speaker-0: I want to know more about Tasmanian tigers now. Got me intrigued. You could just make it up the whole time and we could sound like we're really smart talking about Tasmanian tigers and...

speaker-1: I'm the wrong guy to ask. No, because I'll probably get shredded. Yeah.

speaker-0: I'm on the internet. Well, we're on location right now in the most gorgeous place ever.

speaker-1: Yeah, hot country.

speaker-0: high country. Is this considered the bush or the outback? What do we got here?

speaker-1: I call it

speaker-0: I got James Bath here and you've been kind enough to show us what Australia hunting is all about.

speaker-1: Yeah, we've given you guys a good taste of what we have to offer up here so far, haven't we? Yeah.

speaker-0: And the coolest thing is like, just driving here, how remote this place is. that, what we had, it was like a nine hour drive we had a couple days ago, just to get in here. And I think we saw like two vehicles the entire time on that bad road we drove.

speaker-1: Yeah, once you hit that sort of that mountain pass. Yeah. There's no one.

speaker-0: It was just like no one. And then you come back here and you're looking around like I saying the other day like I don't even hear airplanes flying over which in like the States no matter where you're at no matter what mountain range no matter if it's a wilderness area not you always have like commercial plane flying over somewhere there's like plane routes all over place but like here it's like dead silence the stars are absolutely epic. Everything is backwards though for me like I'm still trying to figure out like constellations in the sky like Where's the big dipper at? Haven't found him yet. Like is he even visible down here? I don't know.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, do we have that turnaround with you guys with the sun as well?

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Like we were just, we're hunting the first day and you were saying like, ⁓ you're gonna be looking for like on south facing slopes. Like that's where the cool, the shades and I'm like, why are we looking on the south facing? So it's going to be like the burnt areas. And then I'm like, everything's backwards. So like where we're at, we hunt north facing slopes for like dark timber, but here, cause the sun is in a total opposite spot. Your south facing is our, we would consider our north facing and your north facing is gets the most sunlight.

speaker-1: Yeah, the shade, yeah. Yeah, so like our North, North East faces are generally like what we want to be glassing onto because we're getting that like those super warm like rocks and everything like that when the deer are chasing that all. But yeah, that sort of spun me out because well, like it's like, why wouldn't you want to look at the North East face? And I'm like, that's right. You guys are upside down.

speaker-0: Everything's upside down. Do we I haven't confirmed yet to the toilets flush the opposite way They flush counterclockwise. Is that just a myth? We're trying to figure that out Because it's always been a thing when we were growing up that like toilets when you flush them I think they go clockwise and then you go south it was always talked about That they go counterclockwise when you flush your toilet the water like drains down the drain a different direction now

speaker-1: Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, that's if we have fun

speaker-0: As my childhood, like the whole thing I've wanted to do, like we can literally talk about when we came down here, we got like all these toilets we kept finding just like flush way too powerful. We could find like a proper sink maybe and we could test it out there by filling the water full and see if it goes clockwise or counterclockwise.

speaker-1: I think we're clock wise well, but we can't really test it up here with our toilet straight down

speaker-0: Now we have enough. Yeah, we're just sitting at like the sweetest cabin ever overlooking the most gorgeous mountains in the world. Talk to me about your love of sandbar hunting, because that's what we're up here doing. Why do you love hunting sandbar? Or samba?

speaker-1: It is. Samba, just because of the challenges they present, Like when we grew up, when we were young, we grew up hunting small game and stuff as most people sort of do. And then we started hearing talk about like these deer being in the mountains and this is sort of pre-internet, a lot of that sort of stuff. So we had to sort of go off word of mouth and just getting like dropped off in locations by friends, parents and things like that. just they'll like drop you off in the morning to say, I'll you at six o'clock tonight. We're like, we'd have like little notebooks. And it just sort of I don't know, like it just hooked me so hard because they were just so, so hard to find. Like we come from an area, you know, where you can go like rabbit hunting, fox hunting, you see them everywhere. And then there was this thing, it's just like, was like this myth. And they'd say, yeah, they're in the mountains. And so we'd just spend all day just like walking around the mountains, just finding cool gully systems and stuff like that. And it was just like this. You're like driven to want to get out there and learn more about the mountains and learn more about their habitat and stuff like that. And then I just think it just sort of stuck with me, man. And like I'm sure you've seen, like the habitat just changes just constantly. Their behavior is just changing constantly. So yeah, I just never get bored of hunting them in. like just that you can see like such a massive animal and then they can just disappear in front of you.

speaker-0: They seem to be very elusive. ⁓ Like that's kind of what I've been like drawn to right now. Like I was trying to learn about them before we came here. Couldn't really find a lot probably because I'm from the States and it's like maybe people just don't, you know, there's so elusive that there's not a lot of content out there. I picked up that book at the bookstore and tried to learn a little bit before we came out here. But like where you find them, it kind of seems like it's not random. They're there for a specific reason.

speaker-1: Yep.

speaker-0: but like you said, they're just either see him or you don't see him. And when they bed down, you just don't see him, right? Cause they seem like they just blend in super, super well with this country and everything's so thick. Like you guys' canopy here is mind blowing how thick it is. try to like glass in it. Even when you try to like get up on top and look down into some of this stuff, it's like, you can't see him. Like the other day, like, what do you say? You call that like we went stalking? Just like hiking around and like kind of.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: We would call that like still hunting. Yeah. We're like this creeping through the understory had the wind indicator out and like that's like a common hunting strategy, right?

speaker-1: Yeah, that's majority of the sand behind him would be done like that. Like our bush stalking ⁓ sometimes gets referred to like walking them up because you just like getting in their habitat, finding the fresh game trails, like getting yourself on the elevations and stuff with them. But you just like, you're just in it with them. So you generally like hunting thicker bush, very short distances, following up on fresh sign and maybe sort of like getting into like little gully heads and you'd sort of might sit and. you know, might be able to glass around a little bit. And yeah, just sort of like actively stalking them up. And a lot of the time you're listening more than you're looking. Because as you saw, like with all that dogwood and stuff like that, your visibility is quite low. So a lot of the time in that sort of situation, you actually hear them. So a lot of the guys, you'll see them in the bush, we're cupping our ears all the time. Like sit down and cup your ears, because you can hear them up milling about in some of the bush. So it's a pretty exciting like. way to hunt them as well because especially once you start seeing that fur in the bush and you know you're on, especially if it's like just on the other side of like a little bowl, might be like 80 or 100 meters and you can just sort of see them coming through and you know they're just about to materialize on a game trail. So yeah, it gets a heart pumping.

speaker-0: Most of those shots when you're in the timber stalking them, what is it like 30 to 60 meters type of thing?

speaker-1: Yeah, it can be anywhere like even as low as I've shot some under 10 meters Because you can just be be there and you might be looking somewhere else and next thing you literally just like Come up just underneath you or something like that or you might you might have spotted one and you've trying to put in bit of a stalk and as you've done it it might have changed direction because as you see like I don't know what you follow one trail they just like turn around on themselves so you might have thought you trying to get over and next thing you pop your head over and there's Yeah, Dee just standing there looking at you. So, yeah, pretty exciting.

speaker-0: That's why they're, that's why you love hunting them. It's like that challenge side of it. And like they're phenomenal to eat, right?

speaker-1: Unbelievable. Yeah, it's like at home pretty much most of red meat we eat is just all Samba. I'm just like we cooked up that back sharp last night.

speaker-0: Most of us said that was probably the best game we've ever had. Like super, super.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, like I've cooked it for like friends and family before mm-hmm and ⁓ They just think it's like a really good beef Yeah, like if you if you do it like a nice pasta or a stew or something like that And a lot of people don't realize they've had the event as in yeah, it's so good

speaker-0: Yeah, it was like, I don't know what it is about those deer, but once you start hunting them, I can see why you're kind of addicted to them. Because you would rather hunt those than fallow deer or red deer. That's your preferred, if you had to choose one hunt, it'd be sand bar.

speaker-1: I just never get tired of it because you can hunt them in so many different ways like we've done a fair bit of that on this trip We've done big glassing them up. We've got in the bush with them stuff like that So you can sort of you know choose what you'll do so it's like a different hunt all the time Don't get me wrong Hunting like fellow in the like during their rut. That's super cool. Look and I haven't done reds in the raw yet. That's still out there But once again, it's just because I just focus on Samba. Mm-hmm. do like the I do like the challenge of what the fellow can present, but I just still think like compared to Sam, but just it just doesn't excite me the same way. ⁓

speaker-0: Tim, this is true or not, since sandbar is so elusive and hard to glass up, hard to locate, because it's so thick, any sandbar is trophy. Hind, stag, that's totally what it seems like. That first day we were like, ⁓ we should shoot those. And we were all like, yeah, they're hinds. We always think, we'll wait until we see a male, a buck, or a bull, or a stag in this case. but the more we've started hunting them, it's like, anyone you see is special. There's not that many of them, so like you see, I mean, I'm sure there is, but there's a hard to find them. So like, you see one, it's a special occasion, and like, you go after that one, no matter if it's a male or female.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's a thing. Yeah, well, there's obviously there are some people that do obviously still just love chasing stags. ⁓ But yeah, they are so hard to dial in. Like I'm involved with a lot of like deer education programs and things like that. And it's not uncommon to speak to someone that's new that's been going like two years or so and they haven't even been able to get eyes on one. They might get honked in the bush by them because the Samba population has grown quite a lot recently. And so your encounters, like the likelihood of encounters is quite high, but there's still a lot of people that's like, man, I just don't see him. They're like, hear him, I just don't see him. What am I doing wrong? And like, how long you been hunting? Like two years, three years. I'm like, don't worry, the air will come. So some people get lucky and with all the education stuff out there as well, like it's sort of fast tracking a lot of people's progress. But it is what you make of it. Like obviously we're lucky here where we are. We can harvest whatever we want.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's getting a lot better.

speaker-1: But like for me, we eat it. That's our core meat in our house. So for me to be able to shoot a hind on a really tricky hunt, I've some super memorable hunts. Yeah.

speaker-0: And like even when we glassed him up, that was high and that we saw like I shot, you know, I got two of them yesterday and such a cool thing when you first see like a sandbar like walking around and like just like the terrain they're in. Like you can see it kind of with your naked eye but like once you lock eyes on it and look at them like I just kept saying like think multiple times like these deer are so pretty. Like the ears, the coloration on their face like Their hide is kind of like, it's pretty rough. It's not like a soft hide. It feels like it's like, like.

speaker-1: Yeah, it's quite coarse. it's quite coarse. Yeah. Sorry, had coffee stuck in my throat.

speaker-0: Or you just saw the loss.

speaker-1: Hopefully not. not. No, will feel like the hair is quite coarse. ⁓ It holds quite a lot of dirt. And you'll also see like we get from like dark, dark brown to like light, like blacks and stuff as well. But yeah, they just vary so much. Yeah.

speaker-0: It seems like right now too like majority of the stags that we've seen are all in velvet still. So that I wonder if that's like Maybe reason we're not seeing a lot of them maybe because they're just wanting to like lay low a little bit or they're in the timber feeding or they don't want to be in some thick stuff and like damaging their velvet because like I wonder if there is different strategies of hunting them like right now when they're in velvet compared to later on when they get what it's called polished out polished out

speaker-1: polished out, yeah.

speaker-0: I'm remembering most of the lingo right now. I have a list of notes going on right now on my phone. I've like terms that I'm going to take back and polished out.

speaker-1: Polished out, that's our big thing, like polished out stag.

speaker-0: That's a fun term. It's like, why would I say like hard antlered or horn horned or like ivory tips? Like you say polished out.

speaker-1: We do go through those processes though, like we're saying, like velvet, a lot of the, a lot of the biggest sags they find we're in that super early stage of velvet. They won't want to be pushing around in all that thick timber. they tend to sort of go up into those higher elevations where they can just browse above it a lot of the time. And that way they're still getting the feed they need. They can still find shelter if they need, but they're just, they're not worried about bashing around and damaging their antlers sort of thing. But then that's when they sort of get like. What we call stripping velvet, which is when they get into that new stage and they're like thrashing everything and then polished out. yeah, getting them when they're polished out, that's sick.

speaker-0: One thing I was blown away to when we were at Was it Rob's place? We're at the knife maker and I got a hold the sandbar antler for the first time I did not know how dense and heavy Antler is from a sandbar. Mmm, like the one right behind you like I guarantee you that weighs more just one side of it and then like a 310 inch bull

speaker-1: Yeah, it's...

speaker-0: Like it is so dense and it's such a compact little thing. It's heavy. It's super cool. It doesn't seem like they would break very often, like fighting and stuff.

speaker-1: Nah, you do find them snapped from time to time, but it's pretty rare. Yeah, pretty rare. But yeah, that was a bit of a spin out to hear you saying how like chalky yours get the sheds. Cause we have casties that are in the bush for years. Pick them up. They're still good to go. Casties.

speaker-0: Casties? Casties. That's what you call sheds. I love all these terms. I gotta write that one down too right now while we're talking. Casties. That's a good one.

speaker-1: Yes. Yeah, boy. Shed sort of seems like it's more accurate, but we just say that they've cast their antler. So they just become a casty.

speaker-0: Gosh, my list is growing.

speaker-1: Like I explained to you, everything's just like as short and as simple as you can get it.

speaker-0: That's what's funny about how you guys say everything too. You're saying like, yeah, just the easiest way to say things. What's my other things? I had polished out antlers. Yep. Had that written down. I want to talk about gear.

speaker-1: Don't get me started.

speaker-0: Gear for, like, sandbar hunting gear. Like, what do think the essentials are for it? Yeah.

speaker-1: Essentials, binoculars, GPS, rifle and knife. That's all you need.

speaker-0: That's all you What about gators for these brown...

speaker-1: Yeah, gators. Yeah, that's, there's still like, there's a lot of guys that don't run them. Really? Yeah. But the amount of snakes I've seen over more time, like stood on them and stuff like that. Like I wouldn't not wear them. Yeah. Like you get hit by a tiger snake or a brown snake out here in the bush. It's just like.

speaker-0: think I read something like it could be like 30 or 45 minutes and you're dead. Yeah, you get bit by Brown. Yeah

speaker-1: It's like, you we can carry snakebite bandages and stuff, it's risk it? Yeah, why risk it?

speaker-0: Yeah. So we're get snake eaters.

speaker-1: Yeah, but then obviously like with your gear list you can stack and carry as much stuff as you want. Yeah, but realistically You know, we've done it plenty of times we just go out the bush for a quick look grab the rifle GPS and knife In up shooting something it's just like ⁓ I'll just carry it all out on your back like legs over your shoulders and things like that It's not comfortable. Yeah, and you Yeah, that's right. Yeah, some of us run like smaller chest rigs

speaker-0: You're trying to be like light and fast though in a way.

speaker-1: ⁓ But you know, it's one of things, yeah.

speaker-0: So like, you don't need a lot. Cause I noticed you run like that, you like 1850 backpack? Like you don't need a giant backpack unless you're going to go out. Obviously backpacking would be a little bit differently.

speaker-1: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I guess it's pretty similar to you guys like you have to carry so much water and food. Yeah, so remote. And then if you want to start taking more optics and the weather systems up here, can change pretty quick from hot to cold. So you can go out in December like your high 20s, low 30s and two days in it drops down below zero and you got snow.

speaker-0: Yeah, we're talking Celsius here. Sorry. You're talking ⁓ Fahrenheit.

speaker-1: Nice Celsius. Okay, good. Yeah

speaker-0: Rather you talk your normal lingo, I just want to make sure I put that out there. Yeah, it's Celsius.

speaker-1: So we have had guys be up backpacking in December and they go in with like a five degree sleeping bag. And next thing it's coming to seven o'clock, the sun's dipped and it drops below zero. And then they wake up with snow. So yeah, it can happen. Yeah.

speaker-0: hope everyone can hear these monkey birds. What are they actually called again? Cucabara. For some reason I can never remember it, but I call them monkey birds. I like it. They literally sound like monkeys. Yeah. And they're everywhere. That's what's cool about this too. Like I've obviously never been here before, but it's like everywhere I go is something totally new to me. And it's like the first day in Australia, I was like, I wish I knew what these birds were right now. They sound so cool. And then like I go like a little bit ways further and hear new birds. I'm like, it's so wild to me.

speaker-1: KUKA BAR

speaker-0: getting to experience new things for the first time and hearing new birds and seeing new animals and then like, gosh, you have a very special place here.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, the cookware, I really liked Monkey Bird, I've never heard that before.

speaker-0: No one's ever called a little monkey bird? No. person?

speaker-1: Never. So that'll stick with me. But yeah, now the diversity of the like the bird life is crazy. And like you can just sit back, you hear the different bird songs and like we talking last night, you hear those birds stop and then the night time comes in and you start hearing like the owls and mo-pokes like everything else up to fire up as well. So it's yeah, it's so cool. It can get annoying sometimes when you just want to get a quiet night's sleep.

speaker-0: and then going all over the place. Anybody got like different kinds of parrots and stuff here too or like?

speaker-1: Yeah, it's like parrots and rosellas and cockatoos and yeah, the cockatoos are noisy, noisy things. Once you're in an area with those, don't, they don't shut up. But yeah, they're pretty cool bird, they're cockies.

speaker-0: Yeah. So gear wise, you can go as simple as you want or as crazy. So that's like kind of typical. Yep.

speaker-1: Yeah, it's sort of it's there's a bit of a movement in Australia like you've got your gear nerds, which I'm probably one of yeah Yeah, just love having all this stuff and testing out gadgets and what works and what doesn't work because Obviously, it's hard to get a lot of stuff over here as well a lot of this where they bind stuff in the States and it might look and You know look cool that it works over there, but we bring it over and it doesn't sort of fit our Scenario because as you can see it's pretty

speaker-0: I think we all are collectively gear nerds.

speaker-1: different. So there's a bit of like a subculture with people always like sharing stuff around and things like that. But then you've got like the other end of it when guys like chop chuck a couple bullets in their pocket, knife on their belt. That's all I want to know. Like, yeah, there's still a fair few people don't use GPS.

speaker-0: It really is different. So you got like some purist style, where they only like stocking, they don't like glassing.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, I know a fair few people that the only reason they use binoculars is to find something after they've shot it. ⁓ They just like rifles in the hand point their nose in the direction of the mountain they want to go into and just just go. Yeah, so.

speaker-0: Is there something you look at when you're trying to like hunt sandbar, like how to figure out where they might be if you haven't been there before? Or is it kind of a crapshoot in a way?

speaker-1: ⁓ I guess it's one of those things like the areas can vary a bit but you sort of like take the same principles like for me if I was going into a new area like you're obviously seeing that big mountain range I'm looking at all those little feeder gullies and every time they create those little white pockets yeah there's those or like a nice little head in that basin I'm genuinely thinking that like well I want to get up and check out one of those basin heads and then I want to like

speaker-0: We are not going to fund us.

speaker-1: check a few of those saddles leading up to it. And like, that's a pretty good example, because you can see that sort of two thirds up, you've got those saddles that sort of go through there. So for me, I'm like, that's what I sort of aim to go. If I was going to hunt that mountain range that I'd never done before, I just try to pick a spur. I don't want to pick up, I want to look down all these little gully shoots and get up to that sort of two thirds and just cruise around up in there.

speaker-0: seems like to their mentality of them walking around and stuff is like they hate being in the open right? Hate it. Like it seems like they just like think they're gonna die. They're allergic to the sun, they're allergic to the being away from like a couple meters away from trees like they just hate that right?

speaker-1: Yeah, it can be interesting though because of the canopy. Because sometimes the canopy can give them false confidence. Well, they think they're covered, but we're looking down through it sort of thing. ⁓ yeah. But yeah, no, they don't.

speaker-0: Cause like we've glassed in some of these areas down lower where like I would normally expect, okay, we're glassing this. It's got this big open ridge line on it. Like, oh, a bull elk would come out there or a mule deer would come out there and feed if I was in the States. But we don't see deer in the open at all. Like every single deer we've seen has been in the thick.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it's probably because the time of the year we're hunting as well. Come winter, when you're like really, really cold nights and things like that, you will get them bedding in the open. But they're just trying to soak up as much sun as possible.

speaker-0: Yeah, there's another thing, like you said, sometimes in the morning you don't really go out right away because they're bedded down until the sun gets up. They love the heat.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so like some of the systems we have some systems we hunt and you got to be up at 3 34 in the morning Punching in the dark so you can get into those locations But you get some spots where the Sun won't hit that system till like 9 in the morning. Hmm. So it's like you'd have a sleep in Yeah, lay around at camp because ⁓ you can go up there early and I'm guilty of it We do it all the time. You get up there and just waiting and then 9 30 comes along and just bang, you start seeing the deer and it's like a few times we've been out we're just seeing nothing, nothing, nothing.

speaker-0: Nothing really in the mornings and all of a sudden it's like that Sun you can watch it come down on the mountain normally I'm like you're there hunting I'm trying to glass everything that's shaded cuz like that's all I got like once the shade goes away The hunts kind of over for the morning, but like here It's like that Sun goes down the mountain and then it's like okay now it's game on yeah I get the way to this the Sun actually gets on the mountain in the morning obviously don't want it's not like a One o'clock in the afternoon type so I'm talking about in the morning, so it's kind of warm kind of cool It's like yeah, they just kind of love soaking up that morning some yeah Even

speaker-1: Yeah, and then you've seen like the opposite of when we've been up there like we've had those these hot days Mm-hmm, and then we're just looking into the shade. Yeah, so it's like the you just got to

speaker-0: Yeah, it seemed like the afternoon, yeah, there's buried in some of the shades.

speaker-1: And then that flips again on itself when they come out and they try to get that last little bit of warmth before the sun dips out and stuff as well. you do have to constantly change your strategy, but that just sort of comes with like the more experience you get with an area and becoming more familiar with those areas, which is cool. But I also sometimes like just going to different spots. You get some people who only hunt a few gully systems, they do really well for them. I sort of just like the challenge of just trying to work at a new area all the time. And just seeing how the deer react differently. Because like the deer here that we're hunting at the moment, they act way differently to some of the deer over the other side of the range that I hunt lot as well.

speaker-0: if situational differences between the deer.

speaker-1: And also like pressure is big on them. Really? Yeah, so a lot of these other state forest areas that are like pretty easily accessible, those high pressure deer, they act completely differently all over again. So some of them like start turning pretty nocturnal. ⁓ But then like up here, because we're so remote, they're sort of they're acting the way deer should act.

speaker-0: Yeah, I love hunting deer like that. Like I always say back in the States, I'd rather go like further in the mountains like then hunt like near trailhead or closer to a road or whatever. I know you can kill deer everywhere. Yeah. But it feels unique and fun when you can hunt deer acting like actual deer. Yeah. Yeah. Like you can watch their behavior not like running around trying to like hide really quickly. It's like, you know, you're hunting them how they should be hunted in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Not like fully low pressure. It's not like it's like some weird easy hunt type thing, but it's like that is deer doing deer thing.

speaker-1: Yeah, and that's sort of where we had a lot of our success the other day because like those first few days the weather was just all over the place like huge wind gusts and stuff like that. It was just really really hard to dial them in. Look we're still seeing deer and we had a couple opportunities to get set up on them. But then when we had that super like we were packing up and we had that beautiful still night the stars were out we could feel that temperature and we were saying like tomorrow like deer are gonna be doing deer things and we went out and it was like textbook. So it was awesome to see them do that shift.

speaker-0: It was like pretty instant too. We got down there, just hiked a little bit, looked at the spot we were a couple days ago, and boom, there was a big sandbar just standing there, all gorgeous.

speaker-1: Yeah, doing exactly what we hoped that we'd do.

speaker-0: We literally talked about the night before, like, tomorrow's gonna be a good morning. Like all the conditions just lined up. Obviously we had seen him before too, so we knew the area to go into. Yeah. But yeah, even setting up on those things, like that was really cool. Yeah.

speaker-1: That was a cool morning. That was a good morning that turned into a long day. But it was a fun day.

speaker-0: Yeah, like even like when Luke laid down trying to get Luke his sandbar and then after he shot, other two kind of stood around. So it's like, and I'm jumping on the gun and it's like,

speaker-1: Yeah, I can't believe the way that unfolded. Yeah

speaker-0: Like that was like I always think you get one shot and then animals are gonna be like fully gone But like even though how thick it was like we were still able to pick him up and that's what I kind of relate this to Is mule deer hunting like yeah, that was picture perfect I'm one of my mule deer hunting areas and one of my like spring bear hunting areas. Okay You have like a little river system. You got like super steep cliffs and it's a little bit more open but like They can kind of hide but then it kind of can't can't hide really. So I got for even Luke shot and I thought, ⁓ it's going to be done. Like, ⁓ no, they're, they're still moving the way through. They're kind of don't know what's going on in a sense. And I think that river system kind of helped us to probably they didn't hear as much like maybe the shop breaking. Yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah Yeah, I think the river that running river helps us as well as that sort of like fork in the gully. Yeah, the sound you could sort of see them like trying to work out where it had come from. And obviously then they're sort of starting to walk around looking for cover, but because that angle we had on them, it always doing was presenting more shot opportunities for us. So I would say that was wild. I can't believe it unfolded the way it did. It was just.

speaker-0: Yeah, I just laid down a gun we ranged you called the range for me. You told me what to dial and then yet pressed off one perfect shot hit that one He rolled and died and then the other one was still running down the mountain and stopped perfectly So like well, I don't have to adjust anything at all and touch that one off and then unfortunately that one Did a little humbling down the down the cliffs and somehow ended up on the river Yeah, that was a long ways up and I felt really bad. I always hate when animals come but like it was already dead. like, it just shows how steep that country

speaker-1: I don't think you can do it justice by looking at the mountain. No.

speaker-0: ⁓ you never came with a video camera or just like a photo can ever do that country is deep. I think you even said like the day before, like we go kill something on that side. It's going to be a complete.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, and that's the thing about sometimes you're shooting we've had a few instances where guys have like lost really big trophy stags that have been like bedded on a bench and they've shot and that they've essentially hopped up off the bench but then they just tumble and they just go all the way down they'll snap off antlers and stuff but also sometimes they just never found as well we get a lot of like this big bluff country yeah the bluffs can drop 100 odd meters ⁓ and sometimes a deer will just hang out on those ledges and there's probably been a lot of deer that get shot and they go to run and they just run off the bluff.

speaker-0: You can see it too, like even you get in on that face, like I'm it's open in some areas that we were hunting, which made it more conducive to actually shooting them, but it's thick as well. Yes. Like it feels like you could be like, I don't know, really close to a dead deer and keep walking past it constantly because like the brush in that country just like seems like it eats stuff up.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And you could say sort of like when they pile up, especially if they've rolled down, they sort of like wedge up like in that dead fall. And when you're trying to look up, they're just completely invisible. What the guys were having a hard time for us in the spotting scope. Yeah. But once again, it's like that condition that you view at and shoot at. Once you get over there, you're like, this is actually really, really hard. Yeah. And especially like sometimes when they're like dying, the way they do is the way they get shot. you don't get the opportunity to find a blood trail. So you might find like one or two little role marks and you just gotta be like, well, they might've gone down that way. Yeah. Yeah.

speaker-0: That was like that second one I shot we had seen like that little blood spot We walked over that cliff edge and saw a little bit of hair and then we saw a little more hair down the next watch like I think Drew said like I think that one might have gone all the way down to the river. Yeah We had already climbed like halfway up the mountain too. And it's like the river's a long way down there. Yep, but just so steep and that's why like even before we made that Walk over or hike over to go look for like we took so many like reference photos. Yeah

speaker-1: Yeah, there's a good idea when you guys did that because you always think you've got a good mental picture of it and once you get over there and trying to have people talk you in on things and like what do mean I'm near the big rock like these big rocks They're like no the other big rock and yeah, it has us walking up and down the mountain and stuff like that But um, that was good because then we could you know, you're saying is there three rocks there? They're like, oh no, it's this tree. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was a pretty good idea

speaker-0: Big Rocks everywhere. sandbar hunting I can see why you're addicted to it.

speaker-1: Yeah, no, it's good fun. It's good fun.

speaker-0: And it's just like so many other critters we're seeing too. At first, like I can tell you day one, I was so excited to see a kangaroo. And now I've seen like, I don't know, creeping up to like thousand kangaroos. And then you got wombats, but else we got running around everywhere. ⁓

speaker-1: Yeah, are so many. that you've seen. Oh well there's the possums. Yeah the bush tail possum.

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, we saw possums. And you guys with possums are way cooler than our possums.

speaker-1: Yeah, we got to like there's the brush tail and the ring tail. So those ones are the brush tail. They're pretty cool. They're a pretty cool thing. Yeah. Wallabies, a few different types of wallabies up here. Yeah. The kidneys, you haven't seen any of the kidneys yet. Oh, what are they? They're like a little spiky, like a little spiky version of a wombat that has like a long nose. hedgehog? Yeah. A kind of dog? I guess so. Okay. They're pretty cool. The koalas, which hopefully we can go find.

speaker-0: It's a wall of these? Yeah. Vag. While we were driving you kept saying to look in little crotches of the trees and I'm trying to find a koala. I think that'd be so cool to see.

speaker-1: There's a lot up here. They're even tricky to find in the samba. Yeah But yeah, like I said as I'm driving I'm constantly looking at those overhanging trees because yeah, the coils are cool, especially up here There's like hanging out all day, but they're just so hard to find because they don't move. Yeah. Yeah, they're hanging out

speaker-0: We're seeing some pigs.

speaker-1: Yeah, seen a couple of pigs.

speaker-0: This was crazy to me though, was like, the pigs are really elusive here.

speaker-1: Yeah, they're probably some people saying they're harder to find than Samba. Yeah, that's that's the mountain pigs we're talking about. We got a lot of other pigs in Australia and they also have different characteristics. But once you get up into these like these high country mountains, they're so elusive because they live in all this dogwood and stuff like that. And you just you just can't find it. Yeah.

speaker-0: If we were on opposite hillside and I'm trying to glass this, you would not see it because of the understory. All that, you know, the dogwood and stuff, you just block them.

speaker-1: You can hear him though. And there's a lot of times that like when you might be bush talking in an area like putting in a hunt in these gullies, for instance, and you can just start smelling them and you like look around, there'll be pigs on everywhere. all of a sudden you're like picking up that scent. You're like, no, I actually think that here. And sometimes if you sit down, you can hear him like grunting around and like you hear him rooting around and stuff like that. And then that can switch the hunt as well a little bit. Sometimes you want to sort of go after those because we've had instances where we were coming down and we might've like seen some like same one and maybe shot one and next thing there's like 30 of them running around and they just explode out of nowhere yeah it's pretty it's a pretty cool experience

speaker-0: They have giant tusks too, like they have way bigger tusks than...

speaker-1: Yeah. You guys are saying you only get like one inch.

speaker-0: Like one inch maybe two inch to us, but like a lot of photos obviously they're good sized pigs, too But like you guys get the ones that like stick way

speaker-1: Yeah, big chompers. Yeah, and they just sit there just cracking at them and sharpening and stuff like that. yeah, some of the pig hunters have got some pretty nasty scars on their legs and things like that from encounters of pigs. And I know guys have sometimes even going to like grab them and like cut their hand and stuff like that. after they've, yeah, it be like taking a jaw out or something like that. And I don't know, like cutting their hands on the, on the tusks. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's wild to think that like, you just hear like you guys say like hog hunting or whatever it is. Yeah. But you've got like these little, these little. Yeah. But like we can, like that pig we got yesterday, you can get one that's that size and have huge hooks. Or like he was like fairly small. only had like, you know, he's like an inch or so long. But it's hard to gauge him off the body size sort of thing. So.

speaker-0: So they're like giant bodies, like, I'm like, you should have bigger tusks. James, I gotta ask you another really important question. Why does it seem like people here love big guns?

speaker-1: Big cartridges. Big cartridges. ⁓ Because they work.

speaker-0: See that's answer I always give to and I get made fun of on the internet

speaker-1: Yeah, well, I guess they're gonna have to line me up to get made fun of but

speaker-0: Because you know, like I shot all my stuff right now, you have a 300 wind mag. The 300 wind mag shoots so well. we could see the instant result. Like you put a bullet in the right spot, but like it crushes everything we've shot at it.

speaker-1: 300 wind mag, like I love it. For this type of hunting, it does everything I need it to do. It'll stop deer, obviously paired with the right projectile. I use the 200 grain ELDX. I've found that they perform on deer, like literally at 10 meters and out to as far as you can shoot them, know? Because our conditions vary so well. So it's all about having that knock down stopping power. You might have to shoot a big boar. you might be shooting a big stag or even just a samba. You see the samba are pretty hardy. They take a hit. So for us, it's like that 30 cal, it's just such a no brainer. It gets to where it needs to go. It hits hard and it just turns them off.

speaker-0: We were discussing the whole like small cartridge caliber weird situation that's going on in United States. Everyone wants to shoot it with the minimum like gun possible. And I was like, oh, velocity is everything. Speed, speed, speed. And then like you guys here like, no, we shoot the biggest gun. And guns are the way to go here in Australia. Like even the other guy over here at 338.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. He's like... Yeah, three threat lap. There's a whole heap of guys. There's a lot of big high country sand behind us. It's you three threat edge, wildcats, laps, the whole thing. But they're shooting, you know, 300 grand projectiles and stuff like that. And they just want to hit hard because on some of these big trophy stags, you're going to have that one shot and that shot might never come again.

speaker-0: That's what I always say too. You get one chance and you wanna do everything right, so why not have a gun that's capable for any situation, any condition, wind, whatever it is, courting away, courting to you, you have to blow it right through the front shoulder. Why risk it and have something that potentially is not gonna get the job done? Yeah, any rifle can get the job done. I'm not saying that at all, but it's like. big guns can shoot and you guys were like even making fun of the recoil thing too like

speaker-1: ⁓ man, that's a thing like, yeah.

speaker-0: People think recoil is like ⁓ I can choose something smaller because it's less recoil, but you guys are like no we don't You guys are I think you guys are built stronger than everyone in America You guys are you guys are true men of men I just laugh when you guys talk with Rico like yeah, we don't care

speaker-1: We don't care. No, like the whole thing is like if I'm hanging on and there's a deer in the scope, it's like I'll deal with that. Yeah. Like, ⁓ You can lose them so easy here. So it's like we just want to stop them. Yeah. I understand the argument, but it's just like this is proven. Like these things stop animals. So it's like what? Why? Why try to chase it on paper? You know what mean? Like you're chasing numbers on paper that effectively It may not translate to a real situation. a lot of us, that's what we use the 30 K was like, but you know, 308, 3006 love them. That little 308 of mine, I've killed heaps and heaps of critters with 308. I used to run 180s in those, like 180 soft points hit hard, but I have sort of gone back to the 150, that SST, just a bit more speed. But I've just found that that thing just once in just flat lines animals. And it's just a combination seems to work really well with that rifle setup. But I wouldn't drop under that. But in Victoria, we actually have like a caliber restriction for Samba. So it can't be anything below 270. Interesting. So the legislation around hunting Samba in Victoria is that it has to be a 270 caliber or above. So like the six fives and stuff like that, Creedmoor is no go. Like 243 and all that, small calibers, can't shoot on a Samba.

speaker-0: I knew I would become really good friends with you guys. All that you just said right there, you guys are speaking my lingo, talking about big guns. And big guns at the end of the day are just fun to shoot. It puts a smile on my face every time I shoot one. Guys who say they can't shoot it all day, it's like I could shoot one all day. Like, yeah, you're have to have your protection. That's a given though, with any gun you shoot. Like even a .22, the other day we were shooting .22, it's like, yeah, we wanna put your protection on that. It's like, big guns are still fun to shoot.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, you protect. Yeah, no, I like it and it makes you feel alive.

speaker-0: does. I love that recoil. That recoil makes, like I said, that's a great way to play. It makes you feel alive.

speaker-1: Yeah, there's obviously things you can do to mitigate a bit like that 300 of mine running in a carbon stock which eats up a bit of it, but that's just because it was a featherweight rifle like there's nothing to it. But yeah, it lets you know about it. But that's part of the fun, know, that's what we're here to do.

speaker-0: Toss a good bipod on it like that tricer RP that we've been shooting. It's like just for any sort of conditions out here angles

speaker-1: Yeah, that that bipod putting that RP bipod on that setup. That's just been like the icy on the cake for that rig So it's a pretty basic. It's not like a super. It's just a teaker. Yeah teaker in a carbon stock, but Just that platform with that new truss RP. It's just been like game changer. It's Dead flat feel like you're shooting off a bench

speaker-0: It really does. And they just built in the bipod too. That one shot on my Sambar, that rock was kind of arced over, so I had one bipod short on the angle. The other one, had it really long, trying to grip that whole thing, and then with those little feet on the end of it too. Even though the rock had some, if I recall, had some mossy stuff on it. So it was a little bit of grip, being able to straddle that whole rock, be able lay on that, be able get prone, and then your whole platform is set up really, really well. I really do like that stuff on your rifle.

speaker-1: Yes, that's done by an Australian guy, Precision Defense Industries. That one's been around, you know, that's been carried a lot. He's just done a new gen of that, it just, it functions well. Like you sort of look at it you think, oh, it's like a heavy thing, but you pick it up and like, I carry this thing around all day.

speaker-0: I was blown away with it. is a light setup. The recoil, again, it's like, you don't feel it being a light setup. Like it actually shoots really well. It's not like it's one of those things where it's like super lightweight and doesn't shoot. Yours is lightweight but shoots.

speaker-1: Yeah, it's a lot set up. Yeah, and the fact that like it's dialed in for me, I've literally been able to hand you that rifle. And so here's the dialer. And both guys shot animals.

speaker-0: Yeah, shot one shot and I literally smashed the bullseye with it like that half.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's right went and checked it. I'm like go shoot zero and you shot my with that hit. Yeah, it was like dead center

speaker-0: Dead center. You're good to We're good. Yeah, got it. Just perfectly.

speaker-1: Yeah, no, it's a really nice platform. I can't go past it Tika. I've got a soft spot for them. It's just such an affordable rifle, but the action is just super smooth. They shoot like lasers.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's the first time I ever hunted with a Tika. Oh really? I was saying earlier, that's the first time I've ever hunted with something with a Maven rifle scope too. I really enjoy that reticle. Like having that dot in the middle and having it like, I don't know what Cameron would call that, but then like it's open around the side a little bit where the crosshairs kind of meet in the middle.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, that RS5, I love it. Yeah, it's a floating dot. that was the one thing that sort of sold me on putting that scope on that setup because I wanted to build like my mountain setup that could take me through all those various situations. So I've run a 4 to 24 where normally I'd never ever like the samba hunting here. I'm used like a 3 to 12 kind of setup or I've got like a little 2 to 7 on the little throwaway. But the field of view on 4-POW is so wide. and dialing it all the way up to 24, but just that reticle with that little floating dot and the post sort of lead you in there. And then your audit goes to that dot. But then when you're looking through all this timber, you're not worried about, you don't have any posts in the way.

speaker-0: Cause what I was saying to you earlier is like when I those posts come all the way in, we talking about last night, like it feels like it blocks a lot of your field of view and I'm trying to aim precisely at that end. Like I want to aim at that exact hair, right on that shoulder. So I'm gonna blow right through the shoulder. And like it just blocks it all where that floating dot in the middle, it's like, I can aim.

speaker-1: Yeah, well with it and you guys all had pretty tricky shots. Yeah, were shooting through like, you know We'll talking feet like two feet windows or something like that three branches and things like that dig like quartering on and things like that and you were able to like Slip them in there. So I think with the posts it might block out like a branch. Mm-hmm It could also disorientate with the way the animals sort of facing as well So now that that radical on like a massive fan of it absolutely massive fan. So just

speaker-0: Do you guys have a lot of gunsmiths in Australia? Like people who build custom guns and change barrels and all that stuff?

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it's out of my price bracket. So I don't look into it so much. Yeah. Yeah, there are a lot of there are a lot of guys running around with custom builds and stuff like that. And obviously, there's a lot of off the shelf customs you can sort of buy now. But like those teakers and stuff like that just hugely popular over here. Yeah. Yeah. Because they just they just work. Yeah. So yeah, I'd love to get a custom one day, but it's also like

speaker-0: I have a custom. It goes to show though, like, the Kogwell you're gonna shoot's right now.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's what I mean. like it's sort of that whole thing with like the bigger bullets. Like it works. It works. Why change it? Yeah. Yeah.

speaker-0: Yep, Wusha trigger was a little lighter.

speaker-1: I think the trigger, maybe that might be this year's present. Yeah, get a trigger on it because I've gotten used to it. But after hearing you guys sort of talk about how you run your setups and things like that, and some of my mates that do have custom builds, I do definitely see the benefit.

speaker-0: the argument the other side too like when you have that heavier trigger you can just keep pressing pressing pressing pressing pressing measure it's gonna break over for a lighter trigger you're not pressing much and it's gonna go off on you yeah I see I see both sides of it that's like the lighter one

speaker-1: I'd like just a little bit more.

speaker-0: If ever tried what I've done on some of my guns that are like totally stock guns and stock trigger, sometimes they can't go really low enough. So I'll do is I'll take the little Allen wrench that adjusts the spring inside and I'll tighten it all the way down and just like leave that spring like under tension for like six hours. And then like makes the in there lot like makes it easier to go lighter. So then can back it out and I can actually can make the trigger a little bit lighter. Obviously then I check it to make sure it's safe though. There's a point where like, okay, you don't want to like go off safety and it just malfunctions.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. No, and I guess it comes down to what you're doing. Like some of those hunts you guys are doing in the States where you're in the open a lot. I can completely see the benefit. But once the end, like, you know, I might think I'm going up to shoot off a big clearing bench, but I've got to walk through two hours of that stuff. So it's like, I don't want a trigger that could get snagged, bumped, you know, even though like running all the safeties and stuff like that. A lot can happen when you like pushing through there, guys have safeties knocked off and stuff like that. I don't want a gun going off.

speaker-0: And your bush is thick. This stuff is wild to walk through. I keep walking through and I'm like, I know there's probably snakes everywhere. I should be looking at the ground. But if I look at the ground, I'm going to get smacked by this tree branch from James in front of me. So I'm constantly just looking all over the place. Like, ground, spiders, snakes. There's spiders up here.

speaker-1: Yeah, thanks. Yeah. I was being polite and that's why I was trying to trailblaze. I was getting most of the spiders on me because I know you guys have been pretty terrified about everything with eight legs.

speaker-0: We sat down one day and I'm like seeing you like flip over chairs and stuff and it's like everywhere we sit you have to look out for something that could kill us.

speaker-1: might not kill but you might end up with a saw. It's just a way of life for us.

speaker-0: And we were only here at this cabin for like four hours and I saw two of the biggest spiders of ever. Like they were no joke, like half.

speaker-1: in life. They're big huntsmen, yeah. They're harmless. But they're an intimidating Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I'm gonna do that. Yeah, no, we do have a lot of them in the bush and like, punching through that stuff, a lot of the time, you don't know if it's like all those dry leaves that sort of just through your ears, through your beard, everywhere, you feel it falling down the back of your shirt. And then every now and then you feel it like coming up your shirt. You're like, oh yeah, that's not leaves.

speaker-0: I'm too many anxious, I look at him like... instantly like we get out in the morning of our tents like we don't leave our tents open it's like zip it right back up. You don't want a little creepy crawly crawling in there.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Get like even the ants like we had drew on the first day goes up to stand on an ant nest. I'm like, what are you doing? And next thing he's just got ants everywhere he's running around there up his gaiters. I'm like, what did you think was going to happen?

speaker-0: And these ants are fast. I've never seen ants so fast before. Like you look at the ground, they're just like running all over the place. And then you do like, stomp on it and they just, they get angry.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, and you've got to look down when you're doing your like any of your glassing or whatever it is You've got to like look where you're sitting because you might end up sitting in an ant nest or you find a really nice glassing position and next thing the ants are like Head on over to see check out what this guy's doing You got ants crawling up your back and all over you and stuff like that. So

speaker-0: You said you sat down once and you had a brown snake. I'm creeping up behind you.

speaker-1: Yeah, so that was full on that was Yeah, hot super hot day and just going for a quick hunt myself was gonna go drop off some trail cameras and I sort of like Hiking up this little ridge. I want to get to this big wallow system and because it was Really really hot. I like to get the cameras in when the walls are dried up. Mm-hmm Cuz then I don't have to worry about walking into serving them. So I was just quickly just punching in punching in I'm sort of up the hill. I'm like the fresh rubs everywhere like green rubs everywhere. I'm so like, okay, keep going up. And then I just like, I could literally see him behind. There's like all these rub trees around. So like, I think there's an active stag in this area. And I'm like, okay. And once again, like no water, punching in and going up and next thing I'm like using my binos and sort of glassing around, I can smell this musty smell. And I was nearly like looking down and like the dirt in front of me was like wet. And I'm like, Oh, we're on here. But I was in this really rocky crappy area, which I sort of wouldn't really like to go into. So I was like, I'll just sit down here. I was sort of like my brain had just like, sort of stopped looking for things in the bush. I'm like, I'm going to find this deer. So I just sort of like screwed it off the side of hill, just jumped down my pack, I started glassing. I ended up finding this stag, was in there thrashing around all these waddles. And while I was watching him, kept like he was just in this bush. I knew he going to have to step out at some stage. So it was just a waiting game at that time. But while I was there, I kept hearing all these like dry crunching leaves because the bush was just super dry. I kept thinking I was making noise with my backpack. So I'm sort of like rolling my backpack around trying to break everything that I can break. And I'd be sitting there and I'd hear like these little cracks and like these little pebbles sort of moving. But I was so focused on this stag. I'm just watching, watching, I'm like, surely I can't be making that much noise. And I sort of put my box. binos down and I just looked to my right and all I can see is behind me so can see about that much of a brown tail and yeah so it finally it must have been looking for some shade and it's seen me I was on such a rocky face and it's gone it must have come out of like the leaf litter where it was and it's just come to get some shade behind my back and so just sat had to sit dead still and then yeah sure enough the head came out And he sort of came down. It's probably like a five foot brown snake. So it was a proper one. And yeah. And it just sort of went down the side underneath my boots, sort of screwed it around and wasn't phased by me whatsoever. As long as I was sitting still. then I did the stupid thing. was like, no one's going to believe this. So I pulled my phone out and as soon as I sort of started moving around, it saw me and just turned around and started to come back up under my boot. But ⁓

speaker-0: That's a good way to put it. sitting still sweating.

speaker-1: It seemed pretty relaxed. So I just sort of like screwed it away from it and it just sort of went away. But that was a that's probably the scariest encounter I've ever had with the snake. Yeah. No, thanks. Yeah. But the funny thing about that is after I was sort of scooting away and getting away from that snake, I sort of like kicked a bunch of rocks out and I was just I was cheating myself. I like, that was close. That was close. And next thing I look up and the stag must have heard the commotion what I was doing on the hill. So we stepped. halfway out of the wattle and he's just like looking up, but he was looking at the opposite side from where I was. And he sort of like looking around like, what's going on up there? So I lifted the rifle and shot him. So yeah, that was a cool hunt, but yeah, the snakes can literally sneak up on you.

speaker-0: You're saying that like, you're like, ⁓ you guys got bears, you got grizzlies, you got wolves over in the States. And you're like, those seem kind of scary, but us it's like, we're used to them in a sense. And we're here freaking out about this. And you're like, yeah, we're kind I'm kind of used to the snakes. I know they're around, it's gotta be watching out. But it's like, big deal. And then for us, we're like, ⁓ my gosh, this is like the scariest thing ever.

speaker-1: Yeah, but that's the thing like our snakes are just in the bush doing their thing like your critters are like trying to kill you, trying to eat you. I don't understand how you go to sleep at night. Like we've got this hunt coming up soon when I'm gonna come over there and I'm just like, I'm not gonna sleep. That's gonna be 10 days of me just being awake.

speaker-0: Yeah, especially when you hear noises outside there too. like I've literally been sleeping in my tent once in the morning. I wake up my buddy's like, you're that bear outside camp. You like walk right through camp. I'm like, no, I was out cold. ⁓ my God. And we said a bear can walk in through.

speaker-1: How do you deal with that?

speaker-0: I don't know. If you're so concerned about dying, you're not living.

speaker-1: True, but then being concerned about having a bear pull you out of your tent is pretty concerning.

speaker-0: It's pretty concerning. I mean you're gonna have fun over that.

speaker-1: I can't wait. I can't wait. Yeah, I can't wait I'm sort of a bit pumped up now thinking like I was watching all those videos of guys carrying out elk and like we talked about the antlers ⁓ the hell

speaker-0: density yeah it carries the same bar what call a hyve they are

speaker-1: Yeah, and you go, no they're hollow. I'm like, piece of piss, no dramas. Yeah, you gotta get one first, but the carry out was stressing me out, the thought of it, yeah. I'm looking forward to it.

speaker-0: I can't wait for you to experience that. That's gonna be the coolest thing. Like you said, you're so excited about it, just like we were excited to come here. And yeah, I can't thank you enough for showing us this little slice of heaven here, because it's pretty amazing.

speaker-1: It is. I just love sharing it with people, Like I said to you, I just never get tired of it. And having people come around experience for the first time, just gets me excited all over again. even when we found those first few deer and stuff like that and seen them on the hill and you guys are like, holy shit.

speaker-0: They're just pretty, like the first one, you'll never forget the first time you see a sandbar and you're like, we're hunting those things. Those things are so cool. They can see photos and stuff and it doesn't really do them justice. If you see them doing their thing in the thick bush, walking around, it's like,

speaker-1: Cool. Yeah. And like you're saying, like, you know, and everything, everything's a trophy. I know there's guys out there, unless it's antlers, unless it's this size, like, you know, we've got like our benchmarks, like 30 inch. So there's people like, unless it's a 30 inch, why are you even talking about it? Why are sharing photos of it? But it's like the hunt's so cool. It takes you to so many cool places. So whether it's like a yearling, hind, a stag, whatever it is, it's like, there's an experience and a story behind it, all of it. And there's so much value you can sort of take out of that. Like, and the fact that we, like we harvest all the meat, that's all coming out. And that's all going home. So that's food sorted for the next couple months, you know.

speaker-0: live off. Yeah. bar. Yeah. Like that's your thing.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely love it. So my daughter, she's too like it's one of her favorite meat sort of thing. So yeah, that's just, there's something like, I don't know, it's like primitive in you that once you know you've got that meat, you're like, we're good. We can, you know, we're gonna live for a while. yeah, it's pretty cool.

speaker-0: This the amount of cool animals we've seen I forgot the emus too I saw my first emu and I was like, what are these things?

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, the A-Music, yeah. Yeah, bush chucks. What do you call them? Bush chuck. Bush chucks? Yeah. We call them a bush chuck. They're a massive chicken running around in the bush.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yes, I'm Emu. While we're out here hunting, not here, but while I was here, I also saw a peacock. I've never seen a peacock in my life before. I running around, I was like on someone's private property or whatever, but I've never seen a peacock.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's been some people that like have peacocks on farms, but then the peacock just like takes off in the bush. I think as long as like a fox or a cat or something doesn't get it. Yeah. You can just be somewhere. And next thing you're like, it's a peacock here. Yeah. Pretty, pretty crazy.

speaker-0: You guys have such a wild thing here. There are so many animals.

speaker-1: Yeah, have you guys seen you haven't seen the lyberts? No, they're pretty cool. They've got like a really long fan tail and stuff like that But ⁓ the lyberts can actually like mimic sounds around them. ⁓ really? So different lyberts in different areas they start like imitating calls of different things around but sometimes they get the lyberts near like trucks or areas where there's chainsaws and I reckon there's been like People reckon they've hit they can like mimic like chainsaw sounds or like car sounds and things like that

speaker-0: mimic a sandbar sound. You can carry him around with you, just kind of does it naturally. You can fly over here a little bit and do a call again so the sandbar is kind of confused like ⁓ maybe there is a lot of sandbar here.

speaker-1: squeeze and get it to come Yeah, but you guys we haven't we haven't had a same a honkers yet So I really want to yeah, but the same we generally the home once we're in the bush with them That's a pretty cool experience. Yeah, really loud honk. It's like a like an alert sign They'll they'll generally do it if they've been spooked Sometimes I'll it if they've got you like pinned or if they've smelled you something like that But they're trying to honk and make you move in an erratic sort of

speaker-0: Kind of like a deer or an elk like barking at us. Like that's what we call like an elk.

speaker-1: Yeah, so it's sort of like a warning call. So you might have like a horn or something like that and a honk and then all of all the other deer in the area become alert.

speaker-0: And of like, honking to show yourself in a way, right?

speaker-1: Yeah. So in these like low pressure areas, sometimes the honking helps because like you might be cruising through and your wind's been blown out. And next thing you hear honking, there's actually a deer above us. But then you start like trying to use that honk to like narrow in on that animal. And if they're in these low pressure systems, especially they don't smell you. ⁓ they can just like hold up there. They'll hold up like stomping and stuff like that. Like the stomp one foot. And it's like, it's weird. You watch them stand there and their leg comes up. It's like a spring. It donk. And then it comes back up and they've got their ears just going crazy. But then they sort of like giving themselves away. Yeah. But in like a high pressure state forest or something like that, you'll generally hear honk and then just crashing through the bush. So they'll honk and it's just like get out of town and then you can just hear deer just crashing all through the bush. But yeah, that's a pretty cool, pretty cool thing.

speaker-0: Wow. Australia.

speaker-1: Yeah, pretty cool place. It's a pretty cool place. you've only sort of experienced like this is a, it's so different everywhere you go. New South Wales, Queensland, like all the rest of it, like the hunting scene is so different everywhere around it. We've got to get a lot of, a lot to offer here. Yeah.

speaker-0: People are welcoming hunters. Is there a big anti-hunting crowd or push in Australia? is it they kind of know it's thing and people are doing it for the right reasons, taking the meat and all that? is it just kind of like, they have bad eggs everywhere, I guess, maybe, randomly?

speaker-1: is gonna get that anti-movement. I feel like over the past few years, the temperature's sort of shifted a bit. ⁓ Like obviously, it's with the internet and podcasts and things like that, it's exploding. But I think the whole like, paddock to plate movement's getting a lot of traction, like organic meat, promoting healthy lifestyles, like rather than people going to the pub or out to the casino on the weekend or whatever it is, like your family's going out in the bush, you're harvesting deer, you're eating it. you're healthy, spending time in a beautiful environment and stuff like that. there's like a big, I don't know if it was like sort of around COVID when like you see like all the food shortages and everyone, everyone realized like, hang on, why are we dependent on all these like soup? I'm dependent on my food getting delivered to a supermarket so I can come buy it. Like what happens if it doesn't turn up? And so after that, like the hunting education course that we do, and I used to be a president of one of the Australian deer associations here as well.

speaker-0: Exactly.

speaker-1: our memberships just went through the roof. ⁓ People wanting to learn to hunt because everyone wants to become a subsistence hunter now. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah. The fact that we've actually got this available to us that we can 365 days a year, you can go in the bush all year round, harvest food to you know, keep yourself fed for the year. lot of people just don't understand. ⁓

speaker-0: Yeah, you get to it all year round. You're welcoming to it in a way.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's right. And a lot of the like, a lot of people that do it for this reason, like I want to see more hunters, I want to see more people involved because then there's more numbers. So when there are like, we're always facing like government bans and crackdowns and this and that. But as hunters, the more people we have doing it, the see value in it, the stronger our voices. Yeah, that's right. So yeah, so we are we're seeing it talked about in parliament a lot more. We're seeing a few.

speaker-0: You banding together to help defend your rights.

speaker-1: things get passed, we've just had a historic thing, it actually only opened last month, one of the biggest areas unlocked in decades. So they've just unlocked like, don't quote me on the number, it be like tens of thousands of acres or something like that. But all this snowy national park that was locked out to hunting, but they're having massive problems with deer and everything in there. So rather than running coal operations, which costs the taxpayer money, the deer aren't getting harvested and things, they've actually unlocked it all to hunters as well.

speaker-0: That's super cool, so hunters can now go in there and...

speaker-1: Yeah, so we do have so much land available, but there are still areas that are locked out. Once again, why are we paying these culling operations to be run when you've got hunters that are just itching for that adventure to get.

speaker-0: Yeah, and they want the meat. Yeah, and if they do a calling operation there they could just be leaving it

speaker-1: Well, that's a problem and we get like, we got a pretty bad wild dog problem. ⁓ so all that's doing is then increasing the wild dog numbers and then you get a lot of these areas sometimes when they're shot, they might end up in waterways. ⁓ so it's, not a good look like public hike is going on a hiking trail and next thing they're finding like just dead deer everywhere. It's not, it's not a good look at all. But yeah, like the, tides are definitely turning here. ⁓ which is awesome. ⁓ the hunting scenes just get massive. It's nowhere near what.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: what you guys have over there. ⁓ the like we're starting to be like worked with with a lot of landowners a lot more. ⁓ Like we're saying up here, like some of the landowners up here were like hardcore, like what we call greenies. once actually you talk to them, they understand what your purpose is and why we do it. And that we're actually taking the animals out, we're awaiting them. They're just like, go for it. And yeah, plenty of these. property owners, they're like, we used to just think that hunters were the worst, like, cause they're just programmed into them. And they're like, ⁓ you guys are actually like pretty cool. And like actually pretty handy. So like we come up in a property owner and like, hey, I'm having a problem with this thing. Like, cool. No worries. I'll fix it for you.

speaker-0: Yeah, well middle of the day we got nothing to do. We'll go fix a fence or help. Yeah, we're kind of waterline whatever it be like,

speaker-1: It's like fixing up a gate or something like that for them or cutting some firewood for them and stuff like that. So it's full circle.

speaker-0: You're changing that mentality like I said they thought hunting was a bad thing and there's bunch of what we would call rednecks running around shooting whatever they see but it's like No, we care about the land. We care about the animals. We care about everything we do Yeah, and we're taking the meat because we want to feed our family because it's really good. Yeah guys We saw last night. Yeah, like we gobbled up that whole back

speaker-1: And how cool was like world is sitting around got that backstrap done massive day in the bush Yeah, you know and then you know you got people coming in property owners popping in and like ⁓ awesome like you know We're all sharing a big meal at end the day like it's just it's what it's all about. It's just so cool

speaker-0: That hunting is so cool. It's like the people you meet. Like we would have never hung out right here if it wasn't for hunting. It wasn't for just like chasing adventure and doing stuff. Like that's what I love about hunting. Just the people you meet, the places you see. It's just

speaker-1: Yeah, and I think there's a connection like I was sort of saying to you the other day like My friends my core group of people we just chase the mountains and I don't know what it's about that. it's like if there's something about people that have that mindset and we just like I'd never met you before like spoken once through the DM that was the other day. Yeah, I'm just like you can jump in my car. Yeah, you know, it's just bang We're in the car together. We've just been yeah

speaker-0: We're talking. Follow us here chatting the whole

speaker-1: I think there's something that draws those people together because we live these sort of experiences.

speaker-0: Yeah, you live for the adventure. Putting yourself in cool places. Like I was saying, I would rather go from here and hike all the way over those mountains than spend two hours sitting in a city, twiddling my thumb, seeing all these people walking around. I'd rather just be sweating, walking around, checking all these cool, like even these trees. I've been taking so many pictures of trees. It's just so cool to be out here. And I would rather be here rather than anywhere else in the world, be outside constantly enjoying this.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: And that hunting is obviously a place that enables me to go do that, like, just special, how we can do what we do.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's the thing. Like without hunting a lot of these things, it's like, you know, we talk about constantly. So why would people come here? You've got no, reason. Like when we're coming in, you stand up on that region. I'm like, as far as we can see, there's nothing, nothing but Bush and we can get into any of it. You know what mean? And it actually excises to go do that. But there's a lot of people that just look at it and they wouldn't even take their eyes off the road.

speaker-0: They would think it's like it's almost ugly to them. Like, oh, it's just a bunch of trees. But to us, it's it's special.

speaker-1: Yeah, there's adventure, there's adventure waiting in every one of those gully systems.

speaker-0: It's hard. It's like you're gonna walk around and be like, I'm gonna shoot this. Like, no, you're gonna walk around for days trying to find one of these sandbar. And when it comes together, it's gonna be pretty sweet.

speaker-1: Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It can also be pretty crap when you're walking through that dogwood for a couple hours. That's sort of why I thought we might have been getting it too easy. So I'm like, I'm just going to walk these boards.

speaker-0: He's probably take us on something. It's like I gotta put these guys through the ringer. You give me

speaker-1: Yeah, bit of a sock face, but it makes it all worth it.

speaker-0: I appreciate you jumping on the podcast and chatting, taking some time off. All these guys are probably napping over there. I'm not sure what they're doing, but this was fun. I appreciate you letting us come here again. Thanks so much. Cause like, I'm always going to remember this. This is such a sweet opportunity.

speaker-1: No, my pleasure man. It's been really good having you guys over here. It's been a pretty cool trip. It's been pretty good

speaker-0: you We still got a couple days left, like a day and a half left right now, so we're gonna keep soaking it up. Appreciate you.

speaker-1: Yeah man, for sure. No worries man.