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A well-known hunter is in hot water over a controversial video showing him stab a wounded coyote with a knife. The graphic video, which was originally leaked to Cowboy State Daily by a private investigator, depicts Aaron Snyder approach a wounded coyote, pull it from a bush, kick it to the ground, and stab it in the chest. Snyder then taps the coyote on the head with his knife.

Snyder is a prominent figure in the hunting community. He is the former president and CEO of Kifaru and has a large social media following. Prior to the release of this video, he was an employee of Born Primitive, a maker of outdoor apparel. The brand fired him after the video went public.

“Born Primitive Outdoor supports ethical hunting and holds itself and its partners to that standard. The behavior shown in the video involving Aron Snyder does not align with that standard,” wrote the brand in a social media post. “As a result, Aron Snyder is no longer an employee of Born Primitive.”

Animal rights groups are going after Snyder, saying his actions are akin to a widely criticized incident in which a Wyoming man brought a wounded wolf into a bar instead of humanely dispatching it. Wayne Pacell, president of Animal Wellness Action and an outspoken anti-hunting personality, told Cowboy State Daily that Snyder’s video is “sadistic behavior” and “the very essence of cruelty to animals.”

The reactions of folks within the hunting community appear to be mixed, with some calling it unethical and inexcusable behavior and others saying that such instances are unfortunate but can occur when dealing with wounded critters. Both sides agree that the video doesn't reflect well on hunters among the general public.

In a statement posted to social media, Snyder said the video took place during an ice storm in Texas, not Wyoming, in 2019 or 2020 and that he was shooting coyotes from a buddy’s ranch after they were “wreaking havoc on his cows, horses and dogs.”

Snyder says he drove over to the coyote in the video and got out of his ATV to approach it, though he left his firearm in the vehicle. “When I got to it, it wasn’t dead,” he said. “I pulled it out of a brush pile, ran it down, kicked its legs out from under it, and stabbed it…It’s a very bad optic for the hunting community. That wasn’t my intention, but even when I watched it, it looked bad.”

Snyder said he was performing a “dead check” when he tapped the coyote on the head with the knife and added that he had lost some “respect” for predators such as coyotes and wolves after watching them “tear apart” fawns, calves, and dogs. He went on to apologize for the incident and said he plans to get off of social media.

Shortly following the initial release of the video, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said it was investigating the incident. Following Snyder’s statement that it had happened in Texas, it is unclear whether Wyoming Game and Fish is still investigating the video or if the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department plans to do so. If the incident did in fact take place in Texas in 2019 or 2020, it would likely fall outside of the state’s statute of limitations.

Feature Image Via Cowboy State Daily video.

Steven Rinella talks with Jason Schratwieser.

Topics discussed: the history of IGFA and world of fish record keeping; conservation efforts for bluefin tuna and billfish; innovative satellite tagging technology; IGFA record validation process transforming our understanding of marine life; species identification techniques; conservation and sustainable fishing practices; and more.

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This week, Cal breaks down a slew of legislative proposals with outsized impacts on outdoorsmen, increased access at national wildlife refuges and hatcheries, and the largest wild rodent in Manhattan.

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My dad hauled a beat-up old pop-up camper into the Virginia mountains every deer season. It wasn’t much more than a tent on wheels, just some canvas walls, a tiny two-burner stove, and barely enough room for two people to stand up. But after a hard day of climbing steep ridges and toughing out frigid conditions, it felt like a little slice of heaven. It had just enough room to peel out of wet clothes, warm up a meal, and then climb into sleeping bags on thin mattresses instead of the cold, hard ground.

That little camper didn’t need a list of luxury amenities to earn its keep. Neither does a good hunting camper. It just needs to provide a place to dry out, warm up, and recharge before doing it all again the next morning.

Every hunter becomes a mathematician when it comes to wake-up time. If legal shooting light starts at 6:10, and it takes 3 hours to drive to the property, that alarm clock is going off at an obscene hour. Add in a camper, and the equation totally changes.

Instead of stumbling out of bed at 2 a.m. and surviving on bad gas station coffee, you can haul all your gear down the night before, get a decent night’s sleep in the camper, and then step out the door and almost immediately start hunting.

The right camper can make a great year-round base camp. In the spring, you can park it on a ridgeline and chase big gobblers. In the summer, it can sit lakeside while you catch bass or trout. In the fall, it becomes deer camp. By winter, it’s keeping you warm between sits in a duck blind. And in the spaces between, the same camper can haul the whole family to a national park or beachside campground for vacation.

A camper also shrinks the map, bringing faraway destinations into more practical terms. A public land area that’s too far for just a weekend hunt becomes a lot more manageable. Those pristine trout streams you love no longer require expensive hotel stays. Places that felt out of reach or required a plane ticket and a ton of planning start looking a heckuva lot closer when you bring your own lodging.

The camper isn’t really about camping. It’s about being able to say “yes” to one more hunt, one more fishing trip, or one more outdoor adventure before Monday rolls back around.

Most people shopping for a camper are charmed by the list of features. Slide-outs, spa-like bathrooms, smart TVs, and residential-style appliances sound fabulous on a showroom floor. Dealers lean into that. They’ll hype up big awnings and Bluetooth speakers. And those features are fine for people who pull into a KOA on Friday and head home by the end of the weekend. But none of that matters when you’re parked on a muddy two-track in November after you come off a six-mile hike through wet timber.

A hunting camper has to earn its keep in ways most weekend warriors never think about. You aren’t shopping for a weekend toy. You’re trying to build a mobile living quarter that can still function when conditions turn bad, and you’re only three days into a ten-day trip with no option to leave early. The checklist changes when you look at a camper that way.

Most campers labeled four-season are really three-season rigs with good marketing. Hunters spend time outdoors in the worst weather of the year. Summer camping features are basically useless during a December duck hunt. Standout features become less about looks and tech and more about what happens when everything outside is cold and wet, and you’ve got a mountain of gear stacked next to the door.

Manufacturers like to throw around the term “four-season” pretty loosely. It isn’t a term that encompasses a list of minimum standards or features, so hunters really need to understand what they’re looking for. An enclosed underbelly, insulated tanks, protected waterlines, and double-pane windows are more important than extra cabinet space and leather upholstery.

Heat output matters too. A furnace that works fine at 40 degrees might struggle when the wind is pushing hard, and the temperature drops into the teens.

Ventilation is another thing you don’t want to overlook. Hunting in cold weather can produce its own kind of moisture, even when outside conditions are relatively dry. When it’s toasty inside and the temps outside aren't, condensation can build up fast. Plus, wet wool, damp waders, and breath in a tight space will fog a camper fast. Without airflow, everything inside starts to feel wet even when it’s technically warm, and that makes it near impossible to dry out wet gloves, jackets, and socks so you can get back out before daylight.

Every camper looks organized on a dealer lot when the cabinets are closed, the counters are clear, and there’s nothing on the floor. But things can get crazy fast the first time you stumble in from a hunt with muddy boots and four layers of clothes that smell like sweat and wet leaves.

Hunters don’t travel light, and even a short trip can turn into rolling piles of gun cases, backpack straps, dripping boots, and wet clothes. Storage that looked plenty big on the showroom floor fills up fast.

While cabinets are nice for pots, pans, and regular camping gear, exterior, pass-through storage is more practical for hunting. It keeps most of hunting’s clutter outside the living space. When it comes to usability, exterior storage trumps fancy cabinets every time. Hunters need open floor space to dry things out and stage gear without tripping over everything they own. Storage in a hunting camper isn’t about Marie Kondo organization. It’s about resetting fast so you don’t have to dig through gear to get out again the next morning.

If your favorite hunting partner is of the canine variety, make sure to factor in those storage needs. Dog food, kennels, wet towels, and a 70-pound retriever will take up more room than you think.

Good hunting camps don’t typically come with electrical hook-ups and a campground host. Hunting tends to be better in places miles from the nearest gas station, and a hunting camper needs to adapt to that kind of camping. Features that can make off-grid camping feel more like home may not be a big sell for people who frequent RV parks more than public land pull-offs, but they can make all the difference when you’re hunting far from amenities.

The more capable your camper is away from standard campground hookups, the more places it can take you. Pay attention to water tank size, propane tank capacity, and battery capacity. How easily the set-up integrates with a generator or solar panels can also be important, depending on how much you’re willing to rough it.

Most campers look pretty manageable when they’re sitting on a level asphalt lot. But things can get hairy when you’re hauling that same camper down a narrow Forest Service switchback in the dark.

Before you buy, take a good, hard look at what your truck can handle. You don’t want to max out your truck’s towing capacity with the camper. Once you start adding up hunting gear, firearms, coolers, dogs, and camping supplies, those weight ratings really start to matter.

While space in a camper can feel like a primary determining factor, you don’t want more trailer than you can comfortably tow. A smaller, lighter camper will be easier on fuel and a lot less stressful once you turn off the blacktop and start dragging it down narrow, muddy backroads or up steep mountain grades.

Hunters don’t need a camper that turns heads at an I-80 KOA. They need one that works when everything else is hard. The best campers for hunting and fishing are the ones that let you come in, warm up, and crawl into bed so you can wake up and do it all over again.

That old pop-up my dad dragged into the Virginia mountains was far from fancy. But it did its job. It helped sandwich rough days between manageable nights and kept the hunt going longer than it could have otherwise.

Join us for an eclectic group of facts and memories about fishing bait from Brent's storied upbringing. You'll hear how bait that was purposed for a fish's mouth ended up in his. He's also sharing an impromptu lesson he used to calm his oldest daughter's fear of insects. You may want to try it yourself, but we doubt it. All that and more on this week's episode of "This Country Life" podcast.

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As an admitted bass geek, I paid somewhat close attention to the latest Bassmaster Classic, which was held on the Tennessee River earlier this year. A relative newcomer to the scene, Dylan Nutt, took top honors in that prestigious tournament with a three-day bag weighing nearly 67 pounds. The win earned him a cool $300,000, and solidified his place amongst the most talented anglers in the world.

His win was predicated on a true understanding of how to use forward facing sonar, the latest iteration of the good old depth finder. This technology, which allows anglers to see and target fish that are out in front of their boat, is incredible. So incredible, in fact, that many anglers believe it’ll threaten fisheries once the cost comes down and the average weekend warrior gets ahold of it.

I share those concerns, and wonder what the future holds for fishermen. Especially those who target muskies, or catch-and-keep species like walleyes and panfish. State Game agencies across the country are actively looking at this issue as well, and there are whispers in the fishing sphere of scopin’ restrictions or outright bans.

Outdoorsman face issues like this on the water, and of course, in the woods. Deer hunting, and big game hunting in general, has its own technological divide. Cell cams, drones, and the increasing array of weaponry allowed all enter the conversation and as quickly as any political statement, divide us into factions. Some of this tech has already led to the creation of new laws.

Five years ago, Arizona banned the use of trail cameras statewide. Officials ultimately argued that trail cams, and how hunters and outfitters use them, are deleterious to the resource and the pursuit.

Montana implemented trail camera usage restrictions, and so have Utah and Nevada. A few years ago, Kansas banned them on public land, and more recently, the state of Idaho passed House Bill 939, which prohibits hunters from using night vision optics, drones, thermal imaging, and cell cameras throughout the fall hunting seasons.

The arc of the trail camera highlights what happens to a lot of technology as it develops over time–they start out big, clunky, and pretty cumbersome. Trail cams used to be giant units, which ran off of D batteries and housed an actual disposable camera, like the ones folks used to leave on tables during weddings so guests could capture the night’s candid moments for the freshly minted couple.

Over time, the cameras got smaller, the use of physical film disappeared, and you can now receive images on your phone just seconds after they’re taken, thanks to a convenient antenna mounted on the camera.

I first ran across a cell camera at a booth during the ATA Show a long time ago, and one of the reps for the company explained to me that he used them to find strutting toms in the spring once the morning gobble-fest fizzled out. I remember thinking that I hated just about every part of that conversation. I also had enough foresight to realize that this was probably going to become a huge category for all hunters, especially whitetail hunters.

Guess what, it has. Now, it’s to the point where we are seeing backlash on their usage. But the genie is out of the bottle, and it’s hard to imagine a world where cell cameras are banned in much of the whitetail-dominated regions of the country–especially on private land.

A lot of the debate around technology in the deer space revolves around fair chase. While codified into law in certain ways, fair chase is a moving target. In Kansas where cameras were banned on public land, hunters can still use cell cameras on private land over a pile of corn or on a feeder. It’s hard to argue fair chase in that case, when it only applies to folks who don’t have a lease, own land, or are lucky enough to have permission on private ground.

It’s not just cell camera enthusiasts catching all of the strays these days, either. Drones are a big topic as well, as their general price comes down and usage goes up. Like most technology, drones can prove to be a huge asset to a hunter who is on the verge of losing a mortally hit deer.

But drones can also be used to locate deer and pattern deer, with zero effort. This next-gen surveillance tool is ripe for bad actors to use to gain an unfair advantage over a critter that couldn’t possibly understand the new level of predation he’s being subjected to. Some states have gotten ahead of this issue, with others sure to follow. The same goes for thermal imaging.

The big question with current and future technologies is where (if anywhere) does it end?

Hunters are masters of painting their preferred pursuits as challenging, while also working as hard as possible to remove most of the challenges. The hunter who grows deer and babysits them until they make the hitlist, will tell you that the real challenge is targeting only mature bucks, which glosses over the reality of creating ideal food sources, 24/7 monitoring with cell cameras, and a hunting style that often involves hiding in a comfortable elevated box blind.

The diehard public land hunter will use onX religiously, cameras if he can, and then a couple thousand dollars worth of gear including high-tech clothes, carbon-fiber sticks, a tree saddle, and really anything that can provide an edge. We accept all of this, because it’s just a part of the modern deer hunting game.

But are we going too far? On a broad scale, this can generally be measured by technology and its impact on the resource. If something comes out that increases the harvest noticeably, or would very easily turn nonhunting public opinion against us, it’s probably worth debate.

On a personal scale, it’s a different story. We draw our own lines in the sand. I’ll give you an example here, which involves my teenage daughters. They shoot crossbows, which is about as close to a vertical bow as I am to a skilled breakdancer. I have zero interest in hunting with that crossbow, but have zero problem taking my daughters out to hunt with it.

This is how personal hunting convictions, or whatever you want to call them, have always worked. Where you land personally depends on what you want from deer hunting, but where hunters land as a whole with these issues is a different story. One that will keep being written, and rewritten as new and more effective technology hits the scene.

On this episode of In Pursuit, Rich Froning recaps the first Mayhem Hunt Prep Camp in Colorado.

From a 24-hour mountain bike race in Amarillo straight into 11 days in the mountains, the crew breaks down what it took to build a camp designed around real backcountry preparation. The episode covers mock pack outs, land navigation, reading topo maps, shooting bows and rifles at distance, gear lessons, altitude workouts, glassing, bushwhacking, and the reality of what it takes to get an animal off the mountain.

Rich and the crew also share stories from camp, lessons learned from the athletes who came out, and what they would build into next year’s version, including overnight backcountry work and mock hunts.

Fitness matters, but being ready in the backcountry takes more than being in shape. This episode is all about preparation, toughness, and learning the skills before the stakes are real.

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On this episode of Wired To Hunt, Jake visits with Heartland Bowhunter's Shawn Luchtel for a conversation centered around one of the most underrated teachers in deer hunting: failure. Instead of rehashing big buck stories, Shawn walks through the whitetail calendar month by month, sharing the mistakes, bad assumptions, and hard-earned lessons that have shaped the way he hunts today.

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My son and I were nervous as we made our way from the truck to the front door of a local landowner in hopes of securing hunting permission. The sign by the road said, “Beware of Dog,” but with 100 acres of prime hunting land on the line, we took our chances and headed for the front porch.

After a few raps on the door, the landowner opened, and I quickly referred to him by name. The familiarity seemed to put him at ease and we started talking about his farm and life. Ten minutes later, my son and I climbed back in the truck with fresh permission to hunt some of the finest deer ground in the county. Were we lucky? Maybe. But it’s a tactic I’ve used throughout the years to score permission many hunters won’t work for.

Thanks to onX, it’s a lot easier to gain new permissions than it used to be. While most hunters use onX to better understand public and private hunting access, there’s a host of other features that make it an excellent tool beyond just e-scouting.

Whether you're planting food plots, hanging treestands, tracking a wounded buck, or looking for new hunting permission, here are five onX Hunt tools every deer hunter should know.

If you plant food plots, spray herbicides, or manage habitat, you need to utilize the Area Shape tool. Instead of guessing the size of a food plot or field, simply use the tool to draw the boundaries of the area you want to measure with your finger. Within seconds, you'll know exactly how many acres you need to prep for.

This means you won’t over-calculate seed requirements, fertilizer rates, lime applications, and herbicide needs. It’ll save you money and time in the long run.

Hunters are notorious for misjudging distances. Luckily, the Compass Mode feature helps eliminate the guesswork. With a quick look, you can accurately determine distances to terrain features, field edges, pinch points, rivers, bedding cover, and even potential shot opportunities. This can be especially useful when you scout unfamiliar ground or need to plan stand locations.

Knowing exact distances allows you to make more precise decisions when it comes to setting up for a hunt. Bow and rifle hunters will both appreciate this feature when it comes time to hang a stand within bow range of a trail or on the edge of a long field.

Treestand sites, bedding areas, scrape lines, rubs, food sources, and trail camera locations are all locations deer hunters need to remember. The Mark My Location feature allows you to save these spots with a simple tap. You can easily organize them and return to them anytime you need.

And one of the most underrated benefits is the ability to share these locations with friends and family (the ones you trust, of course). Need to show your hunting buddy exactly where a stand is located? Want your son or daughter to find a stand without getting lost? Simply share the waypoint. You can ditch the outdated (and haphazard) directions.

It's also a valuable safety feature. Sharing your exact hunting location with family members ensures someone always knows where you’re hunting should an emergency arise.

Like its name implies, the tracking feature records your movement as you travel through the woods, creating a digital breadcrumb trail. For starters, it's a tremendous aid for blood trailing a wounded deer. It’s easy to lose the trail during a recovery. Tracking allows you to see exactly where you have and haven’t been.

You can also use it to find your way back to the truck, especially on an unfamiliar property, in the dark. Because it tracks your distance, you can monitor how far you walk during scouting trips, shed hunts, or preseason habitat work, so you can know just how many miles you’ve covered.

Landowner information is key when you’re trying to score new hunting ground. This feature removes a ton of guesswork and allows you to connect the dots as you prepare for the big ask. Instead of burning gas, you can identify who owns a parcel before ever knocking on a door.

There's something personable about using someone’s name, rather than starting the conversation with, "Do you own this property?" It’s a way to show landowners that you’ve put in some level of effort and respect in doing so. Those little details can go a long way when you're trying to gain hunting permission. It doesn’t always work, but it certainly helps.

If you have onX, take a few minutes to explore these features if you aren’t familiar with them. You may discover that some of the most valuable hunting tools you own aren't in your pack—they're in your phone.

In this week's episode of Future Wild I'm joined by renowned science writer and best-selling author David Quammen to discuss wildness, why it matters, and what the future might hold for this ambiguous yet essential quality in the world.

Thanks to our sponsor, Conservation First Bank.

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