Outdoor life parts ways with Aram Von Benedikt

[H&Hhunter]

Aram Von Benedikt an Outdoor Life free lance contributor and often is featured on Ron Spomer’s You Tube channel is no longer writing for Outdoor Life after an incident involving a first time female hunter. The crux of the story is the lady shot and wounded the deer, Von Benedikt later shot the same deer at long range, then claimed it. There’s a lot of details in between but Aram‘s actions got him canned from Outdoor Life.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Interesting and somewhat disturbing as I really like him on Ron Spomer’s various media.

I guess I will try to dig up the rest of the story.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Here is a somewhat painful to watch explanation.

The Great Deer Heist: Did this influencer steal a lady hunter's deer?

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youtu.be

 

[WisBorn]

Thank you for posting this! It is not hard to see that an animal has been shot twice.
Von Benedikt could have taken THE HIGH ROAD and actually written an article about being ethical in the feild.

 

[red rick]

I didn’t read the article , but around here most people go by who shoots and recovers the deer last claims it . There was an incident in my old hunting club last year . A member shot a nice buck and it ran a short distance and he heard it fall . He was hunting from a climbing stand . He was going to wait for about 30 minutes and then go check on the deer . In the mean time one of the dog drivers walks his way and the buck jumps up . He shoots it , kills it and then claims it . There was a big stink over that situation . But in the end the last guy claimed the buck . I myself would have let the first shooter have the buck in that situation . If were sitting on my stand and that buck came running by me and I killed it , then I would claim it .

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Don't know the details and am not into, "he said, she said". That deer seems to have cost him a lot now, and likely will cost him a lot more down the road. His career may never recover. Seems a bit short sighted for him, trophy or not.

Around here, I wouldn't even think about who takes the deer. I'm not into racks and there are plenty of them, I'm not hungry nor into arguing.

 

[buck460XVR]

This has been a controversy since hunting deer for sport and pride came about. I've dropped deer in their tracks and had someone come up a make a claim on it, even tho it had only one hole in it. Have had folks shoot a deer laying in it's death bed as they watched me blood trail it and tag it quick before I got there. Was a time when if it was to feed folks, the deer would have been shared. But, nowadays, especially when it comes to big antlered deer, the pressure put on folks by their peers to be successful not only makes them do unethical things, but illegal too. I'm sure the thought of having a picture with a trophy deer to go along with a exaggerated story to go with it, published in a popular gun rag was nuttin' but pure motivation. This is one time when karma is trump!

 

[H&Hhunter]

Thank you for posting this! It is not hard to see that an animal has been shot twice.
Von Benedikt could have taken THE HIGH ROAD and actually written an article about being ethical in the feild.

This is what puzzles me about the whole affair. It would have been so easy to be the good guy in this situation.

 

[WisBorn]

This is what puzzles me about the whole affair. It would have been so easy to be the good guy in this situation.

Yeah, it would seam to me that a seasoned hunter that makes his living from writing would have turned this into a good story. He could have written about the ladies success and that he helped her.

I believe that Aram's brother Joseph is the guy that is frequently on Ron Spomer outdoors.
Hunt Honest and Shoot Straight carries much more weight!!! Than the brothers do in my opinion.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Yeah, it would seam to me that a seasoned hunter that makes his living from writing would have turned this into a good story. He could have written about the ladies success and that he helped her.

I believe that Aram's brother Joseph is the guy that is frequently on Ron Spomer outdoors.
Hunt Honest and Shoot Straight carries much more weight!!! Than the brothers do in my opinion.

Son of a gun! Are Joseph and Aram twins?

 

[courtgreene]

This is a tough one, sort of a reminder to put people first. I had a similar incident with a turkey. I shot it and some dude came out yelling that it would’ve come to him so it’s his and yada yada. So he takes his knife and slits its throat while we were both standing over it and says that’s what killed it. I said “take the stupid thing just let me get a picture of it. A turkey isn’t worth all this.”

As a reward he still talked trash about me all over town and every time the story came back to me I was an even bigger villain and he a greater hero.

Sometimes people suck. We still have to try to do what’s right even when it’s hard to know what right is.

 

[Hookeye]

IMHO the pro and the beginner both shot poorly.

This nonsense the result.

I do remember the pro's claim of long yardage and not ranging it first.
That, from a pro, should have been enough to cause forfeiture IMHO.

Indeed, he could have taken the high road on this but just added to the mess.

 

[Hookeye]

Some folks around here, claim "first to draw blood claims the deer".

I do not agree.

Somebody clips a leg w a poor shot and the deer goes off to be put down humanely by another...................who gets the deer?
I say the guy that made the good shot.

Would go by whoever put a fatal shot on the deer. Yup as bad as it is, a gutshot deer would go to the gutshooter.
Deer can take some damage and survive. They are amazingly resilient. A non fatal wound offers no grounds for claim IMHO.

Ever notice the arguments happen when the bucks sport big racks? Why should that have anything to do with it?
Forky or Booner, same "unwritten rule" should apply.

Everybody today wants a cop or lawyer to sort things out.
Not enough gentlemen anymore.

 

[crestoncowboy]

With me i couldn't care less about a deer, trophy or no. But ive shot deer that had been shot (not mortally) and if anyone came along and said they fired the first shot id give it to them. Along with a lot of harassment about needing to learn to shoot.

There is no excuse for wounding a deer with today's scoped big game rifles and bullets. Either you jerked or you were shooting too far. Usually WAY too far since everyone in the deep woods is carrying a 300 ultramag, 257 wby, or 338-378 to shoot 350lb whitetail at 100 yards.

 

[1KPerDay]

I don’t hunt deer. But IMO if you’re a crappy enough shot that you wound a deer and someone else has to put it out of its misery you should lose your license. I don’t see the problem here. Other than the lady is a crappy shot.

 

[Hookeye]

From the article she wounded it. Then the writer guy wounded it.

Following up as a group, he then put in the finisher.

 

[Hookeye]

The writer guy made a social media post explaining what happened.
Copied and posted here.

Aram Von Benedikt

Story checks out with the UT hunting/shooting personalities stereotype. I couldn’t imagine taking a buck from anyone, let alone a girl. But instafame makes people do stupid stuff… Joseph portrays himself as the ultimate ethical hunter and human, and I have no reason to believe he isn’t. I...

rokslide.com

Post 26

Neither gave the deer the respect it deserves IMHO.

 

[LoonWulf]

Bad shots happen, lost animals happen, double shooting animals happens...they WILL happen.

Being crappy about it dosent have to happen.

 

[WisBorn]

Ron Spomer address this on his podcast.

334: Aram Von Benedikt

Welcome to the Ron Spomer Outdoors Podcast! In this podcast, I answer listener questions about rifles and cartridges, and I weigh in on the situation with Ar...

youtu.be

I enjoy Ron's videos, and podcasts. I feel that he is one of the best in the industry. Even though he gives the 308win users a hard time

 

[mcb]

I did not realize Von Benedikt was a twin. I don't know Aram but I once had lunch with his brother Joseph Von Benedikt and Ron Spomer. That was a memorable lunch. I sat back and listen to the stories roll.

I have always been of the mind, first blood gets the animal, simply because that seemed to be common sentiment among those I have hunted with. I have only had one incident related to that in my hunting career. I once clipped a big doe with my muzzle loader, it was a bad shot and the bullet creased her rump, she probably had a 50/50 chance of surviving the hit. Thankfully another hunter in the party crossed her minutes later and took her with a well placed shot. He respectfully offered the doe to me but give the situation I thanked him and let him take the deer after helping him field dress it.

As for bad shots, they happen, even to the most conscientious and mindful hunters. Bullets do weird things and **** happens. Assuming the hunter was not doing something unethical or stupid I am not going to hold a bad shot against them. I have made a couple and am not proud of them but hopefully have learned from them and become a better hunter.

 

[1KPerDay]

Sheesh. 4 shots at 630 yards, and more from 730 yards. Sounds more like an artillery barrage. Like I said, I don’t hunt deer. But if you can’t make an absolutely clean kill at X distance you shouldn’t be taking the shot IMO. Both hunters should be ashamed.

 

[Chuck R.]

Ron Spomer address this on his podcast.

334: Aram Von Benedikt

Welcome to the Ron Spomer Outdoors Podcast! In this podcast, I answer listener questions about rifles and cartridges, and I weigh in on the situation with Ar...

youtu.be

I enjoy Ron's videos, and podcasts. I feel that he is one of the best in the industry. Even though he gives the 308win users a hard time

I really enjoy his stuff, pretty level headed and I like the way he incorporates ballistic tables into his comparisons.

On this issue I really liked how he stressed the wait and see approach before judging. But he did throw in his opinion on "long range hunting" which is his right, and I agree with.

 

[MacAR]

Sheesh. 4 shots at 630 yards, and more from 730 yards. Sounds more like an artillery barrage.

That's along the lines of what I was thinking after reading everything. I honestly can't figure the need to shoot that far at anything, well outside of a combat situation anyway. As a life-long hunter, I can't imagine taking such a long shot or getting involved in all the uproar afterwards. Most of my deer are killed under 300 yards; I don't feel comfortable shooting much farther than that. I'm darn sure not going to shoot someone else's deer and then try to claim it as mine either. This sort of reminds me of what my old grandad used to say about quail hunting in a group: "Be mindful of the man that claims every bird as his; he's likely the worst shot in the bunch and doesn't warrant a return invite". I've always tried to apply that to any sort of hunting, and it's generally turned out to be the truth.

Mac

 

[Chuck R.]

Spomer weighed in again in his blog, and it get's at something I found to be sort of amazing having been done by someone with long range hunting/shooting experience:

And IF von Benedikt shot hastily at the deer from 700+ yards (and he reportedly wrote that he did) without a precise, double-checked laser reading, he was also unethical. Doubly so because he has written and published articles promoting ethical hunter behavior on public lands. Do as I write, not as I do?

Again I like how Spomer thinks and write:

But even that raises a heretofore unaddressed issue: the waste of a big buck. One of the most magnificent, hard-to-find game animals in the world, a fully mature mule deer buck sporting the kind of rocking chair rack most hunters dream of, has been reduced to an unwanted, un-cherished heap of flesh and bones. Can you imagine either von Benedikt or the woman shooter relishing a meal of this venison? Every bite would be incriminating. And those spectacular antlers? Instead of hanging proudly on a wall to refresh memories of a hunt well done, of a wild, magical desert landscape, they can do no more than whisper, if not shout, condemnation to all parties involved. The most beneficial use of those antlers now would be in a public display with a concise retelling of the events that highlight the wrong ways to conduct and conclude a deer hunt.

Aram Von Benedikt — Ron Spomer Outdoors

Recently, hunting chat rooms and social media sites have been awash in a brouhaha concerning Aram von Benedikt and a young woman hunter. The gist of the story is that they both shot too far (730 yards or so) and too poorly, tracked down and finished the wounded deer, discussed the situation, and par

www.ronspomeroutdoors.com

 

[Gun-Reck]

Spomer weighed in again in his blog, and it get's at something I found to be sort of amazing having been done by someone with long range hunting/shooting experience:



Again I like how Spomer thinks and write:

Aram Von Benedikt — Ron Spomer Outdoors

Recently, hunting chat rooms and social media sites have been awash in a brouhaha concerning Aram von Benedikt and a young woman hunter. The gist of the story is that they both shot too far (730 yards or so) and too poorly, tracked down and finished the wounded deer, discussed the situation, and par

www.ronspomeroutdoors.com

Was getting ready to post this.

Thanks.