Chris Waters, The Huntsman and I dive straight into the thick of it at Accurate Hunts HQ in New South Wales, kicking off Huntsman season two with a bang. Together, we peel back the curtain on the raw and unfiltered world of hunting podcasting. From the adrenaline of a challenging shoot to the nuanced art of guest selection, we offer an insider's look into the crafting of authentic and original narratives that resonate with both seasoned hunters and newcomers to the sport.
Navigating the transition from shooter to hunter is a journey paved with both skill and emotion. This episode doesn't shy away from the gritty truths behind the hunt, discussing the ease of firearm acquisition and the critical role of mentorship and hands-on training in fostering responsible hunters. We also share a slice of life from the field, where the flick of a deer’s ear can mean the difference between success and another learning opportunity. Through the lens of our guiding experiences and the running of a beginner hunting course, we underscore the value of education over mere trophy pursuit.
Every hunter carries a trove of tales, and we're no different. Laughter erupts as we recount the lighter moments of password woes and the mishaps that befall even the most experienced among us. Yet, beneath the humor lies a profound connection to the land and to each other, a bond that we explore through shared frustrations, triumphs, and the quiet healing found in nature's embrace. Join Chris and I as we journey into the heart of hunting, sharing insights and stories that bind us to the wild and to the community we cherish.
For the latest information, news, giveaways and anything mentioned on the show head over to our Facebook, Instagram or website.
If you have a question, comment, topic, gear review suggestion or a guest that you'd like to hear on the show, shoot an email to accuratehunts@gmail.com or via our socials.
Chris Waters, The Huntsman and I dive straight into the thick of it at Accurate Hunts HQ in New South Wales, kicking off Huntsman season two with a bang. Together, we peel back the curtain on the raw and unfiltered world of hunting podcasting. From the adrenaline of a challenging shoot to the nuanced art of guest selection, we offer an insider's look into the crafting of authentic and original narratives that resonate with both seasoned hunters and newcomers to the sport.
Navigating the transition from shooter to hunter is a journey paved with both skill and emotion. This episode doesn't shy away from the gritty truths behind the hunt, discussing the ease of firearm acquisition and the critical role of mentorship and hands-on training in fostering responsible hunters. We also share a slice of life from the field, where the flick of a deer’s ear can mean the difference between success and another learning opportunity. Through the lens of our guiding experiences and the running of a beginner hunting course, we underscore the value of education over mere trophy pursuit.
Every hunter carries a trove of tales, and we're no different. Laughter erupts as we recount the lighter moments of password woes and the mishaps that befall even the most experienced among us. Yet, beneath the humor lies a profound connection to the land and to each other, a bond that we explore through shared frustrations, triumphs, and the quiet healing found in nature's embrace. Join Chris and I as we journey into the heart of hunting, sharing insights and stories that bind us to the wild and to the community we cherish.
For the latest information, news, giveaways and anything mentioned on the show head over to our Facebook, Instagram or website.
If you have a question, comment, topic, gear review suggestion or a guest that you'd like to hear on the show, shoot an email to accuratehunts@gmail.com or via our socials.
On the seventh episode of our here at Hunts. So today's day two.
Speaker 2:We're on the evening, I feel like I have shot the worst I've ever shot in my life.
Speaker 1:I think so yeah, and I'm not going to hide those emotions.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to do something that I think is wholesome, that I think is helpful, and there are platforms like FoxStyle that can help us achieve that by increasing our audience and giving us exposure. It's a long, weird answer.
Speaker 1:Like I said, sometimes my guests don't give me much opportunity to talk Like so we tell we're going to go and learn how to glass that hill and we were going to teach them how to glass the hill. What we failed to realise was we first need to teach them what the word means. Yeah, Before we teach them how to do.
Speaker 2:They're right there and they're like now glass the hill. And they're like these are my binoculars.
Speaker 1:We're here at Acura Hunts HQ yes, we are which is out in the central west of New South Wales, and I'm hosting Chris as part of his Huntsman season two.
Speaker 2:We are recording an episode, the first episode, the first episode, which is pretty exciting. It is yeah, it is quite new and trying to figure out how we do it. It's a journey. It is definitely Today has been a journey which I'm sure we'll probably talk about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about it now.
Speaker 2:Well, I thought I actually thought so a few times now in the last couple of days. You've mentioned that no one asked you questions. No, and even our last podcast that we did was very. It was like quite, at least on my podcast, the Huntsman, yeah, it was quite themed. We didn't really have anything to do with you and your personal life, and so I'm happy to ask you questions. You get to, don't you want more Maybe? You may be causing too.
Speaker 1:No, it's just tricky going from, you know, podcasting traditionally with a co-host and then podcasting by myself. How have you found that Really enjoyable?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you enjoy? Maybe it's not an enjoy more and enjoy less, but I'm not sure. It's just very different.
Speaker 1:Well, I do enjoy controlling things and doing things myself my own way. Yeah. So that's nice just to have. You don't have to ask questions. So I work for myself outside of hunting and everything. Yeah, I run my own business.
Speaker 2:I won't waste a question on that. I know you do fancy. That's about it.
Speaker 1:Keep up your sleeve, but it's enjoyable to you know, I don't want to do one tonight, but I want to do three tomorrow. Yeah, I really like that guest. So I don't have to ask someone what do you think about that? I just I organize it.
Speaker 2:You're not as cheeky though. No, I think people miss the cheek. Yeah Well, there's no. You were very cheeky in your last podcast. I mean some would say too cheeky. Yeah Well, you would say I wouldn't, I love the cheek.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of opportunity in that one to just throw a maxing and watch it burn and sit back and let it go. Watch the bonfire. Watch the bonfire from a distance and I have a pyromaniac, so that was fun yeah it is true, but that was part of the magic behind that's why I want to say well, People if you're watching this or listening to this and you don't know what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Dodge used to be involved in a podcast called Endless Pursuits. It was a podcast between him and Matt, and I think some of the magic behind what made that podcast so successful and fun was the dynamic between you two, and not just the. We ripped on him, the different. Yeah, you ripped. It did get a little bit like Rippy Rippy, yeah, but these kind of jokes are starting to bite on both ends from both of you, and it was almost like the writing was on the wall at that point. Yeah, it was time, but yeah, so you have less of that ripiness in your new podcast. Yeah, I mean, I feel like you get more out of your guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do agree with that, and one of the things I talk about a lot and something I focus on is I actually don't do a lot of research going into the episodes on purpose. Yeah. I'm not going to write my guess. I know the theme. I don't write anything down, I don't structure it too much and what comes of it is a genuine conversation, less of an interview. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you say something midway, I'm not looking at my sheet ready for the next question. Yeah, I'm focused on what you're saying. Yeah, formulating an answer that's hard because I have a terrible memory and you're like some guests will talk for three or four minutes, which is fine. That's what they're on there for. Yeah, and I forget what I wanted to ask straight away. Yeah, so that gets tricky. The downside of a single person interview or conversation is quite often unlike us, but quite often the guests we're meeting for the first time or we don't have a first-year interview, you might not have chemistry or existing kind of things to draw off.
Speaker 1:And some guests just pick up on that and run with it and it's quite fun and funny, and then some you never get to that point. It's just informative and learning, and that's the other reason I don't do the research.
Speaker 2:I like to learn as Well, everyone else is learning at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like I'm formulating a question that someone listening on the other end also may be formulating at the time. Yeah, and my friend Beau is always into me. He's like man, like I wish I could interject and ask a question. Yeah, and it's the downside of podcasting. Well, you can do it live. There are podcasts that I like that there is. But what we've done new to Accurate Hunts you'll be available through the website soon is we've set up a section on the podcast page where you can write in or send in an audio question and what we'll do is we'll bank those up and then get the guest back to answer that question.
Speaker 1:So, if anyone has a question about why you didn't actually get a haircut for episode one.
Speaker 2:I did get my haircut for episode one. No, he didn't, I did, I did.
Speaker 1:And the air-dresser was really nervous. Well what? Because they didn't have the scissors, because she didn't want to ruin it.
Speaker 2:Ruin it, ruin it, ruin it, yeah, and I. She knew what was at stake. Season one of that, season two of that, it's all riding on the haircut.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she has to be in the credits. That's the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she even offered the haircut for free. Did you take it? No, I paid for it.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope you did it because it looks like she's not finished. But if someone would like to ask Chris where he gets his haircut, you can send in that question via the website accuratehuntscomau and apparently I'm obliged to answer Acure at huntscom. There's no way you, we own the world. Yeah, so. Have you ever.
Speaker 2:here's a question. Okay, there's a number two or three. I asked about podcasts apparently at the moment, but it's probably it's good to do have you and I've always wanted to do this, but I never felt like I've needed to do it. Have you ever completely disagreed with someone on your like a guest and to the point where it's like uncomfortable, because I actually think that that would be really good? Do you remember the first time we interviewed you? I don't think I did I really disagree with you? No, I didn't like you yeah.
Speaker 2:I know that, but so I disagree with everything you say. Yeah, I mean, I'm literally to the point where, if we're talking now and I'm and I'm just like flat out, like no, like that's, I call BS on that, like your, your virtue signaling or what I can literally call you out, which would be incredibly rude, but like, have you ever wanted to do that?
Speaker 1:No, and I don't. I don't know it depends on the guests and how far you are into it, but at the moment I'm getting guests on that are interesting and that I want to learn from them, and quite often I know what that is, that I want to learn from them. So I don't feel like there's a guest on that, like I'm not looking for guests that are argumentative or or a disagreeing, or like I'm getting things on that I'm interested in. Yeah, so I don't see that.
Speaker 2:I would disagree with them. I just I. My concern is and it's especially in the Australian hunting podcast space, of which I dabble but there are far more serious hunting podcasts than mine but it feels like there's a regurgitation of guests, that kind of go around, which is fine, there are no, no issues with that but it becomes a bit formulaic and it becomes a bit like you've got something to pedal, you're on here or something news happened and it just feels like I don't know. I'm not going to say what I was thinking.
Speaker 1:I think it's tricky because we're in a small community. It is a limited pool I nearly said talent pool, that's the wrong word but just a limited group of people to pull, pull from. But, like, I've taken a slightly different direction and the guests I've had on haven't been on others for a reason and I'm not looking like. It doesn't have to be the biggest expert in that field. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That. You know, if you Google, there'd be the first name that come up, but it's someone interesting to me, or some of us had an interesting story or done an interesting first.
Speaker 2:I think there's value in chaos I just love. I think I davele in it way too much where I just and not even for entertainment's sake, like not even for not trying to be sensational, not trying to be click baity, just because it's. I feel like we live in this world where everything is very PC, everyone is very accommodating, everyone is very empathetic in the and it's all in the guise of empathy, whereas true relationship often like there are things that we will fundamentally disagree about, even though we are very similar in our world views, and that's the fun territory to explore. When you have trust, yeah, when you when you're.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'd pushed down that avenue, like, if there's someone on that, there was something about their life that I knew I didn't agree on. I wouldn't bring it up, yeah, and if it came up, I don't know if I'd pull them up. Yeah, just not. Okay, that's your belief, yeah, and leave it there. Interesting so chaos. We're sitting out here in. No, I'm not going where you think I'm going. We're sitting out here in a buggy. This is the Acura Hunt's ultimate hunting buggy UHB ultimate hunting buggy and we are surrounded with one, two, three, four lights, because it's currently about 1030 at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and 4,000 bugs, yeah. So if you see us flicking and flapping and whatnot, if you can hear, yeah, crickets in the background. It's not the crowd being bored at what we're.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're literally sitting in a buggy.
Speaker 1:In the middle of nowhere. It's a cool idea. We've moved away from camp just because there's stuff going back on at camp. Yeah. A bit of skinning and butchering things, because it was a successful day. It was. So, depending on when this goes to air, whether your episode has come out or not, I think it will have.
Speaker 2:If you're interested, can I do a plug? Go Sure If you're interested in watching season two of the Huntsman Costumer sponsor.
Speaker 1:Can I go in?
Speaker 2:your credits. You can sure you can check out FoxTel or Aurora the last Thursday of every month at 8pm or you can watch it concurrently on the Huntsman YouTube channel. It's exciting, it's very exciting. Nervous, if we pull it off, nervous, extremely easy. You can tell from today yeah, I can what happened today.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to start yesterday, so today's day two, we're on the evening. We're on the evening.
Speaker 2:I feel like I have shot the worst I've ever shot in my life. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not one to hide those emotions and initially and he's some backstory that might give I really dislike starting in rifles. It's my least favorite thing to do. It's somewhat necessary, though Correct, but I consider myself a hunter, not a shooter, and I understand that being a rifle hunter requires a certain level of shooting experience, shooting wisdom, shooting knowledge, shooting technical know-how, all that stuff. I get it, so I don't fight it. But there's something about the starting in process that just really irks me and I think it's because I'm spending money on something doing something that I don't really want to do, even though I have to. So I actually spend a fair bit of time. I got new ammunition for the rifle, got rid of the cheaper stuff that I was using.
Speaker 1:Seiko 170 grain Cow head Blade, speed Blade.
Speaker 2:Blade, which I really am liking, and I got a sled. They go really well whistling past animals.
Speaker 2:They do. I got a sled and I got a different base and I completely changed the way that I was doing starting in and I actually enjoyed it and I was getting great groupings. Everything was great. And so I put time in and got this gun shooting fantastic, partly because I knew that the stakes were higher when we were filming a hunting DB show. And then to come out on the first day and just perform terribly is really hard. It's really like I.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the risk of getting emotional really hard, and it's not even that I feel a lot of pressure, but there's-.
Speaker 1:There's something welling up in your throat there? Yeah, there is, no, it's just welling up.
Speaker 2:It's hard when you take something beyond your own needs and requirements and you shoulder the needs and requirements of other people and the financial requirements Talking about show sponsors and obligations you have to sponsors and things like that, and the sponsors that we have for Season 2 are all fantastic. In fact, they're not and they're not like Like. They're people, at the end of the day, who have families and businesses, and some of those businesses are bigger than others and they understand. But you still want to do really well, you still want to put on a great show, you want to support them, you want to make sure that their products are selling because ultimately, they care about the hunting industry in Australia and they want to do a good job. So everyone's got the same goal.
Speaker 2:That's what is maybe difficult for people on the outside to see when you look at a hunting show is, for the most part, everyone's trying to do the same thing and so and it all comes down to like a fraction of a second, like a point where you pull the trigger or you squeeze it, or you don't squeeze it, or your rifle is sited in properly or it's not, and the last day and a half I've shot terribly and it's been really hard to deal with that and you're watching your timer tick down of the time that you have left, and the mornings you have left and the evenings you have left, and throughout the day you have left, and then you're also thinking about all the other stuff you have to film and it's a lot of pressure and today I kind of reached an emotional melting pot, which I haven't actually ever done in hunting. Yeah, that's what happened today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and coupled by the fact that you were mentioning that there's no banter and things. There was lots today, yeah, and yesterday, correct, and I'm not one to hide my emotions too, much no. I appreciate it and there's a lot of disappointment from me Not disappointing you specifically, but my job as a guide is to host, yeah, provide opportunities and provide opportunities, and then, if the opportunity is lost, whether it be through miss or blown stork or whatever happens to me that was therefore unsuccessful and I was like, right, we've got to go again.
Speaker 1:And you know, do you don't present opportunities willy-nilly, like goats do? Correct, and that's the focus of this trip is to try and nab some deer. There's lots of goats here, I don't have to worry about that. There's lots, yeah, there's lots of not in huge numbers at the moment and we've had a few opportunities and some have come okay and some haven't, hmm, so yeah, you'd have to watch to find out what happens.
Speaker 2:We don't even know what's going to happen in the end. We've still got two days. We've got a day and a half left.
Speaker 1:We've got a day and a half left Left, so we're halfway and, as Jesteray the cameraman would say, you know shows need to go like this, but at the moment we're like if easily.
Speaker 2:If you're watching oh, you've just watched episode one of season two and you're like man, they milked that drama. And man they just like no, not at all. Very, very real yeah.
Speaker 1:That story arc is very real Gets left on the editing floor. Yeah, 100%. How much of my grief I gave you? Yeah, I mean missing. It's a tricky thing. I don't actually shoot that often anymore because I'm with people. Yeah, I'm with people that are shooting. Yeah. So their misses is my miss. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's the same. But I look at it a little bit, that if you're not missing, sorry I'm getting smashed by bugs and mozzies, but if you're not missing, you're probably not shooting enough, because everyone misses, correct, yeah, and just you've, you know, saved those up for this trip. It was high.
Speaker 2:It's high when you, when you shoot so well for an extended period of time, and then you kind of feel untouchable, right, and you and you don't put the thought in to that you might have otherwise put into making sure you're ticking all your boxes and dotting all your eyes and crossing on your teeth and so and that's what makes it hurt even more, like that when you're doing, you're doing a really good, you're shooting really good and you're shooting well under pressure. Like it's hard to describe to people how difficult it is to have to have all the pressure of a show and a cameraman and all this different stuff and then to and to deliver that that thing that it's going to make the episode pop and do well. Why do it then?
Speaker 2:Because it's things that are harder worth doing and communicating issues like this or not issues, but realities is important, and because I don't feel that there has been enough content like this in. There's been certainly content in Australia about hunting and there's some great hunting shows existing hunting shows, fantastic, and I'm not saying that what we're doing is better, but but I think it's. But I want to try and make it better and not even just to be like ah well, this is better.
Speaker 2:It's just because our, our industry, our culture, our community. I want it, I want it to be better, and I think shows like this push the boundary forward and can and can represent our community in ways that individuals can't or lobbying groups can't, and I just think they can have an impact, and so I want to. I want to do the best thing, and that's hard.
Speaker 1:Why? Why TV? Why show? Why show?
Speaker 2:Um, look, there's other ways to do that. There are other ways to do that. I I mean. Why a podcast? Why social media? Why any of these things? Humans?
Speaker 1:Well. So I had a Robbie from blood origins on the other week, yeah, and he said when he first started he's like man, I want to be, I want to be on TV, I want to have a TV show. And then he realized everyone was doing it. This is America, it's a little bit different. No one's doing it here. A lot of differences. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, why, why TV? Why TV?
Speaker 2:What do you want to get out of it? Do you mean why TV, or why YouTube, or why video? What's the question because they're different questions. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Why? Why TV? So last season you just did YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you think it's to reach a wider audience, or so part of it's a wider audience, part of it is a personal challenge, but part of it's also what do it? So it when you want to grow your platform or grow your brand or grow what you're doing. There's different pieces that need to work in synergy in order to allow that to happen. One of them is finances. So the second that you get you hire a cameraman or a sound guy or an editing person or a producer, whatever it is those costs start to rise and you need to find a way to offset those costs. Either the show needs to make money or you need to go, you go into deficit, or you've just pay for it out of your own pocket and just that's the expense and you're willing to do that. Or you get things like sponsors, and once you get sponsors involved, then that adds another piece that has different kind of gears and different teeth that need to move in a certain way or certain frequency. So when you get sponsors on, they want to like a TV. Like TV is attractive to sponsors. And what's interesting and fascinating that I've found is that, like Foxtel will have a certain audience and a certain size and demographic, and YouTube has a different size and demographic as well. But there's still something about a show on like a network that's kind of feels different, even though it may be better, it may have a wider reach it may not, but to some people and to some sponsors it feels different, and that might be because it is, and Foxtel being the network, yeah, foxtel being the network, or Netflix or Stan or Binge or whatever it is, but yeah, in order to. Well, I mean, it's different for different audiences too and in different states. So like, for instance, you look at media, it's a great example of starting on like a broadcasted network and then eventually moving off that because they didn't need that, because they found that they could operate in the YouTube space alone or their own proprietary website and be successful, and so they moved away from it. They didn't need it.
Speaker 2:A show like the Huntsman, that's just completely juvenile and has very small audience. We don't have that luxury, and YouTube isn't screaming and just saying, oh, let's just throw all this audience at you. Oh, yeah, you want audiences from here, from here, yeah, we'll give them. To. Like, it's really hard to grow on YouTube and you can do all the best content you want and it doesn't necessarily seem to change sometimes. And then certain kinds of content will grow. Like if I did a headshot montage of thermal Fox headshots, I know I could get 300,000 views if I wanted to, but I don't want to do that. I don't think that's helpful. So I'm trying to do something that I think is wholesome, that I think is helpful, and there are platforms like Fox style that could help us achieve that by increasing our audience and giving us exposure. It's a long, weird answer.
Speaker 1:Like I said, sometimes my guests don't give me much opportunity to talk. What did you expect?
Speaker 2:to have a fellow podcaster on.
Speaker 1:I want to circle back, because you said something that I remember Surprising. You said that you're so much more thoughtful now.
Speaker 2:Hunter, not a shooter no, I didn't say that You're a hunter more than a shooter. I said I said maybe I did say that I probably did. What do you think?
Speaker 1:you said what do you feel you want to say in that?
Speaker 2:I, I, I, I, I shoot because it's a big. It facilitates the hunting, so I'm a rifle hunter because it facilitates.
Speaker 1:I started off shooting and progressed into hunting. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've said it 3000 times that the stages of being a hunter and it starts with being a shooter. Now there's a friend of mine who is heavily in the hunting scene, does amazingly well, highly successful, wasn't a shooter and he went away recently and some shots presented that were quick or a little bit uneasy, a bit uncomfortable, longer range and personal pressure on himself probably, but he didn't. He told me that he didn't do well in those situations and I've found that, like when I travel, I generally would say to people Australians are better shooters and hunters than overseas clients because we do a lot more shooting From the vehicle, moving animals, you know, rabbits, foxes, things like that smaller targets, random distances, yeah, and I feel like if you miss that, you miss a lot of fundamentals of hunting and shooting or of shooting and then you move into the hunting stage and if you've skipped that, well then you might be working out how to find animals and things, but you're missing a lot of the key entry level things. Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes all those same.
Speaker 1:Shooting from any rest. You've got tree, no tree, long grass, backpack, things like that, like as a shooter, you know I'm at the range, I was at the range initially or whatnot and you do those things, some range as you can, some range as you can't. Others like you, just have to sit on the bench, but then you know if you're on the top of the ute and the ute's moving fast, and then you pull up and you've got split seconds to take the shot and things like that, and I think I've seen a lot of people that well, not a lot.
Speaker 1:I've seen a few people on the side where they've missed that shooting thing and they sort of nearly got to go back to basics.
Speaker 2:I mean I find it fascinating that in places like Victoria you can go and get your firearms license and go to your test and then get your PTA and get your first rifle. You can go buy a 30 caliber rifle and then you can find yourself in the middle of the high country, having never fired a rifle before, with a gun, a loaded gun, pointing at a deer. I just think that's that's Good. Insane or bad, insane, terrible, terrible, like dangerous, and I don't. It makes my mind melt to understand how that can happen or why we allow it.
Speaker 2:And I know some people will be screaming at me saying like the last thing we need is more red tape and legislation and rules and requirements. But but firstly, it's far more dangerous than I think people realize and secondly, it produces poor hunters. And part of it is what you're alluding to is that it's not helping people understand how to shoot. Like no one taught me how to shoot, people taught me how to pass a firearms license test, but that has actually nothing to do with shooting. It has everything to do with firearm safety, firearm storage, but not using laws around firearms, but it has nothing to do with actually learning how to fire a firearm successfully and achieve a goal of whatever it is hitting a target, hitting a deer, whatever. I just find that absolutely fascinating.
Speaker 1:I want to draw parallels between that and sort of getting your car license Correct. Where to get your license, you need to go and do a test on a computer for your elves and then you drive with your parents. It's in New South Wales, I'm not sure how it applies otherwise, but you sort of like I grew up driving the farm, so that stuff sort of happened easily. But for those in the city I think like their first opportunity to actually driving a vehicle was on a main road or something.
Speaker 1:Although they've got their parents with them or guardian or whatever. They've got someone with them. And then in a firearm situation, you're suggesting a situation where that hasn't happened. And like that didn't happen to me, I had someone take me under their wing, rod and good family friend of mine, and taught me the basics of safety and how to shoot shooting cans, targets, moving your way up to animals, but that doesn't happen for everyone and I think this whole COVID thing happened. And then there was a huge push of our license hunters and that grew but the basic part got skipped.
Speaker 2:Well, this is what concern that I have in general about the hunting community, and why I'm such a huge advocate for clubs in general, is in society in general, we're seeing the breakdown of communities. It's got bitten on the bum by a bum.
Speaker 1:Did it hurt Did it feel good, no, not good.
Speaker 2:But so we're seeing the breakdown of communities, and when you break down communities, you're breaking down some of the core fabric of society and the way that we learn, the way that we're accountable, the way that we grow, and so people have to find alternative avenues to to feel that gap in some situations where it's necessary and it could be reading a book, it could be reading a magazine, or or like watching a YouTube clip, whatever but there are some things that just shouldn't be given over to that territory, like learning how to fire a firearm. Like don't, if you're, if you're wanting to learn how to fire a firearm, don't go watch a bunch of YouTube videos. Well, let me rephrase that Don't only do that. Go like, go find someone, go to a range and like what's something that they might be able to do?
Speaker 1:Oh, like what's something a beginner hunter could probably do to. Oh. I don't know a little bit, I don't know what? Do you know anything? I do know some things. I'll bring it up.
Speaker 2:You could join a hunting club, that's not what I was referencing.
Speaker 1:It's not all about you, chris.
Speaker 2:Like did she just set me up?
Speaker 5:No, it's a good book.
Speaker 2:Oh what? No, I was. Well, this is a, this is a great, that's a great point. Okay, you were thinking selfishly. I was thinking selfishly, how good that you, you, what you should do and I encourage all new find someone and I was like, yeah, all, yeah, I was thinking you should join a club.
Speaker 2:Well, so first of all, you should join the Australian Hunters Club because you get discounts on guides and using guides and and Doing workshops and education courses is incredibly important and I've said this for a long time. That's why I made Hunting Trips Australia, because I think every new hunter should their first hunt should be with a guide, and I think that you can shave years off your hunting Journey be a progression by spending a day or two with a guide and it's tiny little things that you'll learn and it's huge big things and it's like pointing in the dirt and saying that's a print and it's going in this direction and it's this fire part, because it's this and what I just stuff like you can't learn online.
Speaker 1:So what have you learned this?
Speaker 2:What if I? Well, so I've re, so I'm gonna put my foot in it and say I've relearned something, which is actually not true, because you can't relearn something just meant you never learned it in the first place, although I've claimed that I've learned this and I've told people that I've learned this and I've told people to learn this, and so I'm an absolute liar and I'm happy to say that you should, pretty much guaranteed, always Check the zero on your rifle before you're hunting, especially if you've driven somewhere, somewhere new, especially if you're going after, like, an animal that's important, or a trophy or or it's. It's not just like going and shooting a bunny. Like if there's gravitas that's sitting behind the hunt and it's important, you should definitely go and zero your rifle, even if you spend a lot of times siding it in and making sure you're our most good, because it's important, because things happen and you can do all.
Speaker 2:He's a great example. You can do all the right things you can have. You know, spend that time siding it in. You can make sure you've got great rings on your rifle holding your scopon. You can put it in a like a hunting bag in a soft shell case, that's in a hard case that, like all that stuff, and it can still get knocked out by two inches which, yet at a hundred, at a hundred which at 300? Like that's a lot, that's a miss, that's a clean miss in some situations.
Speaker 1:A bug in my ear. Yeah, and that's important. What have you learned on this trip to remember? Um, the Podcasting at night with lights tricky don't have dodger.
Speaker 2:This fantasy is like wouldn't it be so cool if you did this? And now he's just like Mine.
Speaker 1:I'll make full time on this one getting smashed on the neck.
Speaker 2:We'll come back tomorrow in daylight hours.
Speaker 1:I've been reminded I haven't done the filming side of it for a little while, like I've done a lot of hunts in the last few years where it was Clients and friends or whatnot but not the cameraman, and I forget what it's like carrying those extra people around and so quite often shots present quickly. Mm-hmm. That doesn't work for filming. No. So today, for example, we were in some really thick I say thick, it's a. It's a really cool part of the property where it's very thick timber, it's very visible.
Speaker 2:There's no undergrowth, it's just trunks, yeah, and then canopy your corridors to shoot through, but they're slim corridors, yeah, glimpses fleeting glimpses of animals and things and the ground has six inches of crunchy leaf cover.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've had a bit of rain up here in the last two weeks, but this last week has been quite warm still cornflakes, everything's really loud and Four of us walking through there Hmm. It's loud, yeah, and we had the wind in our favor and we were still just seeing things running. Yeah, and these guys. There came a point where we were like, right out to the heat of the day, I was like 130 or something. Yeah, they pulled me up.
Speaker 1:They're like oh, we think that we should probably change our game plan and maybe I was like ah look Okay, I kind of like I had a goal, like I wanted to get to a certain point. We weren't there yet, and and Dutch likes his- goals and I do like to achieve a goal and I was like, yeah, like that's, it's a bit. Can't we just stay and shoot those deer over there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were like on camera and I just happened to glance across and Someone asked me. A couple of courses ago you told us to use our binoculars, but you don't use yours very often and I don't. In that situation, at the situational, in that tight cover with little glimpses, I'm looking for inconsistencies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're better off to find the initial point of data from like a flick of an arrow.
Speaker 1:And that's what this was, exactly what this was. I literally saw and it looked to me like you think a woody woodpecker Hanging off the side of a tree, pecking at the tree. So I could see a tree and I could see this thing on the side of it. Yeah, moving Consistently. I was like just flagged, my attention is inconsistent, yeah, with odd yeah. And it was woody woodpecker. I would have wanted to look at it. Anyway, why can't we go and shoot those three, do you?
Speaker 2:know what's interesting. I'm not just saying this to save face, but literally like a minute or two Before that, as we were having this conversation, I saw what I thought was a flick of a bird. Like you like up movement and your eyes are immediately drawn to it, and I was like I should flicker for bird. And I didn't, because we are having a conversation. I didn't bother looking up and I just put it out of my mind. But that was like the flick of an ear. Yeah, it was like the white of the inside of the dough, is it looks like a magpies something? Yeah, just like a little bird, like a little fincher, a little sparrow or something.
Speaker 1:So, and then yeah, confirmation with bainos. But we were just lucky. At that point we had strong wind in our face. It was there only with a hundred and fourteen or something. Yeah, they're across a little gully. It was quite windy, so there was a lot of noise between us and them. Yeah, so we were lucky and you'll have to watch the episode to see what happens. Yeah no one might make the editing floor Look at, might not?
Speaker 2:we'll see this is what's tricky about this is what's tricky about content in general Is she thought you've got a 24-minute show and you've got you need to Run a story that has an arc and you've got a lot of content and a lot of it doesn't make it in general. But then also you can over stimulate people. You can. You can take people on too many emotional rollercoaster yeah. I'm just trying to really I'm not trying to over stimulate people when you say arc, you mean that arc, one arc like that.
Speaker 2:You don't want to go?
Speaker 1:that no, you just show to dive off at the end. Yeah, exactly, you want it to be on the rise. That that shot was not on the rise. That's definitely on the bottom of the arc, but it was. Yeah and it was just. It was a good reminder to me. I nearly need to guide and hunt a little bit differently with you guys, it's a what you want.
Speaker 2:It's really fascinating, interesting that you say that that's you know, and I knew that you would be like this, in that you would have that presence of mind and realization, because when we've hunted with other people in the past, they've they just in guide mode and they're like I'm just guiding and you're like, and they, and some and often a guide, will take control because that's their job and they want to take control and they need to take control. What is it for? Varying degrees depending on who the client is and what they're doing. But it's like that's not what we need. We don't need you to control. In fact, we need to control it to some degree. We need to tell you when to slow down, we need to tell you when we need to do a shot from here or when we need to explain something or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:What we need you to do is like give us the best opportunity to get on an animal, and there's been times in the past where a guide has pretty much dictated the whole episode, because and and we, because we're only even see that we was sitting season one last year we didn't know really what we were doing and and, to be honest, even Just for airs, only been towards the end of the cameraman, towards the end of that season. There were times where it was just just me and I just didn't feel confident enough to take the reins. And Because the guys are so confident, they have to be, they have to get you on. I have to do something very, very difficult and get you on to an animal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's very difficult when you got four people crunching through the bush it is, it's noisy, but I like I can. I don't know, I have a bit of understanding of those things and I can see like if something's going to present and I'm going to tell you something, I'll say. I guess we're going to tell him we're going to do this, yeah, and then that's what you see on film. So it is. We're not repeating stuff, we're not making scenes up no no. All I'm doing is saying Cameron, I need you here to.
Speaker 2:In fact, some of what we are consciously trying to do, something that we're consciously trying to do in this season is try and actually break that third wall down even more and just be like we're making a show. People know we're making a show. We're not going to hide the fact that we're making a show, because you can very much film it in such a way and like, for instance, meet Eater would be an example of this where, if you, if you become so deep, you can get to the point where you're so deeply engaged in the hunt that you feel like you're just a person in the hunt and there's no cameras, and that's great, but that there's a lot of work that's required, a lot of faking, not faking, a lot of a lot of angling I'm going to say positioning, to make sure that you can feel that way.
Speaker 1:Can you ever watch TV again the same?
Speaker 2:Me? No, not at all. I can't listen to music. The same as well. I mean, I have a background in audio engineering as well and I, whenever I hear music, I just hear. I hear the components, I hear different instruments, I hear how they're mixed, how they're panned, I hear a killing, I hear the little interesting effects. There's different theories of music. I don't hear music. I hear none of that. You just hear that's not what I hear.
Speaker 1:I love music. It's in the background. Don't ask me what I listen to, because I don't care as long as there's something in the background.
Speaker 2:Mainly Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:No, but I, yeah, no, I don't. I don't pick up on those things in the background. I remember like doing the previous podcast where Matt would you know he was the same he would pick up on things and edit them out and I was like, oh, did you like, did you need to? He's like, yeah, I can really hear it. And I was like eh, no one with the untrained ear couldn't. But you know, the audio quality was great. What was produced so? Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I've had. I don't know what else I've learned. I probably learned that. No, I can't bag you right yet she can no. Hiding emotions is tricky. Hiding. Are you hiding your?
Speaker 2:emotions.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Frustration, yeah yeah, being visibly disappointed that you miss stuff.
Speaker 2:What's interesting as well is there's this weird and I think all humans do these, but especially in a high pressure situation is I'm trying to like, regulate my. You know the same regulating your emotions for a number of different reasons partly because you need to regulate your emotions as a human being to be stable and productive and all that kind of thing. But also part of it's like I don't want to come across as a silk and I don't want them to see me as a silk. Therefore, I'm going to manage my emotions in a certain way, even if I'm not being so key. Part of it's like I know Dodge is disappointed in me. I'm disappointed in me and I can see that he's managing his emotions. It's just so complicated and weird.
Speaker 1:I wasn't doing very well at managing it.
Speaker 2:No, you do. I do it through humans.
Speaker 1:As I say, you use humor to yeah, which is it's like when someone says, oh, I hate you. It doesn't Emoji, it doesn't take away from what you've said, it just makes you feel like you've said it in a lighter way. Yeah, and yeah there was a quiet drive back.
Speaker 2:All I was thinking is just let time pass, chris. Like just let time pass, time heals all wounds. Just let it pass, and sure enough, you know, this afternoon we were sitting in the river having a good time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a good chill out session, it was great, it was hot.
Speaker 2:And then afterwards all the boxes got ticked real quickly, like you had, like the cleanest. Like you said, we had a mission. I'll even say it so you can. If you want to watch it, you can go check it out. We wanted to shoot a kid goat, specifically a kid goat, because we want to cook a certain dish, and we made the time this afternoon to go and do it and it was like we're going to go do this and then we're going to sit in glass dear for the afternoon because tomorrow we're going to cook that goat. And Jordy was up and was going to do it and we needed to get sub 100 because we wanted a headshot and it just was like easy 43.
Speaker 1:43. 43 meters. Yeah, it was awesome, Made it happen and it just yeah and it just happened, and sometimes that's what happens.
Speaker 2:It just happens and that's what happened that was good, yeah, and this place is special as far as numbers of goats, it's silly. Silly billies. It's silly Like when you said we've got, yeah, we've got goats, I was like okay, yeah, okay, there's like a lot of goats, background wise, obviously.
Speaker 1:Chris and I did a episode on his show last year and he rang and said we were talking about something randomly. We speak pretty regularly and it was you're interested in doing an episode this season.
Speaker 2:I said yeah, cool, Because the episode that we did last season was kind of like a throw together it was. It was like I was, we were going to be outside of.
Speaker 1:Sydney Two episodes into one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but not even really Like it was into one trip. It was interesting that we managed to get enough of of the episode with you in it to make an episode, because we were literally we spent the majority of that trip with Alex hunting goats and that was hectic fun and we allocated a day less than a day.
Speaker 1:So I think you got to my place like 1030. And it was probably 130 or like one o'clock. So by the time we got to the hunting area and we were home before dark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was crazy. Anyway, so that's, that was the experience that we had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the first, first episode. But then he came to me and said you want to do this and background on this property. We're on now. I'm calling it accurate hunts HQ, but it's this GPS coordinates for anyone interested.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's 100 degrees left of nowhere near your business. Nanya, nanya, nanya. It's next to Nanya, it's next to Nanya National Park. I'll give you the address if you book a hunt out here. Yeah, you'll. You'll figure that pretty good. But it's a, it's a magic place and this place didn't come about by accident. It came about through years of doing accurate hunts the way we have. And then someone approached me and said hey, we've got this, are you interested in doing some guiding on it? And I jumped at it. And now we have sole access and we've locked up this property just for our own purposes, and that that just doesn't happen. No, situations don't happen and it's too good to knock back. So we did it Now, turning a few hours from Sydney, which makes it great. But what makes it really good is its abundance of animals and extremely light hunting pressure. Correct Cause, it's just us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just me and you've seen that today. With just even the way the other animals react after a shot, it's like oh, what was that? Yeah, oh, this one grassed in here, yeah, yeah, or other animals turn up that you didn't know were there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you've it's. It's got just gorgeous terrain, interesting terrain. It could be easy, it could be hard. A diverse terrain Like what I've been conscious of as we've hunted these last two days is putting myself in the mindset of someone who's doing your course for the first time. I've been thinking, and I think I only said to you on the first day I'm like geez, this is just like the best place to do a hunting course, like if I was new to hunting and I wanted to learn and I and I knew all the things I know. Now I'd be like, oh, my goodness, this is awesome, like it's. I guess we'll probably have that experience.
Speaker 1:But well and the tricky part is trying to manage their expectations, because they leave here and I need to explain to them. What you've just experienced is not is pretty special yeah. It's not the norm. Yeah, like I've been doing this for 10 years, 12 years, 15, whatever. It's the most amount of goats I've seen on a property.
Speaker 2:And it's like, which is incredibly forgiving, right, that you can go and you can. You can say the pressure is off, completely off If you, if you, you know if you're going to be taking an animal and we can take so much time, it's ridiculous. We can set up and not do shots. And look, I actually think that that is probably if, if we, if I was to run a hunting course, one of the things that I would really specify right up the bat is you don't need to take the like, let's set up for a shot. If you're not 100% confident, let's not do that shot. And I would and I'd rather you do that three or four times, which can't happen when you're in, like a state forest and you're seeing a deer fleeting. You've got to take that chance and learn the hard way.
Speaker 1:One of the things we do in that. So we force a situation where we'll go hunting, and sometimes I do this, sometimes I don't, like I always do the second part, but the first part is I'll empty their magazine, not tell them, and you hear a click. Well, I want them to go through the process and not know they're not shooting it, because I want them to still have the nerves. Cause, if you tell them about it, then if you tell them about it, then they they oh, we're just practicing.
Speaker 1:So the second part is we go through a process If they know if I can't hide it, sometimes you can't hide it I think everyone's going to know it now.
Speaker 2:Everyone's going to be checking it out. Just giving away my secrets, you're going to be paying for those secrets.
Speaker 1:No, but the second part is we dry fire. So yes, that's we'll. We'll set up on an animal, we'll work on the rest and there's thousands of rest options. So whatever they've got, whatever I've got, we use whatever is available the tree branch, whatever ground. Bipods, tripods, aim at the goat. Yeah. Take your time, yeah, and then I'll ask questions what's your heart rate doing right now? What can you hear? What?
Speaker 1:can you see? What do you feel? And then we'd like to talk about it, because and these are, we're talking. You know, breeze in face situations, goats, preferably a hundred or sub, yeah, and you can still communicate, you don't have to talk loud. Yeah, just lean in and whisper yeah and then go through the motions bolt up, bolt back, bolt forward, bolt down, comfortable squeeze the trigger. When you're ready, pretend like you've shot it, do that three times and then shoot it. Well sometimes we walk away. Yeah, that's done.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the part of the lesson, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's great, you don't have to shoot it, that's so good. I mean, even like this is something I still take to remind myself because I sometimes forget it and it's such a little thing. He's like you're holding the rifle, you're in arrest, and I find myself sometimes just like, because there's so much adrenaline and some like, you're so bound, you're like grip white knuckles and you can feel the tension, and then you instantly relax and all of a sudden the rifle feels so much better, You're in so much more control and I often I actually will often look at my knuckles to see if they're white and then, and then I'll visibly you'll even maybe even see me video videos visibly relaxing me, like no, I mean like, and then, okay, now we're shooting. And it's one of those things that I liken it to surfing. When you're learning to surf and actually properly surf, when you're cutting in on a wave, the opportunity that you have to learn how to do that is so small. It's like a half a second where you have to then turn into a wave and you have to basically repeat that a bunch of times until you can figure it out.
Speaker 2:And hunting is the same, Like when you're in that moment where there's a lot of pressure and you're looking at an animal and you really want to get that animal. You don't have much brain space to bandwidth, mental bandwidth, to be like am I comfortable? Because even even you say it said to me today are you comfortable? And I was like, yes, I'm comfortable, but what yes means is I think I'm comfortable enough with the adrenaline I have at the moment, which is probably. The answer is probably no. You're probably. You can probably do a lot better, you can probably get a lot more stable, if you want, with the situation provided.
Speaker 1:I'm confident, I'm okay.
Speaker 2:So I think that running a course like that, where you have the opportunity and multiple opportunities, to dry fire on an animal, is great. Great for the goat too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank goodness I thought there's people gonna shoot me. We ran this course several years ago, back end of COVID, during COVID even, and then it got shut down because of COVID again, but we lost our property. That we're doing on the people sold. There's a moth on the microphone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he's gone, he's alright. Probably sounds better than you Probably Less wingy.
Speaker 1:And I lost my goat property. Yeah. And A few people said, oh, I'll just run the course. I said you can't run a beginner hunting course without hunting yeah, without like. You can hunt just in the bush, but unless there's animals. Yeah. And I also think it's very hard to run it without killing Correct and that's very hard to do.
Speaker 2:So I do that Without killing. There was some properties.
Speaker 1:I had where there was hunting opportunities, but it was hunting Like you're like may go and not get anything. Yeah, you can't do that in an education course. Yeah. So what we actually did? Not on this property, but our previous one. We went and shot a goat the night before the course, so we had one, just in case it didn't go to play in the next day, or bad weather.
Speaker 2:And then don't tell me that you set it up on a rock when you're like no, it was in the bedroom. Hey, there's one over there sleeping.
Speaker 1:Hey, there's a blind goat, it's still standing there from this morning we're going to shoot that cataract out of its face, but I forgot where I was going. I went on a blind goat conversation Talking about the necessity of killing. Things have got to die for the education course, and we do two styles of courses. We do a group situation where the clients are quite often new. They don't have firearms licenses. They might want to try it and see if they like it and get their hands dirty. Well, they might have their firearms license but not be super confident and just want to learn. And that's a group setting up to like 10 or 12 people. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in that course it's important to note that those people don't shoot no firearms. They're not allowed to bring firearms. We do the harvesting on that course, because there's people who don't have their firearms license so we're careful with they. Don't handle things, so I go and harvest with them.
Speaker 1:They're right next to me and we're going through that process, they do everything but pull the trigger Correct and then as soon as it's dead, then it flat out into the gutting and things. But on the other courses, where they're one on one, two on one, it's not four people who don't have their firearms license, it's for people who haven't and want to learn.
Speaker 2:And can I say something that's probably not obvious to everyone, but, having insight into this industry, I know this to be very, very true there is a big difference between going on a guided hunt and going on a hunting education course. Yes, and I made the assumption when I got into hunting early that every guided hunt was like an education hunt and the guy would walk you through the process of identifying prints and learning how to stalk. And it's just not true. Most guides I'm going to say most guided hunts in Australia are about the guide getting you onto an animal, probably a trophy or, in some situations, a meat animal, but probably a trophy. There are very few. If you're interested and you're listening or you're watching, there are very few hunting courses in Australia. Practical hunting courses there are like, for instance, there are some guides that do it and some of them don't even.
Speaker 1:I'm not even sure if some of them consciously are aware of the fact that they're offering a course and on the flip side, I don't think the guides that aren't doing it know that it's wanted. Correct. I assume that someone coming on a guided hunt. Wants to be guided on a hunt? Yeah. They don't want to be taught. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And which is? It sounds crazy, but like if a new hunter comes to you. If I was a guide and I'm a Samber guide in Victoria and a new person called me up and said, oh, I'd like to go on a guided hunt please, you assume that I'd be thinking, oh, they want to learn how to hunt, but that's not what guides a lot of guides think. They just think, oh, you want me to guide you on to a Samber stack.
Speaker 1:Because clients of the past, if you said, oh, you know, that'd be like yeah, no, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I've shot 20 things. Yeah. They just there for the trophy, yeah. So yeah, it's a managing expectation.
Speaker 2:I mean for a lot of them even as well, and I actually, when we're filmed with guides in the past, I like to tease it out of them and because for a lot of them it's all up in their heads and they're just like any hunt. They're just processing data, they're making little micro decisions, they're reading the environment they're making, and then that they just. And so, for instance, I'd be hunting with someone like Gordon from Northeast Experience and you look at a print and he's like, oh, there's a print. And you're like, oh cool, like what can you tell me about that print? And he's like, oh well, I can tell you that it's. You know it was made this morning.
Speaker 2:I'm like, how do you know it was made this morning? I know it was made this morning because you can see there's a bit of a blade of grass that's been indented into the print and it hasn't sprung back up yet. It will either spring back up or it will wither, and that's how you can tell. And I was like that's really useful. No, but like he wouldn't have told me that, yes, just off the back and said, hey, look at that.
Speaker 1:From a, from a guided point of view. That's not important.
Speaker 2:No, he's just like he knows what that data is telling him and he will make an informed decision regarding it. I don't, I don't actually need to know it as the guest, as the client, to be successful in his guiding. He doesn't offer education.
Speaker 1:The courses we do with medium experience. People are actually harder because they know a little bit of information. Can you tell? Us the stories.
Speaker 2:No you already told me some stories. Tell me which one. You were telling me a story as we were going. Just give me a reference and I'll remember it. The kid the kid when we're going after the kid. Yeah. You said there was two people with you. One person. I'm not even going to go there.
Speaker 4:Josh, if I have to spell it out for you which one?
Speaker 1:No, it's all right, Don't worry about it. Mate Didn't listen that one, you didn't listen. No, the client.
Speaker 2:Oh, there was that one. Yeah, that was a great example. Go with that one. Well, it was no, I still want to know what your other one was. I want chaos, I want to feel. Feel a fire.
Speaker 1:Anyway. So two clients hunting, and I said to one, education Education, beginner education, guided course. I said I need you to stay here and stand still. We were on the what the situation was. We'd spotted three goats in front of us and they were about 180, 200 meters away. Between us and them was grass and sort of knee height grass, a bit less, but it was flat, and they couldn't see us because we'd just crested over and I just spotted them. But from there, further forward, we're in full visibility. So I said, because I had one that was going to shoot. Next, I said to him you're going to come forward with me. And number two, I need you to stay here Now. I didn't. I'll recap that after until the rest of it.
Speaker 1:So that's what happened. He stayed there and we moved forward. Now, in the moving forward we belly crawled that hallway. I had Cameron tripod and Hunter had gun and I don't know he's carrying something else. He's by and I was on something and he, you know, we would sort of side by side the whole way and we made a really good stalk and we got into this log and we were 70, I think from these goats. Two of them were better than one of them standing, and the one we wanted to shoot was better. So what we did was we waited. You run down the battery. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to change the battery.
Speaker 2:OK, pause the story. What a cliff hanger. What's going to happen next?
Speaker 1:To find out more. So we'd moved in and we were up on the log.
Speaker 2:Number two is behind you. Number one is up with you, right next to me belly crawled.
Speaker 1:We're at 70. Better goat was the one we wanted to shot. We were very calm. This was our dry fire situation, so it was better than we were going to shoot it when it was standing. So we were just waiting. But we dry fired on it a few times and he was very calm, comfortable. We had a very good rest. Yeah. Pretty heavy gun. But we had a very good rest on this log and all of a sudden goat number three stood up and pinged us Full alert For no reason, we hadn't changed.
Speaker 1:Nothing had changed. I was like man, that's OK. Whatever, that's odd, not too much of an issue, because we actually needed to stand up to shoot it. I said just get ready. Number three to the left is the one I want to shoot. It's starting to look alert. It's not looking at us, but it's looking at the other one, thinking why you were alert. So it went to stand up and in doing so it sort of stretched. They sort of hopped up with its haunches first, and then, you know, arch is back.
Speaker 1:Arch is back and had a stretch and then stood up pinged us. I was like we haven't moved. What's happening? Yeah, for some reason Is that my cologne? Definitely not, for some reason. I looked over my shoulder and Hunter Number Two was like 10 meters behind us standing up. I had nothing and I said anyway. So I just glanced at that and looked back. I said shoot them now, they're about to run. Yeah, and he was already on it. He was comfortable, we'd done the processes and he perfect shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great Dropped it on the spot, Beautiful Shoulder shot and it, you know, dropped on the spot, rolled over and kicked and that was the end of it and nothing really happened about. Oh, mate behind me, immediately because of the situation, we were all happy and whatnot. And then we approached the goat and I said to him what are you doing behind us? He said, oh, I couldn't see. So to me, I gave him an instruction and he disobeyed not disobeyed, it, didn't listen, whatever. Yeah, but also to me, I was like man, you weren't clear enough with your instructions. Yeah, correct, Correct. So it was a learning experience for me. I, in hindsight, and now, sorry to everyone coming in the future you're going to get a conversation of, I'm going to ask you to stay here now, and this is why it's important.
Speaker 1:And if you come further forward and you ruin this opportunity, we may not get another one. So I'm going to ask you please stay here. I'll show you the video later. That's what you're going to get. But his response was I made it stand up and you shot it. So he sort of created the situation which, in fairness, exactly how it happened, just didn't need to happen that quickly. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I learned that and every time we do one of these courses I learn yeah, because the very first one we did we use terms like hunting terms I can't even think of any if you can think of one right now. That's just normal for your and my conversation.
Speaker 2:And glassing Exactly.
Speaker 1:So we tell we're going to go and learn how to glass that hill. And we were going to teach them how to glass the hill. What we failed to realize was we first need to teach them what the word means. Yeah, before we teach them how to do.
Speaker 2:They're right there and they're like now glass the hill. And they're like oh, use my binoculars to look at the opposite.
Speaker 1:I was supposed to bring. I left them in the classroom.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So every time we do a course, we learn. It reminds us to scale back the discussion, which in turn makes it longer. Can stretch the course on, but it sharpens you, Sharpens you, it does. It reminds you what you've forgotten.
Speaker 2:Where can people go if they want to book a hunt with you, a guided hunt?
Speaker 1:Or a education course. Inside scoop. Soon you'll be able to do it on Hunting Trips Australia yeah, huntingtripscomau comau, because he doesn't know in the world, but alternatively to that, accuratehuntscom noAU, and we've got a pretty extensive website. You can also buy merchandise on there. Because to support what do you say? What do I have to say? To keep a show like this running, to keep a show like this independent, independent we need money. This stuff's not free.
Speaker 2:And don't feel bad about asking for that.
Speaker 1:It's not asking for money, but there's merchandise available if you want to look sick and wear some new, some new.
Speaker 2:I like that better than your other one.
Speaker 1:I like this one. We're running out of light out there. A&h hats, accuratehunts hats. We've got shirts and hoodies too, but yeah, so the Hunting Trips are on there, the education course is on there, short and long. We have no date sets on those at the moment, so the way it works is you put an inquiry in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll find something which is the same with Hunting Trips Australia Does express your interest in coming along. Ask questions if you have them.
Speaker 1:So on, there we've got a brief outline on the course, the costings, what's included, what's not. The courses vary in what's included depending on the client. Sometimes we do full catering, like we are this trip. On the bigger courses, that's what we offer Because there's 12 or so people. You can't have 15 people eating different dinners. On the smaller courses, we usually provide dinner and that's a game meat based dinner, like tonight. We had wild pork thingies. So good. What were they? Raps sliders, corn fritters.
Speaker 2:Anyway, beautiful Chimichurri.
Speaker 1:Slow cooked wild pork shoulder it was amazing. But yes, on the smaller courses, the two on one's, one on one's. So we provide dinner and then the clients provide their own lunch and snacks and things. Yeah. It's a bit hard to just cater for two people.
Speaker 2:Well worth it. If you're interested, go check out the websites that we've left. I'll put links below if you're watching this or listening to this on the Huntsman. But you could also be watching this or listening to this.
Speaker 1:That's right, it's a joint podcast. Yeah, so you're going to get both. Yeah, you're saturated, both benefits.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for listening and again, consider supporting Accurate Hunts by going in doing a guided hunt or a hunting workshop course, education course, or consider checking out the Australian Hunters Club as well if you're interested in joining a hunting trips. Australia yeah, hunting trips Australia. Australian Hunters Club austrianhunterscomau. If you can get into the website Dodge cart.
Speaker 1:But that's just dodge, because I have the most simple password in the world that his website rejects it every time. You require at least eight digits. I don't want, I just want the four of God.
Speaker 2:I go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Speaker 1:No, you can't triple zero. That's all I want. Thank you for being here. Until next time. See you then. On the eighth episode about here at Hunts.
Speaker 5:Unzip it from the it was hanging outside and unzip it from the bottom up and you know the wrong thing to do. I think you were saying you and Alex watching it and just having a career.
Speaker 1:Well, if these videos, because his friends filmed it, more for comedic value.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I knew that you were selling cookies so I'm like, ok, that's our whole list. Yeah, good cookies. No, I don't, we're not talking to like a very last bit of that. But anyway, you know, people talk different than me, different accents, different things are going on. People are asking me what my favorite type of deer to hunt is, what's my favorite caliber. I'm like just a different. No, it's is.
Speaker 3:That was really hard on the ego that night and we came across some locals that's what I'm going to describe it A couple of redneck hillbillies with Four teeth, between the two year old in the back and everybody else in the camp, and I said hello and there wasn't much received from the other end, but we chopped some trees that would cross the track. I don't know what the etiquette is there. A big tree across the track.