ORIGINAL: rybohunter

Scott, we talked about this before. I've always felt a self taught person in the long run will generally turn out to be the more knowledgable hunter because they viewed and applied everything thru thier own eyes. Having a mentor can make the learning curve shorter, but you end up learning that information with thier bias(good or bad). When I came into my own as a bowhunter and figured out why I hunted and what I wanted to get from it, I had a good bit of conflicting internal issues trying to separate what I learned and wanted to try and what I was taught.

That said I don't find the internet much different that reading a book or magazine except that it is concentrated and real time. It's much faster to learn from here than books because you can interact with others.
I am forever grateful that I had a Dad who taught me what he knew about deer hunting, but a part of me wishes I had been able to take in other views as well while learning. I do feel that as time went on, we both learned many things together and in some cases the student became the teacher.