Kofa’s - $62,000, etc.”

[zackcarp]

So first off, I do enjoy watching YouTube personalities hunt all over the US. I dont enjoy the fact that AZ spends money on said personalities. Randy in particular is very upfront in most his shows and tells you how he got said tag and so forth, which is why I like him, genuine. But you can't blame these guys for trying to make a buck doing something they enjoy. I would guess most people on this forum would gladly get paid to hunt different parts of the country. With that all said, AZGFD is nuts to ask me to donate money to them so they can line someone else's pockets.

[Tropicalmulch]

I'd rather see g&f spend a little on hunter Ed courses to promote hunting in az.

[zslayer]

12 hours ago, zackcarp said:

So first off, I do enjoy watching YouTube personalities hunt all over the US. I dont enjoy the fact that AZ spends money on said personalities. Randy in particular is very upfront in most his shows and tells you how he got said tag and so forth, which is why I like him, genuine. But you can't blame these guys for trying to make a buck doing something they enjoy. I would guess most people on this forum would gladly get paid to hunt different parts of the country. With that all said, AZGFD is nuts to ask me to donate money to them so they can line someone else's pockets.

I can see your point to an extent but, I also think these guys are selling out to pad their own bank accounts  and ruining what a lot of people have enjoyed for years by doing their own research.     Units that used to have leftover tags every year are now taking 1-2 non resident points to draw.   If you look at the amount of non resident apps there was a HUGE spike about the time these guys started promoting!   Not only that but the biggest unit was the exact unit Randy Newberg was hunting!  I personally could never except money to blow my area up and cause it to become a tough to draw hunt when I used to be able to hunt it every year.   AZGFD is wrong to use our money to to destroy our hunts!   This has been going on for at least 3-4 years now and for it to just be surfacing makes me think they All were trying to hide it because of the backlash they would receive!

[knothead]

 Not saying I support G&F paying hunting "celebrities" to encourage NR's to hunt our state but a big reason it is harder to draw tags in AZ is due to our population growth.  AZ had 2.4 million people in 1980 and now we have 7.7 and that is expected to grow another million by 2030. 

Non-residents should never be allowed to buy any big game tag over the counter when resident big game hunting opportunities are getting fewer and far between.   

[RTAYLOR]

HUSH, Randy Newberg, and Meat Eater are the top 3 that were paid.  Most was OTC, or 100% draw units down south!  Watch 1 episode of Randy s show and every 2 minutes he s trying to sell guys on the otc 🤮.  I applied for a 100% draw unit last year and didn t draw this year.  Gonna be a year or two before otc is GONE.  Not sure bout down south, but OTC units up north had more out of state plates then AZ plates, Just what I saw anyway!

[zslayer]

11 minutes ago, RTAYLOR said:

HUSH, Randy Newberg, and Meat Eater are the top 3 that were paid.  Most was OTC, or 100% draw units down south!  Watch 1 episode of Randy s show and every 2 minutes he s trying to sell guys on the otc 🤮.  I applied for a 100% draw unit last year and didn t draw this year.  Gonna be a year or two before otc is GONE.  Not sure bout down south, but OTC units up north had more out of state plates then AZ plates, Just what I saw anyway!

💯

[bigbuckclub]

Anyone know how much money AZGFD is paying these guys?

The "hunter recruitment" argument is such a joke. There is no problem with hunter numbers at all. 

[KHunter]

16 hours ago, AZtroutman said:

If they're paying them you also know they are making sure they draw good tags. Too many popular guys online drawing once in a lifetime tags several times over a short period. Anyone that thinks that everyone has a level playing field is blind.

Now that is a bunch of hooey. Conspiracy theory absent a shred of credibility. A mighty big jump to assume the draw is rigged. Come on now.

[520HUNT]

3 minutes ago, KHunter said:

Now that is a bunch of hooey. Conspiracy theory absent a shred of credibility. A mighty big jump to assume the draw is rigged. Come on now.

now a 4 post wonder comes to the defense of these guys...scammer!

[AZ_SAWBUCK]

So this is ALL True....AZGFD compensated certain groups out of UT to make YouTube Videos and Promote AZ. I know this because I sent a message to one of the groups after they posted videos promoting AZ really hard. I asked if they would promote their state and honey holes like that............ their response was they got paid for AZGFD and to not be selfish. They said they hunt multiple states and promote good hunting opportunities. They also said they got paid. 

Now............I enjoy watching Youtube......we all share info and learn from and get some entertainment from Social Media. I don't blame the Boys making the videos, they are just doing what they do.....bring us content and entertainment..........if you don't like the videos,  don't watch.  But the Crook here is the none other that our government the AZGFD, I'm sure someone had good intentions but this smells funny. 

[JSR]

5 hours ago, Big or Bust said:

This is Newberg's buddy who does forum PR for BHA, a group of communists who endorsed Biden's BLM pick, a past eco-terrorist....

BHA is G🌈Y

[KHunter]

15 hours ago, 654321 said:

Why don't you go to his website and ask him directly Randy might just tell you straight up what his deal with AZGFD is.

And Randy did exactly that in great detail, yesterday. I hope it is OK to post a link here as I do not want to break CWT rules but seems relevant. My view is it defuses and de energizes the whole notion of game and fish paying him or these personalities begging for the work and the money.  Even though the guy prodding for answers was and is a total douche, Randy calmly and clearly laid it all out there in a response. The douche bag stirring the pot joined that site just yesterday for the sole purpose of stirring the pot and looked a fool in the process. Maybe that person went over there from CWT but who knows as they never identified themselves, 

What I learned is the G&F and particularly tourism arms (since G&F are always short of funds) of state governments hire media communications and PR firms to come up with campaigns to boost revenue. It is those firms that invite and hire outdoors focused companies with the audience reach, and ready made media content, to get out messaging. And the funds are a drop in the bucket of what these outdoors oriented business bring in as revenue. I am not some fanboy of any of the guys with hunting shows, and watch almost none of them, ever, but this whole topic just seems much ado about nothing.  Nobody is getting rich promoting for game and fish departments or tourism departments, except possibly the PR communication firms leading the design and implementation of marketing campaigns, and if they are I bet the added revenue to state coffers makes up for it in spades or it would be unsustainable and would stop?

[AZtroutman]

43 minutes ago, KHunter said:

And Randy did exactly that in great detail, yesterday. I hope it is OK to post a link here as I do not want to break CWT rules but seems relevant. My view is it defuses and de energizes the whole notion of game and fish paying him or these personalities begging for the work and the money.  Even though the guy prodding for answers was and is a total douche, Randy calmly and clearly laid it all out there in a response. The douche bag stirring the pot joined that site just yesterday for the sole purpose of stirring the pot and looked a fool in the process. Maybe that person went over there from CWT but who knows as they never identified themselves, 

What I learned is the G&F and particularly tourism arms (since G&F are always short of funds) of state governments hire media communications and PR firms to come up with campaigns to boost revenue. It is those firms that invite and hire outdoors focused companies with the audience reach, and ready made media content, to get out messaging. And the funds are a drop in the bucket of what these outdoors oriented business bring in as revenue. I am not some fanboy of any of the guys with hunting shows, and watch almost none of them, ever, but this whole topic just seems much ado about nothing.  Nobody is getting rich promoting for game and fish departments or tourism departments, except possibly the PR communication firms leading the design and implementation of marketing campaigns, and if they are I bet the added revenue to state coffers makes up for it in spades or it would be unsustainable and would stop?

KHunter-Official AZGFD crisis management team member, at your service. 

[ForkHorn]

Ah yes.  The ol state tourism and shot show explanation. Lol tell me more about things that have absolutely nothing to do about the conversation at hand... Which is paying YouTubers to hunt in AZ to draw nonresidents which is now limiting hunt opportunities for residents.  

I mean a local drug dealer makes way less money - some would say a drop in the bucket compared to large drugs companies. So it must be okay.  

Talking in circles to justify...  

 

A state tourism fund does not pay for someone to hunt in AZ. Wait until PETA finds out about that...  State Tourism and selling licenses are completely unrelated. It doesn't even make sense. I mean shoot look at all the state tourism guys featured in his videos. (Sarcasm)

 Try asking him if he has or had any personal connections in AZGFD before he got paid.

 

He says that state wildlife agencies have limited funds. Glad we spend them on making it harder for residents to have the opportunity to hunt.