The Outdoor Gibbon
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The Outdoor Gibbon
20 Meet Nigel: The Three-Legged Deer That Changed Everything
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There's something magical about the Scottish Highlands that captures the imagination of outdoor enthusiasts worldwide. When Alex from Hunter Gatherer Cooking reached out about wanting to learn deer stalking, I knew exactly where to take him – to experience both walked-up grouse shooting on the Glorious 12th of August and the chance to stalk his first red stag.
This special podcast episode captures our conversation two weeks after the hunt, as we reflect on an adventure that took us through the full spectrum of Highland weather and emotions. From torrential rain and punishing winds during our grouse day to perfect stalking conditions the following morning, we experienced it all. Alex recounts the nerve-wracking 12.5 minutes waiting for the perfect shot on "Nigel," his first red stag, taken cleanly at 230 yards after just two practice shots at the range earlier that day.
We dive deep into the ethical aspects of field-to-fork hunting, discussing the importance of proper shot placement, the respect given to the harvested animal, and the stark contrast between this type of hunting and industrial meat production. For Alex, this experience marked just the beginning of his journey – with plans to return to Scotland to learn grallocking (field dressing) and butchery skills to complete the full field-to-fork experience.
For listeners interested in experiencing Scottish Highland stalking themselves, we share information about Tom's Wells Sporting, which offers guided stalking trips, walked-up grouse shooting, and even wildlife photography opportunities for non-hunters who want to witness these magnificent animals in their natural habitat.
Join us for this candid conversation about hunting traditions, ethical harvesting, and the special connection that forms when you truly participate in sourcing your own food. Watch for Alex's upcoming videos documenting the entire experience, from the Highlands to the dinner table.
There is a video available of this podcast and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/live/j9o4HcH6Hrg?si=y7lLUojw8Bs1eVYp
Remember to subscribe so when the videos are released you can see the full days on the hill.
Also check out Tom Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/wells_sporting_and_country/
He can also be found on facebook https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=wells%20sporting%20and%20country%20pursuits
Hello and welcome to the Out outdoor gibbon episode 20. This is a bit of a strange podcast because it actually was taken from a youtube live with alex of the hunter gatherer cooking channel. Now he came up to scotland to basically see how walked up grouse was carried out and potentially go out to stalk a stag. So how did this all come about? Well, I've known alex for a few years and we've met and chatted online. Uh, met him at the stalking show this year and had a good chat with him and stuff like that, and he's on his journey to as well as showing ethical cooking and barbecuing and everything like that, and he wanted to learn to deerstalk. Now he's been getting a lot of assistance from a guy called Matt of Grosvenor Larder down in the Southwest. But I opened this door to him and said look, there's an opportunity for you to come to Scotland, see, walked up grouse on the glorious 12th. Potentially. Then we will go out on the next day and we will look for a stag and if you're up for it, you potentially get to harvest that stag. So he sort of jumped on board because he was actually coming to Scotland to do a visit to a salmon fishery and we managed to tie the whole thing together. So a brief overview of the weekend was that Alex was going to drive up from the southwest. He stopped off to see his sister in Manchester and then he arrived at the hostel on the friday night, the 11th of august. I drove down the next morning, which was the the 12th, met him, we had some porridge, a bit of a natter, and we drove off to meet tom, who is the owner of the sporting rights and sort of the head keeper, stroke head, stalker of the land. Now, all of this was being filmed and recorded because alex was kind of documenting everything for his youtube channel, which the videos will come out and you'll get to see everything that actually happened on those days.
Two Weeks After the Hunt
Speaker 3But the weather was not too bad that morning, but it deteriorated rapidly. So we ended up getting up to the hill, met the guests, took them out onto the hill and the weather was pretty awful. You, you really couldn't see a lot. Uh, it was wet and miserable. However, we had a fantastic day on the hill with the grouse. Now, the next day was completely different and you really couldn't have asked for better weather. So we went through the whole process of getting Alex set up on a rifle and then we went for the stalk. Now that the podcast, basically that the recording that you're about to listen to, is kind of our debr nearly two weeks to the hour.
Speaker 2Aren't we pete um from when I pulled the trigger up in scotland with you in that beautiful, beautiful setting.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, absolutely yeah. Yeah. Almost two weeks to the hour exactly to when you took your first Scottish Red Stag. How is Nigel? Well, he's now all backpacked and he's still chilling at the moment in the fridge.
Speaker 2Yeah, for anyone who's missed that, I decided to name the deer Nigel, as I pulled him down the hill on my ankle.
Speaker 3Which is still sore, by the way. Well, that's just the memory you've got from being in Scotland.
Speaker 2I am convinced that it's a foot for a foot.
Speaker 3He was just telling you that, yeah, being a three legged deer, he needed to just say that's how it is. But yeah, obviously he's got four legs at the end of the day. So he was still three wheel drive and you were only one wheel drive.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's true, just so you know and so anyone else knows, I am in the process still, believe it or not, of all the footage, uh, off my phone onto my laptop, but because the laptop's so old it takes forever. Um, there's nearly 500 individual video clips run it's, it's just taking ages. But I, I told you the other day, like I have looked to them, I it'll be quite good, um, it'll be, yeah, pretty, pretty special. But the plan is to do I'm going to do one big video, um, which will encompass the whole weekend, so the grouts, the stag, the whiskey and then the salmon, and then I'm gonna break up the individual videos, um, for people who just want to watch those bits. Basically, so that's, that's the plan. And then once, once I get stuck into it, I won't, I won't stop, I won't stop the editing. So I'll get that done as soon as I can really.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. Well, I was assuming there was a lot of footage because literally, you probably have the camera rolling for the whole of the grouse day, even though the weather was absolutely atrocious.
Speaker 2And then Do you know what, though, that footage has come out surprisingly well, and at times I think it's just because of the camera and stuff it well, and at and at times I think it's just because of, like, the camera and stuff, it doesn't look that bad. And I kind of want to say I know it doesn't look that bad but it really was.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's always the thing, isn't it? Some of the photos that came out, they absolutely look, yeah, like it, like people be like what sort of weather were you talking about? But there are some photos that come out that, uh, yeah, it's absolutely dreadful the wind.
Speaker 2It. It was the wind for me. I didn't. I didn't whine about it at the time, but I started to get like a really bad earache, um, and that was when I was putting my hood up, and that because the wind was just shooting straight into my brain at that point I'm just gonna say now, if anybody sees me jiggling about and and moving, I've got a very needy spaniel that decided that I'm going live.
Speaker 3It wants to go live too.
Speaker 2I got. I got one out there trying to get in at the moment with the door shut.
Speaker 3Yeah well, the other two are completely chill, but this one has decided. Now it's like there's somebody, there's somebody talking, I must need all your attention.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's always the way and need all your attention. Yeah, it's always the way. Um. So, yeah, mate, I'm, I'm buzzing and I can't thank you and and tom enough for, uh well, making the whole thing happen. Really, it wouldn't have happened without his, you know, generosity and and your patience and kindness, really it was. It was a brilliant, brilliant two days up on that hill and, uh, one which I'll never forget, but hopefully we'll be reminded about soon.
Speaker 3Um, because of that chap I met and, um, yeah, hopefully we're gonna be coming up again soon at some point yeah, well, once we get this, uh, this box of venison sorted out and sent down to you, that will be down and then you can actually, uh, you can take the, the rewards of the stalk and actually get that on the barbecue and do some meals with it, share it with the food you are you what, what, what is it you're actually sending down?
Speaker 3so the plan is to put together a box of steaks. I've got some dice in there for you. Uh, I've done a mini. Literally the small leg has turned into a mini, rolled like a roasting joint type of thing. So there's all sorts of fun and stuff there. You'll also get in that box well, it might be another box separately that won't be frozen. You'll get your set of antlers Nice, amazing and there's a few other bits to come down. So basically, you are getting a box. Did you boil the head then? I haven't boiled the head yet. He's current. As I said, he's still chilling in the fridge. I've got, uh, three road to do and uh and a few other bits. It's just uh, it's been manic I. I was out on the hill on friday again. We took another client out to to get a stack that all the class. Yeah, for 14 mile trek. All the way up around the top 1500 vertical meters climbed. No stags up there, they weren't playing ball uh same same ground as the one.
Speaker 2I was on a different ground we were.
Speaker 3We were different ground, we were over over, we could see your hill. So you know, when we looked across to the other estate, into into clover, down the big valley so I was on the other side, in in the big corries there, uh, so we went all the way straight up. One of the erects there walked around the top, saw about three to four hundred stags out on another estate. We couldn't get anywhere. We're all grouped together, all grouped together, just a huge herd stags and hinds just moving and, uh, they were happy. And then literally back on the hill where, where you shot yours, the next high ridge over there, was probably another 300, 400 sat on top of that. They were up there because the weather was warm, mild, uh, it had a bit of moisture in the air, so the midges were out literally every time we stopped it was like a swarm of midges around you and you just wanted to keep going.
Speaker 2So I would try but by the end I was. I was bitten to death, but not, ironically, not from the hills. That was when I was further up, um, when I was staying over just just before I went to go see the salmon stuff.
Speaker 3But yes, they they helped me a lot, yeah, but if you go on the west coast, it's even worse. It's like having a face mask of midges at the end of the day. So it's just one of those things at the moment, because it is so mild and the temperatures are up, they are about the deer know this. So the deer go and spend their times in the breeze on top of the ridge, where the wind keeps them away. Yeah, and especially while the antlers are obviously still all velvety and they've got their their fluff on them, the stags seem to get affected more than the hinds. So they don't. They don't like midges as much as we don't like midges at this time of year yeah, well, I bloody hate them.
Speaker 2They seem to target me at the best of time I see your soft southern skin, they like.
Speaker 3And that that, all that lovely barbecue food oh, that's fighting.
Weather Challenges on Grouse Day
Speaker 2Talk speaking about, I'm a southerner anyway, so it's no problem, but I live north of the border now I've got, uh, I got, some lovely beef ribs, uh for later, that have been sous vide for 14 hours. I'm just, um, yeah, just waiting to cook them at some point, but it stopped raining now, thank god.
Speaker 3Yeah the weather's gone a bit uh back to very autumnal now, hasn't it really it's.
Speaker 2It's funny, though, like you compare it to the weather up on the hill, but everything else seems like nothing yeah, I totally it was.
Speaker 3Um, it's bizarre because that day we had up there was absolutely fantastic. Everything was right, the wind was good, which obviously kept everything at bay, and just to have the the conditions we had, with the occasional shower, was just absolutely fantastic. But yeah, it's um, there are some names mental.
Speaker 2When, when you said, when we got right to the top and you said they're all hindz, the pain that I felt and the level of disappointment and I thought what the hell was the point and I was trying to be positive thinking. I've got some great footage. It's all about the experience. I just thought what a waste of time.
Speaker 3Well, we'd seen Stags on the way up. They were sat there on the hill they were just further further below us.
Speaker 3They weren't they were literally. So we had all the hinds further out from, from our, our sort of, where we crawled into and looked over the, the sort of the, the lip of that, that mountain. At the end of the day, the, the stags, were obviously tucked further back and we couldn't see them. So, yeah, everything that came into view straight away was just hind. So I can understand my disappointment was just as bad. It's like we've just walked all this way, we've crawled up this side, we've avoided all of this wet stuff where the stags so um, yeah, you are probably more confused than anything well, that was it, because virtually all the way up we'd seen stags, you see, looking across.
Speaker 3So that I think it's because the splake tailed off slightly, all the stags were sat further down a bit more, agreed on them and obviously the hinds were just grazing away quite happily. So, yeah, it was, um, it was. It was really peculiar that, uh, it took that while just to find something, and then we had you set up on that, well, what you'd hardly really call a stag, that knobbler, but it was something to take off the hill at the end of the day. And then Nigel just strolled into the picture, but he just did not want to play with it. He wanted to keep his arse pointing towards us all the time. If you remember About 12 and a half minutes we waited with he, he wanted to keep his ass pointing towards us all the time, if you remember about 12, about 12 and a half minutes.
Speaker 2We, we waited so that and that footage from from me crawling to you, the so basically, the roughly the shot is about 12 and a half minutes. Yes, well, just wait, what do you know? What no like for me, obviously you know, was I wasn't nervous, but I was more apprehensive and concerned, mostly because I'd only taken two shots with you four hours before. Yeah, but in those 12 minutes I very, very much settled into it. It wasn't, it wasn't a rushed shot in the slightest, was it no, I think.
The Perfect Shot: Anatomy of the Stalk
Speaker 3I think that gave you everything to allow you just to completely chill out, calm down. It was good weather, everything was right, you were comfortable, the rifle was in a good position uh, a separate was all comfortable. You'd shot with it already. Probably, as you say, four hours beforehand, you put two shots out, uh, touching each other happy days into a target. So, realistically, your adrenaline rush that you were probably getting as soon as we got there had a chance to settle off. So you were calm and I think the tiny clip you sent and put up on on one of the instagram feeds literally showed we were communicating all the time, talking about everything. Nothing could see us where we were, so we were quite happy to have that sort of good bit of comms between each other, making sure you were happy and even reassured, even you know, because obviously I'm a complete uh, novice or beginner but even you just saying I can't remember.
Speaker 2You know, you said come up, come up, come up.
Speaker 3And as you were sort of saying, I was visualizing it, I could see it and it's just like that's where it's happening, squeeze yeah, and and to be honest, I probably pushed you out your comfort zone as well that shot you took was the best part of 230 yards. We'd only shot a paper target at 100 yards. Uh, and I told you it was shooting an inch high at 100 yards and I needed you in with like no measurements on that scope at all no, no, it is a that.
Speaker 3That doctor on my 308 is a traditional. It's just a traditional crosshair with a single dot in the middle. So there's no, there's no guidance on that. It's purely you judge by moving the dot slightly further up and down the body. But, as we say, you took the shot. We went down to inspect that carcass and it was absolutely textbook. It was bang on where you needed it to be. Again, I think we'd gone through, we'd looked at all the paperwork about best placement of shots and everything, and because we were sort of yes, so let me just explain that because I think it's quite funny.
Speaker 2So Pete has set up this target on this little gully. Is that what you'd call it? I'd call it a gully. Yeah, opposite side of the gully he comes back, he says shoot it. So I lay there, I shot it. And he says shoot it again. I shot it again. He says you can shoot, let's go. So I'm thinking, all right, that's fine, but that's a round target, that's clearly marked. Now I'm thinking where the hell do I shoot? On a deer. So I suddenly we got some pictures of deers, didn't we? All different deers in sort of slightly different positions, and I was picking where I would go for. And it started to make sense. And it started to make sense. It did start to make sense. But, as you said, there's quite a big kill zone, isn't there on a red?
Speaker 3Obviously. Yeah, You've been out quite a lot with Matt down your way and Rowan, things like that.
Speaker 2I never see what he sees. I get to see where he's putting that shot, I get to see him taking the shot and I get to see where the shot lands, but I never actually sort of see. You know what he's looking at yeah, so.
Speaker 3So the key obviously is that that's why we shot that four inch disc, which is the, the sort of the, the deerstalking or the dmq target, the official target. If you were doing your qualification, that's what you'd use, if you can put the shots in that space. Well, that's a four inch circle, so it's size of I don't know like a large mug or something like that at the end of the day, but on a red deer you're looking at a target the size of a dinner plate. So then that sheet of a4. So, as always, we got you on the engine room and you were in the right zone when you took that shot.
Speaker 3The bullet's going to have a devastating effect and that animal is going to drop very quickly. It's going to have a catastrophic bleed out, which is what we want, and therefore it's not going to know what happened, especially when the bullet hits it. 90% of the time it's a sharp stabby pain for the deer and it bleeds out so quickly because it's such a huge animal it would start looting quickly. It was exactly your, your shot. I think it took three steps and it dropped, which indicates lack of oxygen to the brain, lack of blood to the brain, lack of oxygen. Therefore, brain dead, animal down, which is, which is exactly what we're after that, that was exactly what I wanted.
Speaker 2Like you know, I well, I don't say it enough, but I don't really believe or agree with sport shooting, things like that. I always want it to be for meat and things like that and I want it to drop as fast as I can. Um, and that that was my biggest concern is it is making sure it drops. So, and when you you said I don't know if you were looking at me or looking forward, but when you said it, you know it was down, I rolled over and I was just like thank you no, at all times.
Speaker 3You've probably noticed, but I had binos up and I was just watching. Yeah, even though I was talking to you, I needed to make sure that everything was going right your shot placement because if things had gone wrong, I was about to grab the rifle off you and follow, and I think we discussed that on the way up the hill.
Speaker 2Well, it was good, and I know we've sort of said this before, but it was really great that there was no expectation from you for me to take that shot and I told you beforehand if I, if I hadn't felt comfortable and I can liken it so when I, when I did my um, what would it have been called? Not firearm safety, but a little bit of firearms training with james when he took me from the quants to um upon the, the two sticks, whatever that's, what would that be called?
Speaker 3so python type of stick or something like that.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, I was all over the place and I said to him then I said, christ, if I was about to shoot a deer like that, I just I wouldn't. I'd be like not comfortable doing this. But when I was there, yeah, it all fell into place and not for a second was I going to say I'm not comfortable.
Speaker 3I think that was the key. We made sure we'd obviously done the test shoot and set you up on pretty much the same position you were virtually shooting on. To be honest, all right, we were relying on Heather. We needed to use my rucksack as a stabilizing platform to put the bipod up, but nothing else changed you, your position. Uh, the rifle, the stability, it was absolutely, um, it was perfect in all ways. So, yeah, it was a nice, stable place to take a shot from, not off sticks, not wiggling all over the place.
Speaker 2You were calm, collect, and you can see that actually in that footage when, when you know it's interesting because matt's away at the moment, but he because I said to him right, can you help me moving forward with a little bit of actual training about breathing and what to do? And he's well up for it, which is great. But he said, having watched the clips, I did something, um, or I did some things that were very normal to a, to a novice shooter, which he will point out to me, but I've no idea what they are yet that's fine.
Speaker 3Well, as I say, I've already seen the snippets you put up, so once you get to see the whole thing, it will be, it will be easy to see. My focus for that whole video, though, was literally was watching that stag through the binos, just talking to you, probably garbling most of it, but I was no, not really.
Speaker 2And the sound is pretty good. Considering how windy it was up there, there's actually some pretty audible sound on there.
Speaker 3Oh good.
Speaker 2Good, I just need to pull my finger out and actually put it together.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, well, it'll be good to see it go up. That's the main thing. But I think again from that you've obviously that is the first stag that kind of christens, your stalking and going forward. You've seen a proper harvest that you've actually done yourself this time.
Speaker 2yeah yeah, yeah. The next thing I'd like to do is well, the next thing I want to do is is the growlicking. Is it growlicking or growlicking?
Speaker 3uh, whatever you want to call it, but it's made known as like a growlick.
Speaker 2Well, I want to. I want to growlick myself not myself, but I want to growlick something myself, um, and learn. I mean, I've seen it being done. I've seen it lots of times. I could probably badly get it wrong, but give it a good go. But there's one thing watching and there's another thing doing. So I kind of I want to see well, I want to do that, um, with some oversight, and then I'd like to have a go at butchering as well well, that's not great, yeah, and then I'd like to go out again.
Speaker 2Stalk, growlick butcher, eat literally field to fork. At that point I've put the, I've put the cartridge up, uh, up on my little special shelf that I have. Oh, fantastic, that's so um. So, yeah, I've kept that and, uh, I've got the, the other, the other cartridge that's up there is um, from when matt took me out on the very first day of. He shot it and stuff, but he passed it to me and that was still pretty special to go out on your first day.
Speaker 3It's a special moment there, isn't it? To actually see it happen. There's nothing. You can't look at it lightly. At the end of the day, your responsibility is. You're taking a life, so, realistically, the respect you need to give to that animal at all points is, is is huge, and if we, if we all work to that and everybody understands that, then what we're doing is is no, is actually probably better and more ethical than half the meat that's going through like an abattoir or something like that. That doesn't have that same amount of, I would say, respect in some cases yeah, and we should probably say something at this point.
Ethical Hunting and Stalking Techniques
Speaker 2Um, with regards to tom, we should probably point out the fact that he is offering guided deer stalks.
Speaker 3Yeah so the wells, uh, what is it? Well sporting um offers uh days out on the hill for for taking stags and shooting hinds. He, he also does uh roebuck and they'll be row stalking at low in the lowland area of the uh, the estate, he, he manages you've also got on there. Um, potentially some walked up pheasant days and as well as that, walked up grouse. So the whole, you could basically come up for a fantastic weekend he, he also welcomes photographers, doesn't he?
Speaker 2he does so. That's another. If people want to go up there for the you know they don't want to see a deer drop down, but perhaps they want to take some pictures and wildlife and things like that then, um, then he. He will allow people to do that, won't he?
Speaker 3yeah. So if, if anybody out there is was interested in being um, like, yeah, that that will add like I'll put.
Speaker 2I'll put the tom's contact details in in the description below and stuff, and if anyone wants to get in touch, I'll put yours on there. Peter, I'll put a link to your youtube channel as well, so if you are still watching this, then um give pete a follow?
Speaker 3fantastic, yeah, no, thank you very much, but yeah, um, yeah, it's a. It's a very interesting set of opportunities that tom offers. You can either take your camera out and pull the trigger on that and take some fantastic photos of some absolutely stunning wildlife, or, if you want to experience the whole thing and get on the hill, uh, yeah, you can. You can have a go at that, and actually it's a really reasonable price as well, compared to some estates and other things like that. So, for what you get and the wealth of knowledge that he's got is stunning really.
Speaker 2Well, I've absolutely fallen in love with Scotland. I think it's such an amazing place. I can see why you moved there Too many, so I'm'm gonna be coming up. Well, it's just as soon as I can really may. Um, I don't know what's happening with this, with this castle thing that's going on, but I I should find out in the next week or so, um, and then I guess we'll have a bit of a plan as to what that looks like and then, regardless, I'll still come out. You're only a 12-hour drive up the road Exactly, it's not far at all.
Speaker 3Just hit the motorway, keep on going. But as soon as you're north of the border, it's so much easier. The roads get quieter, everything gets clearer. It's a doddle from there.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm interested to see how the salmon stuff does as well. It's quite, it's going to be quite controversial. There's a lot yeah loud that you have some strong feelings. But I've got to be honest, from what I saw it looks, you know it looked as good as it possibly could do.
Speaker 3I think. I think you got to go to probably quite a good fishery that maybe do things differently. They've got good investment, but I wouldn't be surprised if there there's a flip side to that as well. There always is, as I is the same with deer talking and everything we've we've done today, everything we did on that weekend. There's always a flip side to it there are. There are other estates that are hammering hard to try and shoot one grouse. There are other places that are pushing hard just to to take you up on the hill to shoot the worst deer they can find, but they want to charge you big money for it and that's the problem.
Speaker 2So you're sending obviously nigel and uh, and what a couple of grouse breasts is that?
Speaker 3right, you've got, yeah, so you, you've got, uh, a grouse breast. We, we brought a brace of grouse back, uh, so there's a, there's a nice pair of breasts. As I say, yeah, yeah. So obviously grouse is quite um, it's a dark colored meat, it's a bit like duck or or something along those lines, so you can work something out to do with cooking that that's and that's.
Speaker 2So. That's the next plan. Like so I will. I will get this, these films, done, and then the final part of the journey will be cooking some up, and I'm gonna see if I can get some of the salmon as well. Um, and I bought a bottle of whiskey, so whether I could, I don't know, maybe I've cooked something whiskey related yeah, yeah, yeah, or the.
Speaker 3The thing I would say if you were going to do something with the grouse which really does work well, because I think one got smoker is actually to smoke it cold or hot. You can do hot smoked grouse and it is absolutely stunning. Just thinly sliced, then, and it is one of the, it's one of the nice that can take long tall. No, no, it doesn't, and it pretty much. It doesn't take long. They're not big, what Like like that big they're not, they're a bit thinner than that. But yeah, it doesn't take long. Wow, but it is absolutely to die for hot smoked grouse. Yeah, really nice smoked grouse.
Speaker 2Okay, well, maybe if anyone is still watching, they could put some other suggestions and I'll pick.
Speaker 3Uh, I'll, I'll pick the my favorite basically now your your stag is it's some bits of the venison were were butchered fairly quickly because I wanted to get to get it broken down, but then I think I sent you a photo.
Scottish Stalking Opportunities with Tom
Speaker 3If we can do something with that, I'm sure you can explain to it. Obviously, I hung the legs for a bit longer. They got a two week hanging, so you'll see a difference. So when you take your steaks, for example, they were butchered up probably in a couple of days, whereas the back legs have hung for a bit longer and the flavour will have matured in them. So there'll. So you should be able to see, spot the difference there and taste and all the rest of it.
Speaker 2Looking forward to it. I'm I'm buzzing for it, absolutely buzzing for it. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try, by the end of next week to get this film done. Okay, if not, if not sooner, uh, well, really. So I'm off to germany on thursday, um, off for the blazer factory tour, which should be pretty cool. Um, I'd like it done and dusted before then, and then when I come back from that, I can start working on that film. Absolutely, I was gonna say, because that's what that'll look like at this stage, just three days on the lichtenstein border with, uh, with, yeah, five people who I'm yet to meet I'm sure you'll have a whale of a time and now you can say when.
Speaker 3When they go over there, you say I've just had my first stag. And when they ask what rifle you shot it with? You know or tika, and?
Speaker 2yeah, what, what have you been learning on? Of course, a blaser. So what did you shoot with a tika, exactly, exactly. Just tell him that. But it made it was. It's a lovely rifle. I, I, I love the fact that I was. I wasn't annoyed, but prior to obviously everything coming together, uh, and even going out, I was thinking why does? Why won't he just use his bloody thermal? What if we end up walking around for hours for nothing? But we did it the most traditional way we possibly could pretty much, but yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3How are you in a bow and arrow? I, to be honest, though, we drove up to that, that viewpoint, and pretty much picked those deer up on the hillside straight away you will love that footage.
Speaker 2by the way, when I put the drone up of the car going up and then have it sort of circling around, it looked really really good. The weather at that moment was just bang on. Oh, it was stunning really really. But it's really funny because you can see the flies and stuff in front of the drone camera. Oh, really, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like little black rain droplets, basically. Okay, yeah, they were obviously quite thick up there.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I spoke to Tom. He was out while I was out taking a climb out for the stag on Friday. He was out back stalking well, out for grout. And he said to me, how was it up on the Hillwood Yard? Well, the midges were pretty bad. It's like where I was in the bottom, so you remember where we were down the bottom of of that area trying to find those grouse that the the guests had shot. He said the midges were just a thick cloud, but he said we also had a load of crane flies it's like a black long-legged fly and he owned. Everything was covered it he goes. It was pretty horrendous.
Speaker 2Oh my god, we certainly I learned the most is well one the equipment. That, in terms of the gear, the, the boots, the, the hard killer suit that I had on that all stood up like no issues whatsoever, which was great. But compared with walking around the field down here, um, on relatively nice, dry days, you know just worlds apart, worlds apart from from what was up there. You know that that thick, abrasive um, you know the, the, the, not the lavender, the header and the boots, the boots held up, the trousers held up, touch, well, no, I. So the only tick that I had was remember when we sat down for that break and I sort of just found one on my well. Other than that, I was all good. So, really, yeah, the gear held together well, really well, but I think there's no other terrain like it is that?
Speaker 3no, not at all. No, and I think the only thing that probably would have been better for you, which would have probably given you more stability, you had the, the lace up, the, the, the quick lace, the, the u-turn boots, fire boot, okay, exactly, and I think if you'd had my like 10 inch lace-up boots or even a taller boot like that, just that extra support. As you saw, both tom and myself, our boots were fully laced up, and it makes such a difference, especially when you're like that.
Speaker 2That's what I need. That's what I need really, though. They're perfect for low-bent stuff.
Speaker 3Oh, totally, absolutely agree with that. When you're walking around a field or something and you're just doing slight hills and stuff like that, no problem at all. But, as you say, the absolute amount of work that goes through stomping through heather and all the rest of it, it just destroys it.
Speaker 2It's really interesting because before I got those boots obviously I'm still an amateur, anyway to me I was sort of saying, well, what's that, why would you go for that boot over that boot, like why do you need different boots? But now I get it, yeah, yeah, and then, to be honest, wouldn't, wouldn't want those high. I suppose you wouldn't want those party boots for the stuff that I've been doing. It's just a bit too much really, isn't it?
Field to Fork: Future Plans
Speaker 3Yeah, you're probably used to it, though I just wear them pretty much any time I'm out. But I do have a pair of the boa boots and purely they're like my slip them on in the morning, nip out to take the dog for a walk, kind of thing. But if I'm going and snorkeling because of the nature of the ground we've got and everything, it's just you just put your your lace up boots on because you know you've got ankle support. You know that they're there and they're going to do the job.
Speaker 2but I think gators were a first time for you as well yes, they were, yeah, yeah, yeah, never, never, worn gators um my boots. Obviously didn't have the have the attachment, but it still worked anyway it worked fine.
Speaker 3Yeah, you were, you were, you were completely, yeah, you were completely waterproof, which is the most important, and, considering how much rain came down on that day, well, you saw that because, on the day of the grouse, I was full tweed and it was pretty wet and pretty heavy. You doubled. You doubled in weight then, didn't you pretty much? Yeah, exactly. And then the next day, though, we had exactly the opposite, where you weren't sure what to wear, because one minute wearing shirt, sleeves, well, and then I went up just in my shirt.
Speaker 2But at the right time you said get your jacket on yeah, exactly because the next thing, and actually that worked out really well, because by the time we got to the top, the temperature had dropped, the wind had picked up and then we were about to crawl through um through the heather.
Speaker 3No, and that's it. And I I got a message from tom yesterday from the stag I shot on friday. Well, the client shot on friday. He sent me a message last night. He was just cleaning the head on it and he said to me um, I need danger money for this. I'm like why he goes. Did you have any ticks on you when you got back to the larder? I'm like, no, I was clear. He sent me photos and if, if you look at the antlers here, every tip of those antlers they were, it was covered in ticks where they just crawled up the head to try and get to a high place to escape the face of it was just black, with with ticks, and it was just amazing that that's how how many ticks are on the beast. And we were so lucky that that animal we shot over there barely had anything on it. He really didn't, did he? No, it was pretty clean, to be honest. So just different parts of the hill and and is there?
Speaker 2um, is there any kind of tick protection? And I'm gonna liken it and it's a really bad example, but you know how, with the dogs, you put the the spotty stuff on the back to their neck. Is there anything like that that can actually protect you?
Speaker 3no, uh, so you can get clothing. Now there's a couple of companies that make it and I think hang on a minute, I'm going to shut two dogs up. Oh, you two pack it in. Um, there's a, uh, there are. There are anti-tick clothings that are available and they basically have woven into the fabric like um, uh, almost, uh, it's a chemical type of thing that basically if the ticks get on it it kind of burns their feet and they don't want to go any further.
Speaker 3There's other sprays you can get. So the, the military used to use a thing called promethryl and it's pretty much it's an insecticide. But if you get it on any of your membranes of your, your, your hiking kit or your barely little burns through the membrane. So you can spray stuff with promethyl and it is. It is literally it's probably one of the most nastiest chemicals known to man, but it's a, it's a proper insecticide. That's why military clothing it was literally you're going into battle they sprayed the whole suits, everything with this to stop the boys getting any insect bites or anything along those lines. But there is nothing you can put on your body that repels tick and have you seen the um?
Speaker 2have you seen? There's like an electronic, uh, midgie thing. Looks a bit like a torch by the looks of it, and I think it emits some kind of something do they do that?
Speaker 3some people say they work really well, some people say they don't work. There's another tin. There's a tin you get that you set fire to and you strap it to your arm and it produces smoke that keeps them away. There's all sorts of things out there. At the end of the day, if it's really bad with midges, get yourself a midge. Next, stick it over your head yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2When I come, when I come up next, I might see if I can get some of those little gadgets and test some of them, see if they actually work or not.
Speaker 3You never know, the next time you come up, it might be snowing and it might be.
Speaker 2I love that. I think some footage in the snow up over the hills, yes, I think that would be class. I think maybe if we speak very kindly to hard killer, see if we can get some snow camo, that would be. Uh, that'd be awesome, wouldn't it it would.
Speaker 3It would be absolutely fantastic to just disappear on the hill, but as I say it is, it's a wild place up there when the snow comes down yeah, are they slightly easier to see when it's snowing if you've got the white backdrop?
Speaker 3they're. They're going to be about, but 90 of the time they're going to disappear. To try and get out of the snow, they'll drop onto lower ground and stuff like that. So yeah, deer aren't stupid, they want to get themselves. If you think, when they've got all the the bog up there and the peat and stuff like that, they'll go and tuck themselves in underneath.
Speaker 2Yeah well, even when we were there, it felt like they they found this little mini heat trap, yeah, um, just where they could just sit and chill out. I mean, they were obviously there for hours and hours and hours they were. They were clearly very happy there yeah, they're not.
Speaker 3If there's food and everything like that, they don't need to go far. They're not going to roam around they'll. They'll stay there, they'll sleep there, they'll eat what they need and they'll move on. The only reason they shot off at the end, obviously we took the shot and and they just disappeared across the hillside.
Speaker 2Yeah, they went. Well, if I do, I got I've got that shot as well, albeit not very good because I've had to zoom in and stuff, but I've got them sort of coming off, them all running off the hill and that. So maybe it'll end with that. I don't know, but we'll see.
Speaker 3Well, that's the kind of Western music is that there's a dust cloud, as all the deer just run away, exactly.
Speaker 2Are we done?
Speaker 3I believe we'll leave it there, because I'm about to get two dogs go insane in the room anyway. So I think that's a good place to start, but yeah, well, hopefully the footage will come out.
Speaker 2It was my well and yours. This was my first youtube live with someone, so I'd be interested to see sort of if it gets watched. But if anyone does watch it, give it one of those and subscribe to me. And pete pete's got a separate channel which will be in my description, and I do promise you the film is coming, uh, asap. As soon as I got it all transferred to the laptop, which takes me forever um, then I can actually start attacking it and getting it done and I really enjoy I do enjoy the big edits, but, uh, it just takes a while to get it right.
Speaker 2I suspect this one's going to be a bit of a mission to get this edit done, because it is, it's a, it's uh, there's a lot of yeah well, luckily it's all captured in like a story timeline type thing, so it'd be quite nice to just just initially, just watch it all back to see what happened. Obviously, build up, there's just a lot of walking and hopefully we'll be able to see that you know the inclines and the declines, and when there's wind and when there isn't, and, yeah, it'd be really good. So I'll keep you in the loop anyway, magic, no worries.
Finale and Contact Information
Speaker 3Anyway, thank you very much for your time, always free. See you soon. Bye. So that was a really, really exciting weekend and it was a very busy, very tiring weekend. There should be some absolutely fantastic footage. I'm sure some of you have already seen some of the photos I put up from the weekend, and anybody that has followed the Hunter Gatherer cooking channel will also have seen some of his stories that were coming up Now. Hopefully there will be, as he said, there's going to be four short films and then one long film of the whole time that he was in Scotland.
Speaker 3So in the description I will try to pack in as much information as possible to be able to go and see the hunter gatherers youtube channel, his instagram feed, my feed. You also need to go and check out uh wells sporting. If you're looking to go out, as I said, do some photography, take some pictures of wildlife, or get out on the hill after a stag, or even go walked up grouse at a at an actual, very reasonable, affordable price that anybody can get into. You need to go and send tom a message and see what the bookings are. However, just because of the nature of it, he is very, very busy and his bookings are already taking place for the next couple of years. So if you want to get in there and get something, really get on that waiting list, get yourself booked in, but you certainly won't be disappointed.
Speaker 3We'll bring this one to a close now. Thank you again for listening. As I say, we've made it to episode 20. So, yeah, that's an achievement in itself, but we'll be bringing you another podcast very shortly with, hopefully, another exciting guest. All right, we'll speak to you soon.