Where is the shaman hanging these days?
EDIT 7/26/2018: Today I found out that a bunch of forums I frequent are owned by the pro-gun control group Torstar. Those mentioned in the article were expunged from this post. The full list can be found here:
Pro-Gun Control Group Owns Many Gun Forums
ORIGINAL POST:
With the demise of the Deer & Deer Hunting Forum and the Turkey & Turkey Hunting Forum, I have been kind of adrift amid the forum universe. With other alternatives like Facebook, there was a lot of overall decline in forum use. I visited a lot of places, but there was not a lot of volume. Over the past three years, I have put down roots at few places. I thought I’d give you the list. If you join, let folks know the shaman sent you.
The 24HourCampfire.com remains my home since 2002. It is by far the best forum out there for folks like us. It has a few hooligans, but they can be ignored. There are a lot of good outdoor writers and gunsmiths, big game hunters and competitive shooters here. If you ask a question, you will get experts answering.
Kentucky Hunting.Net I was active there since 2004, but stopped posting after the place got a bit too mean-spirited. That’s all changed now. If you hunt in Kentucky, you need to be here.
OldGobbler.com This has been my main replacement for T&TH. Good people here– and a good number of call makers. It has lots of turkey hunting knowledge, and it has a great willingness to teach.
DeerHunterForum.com There must have been some kind of kerfluffle at the QDMA forum. The fellows from there founded DeerHunterForum. This is a fantastic resource for food plots and habitat improvement.
CastBoolits When I started casting lead for my muzzleloader a decade ago, this forum was already going strong. I am now casting for all sorts of rifle and pistol chamberings, and it is still my #1 resource. The stickies alone will keep you reading for months.
Nice places needing more people:
I have found many good folks over the years on forums. The following are places I endorse, but do not visit regularly. A few extra hands adding to the post volume would really help these places take off.
I occasionally get asked why I don’t start a forum, and the answer is that I have. My longest ran 10 years. This weblog has seen 2 tries at it, and both failed for lack of participation. That’s fine by me. The truth of it is, that I prefer to let somebody else do the management side of it these days. However, if the demand was there, I would be glad to put up another forum.
This post has already been read 787 times!
I’ll have to disagree about kentuckyhunting.net. After the closing and reopening of Uncle Lee’s, that forum has fallen into the wild west of online forums. Lots of name calling, trolling, smart-alecs, and just mean-spirited posts go on over there. I quit posting a couple of years back when I got blatantly attacked over there, and the moderators did nothing until I finally had to plead with them to take the slanderous thread about me down. I do miss posting over there, but it just isn’t worth wading through all the slop that the forum offers up now a days.
I know what you mean. I’d stopped posting myself. However, I started up again about a year ago, and have not had any trouble. Some of the bad actors left. It’s certainly the best source of info on KY-specific hunting out there.
I still “lurk” over there every once in a while, and I noticed you were posting again. That’s one good member added to the riff raff haha. It was a very good source for information if you could stay out of the line of fire of the jerks and smart alecks. I miss conversing with some of the good people too.