The hunting world is a weird place most of the time, but it's especially true on YouTube. With so much of the space occupied by professional hunters, hunters hocking branded products that don't work, legit poachers who somehow still have a following, and those lucky folks who get Once-in-a-Lifetime tags year after year, it's hard to get super excited for that content as a normal hunter.
Honestly, I consume a lot more than the average person given my choice of work, but even I get tired of seeing folks routinely eschew the realities of regular hunting. I mean, there are days you don't want to get up, days that just suck the life out of you, and days you don't see a goddamn animal.
And yet, Yamaha's 'Whitetail Diaries' does away with the pretense of normal hunting shows or influencers. It showcases the highs and lows, the struggles, and regular reality of everyday hunters in a far more real way. And the latest episode, which sees Yamaha's Scott Newby take a very nice buck with a new crossbow, does all that and more. Check it out.
For this episode, Scott headed to two places. First, to Oklahoma and second in West Texas—somewhere I'm dying to hunt—and looking to fill a buck tag with a new TenPoint crossbow, his first ever with the weapon. Obviously, he's using Yamaha's RMax 4 1000 and RMax Compact UTVs as trail support.
But what's cool about this video is that Scott doesn't sugarcoat the conditions. Whereas others would just have the highlights, seeing big bucks, big bulls, or big rams, filled with stunning photography, 'Whitetail Diaries' showcases that hunting ain't always seeing stuff and filling tags, as Scott failed to fill anything in Oklahoma due to high temperatures and trash conditions. As well as some racoon interlopers. And Scott even says that it was hot with a capital H.
But Texas was still on the table.
I won't spoil the rest of the episode, but it was an enjoyable watch that got me excited to get back into the whitetail woods this year. And, again, the show didn't color everything with rose-tinted glasses because, I don't know if you know this, but hunting ain't easy.
Nor should it be, really.
