Ever find yourself chuckling at the unexpected comedy of a deer hunt, or feeling the weight of ethical responsibility with each pull of the trigger? Our latest episode seamlessly stitches humor with heartfelt stories from the great outdoors, as we open up about our experiences from novice blunders to seasoned successes. Joined by Jack, the unsung tech hero of Accurate hunts, who's recently taken the hunting plunge, we swap tales that stretch from the tranquil forests where red deer roam, to the camaraderie at camp that makes every misadventure worthwhile.
Embark on auditory hikes through Australia's rugged terrain, where tracking, patience, and the odd butchering debacle become the fabric of our narrative. The euphoria of my first red deer success, the suspense of a challenging goat hunt, and the unscripted comedy of a makeshift butchering class beside a river—each story is a thread in the rich tapestry of a hunter's life. From discussing the serious commitment of time and money into our hunting endeavors to the thrill of a last-minute deer sighting near camp, this episode is a dense patchwork of moments that illustrate the depth of this ancient practice.
Wrap up with us as we reflect on the physical and mental toll of a steep pack-out, the joy of sharing hard-earned game meat with friends, and the lessons learned with each shot taken—or not taken. Through rain-soaked treks and broken Leatherman tools, the essence of hunting is captured in the laughter and struggles we share. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or simply curious about the lifestyle, this episode promises to plant you right alongside us in the bush, where every sound and sight is part of the chase.
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.
Ever find yourself chuckling at the unexpected comedy of a deer hunt, or feeling the weight of ethical responsibility with each pull of the trigger? Our latest episode seamlessly stitches humor with heartfelt stories from the great outdoors, as we open up about our experiences from novice blunders to seasoned successes. Joined by Jack, the unsung tech hero of Accurate hunts, who's recently taken the hunting plunge, we swap tales that stretch from the tranquil forests where red deer roam, to the camaraderie at camp that makes every misadventure worthwhile.
Embark on auditory hikes through Australia's rugged terrain, where tracking, patience, and the odd butchering debacle become the fabric of our narrative. The euphoria of my first red deer success, the suspense of a challenging goat hunt, and the unscripted comedy of a makeshift butchering class beside a river—each story is a thread in the rich tapestry of a hunter's life. From discussing the serious commitment of time and money into our hunting endeavors to the thrill of a last-minute deer sighting near camp, this episode is a dense patchwork of moments that illustrate the depth of this ancient practice.
Wrap up with us as we reflect on the physical and mental toll of a steep pack-out, the joy of sharing hard-earned game meat with friends, and the lessons learned with each shot taken—or not taken. Through rain-soaked treks and broken Leatherman tools, the essence of hunting is captured in the laughter and struggles we share. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or simply curious about the lifestyle, this episode promises to plant you right alongside us in the bush, where every sound and sight is part of the chase.
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 eighth episode about your thoughts.
Speaker 2:Unzip it from the bottom up and the wrong thing to do.
Speaker 1:I think you were saying you and Alex watching it and just having a creative thought At these videos, because these friends filmed it More for comedic value.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people talk different than me, different accents, different things are going on. People are asking me what my favourite type of deer to hunt is, what's my favourite calibre? I'm like just a deer fly, I know it's.
Speaker 1: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 everyone else in the camp, and I said hello and there wasn't much received from the other end, but we chopped some tree. Welcome to another episode of Acura at Hunts, the Life Outdoors. I am sitting in a container Shipping container at Acura at Hunts HQ. Again, jack, welcome to the show. Jack, thank you for having me. Jack is a regular friend of the show in the background and that was in the foreground. So, by and the scenes, jack is in charge of all my web work. He's responsible for my amazing website, all the reels you see from all the episodes, all the posters and flyers and things that we put out. So thank you for doing all those things and I apologise for all the voice messages you get.
Speaker 2:That's alright, paid off in the end. After the site Paid off in the end, what?
Speaker 1:are you alluding to? Did something happen? Couple of things could have happened. Couple of things could have happened. I was nearly not going to record tonight because it's 1am and we're pooped, because we got here this time last night, maybe a bit later yeah, that was nearly two. I had two or three hours sleep, got up, set up camp and we had a father-son combo come in for an education course and we've had a great time with our man, a great day too.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Jack jumped on board and he's been learning a bit today too, and we'll get into why you're learning and what not. But it's been a big day. There's lots of highs and, other than the depths of how we went down into, there's no lowers other than that physical one. Where is he? I?
Speaker 2:thought where's he? Where's he? Yeah, I don't think he said where we are.
Speaker 1:I thought you were at an high school. That's as much as we can. You get the address from your book no chord, that's for sure. It's 100 degrees left of Narnia State Forest, or something I said last time. Yeah, no, it's been good having you here and I appreciate it, but we've been talking about recording for a while and some things have happened today that we'll talk about, but that wasn't why we were going to record. And I've said to you from the start I really enjoy hearing people's firsts and journeys towards achieving goals and things, and you're a pretty savvy tech minded listed sort of person and you put up a post on Australian. I just got to think about your journey into forums. Yeah, it was pretty interesting. Yeah, because I've never seen anyone break it down like that.
Speaker 2:Well, when I was looking, I was always like trying to find this information, looking for what, how to get started, and I find conflicting reports.
Speaker 1:Well, why did you want to start? Why did you want to get into guns?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I want to get into guns, but I actually took listening about this the other day and I realized first time I ever wanted to something around hunting was watching episode of Jeremy Oliver Back in the day. He's like a great escape season or something and he went to Italy and he had to slaughter a lamb and it was a really confronting experience for him. I was probably like 14 or 15 at the time, and one quote that stuck with me that he said was it's out of FENZU, you shouldn't eat it. And so since then I've thought okay, I've eaten so much of meat in my life. I've never taken the responsibility of consuming it ever, and so that was always an unsettling feeling for me, but I never did anything about it until I couldn't ignore it any longer.
Speaker 2:When was that COVID? I mean post COVID, post COVID. I was actually at my mum's place in Canada, on Vancouver Island, and we were just chilling out in summer, I think I mean 22, 22,. We're just in a backyard and this big mule did and we fell. That came and just sat in the backyard and I was probably two meters away from me and another four meters away from the barbecue.
Speaker 2:I thought I'd put two together so that one really pushed me there to like okay, when I got back to Australia, I was looking for something. The first thing I found was the Hunter's Club Australian Hunters Club. So it's because you've got good ACA, yeah, I think I, like you mentioned it before like working with tech and stuff like that. I've been listening to all these hunting podcasts and there's always a comment like all these city people don't understand. And I'm hearing that. I'm thinking that's me here. I am working in like the middle of Sydney City and the company I worked for at the time was in Silicon Valley. Like you can't get more in that guy than me. Except I had this interest, I'm like, but I don't know anyone who does this. So, yeah, so I just joined the club, not really knowing what I'm doing, and like started from there.
Speaker 1:I think the Australian Hunters Club is interesting. This episode will come out after the one I did with Chris and he's, you know, owner of Australian Hunters Club and creator, I suppose. But it's a unique club for a few reasons and it doesn't work for everyone. But it's a real example of you get out of it what you put into it and there's a few people that complain they don't get anything out of it and they're like, well, what you put in, and then I get anything back because they don't invest. And you you know I think that's how we initially interacted with you posted something on the question about I think it was. You posted about fire and I'm storage in a rental. Yeah, because it is safe. Can I put a safe in a rental?
Speaker 2:That was one of the big blockers for me. Money was one, storage was one which didn't really get solved until later, Just the whole licensing process. Ego was another issue. Having to, you know, just starts on a noon all over again.
Speaker 1:And your family supported like a whole new hobby. Start from scratch.
Speaker 2:I didn't tell them that I even had the interest, so I kept it pretty close to the car, like close to the chest. So I don't really want them to have a say that's what you wanted to have me about now. I think that's a journey.
Speaker 1:So I'm talking about your wife and kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they've come around a lot accepting Especially the kids. I think they should like when dad has adventures as long as I. You know my daughter's favorite animals, koala. So I don't think I'm going to be hunting koala at any time soon. So they say they're a bit chewing too.
Speaker 1:So I'll wait and I'll do it so they're supportive, but extended family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know how they found out, but they found out I do concerned emails. Yeah, yeah, like is everything going okay? What's going on?
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I never thought about that happening. My mom wasn't keen on me getting my license initially, but she didn't tend to be a concerned email because it's told me I'm an idiot. She didn't understand why I needed one.
Speaker 2:No, I needed guns and my parents are a lot of Canadians so I get concerned emails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but only recently Canada's gone a little bit more anti-gun.
Speaker 2:Do you think so?
Speaker 1:Well, that's what we see as far as changing your gun rights and things.
Speaker 2:I'm not paying close attention, at least where we're there, from where my wife grew up, on the Minko Rylan dirt, a lot of hunting going on. It's kind of like the edge of the wilderness there.
Speaker 1:I've told you the other day, it's for shocky lifts, Jim, Still over there. So well, tell us about the storage thing. What was the issue? You're at a rental.
Speaker 2:I'm in a rental and my landlord lives next door, essentially. So you didn't ask. I knew you would say no, because I can't even put a hook on the outside lattice to hang flower pots, so storage drilling into cement like hey, wait a second. I'm just, yeah, that's the automatic knife. So I'm thinking, do I just not let him know and just fill it in later, or do I have like higher storage? But then I saw that was going to be more expensive after a year.
Speaker 1:I can picture you like in a prison, like making other noises, pots and pans, so you can quickly drill a hole. You know the brickworks are in God here. Just wait the fireworks or something. It's a New Year's Eve forest. Just a mouthful of coffee.
Speaker 2:There's nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:And then so all the other thing was store it. Do I get safe at 150 kilos or an over? And then that's just a huge thing in the corner of a small house. Yeah, any upstairs, and it's very expensive, it's just one level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, we considered that. So you went to look, you looked into storing elsewhere. Pay for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was more expensive than 150 kilos. Yeah, this is a lot of stuff. This is in Sydney and there wasn't really guaranteed there's spots anyway. Who was that with?
Speaker 1:The range One of the ranges so I ended up with the gun, yeah.
Speaker 2:We may have that cable bit. They ended up with a. I sent it to Newcastle first because I was right up to your dad's place. He had a license or something. He had tenants that had a license. I'm like, okay, it's been in there, it's you know, cops are happy with it, I'll just put another safe in there, but that's not so convenient to grab. No.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I'm not that.
Speaker 2:I'm still an hour and a bit, yeah, but at least I don't have to drive through Sydney.
Speaker 1:True and mostly recent honey gringes have been with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, Nundle was up north.
Speaker 1:But I bought the gun, yeah, yeah. Well, talk about Nundle. So Nundle was a big experience for me and what it was was the annual Australian Hunters Club gathering Maybe function, whatever they want to call it. It's the first one I've been to and last year's one well, sorry, previous years one was in Melbourne, this year's one was in Sydney and they picked Nundle for some reason, I don't really know why, but it worked. We'll get into that. Worked out On the previous podcast.
Speaker 1:I've been challenged to shoot at the United States Forest because I made some stupid comments, which it's not uncommon for me, actually, with guides along the lines of I don't understand why people think it's so hard to shoot at the United States Forest. You just apply the same principles you have in privately and into the state forest, and I did it a couple of times. I was trying to think of one fella he spoke to me the other day, but it's one o'clock in the morning, I can't remember your name and I apologize, but they've come to me halfway through it Challenged me and said I'm going to be two or three days in the forest, see what you can do and if you can't get it done by the end of the year, you have to eat a chili sandwich, and I ended up going into state forest for one day, had some issues left, whatnot, so I never really completed the challenge and I was kind of given up on it and was about to eat the sandwich.
Speaker 2:Like I was metaphorically yeah.
Speaker 1:And physically I was giving up a little bit on it and there was some stuff happening with the end of the other podcast and the slow start on this one and whatnot just family and business so hunting took a little bit of a turn there for a while, took a backseat for a little while and then it really ramped up. And one of those things that ramped up was a book to spy at Nundle and I said do you want to go, or something? And we ended up going together and I said the second time this had happened. Now we left it. I picked him up at like a Liverpool at 10 o'clock and died or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was supposed to get lead at seven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something, I just not a terrible pack of something happened. I forgot something and couldn't find it. Anyway. We left like soccer, six hour drive straight through. Yeah, rocked in at 4am. Yeah, I slipped in the car. I couldn't build a setup. Swag Jack set up his without the hammock. Hammock tied up 22 trees. We had a really cool camp spot and we had not planned and just rocked up on top of a man and set the alarm for two hours. Good night at six. Six summer, packed up Like we'll just go for a hunt from here. Went around a little bit, saw some really cool countries, so really tall trees in there with no undergrowth and just grass.
Speaker 2:And those trees with the strip bark. Yeah, kind of look like a porcupine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Kind of a paper. I'm not sure we figured out what that was.
Speaker 1:What do we got, not porcupines? I saw a dead red deer, old, faded away to nothing. He was a wallowies and not a whole lot of event for me. Nurse had a couple of snoozes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was solid snooze, that was some good snooze, and then that day sort of fizzled out and nothing much happened. We headed across to join the communal camp that started the next day and we set up. We actually got lost thanks to Chris and his terrible directions, but got lost a couple of times. Oh yeah, yeah, we still got back a few times, but we were very close.
Speaker 1:We were just out of close, just couldn't see us, couldn't see that big sign that said straight home to start to turn left here. Anyway, I set up camp and we set up and had a chat with everyone, met everyone for the first time. Most people were other than Chris. I don't think I knew anyone yourself and Chris. Everyone was dear, they'd had a good campfire and whatnot. And then you mentioned something the other day that I didn't think of, but you said everyone was a bit cagey when that conversation came up of where are you going tomorrow?
Speaker 2:Well, it was funny because everyone was super friendly, like I introduced yourself and then, right before everyone went to bed, I was like, okay, what's the game plan for tomorrow?
Speaker 1:And there was just silence because it was like I would say like 18 people, 16 people or something. There was a fair few. It's a big forest, but everyone was cool as we were. We had a plan, we had some sports we wanted to get to and we didn't have any other people coming. It was fine. We'll tell them about it when we got back.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I didn't realize that, I didn't think too much about that, but overall it was the same. So we headed off. We're actually more on as early as we're wanted to be, because Jack takes a little while to get ready. Yeah, that's nice. This just doesn't happen in Australia. Anyway, it's a little, takes some practice. Just four year accorded.
Speaker 1:He realized he sure was, and so I didn't have to turn it in the other way. Same shirt, he wore it, none of them around the wrong way and we headed off and we were half an hour later than I sort of wanted to be, but didn't really matter, and we parked on the side of the road. It was still a full sunrise, it was still early. Yeah, correct, yeah, I just wanted to be a little bit further in before nothing had come up and we parked on the side of the road and moved in through a section and we weren't.
Speaker 1:I mean, we were hunting it, but it was just on our way to where we wanted to be and we hadn't been where we wanted to be. So we were just making it up as we went, but we both sort of I probably more mentally flagged it and you verbally flagged it. He's like there's a lot of sign and when you say a lot, it was like the most we'd seen, but it still wasn't a lot. Yeah, I was saying like three foot prints per square kilometer and you know some fresh scat, a couple of, though they picked the top off, the I keep a quick thought native rosemary, but unconfirmed, and we realized that that was a pretty high grazing, like that's red deer.
Speaker 2:Well, we realized later well because we thought, oh, we'll push on and see what else we could find, and we didn't find anything. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we had another snooze, yeah, on the grassy spot. That was nice. And then the day got really warm and it was predicted to, and it's no surprise. But we sort of pushed around and a bit of an air and didn't really see much. So we moved out and we said, look, we're back to the car reset, get some drinks and then drive and check out that other area in some pines and we came across some locals as well I'm going to describe it and a redneck hillbillies with four teeth between the two year old, in the back of anyone else in the car 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, a pine, and Iowa's carrying axe and it's very sharp and we lumberjacked that thing. It was quite fun.
Speaker 2:I mean, we were kind of twiddling up arms at that point.
Speaker 1:Like we were just in the middle of the day yeah, burn some time. We had fun. We lumberjacked this thing and then we're like that's cool, we dragged it out of the way. We literally drove like 400 meters and there was 30 trees down across the road and just like stick, stick, stick, stick, a storm had come through and just wiped out all the trees. So we weren't going to chop that, but it meant that we just wasted half an hour.
Speaker 2:We climbed over those trees and went to the Titham over there.
Speaker 1:You just said we should go back to that spot we saw this morning and sit. I've never sat and waited and it's not in mine, Like I know it's a thing but it's not in my playbook. It's just not how I want to roll. It's too boring, so boring. And it turned out to be very boring for 99% of it, and so we headed back, we parked up, moved in and it was later than I thought we should probably be there. There was 530 or so, 4 to 6. And I randomly just said I'm just going to sit at the base of this tree. I was actually really looking forward to a snoot. And then you I don't know how far you went A little bit further. I just went 150. From the other side of the gnom, yeah, and the deal was just sit and wait, sit and commit, sit all that minute, and we'd never really discussed a pullout time or anything.
Speaker 2:They didn't really talk. I think by that time like morale was low, yeah, so we weren't really up for like strategizing. No, there was no real chin wagging happening. No.
Speaker 1:It was like it was the last day. We were going home the next morning, so this was the other. Really, we could have found it the next morning, but we didn't really want to. We were going to pack home and go home and it was getting late. I was bored. I was so bored and no reception. So I'm like every game on my phone that requires no reception. I'm playing it and that, watching a video that I downloaded on Netflix or something. Delete it and hold photos. Yeah, Went through the camera roll and deleted some old stuff and I'm just watching a video.
Speaker 2:Wait, it's meanwhile I'm keenly watching. Hey, what were you doing? I was like looking at every possible angler and staring, and so happy you were very glancing nonstop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was not.
Speaker 1:No, it was definitely not. This is watching my phone, it's not uncommon for me and it was seven o'clock so it was like, if I don't want to say it was dark, but the sun had gone beyond the timbers so it hadn't gone down over the horizon, but it had gone behind the trees and wasn't far from going down the horizon, which we still had a few light left after that. And I went from watching my video, just looked up, looked down, and my brain said what did you just see? And I looked down and there was a frickin' red deer 120 meters away and I like, that's like, oh, I got buck fever. I started shaking.
Speaker 1:I was so nervous and I quickly turned the video off and in turn I actually turned it up. But I turned it off and I got my camera out on the phone and I've got a video and I'll put it up. It's like eight seconds. I said there's a red deer over there. I'm going to put the phone down now and shoot it and then put the phone down. That's all I did. And then I got my backpack, turned it on its side. I was back up against the tree with a slope down in front, so got the backpack. Propped it up sorry, it was tall, propped it up the tall way. Sat the guy on top like a yolk and looked through the scope. Couldn't find it.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I've lost it and then it just stepped out from behind the brush. It was behind. How am I? I was pumped and I was. I can it's. I forget a lot of things and I'm not going to forget that feeling for a long time. I remember just this Jack him feeling and I'm like I'm short of breath now Talking about it because it reminds me and I remember nearly forgetting the stupid fundamental stuff, like I nearly pulled the trigger and didn't have a round in it and I had 270 and I was happy with the gun and I knew it was on target and I just held and I waited and took one step and at the time I thought it was a female because I've actually blasted ready then put the phone up, took the video, called it a hind, put the phone down, pulled the gun up, go on, and then came out again, presented and took the shot and saw it Do its thing.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you want to call it, but like I was off, I was like I was on, but you say, but they sort of hunch up a little bit and then run forward. I was really confident with the hit and then it went outside down the corner and then it just was. It wasn't that far from me, but I couldn't see it. I was so nervous and this thing had just gone and I think at that point from memory, I yelled out to you Jack, I need help. That's the first thing I said. And the second thing I said very quickly was good help, not bad help, because in my mind I'm like you've just asked for help after firing a firearm. He probably thinks you've shot yourself. Does that happen? Is it a shot? I heard you hear.
Speaker 2:Well, I heard the shot go off, but I didn't know if the deal was going towards me and if I just popped my head up, I'm just going to cop a second round. So I'm just going to wait till you say something. Is there an headband, yeah, which I lost after at least.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I called out and you called back or something, and I said I'm going to go down and see it, I've got to see it. Meet me at the bottom in between you and me, sort of wearing in the dark. And I went around 20 or 30 meters and I'm pretty sure the next thing I said was a couple of expletives, because I saw it dead on the ground Turned out to be a red spiker in velvet. I just I yelled at the top of my lungs. I've never done that before I was.
Speaker 1:It's hard to explain what that D meant because it's not only just I shot a D, right, it was my first red in a state forest. I want to say my first red in Australia, yeah, first red in Australia, first red in the state forest, first D in a state forest. And then I had all the stuff emotional loading from the previous podcast stuff where I was jokingly but it was there. It was there, yeah, about not being able to shoot stuff in state forest and whatnot, and I'm always the one that was given in the notch carry. So I was copping a few of my back and it was nice to get that monkey off my back and get it done. And then, but just to get it done in a state forest was even better In a short time, using a skill set that I already had from probably hunting, other than you saying what sit and commit? Yeah, it's not that.
Speaker 2:I did it. The one did an advice that I listened to out around the campfire. It worked.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it worked. And then the next turn of events was pretty fun too, Cause I got to share with Jack. He come down and we high-fived and listen you know high-pitched squealing coming out of me and all sorts of things and then in the distance we hear dodge. Oh, he don't. Who's that? Yeah, and I was really other fellas from camp. Yeah, he had heard the shot crested up over his ridge. He was bow hunting.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the next valley over, coincidentally, and crested over, called out I said could do with some help if you're keen. And he said, yeah, no worries. So he come on down. And then he got on his radio and he ran his other buddy and he was another couple of valleys over and he was rifle hunting. So he worked his way over and then, there being four of us there, and it was very efficient, oh, I'm thankful. Yeah, now two fit guys to ever for a fit and switched on. As far as location, I I would have tracked us out the same way we came in, but they took us out a slightly different way because that actually flagged that little valley that we sat in as promising and they were going to sit there, but they ended up going elsewhere.
Speaker 2:He knew like a bit late getting back or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and ended up going to one closer or not, or whatnot. So otherwise we all would have been hunting that and I actually think the DEK came from your direction and you missed it because I was facing me and I was like I think it had either come around your bend or you know, so I only looked up and saw it, so actually being on my phone doing something else.
Speaker 1:and then I would have seen the deer pup and said come here is code for Netflix and check if you've got a downloaded video, because you had no reception. So we processed it and I say processed I mean physically, because I had not processed this thing emotionally and all fully but we started the breaking down. Everyone grabbed game bags out of their bags. It was a real collective effort. It was great and it went real smooth and I just took four wheels and back straps and the head and neck. I actually still have the head at home and then I still have the heart still in the freezer, but I still have the head and everyone's like what are you going to do? It's in velvet. I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1:I know what's going to happen. Nubs, yeah, I don't know, they were just nubs that I'm going to say. Spiker it was probably. It would probably branch off, but it wasn't a big stagger. I reckon it was a second head, very young, but when you boil or macerate that just all disappears, because this is just balls of growth, basically it hasn't turned into bone yet. So I macerated him and what I ended up with was just these basically long pedicles with a bit of growth on top, two or three inches of honeycomb. That was cool. I was sitting in my garden as a garden ornament, didn't make the trophy room, but we took, we left this high bar. It is. Make your trophy room, it is. We took four legs and back straps with hair on. I think we just left the hair on for the quarters, is that right? Yeah, and then just ended up leaving the gut box. I took the whole neck. The reason I took the neck? Because I got my favorite nearly my favorite kind of venus.
Speaker 1:It is also a necko which is just neck, put through the spencil and then slow cooked and then you can do anything with it then. But and then they kept the head, because that was pretty interesting. So we went back to camp.
Speaker 2:Well, let me just say that I miss that processing you did was out of control, Like the knife work was. I was watching the whole thing and because I've never seen so I only had one experience before that with myself and I guess that's another story, but it didn't go well. Yeah, it's interesting that I think other than a couple of weeks later it was pretty soon after. Watching you do that to this giant animal Was something else. I remember you holding the back strap and I was like going down to your feet and it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of me and I was heavy. We all took with the forest. I think we ended up with just a quarter each and I think I had the back straps Well, some of the back straps. Then I had the head and neck. It was a nice even load out. It wasn't like two people doing it. It would have been two trips for us. We would have went out and come back to. So I feel very grateful for those two fellas for hanging out and yeah. But it did go pretty smooth. I don't know Everything just went smooth.
Speaker 1:It was a front shoulder shot, so there was only a minimal amount of meat damage on the shoulders. Tucked in behind the shoulder blade. Pull it stayed in. So I pulled that out. Still have that at home on the mental piece Made the trophy rim. And then what else happened? No, I was on the way out. We sort of made a bit of a pact to not say anything when we walked into camp and just see what happened and the other boys actually got to care before us just, and they walked in with backpacks full of meat and he was like oh, what happened?
Speaker 1:And then finally came out that I shot it and, yeah, it was a good moment and it was good, man, it was good to share. It was good to share with them. Good share with you. It was my first and your first time you'd seen a deer, my first red deer. Yeah, your first time you'd seen. That's a big bug, that's what that meant. And then, yeah, then we just partied that night away. There's some trivia. Yeah, that's right, I'd organized to do trivia and everyone was waiting on us to do it because we shot it. It was like nine o'clock, nine thirty or something by the time we got back and we ended up playing trivia at like eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1:And yeah you and I have been down a few late nights driving and this current one One took a bit unless you've got any other red deer conversation but one took a bit of what you just mentioned. Your first go, oh, first go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so that was my. I mean that's, that was a part of the journey.
Speaker 1:Look well, now we've skipped a few things. I mean we'll go back to the go, because I want to say that's a nice guy, go that things big. And you also joined. You went from the Australian Heartless Club and you still remember yeah, to which carry house and looked up on my. I think I invited to down or something. I can't remember what that was for, yeah. And then you stayed and you've had a few people and things, but what happened between getting a license and then nothing range Do you have the range?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I did a. Oh, you spent a day with Alex. Yeah, I did, I spent a day with Alex and we sort of walked around the bush, saw some goats, but it was kind of late in the day. And then I did, like a I don't know what's called introduction to rifle shooting. Where, what's the one? Western Sydney, it's? Yes, cecil Bar, no, I don't know, I might exactly show what it was, but anyway, every day kept creek, doesn't matter. I mean you should, you go and you should write so 50 meters. Oh, so, mary's. Yeah, that's all complex here, sorry. So, yeah, like I. Well, there was an issue with my rifle and I didn't get to shoot it. Really, I shot a few times and then they had to look at my rifle and like, oh, there's something wrong with the scope, so I was using a 22 for the rest of the time.
Speaker 1:What was running this?
Speaker 2:The elevation tar was maxed out so it was just on zero. But yeah, there's something wrong with it, Still not exactly resolved. Extra protein going.
Speaker 1:No, he can leave over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean I didn't, I hadn't shot it really, and we'll talk about this earlier. I mean, during this weekend, is you do the R license, you do all the license, safety or the style, all the emphasis on safety. No one shows you how to shoot, really. No, you're on your own Cause. Even when I was in the range, I was like you just don't let me shoot this, like what's going on.
Speaker 1:It's an odd feeling. Must be your feeling, I don't remember it, but it must be good.
Speaker 2:So that brings us to the go. Yeah, so probably not the best etiquette of all time. Hopefully I get a pass. But I was going to like a men's camp, like with church, and I didn't know the guy who owned the property directly, but my, my pastor did. So I asked him hey, I know people have hunted here before. Can you ask if, if I can bring my rifle? And I didn't get a direct answer but I don't know what the conversation was, so I'm like, look, I'll just bring it, I'll let.
Speaker 2:We arrived there early and I'll just ask like, hey, I have the rifles at find it. And there was going to be 20 people on this, 21st people on site. So there was a safety concern. But he generally is, he was okay with it. So he said, oh, don't do it on the Saturday morning Cause we don't know, like this people still arriving. And then we have. I had a reception there and I went out in the morning, just went out to pee first thing, and I'm just, I just, you know, lift up my head and I noticed, oh, there's eight goats. This is South.
Speaker 1:Coast somewhere. You know GPS coordinates, but pretty healing country.
Speaker 2:Yes, like we're a little bit of a river yeah. Didn't have to notice, didn't have to name a location, but I mean, there's a lot of area, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you're on one side of the river looking at the other side.
Speaker 2:No, I saw I was looking down and they're all on the same side of the river as me. This is just before, like the drop off starts. So I just, you know, I had where my bono is. I was just going to watch them and I was like, oh, I'll take a picture of them and I sent it to the owner, the property owner. He's like, oh, you can shoot those. And so all of a sudden it's on, grab the rifle. And this is my first time having a rifle in the bush ever and I'm by myself, so it's a strange feeling.
Speaker 2:I ended up pushing the goats off and they went down and around and I found them again and I ended up going around and stalking. I probably got around 40 meters, but I could see them though down. But directly behind them was cliff, like rock and water, and I'm like, oh, that's, I don't know that I can shoot that, Like ricochet issues and all that kind of stuff, and the other side of the river is not their property. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to do it. I was like pretty disappointed because I'm like here's my chance.
Speaker 1:You're a good choice, though, but not taking the shot I would Ethically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ethically, I mean, I could have probably made different decisions where I could make an ethical shot. But you know, I don't know what I'm doing. But yeah, I ended up going out the second morning a bit more prepared and I figured they'd probably make the same loop and so I went out a bit earlier and I was just so the valleys or the gullies coming down to a river and the rivers maybe 30 meters across. So this is cold, like this is close to winter. At the time it was probably like three degrees in the morning. So I sit on one face and looking at the other face and I could hear him and it wasn't too long before I could see him as well. And I'm like, okay, well, I guess I should know what do I do? Step. So I figured I'm not going to get that much closer to them by going down, so I'm just going to shoot him from here.
Speaker 2:I think I went 30 meters all down and I found a nice tree that had like a wire branch, so I just put the rifle in there and found the goat. It was in the crosshairs. You know, I don't know, I would just shoot it, I guess. And I shot it and I thought I missed because it didn't make it had zero reaction. I was like, oh, I've stopped this. But then it took a knee. I was like, oh, what's it doing? And then it took another, and then it rolled and then I was just bang on the riverbed, fill in like this huge stone, and then I was freaking out, not at all prepared for success, and how about whether you rang me or text me.
Speaker 2:I sent you a voice mail, I think.
Speaker 1:I sent you a voice message.
Speaker 2:I don't. I was like huffing, like I was walking out the hill because I was going to put my rifle back. And this is like this is a tight schedule on this weekend, like we have to meet back for the first session at 8am and I think it's like 6.30 by this time. Yeah, so I'm like it's it's go time and so I put my rifle away, I head down with the backpack and then I was like, did I bring someone? I think I brought two other guys with me because they could hear the gunshot. It rang out loud, so we, we, we go down and it is steep, like you're on your bar the whole way down, getting trails, ghosts. That was scary Actually. I'm like this is maybe not a good idea, but we got down and then I could see the goat was on the other side of the river and I was like I'm going to get a little rock like a step up, or I could cross the river. I needed like a, like a pole vault to get across. Of that. I'm not splitting my pants getting across the river, but you know, jobs on is I have a job today is like I got to get to this thing.
Speaker 2:So I go across, I find the goat. I just poke in the eye and do all the things, take a selfie. I didn't clean it up or put it in the right place or whatever but here it is. You've got that, yeah. And then I'm like. I'm looking back. I'm like there's no, I'm feeling the weight of the goat now. I'm like there's no way I'm getting across this river. It's flowing fast and it's freezing. So I have to think of something else. I don't know what I'm going to do, so I'm just dragging the goat down to the beach and I just slipped and fall into the river anyway. So I'm like, oh, this is cold.
Speaker 2:I'm still holding on to the goat, the goat wasn't Wait, not to no, I couldn't touch you, couldn't touch the bottom, Like in the middle, like once I got you a swimming yeah, I was swimming. So like, what are your fat stuff? What was that already back? I mean, the phone is waterproof, so as long as it stays in my pocket it's fine. Yeah so, yeah. So I slipped in the water. That part was shallow, but I'm wet. Now I'm just going to pull this goat across. So I'm swimming across and my two mates are on the other side and they're filming.
Speaker 1:I was just following the videos.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then I get across and my friends like, look, you have like 20 minutes to get. We need to get back up this hill before our first session starts. So I'm not yawning because his story is boring. Yeah, we're not, we're free right here. I'm yawning because it's nearly two o'clock. Yeah, and gosh. A couple hours Sleep, that's not yeah.
Speaker 1:We're rather behind schedule, yeah, anyway, so you drag them across the boys are filming you and give you a 20 minute bill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we got, I don't know, maybe like 200 meters to go up, steep, steep stuff. But I'm thinking, oh, you know, I should just stay in, cut up. But they're saying like, hey, we made it. Everyone like agreed that we'd be there on time, we'd be prompt. So I'm like this is but I knew he was right, but it's news. I didn't, I didn't want to hear it. So what we ended up doing is we just found a shaded area in the river, just like an off street, put the goat in in there and put a big rock on top. Did you got it? No, just a care, just nothing. Yeah, and then just put a rock, have it in the photo. Yeah, I thought like yeah, I mean like I didn't know what would happen, like I don't. That didn't come up in my you know, youtube search results.
Speaker 1:You said you were YouTubeing what to do with the goat when you're walking over to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we went back and we didn't have free time until two pm, so it'd be in in the back of my mind as though you're really like, you're the excitement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'm not thinking when I ended it. So we get some free time and I'm watching YouTube videos of how to skin a goat, butcher a goat as I'm walking down Probably a bad idea, given the train, but I didn't know what I was doing and I also I didn't have an S key. I didn't have an S. I think I had some garbage bags I really did, yeah, and some cottage and a Leatherman, yeah. So I went down and that's when everything went wrong. Yeah, turned into a butcher.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know if I could call it that, and by this time, like the word had gone around and all the young kids, like the younger adults, wanted to come and see it, which made me extra nervous, because now I'm looking after, like these 20 year olds going down there, and then what came? I'm like these guys are going to fall and die On you, yeah, just cause they want to see some dumb goat. Yeah, we got down there and I tried to create, you know, a hook to lift it up. Epic fail the stick that I put through it was like bending and it was soaking wet. So it was. It was heavily heavy. Nanny, yeah, and I didn't know it was a nanny. I just saw what I looked at. I saw horns and I thought oh, that's. That means it's a Billy. I literally know nothing For fear of assumption.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the year like that Females don't have any.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you get down there, hang it over like the corner of a rock the stick, and I start butchering it and I this. We have some friends coming in. Another go, is it actually? I don't know? Can you do it? Probably Still eating? Yeah, I Unzip it from the. It was hanging outside and I 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 these videos because these friends filmed it more for comedic value.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doing everything wrong. It popped yeah, green girl, all the way out and I thought, oh, you know, big brain move, I'll just fill up a garbage bag and flush it out with water. It doesn't work. I get the garbage bag and I tip it into the carcass like the open cavity and because of like where the breast is, it just came out. Just made it all back onto me and we. I'm still on time crunch. We have to get back to the next session. It's like three o'clock or something yeah an hour of space, yeah, not long.
Speaker 2:So Covered in guts. Eventually I'm like I'm just taking the back legs, hack the head off, I break my leg men in the process and head back up.
Speaker 1:So Like a lot of warranty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I got that. I thought you meant the goat. I'm like what?
Speaker 1:do you mean I'm like it's not bad, it's not bad? That warranty is over. The boys had fun filming it.
Speaker 2:They both looked good. Yeah, I know I stoked. He was really happy for me, which, like, made it a lot better. He let me use this outdoor fridge, otherwise it would just gone to waste because we still had another day there.
Speaker 1:And then, what did you do?
Speaker 2:Took it out. I buried the head, made a nice roast. It was really good. I was shocked. One was in town and she was visiting at time. She ate some. She made some goat sandwiches, wife not cooking. Yeah, she want to say it, but she was not eating leftovers. Let's just say it.
Speaker 1:The flavor. We think it was the emotional. What do you think it was so nice?
Speaker 2:It wouldn't be the flavor. I think it's just all new to her. Yeah, she doesn't quite know what to make of it. She doesn't like eating leftovers at restaurant food, so this is a whole different thing To think things for someone randomly to take on in their family.
Speaker 1:So you take it at home, cook some stuff with it your mum loved it and what you do there, you bury it in the garden.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Still doing its thing, and then that was it, that was your first time, first time in two weeks later, I went to Nangdong. Was it that close?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was pretty close. So the first hunting experience was pretty close ago but it was over a year to get to that point of all the licensing.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I wanted to bring up. I touched on it with your post on Hunters Club. You really broke down what it took you to get to that point, time steps and financially. I remember that in your head Roughly some statistics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I mentioned first of all getting over the demoralization of it all. There's just no way in Australia, it's not possible I don't come from a hunting background it's not going to happen to finally just making it happen. I don't think it would have happened without Chris's Club or without yourself sending me that initial voicemail. I didn't get a real initial voice message inviting me to Camp and Pub for the event.
Speaker 1:It must have been random, I just was cold-cold-calling?
Speaker 2:I think yeah, and you took me up on it. I'm not going to get a more warm welcome than this. I had to go and that was probably the hardest thing going to that event. I was so nervous, like you know doesn't get it, and I didn't get it. I remember I was just starting and I walked in to this dimly lit pub not knowing who I'm looking for, trying to look like a lost dog. Everyone looked like lost dogs at night. I knew that you were selling cookies, so I'm like okay, that's a whole nother story. Yeah, good cookies, not much. We didn't end up talking to like the very last bit of night. 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 deer from. Like no, it's just. That was really hard on the ego that night, but it was probably like the best possible situation. Yeah, well, got on your feet, take a leak.
Speaker 1:I mean it turned out all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it turned out all right. I think I had to make it turn out all right, but, yeah, like, so the whole year plus before that. Getting the license, booking in the course for the like the safety course. Yeah, like the storage joining a club, what about even just choosing your first raffle? Oh, I mean, this is the thing about like this is catch 22 with getting into hunting because you don't know anyone. You're asking the internet for recommendations and advice and that's almost worse because people in the comments are like disagreeing with each other. That's the thing I guess. And you don't know what to believe, but you don't know anyone, so that's the best thing you have.
Speaker 2:See, that was another issue, and what happened is I got my PTA from because I was sitting on it for so long. I didn't realize this or maybe I did, but I didn't just in action it, my PTA expired and I didn't realize you have to do the. Look how long it is again if it expires. So I think maybe it's 90 days or something. It lasts for 90 days, yeah, but you had to do the 28 days, just the first one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to wait the waiting period again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it actually can't cut really close to the wire before. Yeah, first hunting event, so yeah, but I ordered in time. But the order took ages, and so by the time the gun came in the PTA had already expired. So it was a very difficult process.
Speaker 1:You said the cost was a barrier entry. You'd run some numbers on what it cost you. Do you remember?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all the gear I don't remember what do you say?
Speaker 1:all the gear. It's not like you ever got high end gear. You're not doing it.
Speaker 2:Oh, you don't think so.
Speaker 1:No, I'm sorry, it's like sure what's left given you. Yeah, mr Flado inside out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, massive hole in the back. Let me see where I can find the numbers.
Speaker 1:Top of the line is probably not what I meant, but like you've got a good assortment of camping gear that is from your background in the bushcraft and that sort of engine, yeah, I had to start like gas canisters.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Oh, you had the thing you slept in the hammock the hammock. Yeah, I had to leave some hammock. I don't know what have you got? They will now. The proffy's doing it now. He's on board. Yeah, he's the hammock man.
Speaker 1:I saw that in the video.
Speaker 2:I mean the hunting club's $200. Firearm safety's $150. License is $200. Pta's $30. I mean there's the scope, so it's close to 4K for everything which is like upfront a big cost. You're not following things.
Speaker 1:It's like I swear I said to you this thing the other day and I hadn't even considered this you might not even like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you have to go and buy everything, get all licenses, before you can even try the thing.
Speaker 1:If you don't have, well, if you don't have friends, you can try at a range, but it's not the same. You can't try hunting. There's no way to legally try hunting and do the shooting part in Australia. Even on the guide situation, I'm like 99% sure. So we can do a safari license for an international client, I can't do one from Australian resident unlicensed. So discrimination, you just can't. Yeah, it's weird, you just can't try it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm thinking now like I'm investing all this money and making news and we could be spending it in other places, your offer's supportive enough. Yeah, I think there was like a good tax return or something like that. But yeah, I'm thinking what if I do this and I hate it or just like, for whatever reason I don't like it, it fizzes out.
Speaker 1:I mean, luckily it's not, it's got to jump in the forward a bit, a little bit. Do you feel like you're fully committed and stuff out of fizz anymore? Or you think it's just like a fiery thing and you're like it's on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. Like, I hope not. One of the big things was I mentioned wanting to take the responsibility of feeding myself, but that extends to my family as well, so I want to keep doing that. I like being outdoors. You've done that today. Yeah, yeah, forgive us that that's exciting. Yeah, today was interesting day. That was a long day, very productive, very productive.
Speaker 1:What did the young fellow say to some? You said you said deep lines or something and he said I had a lot of. I can't remember what you called it.
Speaker 2:Oh, ascend, descend, yeah, yeah, ascend.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of hills, a lot of ascending.
Speaker 1:Today is what he said.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, there was a lot of hills, there's a lot of hills here, but the whole emotions of the day ascended from meeting them this morning for the first time, learning about them, teaching them all day and then going out on the first hunt for both of them.
Speaker 1:Well, sorry, it wasn't the first hunt for the day, but it was the first time both of them had the opportunity to harvest an animal and then both did it well, well enough, and that was a couple of goats on the ground and it was like you're here as doing the course as well, but from a friendship point of view, and also thank you for all the work you do for me and things, but you're still learning and still I mean, well, I'd say you sat down in the course, you did all the classwork and then you headed out and you bought your firearm and everything and we kind of ran out of puff at one point after the goats and we decided we were coming back for water, mostly because they'd run out of water.
Speaker 1:I saw the little bit left and we finished. And you asked me a question about turning off my game. Oh yeah, eyes, because we had enough goats. We had enough goats, we were done and I said and they never turn off, I can't turn off my game, eyes, I can turn off my mouth. That'll tell you that I've seen things even driving up here.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know how you do it Like this lots left so quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just skill, just practice, sorry you. Just any skill you repetitively use gets stronger and knowing I'm giving you a free tip from the course now but narrowing down the places to look so you're not wasting time looking in the open in the middle of the day when it's hot, when you're looking for deer that will most likely be in the shade, wasted time. And so when I'm driving around, you're always subconsciously looking, looking on the brakes. When you see things, even they can't do anything about it, and today was no different. And then you ask and I turn it off. And I said, no, sorry, something happened after that. And it's not that I turned it off, I was just looking the other direction and the young fella was sitting in the back of the bunny Well you saw the goats back near camp?
Speaker 1:Yes, well, because I hadn't got a goat yet, that's right, that's right. So the other guy's a chop, and we're trying to get you a goat today too, so that we could spend tomorrow doing the full ball, true stuff. Otherwise we would have had to get up at like five o'clock tomorrow morning, go out, come on hunt, which is the end of the world, but it would have made tomorrow a lot bigger day, and they're the making tonight, if you can't. So yeah, we were on our way back and we spotted some goats near camp and we had agreed that we'd go and look at them. Whether we shot one or not wasn't yet to be seen. Well, the answers, we didn't. But we were just going to go and look at them, and I reckon we drove another 200 meters or 300 meters my fault.
Speaker 1:And the young fella just said there's a D there, with a lot of excitement, and I was just dear, that's that's probably what it was dear, and I locked on the brakes because as soon as he said it, I just and All you just wrote what you saw.
Speaker 2:It was like a glowing beacon Framed up in this window of green. Yeah, and it's better than our whole, I would have said there's a difference of black breeze because because we saw some dead here and For me compared to go to so much harder to see in the landscape, I don't know why. Well, they were any legs or what it is.
Speaker 1:No, well, the ones you're referencing were up on Tussic grass, which is like brown, green, like it blend into their skin a lot better with their tan colors, and this one had a backdrop of very dark black ferries and in front of it, which is, I think it was just green grass, and it was like this weird. Some was just just, yeah, weird Gap in the. It wasn't even a clearing, but this weird gap that led down. We only learning about drawing vector lines and things at school. You'd like you learn this. This is what it was. It was these two channels. Let down and pointed at this offering Stood there, yeah, and that's stop standing there.
Speaker 1:No, did not, and the arachnid total probably two minutes. This thing stood there, did not move an inch in the status, and that was and that was. We've got it on video, not all of it, but so at the start we spotted it and it was standing still.
Speaker 2:And we're making notes. We're in the buggy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're 140. I think I'm in 38 away from so, yes, no, easy enough for it to be alert. I turned it off straight away and it just went there. So I said I think I said to you Get your gun together real quick, because you packed up, it was in a bag, you bag about trigger locked it. We were done for the day. We're sort of heading back on a mode, on a mode taking your ever, and I said get your gun together real quick. If you can have a shoulder that you can take it, if you feel comfortable taking a shoulder, that you can take it, and then you can talk, you can tell the rest.
Speaker 2:I mean, as soon as you made the offer, like all I could see was red, yeah, green it was on, yeah, so great green guy. Yeah, let's get it down. So it's fapping around a bit. You know I'm trying to be quiet, but I thought this thing was gonna run me was an alert.
Speaker 1:I think I have to look the footage. I'm pretty sure it's fun. Foot was like bent, like I'm three legs on the ground ready to run. No, I don't look, but so I've got the camera set up next to me. Yeah, yeah, so I have to look it back.
Speaker 2:So I'm gearing, set up a million. I don't really remember. I think you were talking to me, but I'm not really listening. Well, it's all on.
Speaker 1:It's in the audio of the camera. I said Make sure you feel comfortable. If you don't feel comfortable, don't rush it.
Speaker 2:So I think in my mind I'm like what does that mean? Like because, because I have such limited shooting experience, I'm like what's uncomfortable, yeah.
Speaker 1:This is like you were something. You were standing and You're leaning the left hand side of the rifle Against the front pillar of the buggy and shooting across the bonnet. No, that's the description of how it happened. And I suppose by saying that, I mean, do you feel confident in the shot you're about to take, knowing that you're on the ever shot one animal before? So, yeah, I don't really know. There's something I would say to everyone, but, in fairness to you, it's like what does that actually mean? Yeah, what's your baseline of what comfortable even is? So fair point, yeah. And then that's something happened. I said what happened and you, like, all my magazine wasn't in, or I think you're cycled or something, and oh, yeah, I didn't cycle in.
Speaker 2:There's nothing in that, so Do you still stand in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh what, what position is good? Because I'm like the angle of the buggy is a little bit, it does enough. It was something to sit on. So I'm like, should I do this? Should I do this Fapping around, and then I zoomed in the scope and I lost it on the scope. So you know, redid that and I was still there and I'm like, well, you know I wasn't doing this. And the crosshairs, I'm on it. That's description of comfortable rather than yeah, I mean it didn't feel good like it didn't feel bad, it just the just animal crosshairs. What, what else do you need? Yeah, so you took the shot and Again, I don't really know like if I hit it or not. I think it was pretty obvious that I hit it could. It was a running and I could see it. You know, linking a little bit, but it was going quick. Yeah, how far it? Maybe around out there look like 100 meanness. No, there was more than that. We're going along on that.
Speaker 1:I think it was closer to 200 and there was a it was so Italian some steep stuff, oh yeah, so how they do that, I knew you hit it hard. I could hear the shot like so it makes enough. You heard or you've ever heard it or noticed it, but it's a solid thought, what it hits, I don't remember hearing, I didn't even hear it. It's just a it makes that and that's what you hear back after the shot.
Speaker 1:So I knew it was a good hit and I was watching on the screen. I wasn't watching through bottles, I was all concerned about trying to fill the dang thing because it looks so pretty. And then it ran. But I could tell it was hit from the bottom and I think it made about 200 meters and at that point I forgot to move the camera, so the camera was still pointing it. Where you shot it and I worked the camera back up Was to zoomed in, zoomed out, found that again zoomed in, just in time for it to run its last four or five meters and then I think it tripped and it turned back on itself and then ended downhill and then it went downhill and then it went downhill and then it went downhill and then I went downhill and then I went a little bit more downhill and it rolled and then went out of our sight down into the bottom of this little ravine or little creek at the bottom. That was a fair few of my films.
Speaker 2:I don't remember anything.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably high five. Yeah, there was high fives and fist palms and yeah, waco, jacko, I called you, did ya? Okay, jacko, put the smack down on it. Yeah, we were all stoked and Young fella in the back was stoked because he saw it. Yeah, I was stoked to see you not complete that part, but to do it. And there was always the brief conversation on this trip off. It's just before the rut. We're here for a goat hunt. Really, what are we gonna do if we see a buck? What are we gonna do if we see a buck?
Speaker 2:You asked that question early.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been on my mind for a while coming into this trip, because, yes, it's a goat hunt and I want these guys to have a good experience. But I'm also conscious of If someone shoots a buck on their first experience Into hunting. It nearly gives them a false sense of that's normal and I don't Like I want to say that a beginner's deserve that straight away, which might sound weird, it's probably weird and it's probably not even the right way to say it, but I just feel like you need to pay your dues first Well, nearly, and it worked well for you.
Speaker 1:It was the right time for you and it put in the hard yards for two years now, nearly, since you started, and that's why I said to you it's your turn. The other guys had shot anyway today, so, and they were not disappointed in how it, they were stoked. So it was. Yeah, I thought it was a run. So we parked up the buggy and left it there and we headed down.
Speaker 1:We fed a dead goat which is odd, that's stunk and we headed down and there's probably only Two thirds of the way down to the bottom and he was up the other side and I said to the other guys I said this is getting pretty rough. You didn't hear this because you were really stoned off, because you were full of adrenaline chasing this dream. I said it's pretty rough down here. You might want to just hang back at the buggy and we'll find it and let you know how the traverse goes, instead of bringing the unfeller down. And so they did, they went back and sat on a tree and sort of watched us walk in, hadn't got the walkie-talkie, but then we got to the bottom, oh, we couldn't see him. And again, I'll ask you for your description, because my description is just going to be blackberries everywhere. That's your favorite description, thought it was going to be more poetic.
Speaker 2:Well, it came down and we didn't see how steep it was.
Speaker 1:At the last 50 meters Really dived off Both sides too.
Speaker 2:There's actually a really nice river Like Greek at the bottom, but pretty hard access wise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dropped in on both sides and I reckon there was Maybe 10 or 15 meters of blackberries up the side, thick, dense and just ouchy. But then slightly to the right, by end, where I dropped in was like an old slide that was slip and it had wiped out the blackberries. The ground had collapsed.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to replace it with scotch sizzle and that was thick but it was thin enough that we could walk through it and thought we'd walk through that and just crest over, Not crest, because it was still steep. It was the last little bit of blackberries at the top and then we'd be out of the blackberries Because it was clear on the other side. But once we got to that point it was like an impenetrable. All the blackberries Like dead. But you couldn't climb it Because it was so steep. For those watching like that, For those listening, just pitch us deep and then add some more steepness and then you're a little bit steep on that. There was dead blackberries Just covered it like a carpet. So you couldn't climb it Because it would just rip you to shreds and you'd hand and knees. Anyway, I looked to my left and there's a game trail, Not just a normal game trail. This thing was a tunnel. There was an arachn 700mm high, 600mm high and maybe 800mm wide, With again a slope to it.
Speaker 2:And two Nonsense Maldeds.
Speaker 1:Great, yeah, we're in the X's of the L's In the sizing of things. And once we had backpacks on, we had to get them through. So we just said that's it, it's got to go that way, we can't go up, it's too dangerous. And I went first to put the backpack down and I was using that. So I put it down and then put my hands on that and shuffled and my knees probably still got Blackberries thorns in there, my hands, my knuckles hurting, because I had one go right in and it might even still be in there, but it went into the joint Because I felt it runnin' through my finger and just stayed in there. Anyway, we got through there, perked out the other side and again it's super steep.
Speaker 1:I'm wearing a steeper this time and you're lower boots and I know you're running low as to man, though like Not sponsored by lower. If they want to, I'll talk about it. It's so accountable, like it was one of the steeper sides I've done in Australia, and you just put your boot in like that and the hills like that, and it's comfortable. I'm just walkin' Because they're so stiff, which is not a good thing In some situations, but I'll steeply stuff. I mean, I felt really confident In that situation, anyway. So I feel Maybe I was slumpin' in there. You should've been. I was nervous for a year. Well, I was like where are you? Or because I was pushin' a bit hard.
Speaker 2:Or I could see like, and it was not, the ground was loose, yeah, and there was not a lot to grab on to. And what was to grab a shot?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't want to go on to. I didn't realise that at the time, maybe I was pushin' a bit hard, just wanted to find the dang thing. Anyway, we're side here lad along and I came across. Well, we were kind of not lost, but we were looking for a reference point and we were watching the video back, tryin' to find where this thing had died Well or had tumbled, and we found a tree and it would look, you know, very unique and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So we were looking for that, and before I even saw that though, I crossed over a section that had just been turned up and I looked up and looked out, and then you could see a bit of blood go down, and then I could see the blackberries at the bottom. The leaves had turned over. I'm like, okay, we're disturbed, he's in there. I should've gone see him Because, again, super steeped down. But once he got to the blackberries it was his left face and that's where he dropped in. So instantly we just said we need rope. What have we got in our bags? And I pull out this pretty purple bit of Paracord that's like three metres long, and then another roll of deluq cord from my bow, which is probably 20 metres long. And then you were there with a professional piece of Proper paracord and we dropped our packs and we started descending down. That was worse. And then we realised we still couldn't see him and he was down somewhere in that channel, but not at the bottom, because we walked at the bottom.
Speaker 2:And couldn't see, we would've walked straight past it.
Speaker 1:And we realised we couldn't do it. There was no recovery from there, there's no way to pull it out, there was no way to see it, and it was just the blackberries, without having a tarp or something to put down To get onto. Just absolutely deal with the fact You're going to get munched by worries.
Speaker 2:And no right blackberries on the bushes either.
Speaker 1:It was terrible. It was kind of bad on the upside. It was weird. They were like in a shoulder season. They were either dried up black ones or dried red ones. It's the back end of the season. They just haven't ripened up and I don't know if they will. I think they'll say red and then die off, but couldn't get to.
Speaker 1:So the initial, the instant realisation Was not only that we couldn't get him, it was we had to get back through the tunnel. That was in my head. I'm like that's the worst part of the situation. Now he's going back through that stupid tunnel because I thought we were going to find him, get some photos, chop him up and walk out that side, which was steeper. But he didn't have to go back. He didn't have to go back, it wasn't the case. Back through the dang tunnel, out the other side, down the bottom. He found some. He did some vindicating I'm scared, it works really well. It does work well. And then not that it matters. When you've got a deer on the ground, we're going back. He'll find the deers. No, no, the deers.
Speaker 1:We went down the bottom. We went along to where we knew he was. Still couldn't see I was, until I don't know if I forgot what my book was. I didn't have any. You spotted him, that's right, and there's just like a fraction of white, like a tiny little bit of white between the blackberries. It was, you know, this sort of size, and that was it. We found him. Well, who Couldn't get him out?
Speaker 1:I still couldn't get him out because he was up a cliff and I would stand at the base of the cliff and reach into the blackberries and I was still nearly a meter away from him. So you can't have the cracker on the deer. I'm getting you. I got my rod sticks trying to bash it down and whatnot wasn't working. You threw your backpack and we laid your backpack down and then I got up a bit further and I was like 400 mil, 500 mil, foggy legs and what had happened? Because he'd slid down the hill, he piled up all the blackberries with him and then they'd caught him at the bottom in a net. So he had them over him and under him and around his legs and he was just in this basket holding him there. It was a wicked. It was a wicked, wicked. Yeah, it was a terrible net.
Speaker 1:So you got me a stick it was long and then curved and came back on itself like hook a separate branch. And with that in your bag, I was just able to hook his leg and pull his, get his toes untangled enough to get it to me to grab it. Now I thought, ah, cool, I've got it, it's going to be over. No, he was still so stuck in there, I was yanking and then in my mind I'm like I'm on a cliff covered in blackberries and he's just going to come and strut over me. Yeah, that's what I thought was going to happen. Finally he bit his way out butch, butch, butch and meel me out of time. Halt, doubt. Flop down to the floor. Yeah, into the room. And it was beautiful. We was always beautiful.
Speaker 1:But yeah, me is a pretty buck and you don't realize what you've shot. No, he's sitting here on the ground next to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So he put some photos up. But yeah, oh yeah. Well, you don't remember, dude, where what? Just remember you kicked back in on the fine details. Oh, cutting it out. Yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So later, once the cut up started, yeah, so we got on the ground and we got some photos and did all that stuff and decided what you're going to do with it. So I did to go for a flat skin, Rob trivia, yeah, what's his skin called West kid's skin baby. And you're going to do your room out? Yeah, so that's about all you can fit in an apartment, well, in an entire house or whatever you're doing. Yeah, but then the butchery stuff. It didn't go as well as the red. Not, there was any problem, but there was only the two of us. Yeah, sorry, but they were there in spirit. They were there to watch and they watched. Oh well, they got the extra module. They did get there.
Speaker 1:Actually, he asked me Tony, what's in module two? I was like much like module one today, because he got stuff that wasn't supposed to be in there and he, like he's just pre-wrote, I reckon he's 110 kilos. We were struggling to move him, so we did full body skin. We ended up hooking him up at a tree. To a certain extent I was picturing being able to rip the hide off, but we only had paracord and a dodgy bit of stick, so every movement we made that required a bit of pull down. We heard a creep or a crack from the branch that was only just holding on between these things, so that wasn't actually that helpful. Full skin off, or at least down to his shoulders, and then it got at him so we could lose some weight to lift him higher. And this is both of us, yeah.
Speaker 2:Fair little shipping away Eagle Hawk Talons. He's doing a pretty average job and we switch out.
Speaker 1:Swap sides and he'd do a lot of sliding. Jack got a ruined over here One slide scene and he'd say I'm doing all right over here, this looks good. I'm like, yeah, because you're in my section. So I followed his robe and you do get the skin and it looks like a checker's board. Yeah, because there's like no real clean section and you're messy part. But we got it done and what'd you find under the skin? Oh, a bullet Perfect 270. I shooed him up on the other side. It's great. Same thing on the root yeah, yeah. Yeah, that worked for him. I found that tooth. So another little keepsake for you. But then it got dark and we had a few rainstorms all down there. Just clouds come over and every 20 minutes, yeah, like two or three minutes of decent rain.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Enough to make you think about getting your jacket. That was dark by the time we finished. I think it was nine o'clock by the time we lift the bottom, or just before nine. Yeah, headlamps on. And because the other two fellas came down not really fully grasping the situation, they actually just came down with their waterfalls Bucky Don't carry 77 headlamps and everyone got a headlamp. You get a headlamp now. It's like Oprah Everyone got a headlamp and we walked out and got to the buggy but there was a heavy pack out. It was steep, exit steep. I heard it. I heard back leg, front leg and something else Pasta on my back. You had back leg, front leg, skin and head.
Speaker 1:That was a heavy thing I carried in a pack Column the burn opening a friend with me as the person who shoots it. You get to carry the best parts. And then the other guys one guy carried the back straps and hit the back straps over the back. So yeah, that was a big day and you saw, it's a good saw.
Speaker 2:That's a good saw.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good fun it's the one that you can have found now, not at the time. Yeah, the long bird front.
Speaker 2:I was having a bad time, but my body was saying hey, stop, I'm here, give me sugar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could have done it at the top. I ran into water on that last walk out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you ran out of candy, oh well, yeah, and I filtered some water down there. Thank goodness there was some. I don't know if it was flying water, but I filtered it anyway. I was sowing. I'm not sick now, so yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It might be the last time you see Jack, so now I'm super pumped to have you here. I appreciate your assistance, but I'm super pumped for you to enjoy that because you earned it and deserved it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, after letting you get that one, I apparently couldn't see that the red go through.
Speaker 1:You don't even get the one you hadn't seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so now this is payback. Yeah, it's awesome it's. I didn't even know what to make of it.
Speaker 1:Really, I'll take you some time to work that out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just like it. I think, like, because I've been I'm not like overjoyed, I think it's been working for so long to make it happen. I'm just like, oh yes, this is it. Yeah, this is it Like and I'm only just starting, which is a crazy part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, emotion-wise, I think you and I are similar in that we can be happy without showing our teeth, Like we don't have to be, like this is amazing. It's like. This is cool. Yeah, it's just fun. It's what it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2:This is awesome.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it'll sink in and I can't wait to see it. Look on your kids' faces Like I really don't want you to tell them on the drive home. I want to just because I'm sure they're probably going to be with your wife and she picks you up.
Speaker 2:Well, this is the last time. We just dropped me off at Costco and then they picked me. That's right.
Speaker 1:I think they dropped all your stuff in a trolley, including like dope, yeah, whatever it was, there were bags of red, do you think? Yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was from Costco. I don't know if it was from Costco, oh dear. But yeah, we'll see what happens this time.
Speaker 1:I nearly want to make them drive to my house, just so I can see their reaction.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be so stoked for you.
Speaker 2:It's cool when I'm stuck and this place is awesome, like if people have a chance to come out here, then we've seen some critters, it's true.
Speaker 1:Oh man, this place is flowing Like. I'm not yawning now because I peek in, because it's a cool story and whatnot, but when we got here the other morning or also UFOs, that's a side story Like I don't even think I'm ready to talk about it. I'll probably tear up because it was weird. There were some super weird lights in the sky that we got videos of and not great videos, because that's you can never get good videos at your phone.
Speaker 2:Oh, and using biners to watch men. That was it.
Speaker 1:They were new discoveries. We were like so awake, it's 2am. Yeah, I know, it must have been later.
Speaker 2:I think it was 3.30 by the time I went to bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was 3.30 when I started seeing those lights. Anyway, side topic, but no, I now forgot where it was going to be. Oh, we got up early the morning to set up. We're up at 6.30. And we couldn't set up because I just looked through the biners and I'm like Jack, there's D-Row here and he'd come over and have a look and he's like Jack, the door is just D down here. However, this one and yeah, it was cool that's the most D-Row I've seen in one morning session.
Speaker 2:Really yeah.
Speaker 1:We were up to it. So I'm excited for that because these guys are turning up. We found this guy we shot him was not far from his scrape. He had a little scrape. He just started down the ground so it was interesting. He's full coloured. He's been rubbed out for a while and there's some rubbs just around camp and he wasn't that far from camp so that wouldn't have been him and I don't know what it was going to be.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's exciting.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. Thank you very much. No, it's good. I look forward to enjoying it with you for the future. Anyway, that's it. We've got to cover the night. It's time we go to bed. So thank you for being here, thank you for watching, listening. Until next time, have a good night, good night.