June 25, 2024 • 58 mins
Ever wondered how mastering wind and grass can change your game in bow hunting? This episode delivers tactical insights from Aussie bow hunter Brett Meldrum, who shares his expertise and gripping stories, including an intense encounter with severe blood poisoning during a rut camp in Northern New South Wales. We explore the challenges of hunting old bucks, preferred shooting distances, and the camaraderie of hunts organized by Wild Safaris, where community and top hunting brands come together for memorable game captures. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or a newcomer, Brett’s tales and tactics will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Bow hunting is more than just a sport; it's a lifestyle. Join us as we discuss the local wildlife, from fearless black swamp wallabies to the legal restrictions around hunting kangaroos with a bow. You'll hear heartwarming stories of the host's young son Finn's hunting successes and get a peek into the dedication involved in maintaining a top-notch bow setup like the Matthews V3X 33. The episode highlights the practice routines and family involvement that make bow hunting a lifelong passion and a bonding experience.
Curious about the nuances between bows or need expert advice for your next hunt? We delve into the differences between the V3X and Phase 4 bows, emphasizing the importance of comfort and fit. Brett offers invaluable tips for beginners, including recommendations for reputable bow shops across Australia like Bensons, Tobas and Abbey archery. We also cover strategies for stalking game in open country, facing the physical demands of the hunt, and the adrenaline rush of encounters with larger game like buffalo. Tune in for practical advice and exhilarating stories that will resonate with every hunter out there.
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Music what are you doing to get in on an open
country rooster?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, I use the grass and the wind to my advantage,
like noise from wind and that Ispotted them.
It probably took almost an hourto get to them.
What's long distance?
I go out to 100 with my bow.
I practice Most comfortable isat 40 meters.
For me is where I'm mostcomfortable with my bow.
(00:31):
But the old bucks.
There's no point hunting withthe wind, you know, in your
favor and trying to ambush theseolder bucks because they're
going to walk away with the windin their face.
They're never going to comewith the wind blowing up their
ass.
So a lot of the time here I'llhunt crosswinds.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome back to another episode, accurate Hunter
Life Outdoors.
We're here with the Aussie bowhunter himself, brett Meldrum.
Welcome to the show, mate.
There you go, mate.
Thanks for having me, that'sall right.
That's all right.
That's all right.
We've crossed paths a fair bitin the last six or eight months,
but never physically tied eachother down in the same location.
No, and it all came to a pointthe other night when I had some
(01:21):
clients out of my block, whichis really close to where Brett
lives and hunts, and he shootsme a message and it's a picture
of one of the clients sayingdon't you feed these guys,
because they were at the pubhaving a beer and I wasn't with
them.
The odds of you being at the pubwhen they were there.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I would have went if.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I knew you were going to be there.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
What was it?
Saturday or Friday, I can'tremember.
Now it was the weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, and I think it was Friday night.
They went in on Saturday nighttoo.
They were chasing reception.
They didn't do well without thereception one of them.
He had some issues at home hehad to sort out.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But he said the feed was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I haven't been in there for Tucker yet.
No it's good feed, you shouldcome up.
Yeah well, next time I'll tryand come up a night earlier and
tee it up and meet you out there.
Once I get out to the block,though I couldn't really Like
it's.
You know, half an hour back outit's set up in there.
I struggle to get back out.
I usually tell the clientswe're not coming out unless it's
(02:16):
a medical emergency.
That's what I got the EPIRB for.
I can hit the helicopter buttonif I have to.
That's it.
Have you had any uh medicalissues out in bushes?
Um?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I did this year actually at um this rut camp.
We went to northern new southwales.
I got um real bad bloodpoisoning and um had to get
myself to hospital, I don't knowbloody.
I think it all was a series ofthings.
I've been hunting for 22 plusdays straight and, um, we had
(02:48):
spike right here filming a videoat home for a week and then we
went somewhere else and I wasdoing my hunting, then went to
do another um sort of videothing on this other hunt and, um
, I think the body was just wornout and then the immune system
was completely shot.
Know, because you're up allnight after guiding, all day
sorting meat out and all thatsort of stuff and bugger all
(03:09):
sleep up at four in the morning.
And yeah, I got a little tinynick on my thumb when I was
gutting deer out and that's allit took and it rolled me on the
last night of deer camp and yeah, I got severe blood poisoning
tossed and turned all night withthe hot and cold flashes and
that.
And yeah, I had to hit up thehospital first thing in the
morning and drive seven hoursback home to another hospital.
(03:31):
So that was a pretty wild day.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But it could have been worse.
Definitely not the plan.
Was it a little Havalon orsomething you were using?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
No, no, it was just one of these new spiker knives
we were trolling at the time andI was pretty lucky.
I had to go for two rounds ofintravenous antibiotics and then
they had to cut it open andactually do surgery and clean
all the bone out and stuff.
It got pretty nasty.
That's gnarly, did it scar up?
Yeah, not really.
(04:02):
They did a really good job whenthey glued it back together
because the only little cut theyhad to do to it.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Tell me a bit more about that spiker camp.
That looked pretty fun.
A bit of photo I miss now inthat sort of party.
There's some big names thereand some cool animals dropping.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, that was a really good time.
It was a hunt organised by WildSafaris up in northern New
South Wales there and Zero Techwas there.
Southern Cross Distributors,sporting Shooter, lifco Arms and
Spiker were the main lot there.
The Lighting Company came, I'mjust not sure I can't remember
(04:40):
exactly what their name wasagain, but no, it was a really
good hunt and we had someinternational people there too
and me, jasper, uh, going infrom spike and that we sort of
guided people and gave um, allthese people here and trying to
put deer down had some reallygood country out there, a lot of
good deer and um, I think weguided.
I got on the four good bucksand jasper got four good bucks
(05:01):
as well and um, you know, we hada real good time out there,
like meeting everyone and goodtimes at camp every night.
No, it was good fun.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, it looked good.
Fun.
They're always putting out goodphotos and makes everyone
jealous.
And that rig they had out therewith the Spiker logo on it was
pretty big, the Unimog orwhatever it is.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Oh yeah, the Unimog.
Yeah, no, that was cool, thatwas Wild Safari's.
Wild Safari's put on a reallygood show, A really good feed
and that, and real professionalboys.
They made it really good.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, seemed like a pretty primo setup from what we
were watching.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It was pretty sport.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Was it rifle and bow?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, everyone else was rifle.
I had a bow only section of theproperty that I guided on I
guided two Canadians to startwith onto deer but real, real
thick black pine sort of countryand that.
And yeah, we had opportunities,we were under 20, had a few
good bucks, but you justcouldn't get a shot because the
low branches on that black pinemade it near impossible.
(05:59):
And so now we saw some reallycool critters and then I started
taking rifle hunters in there.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I started putting a few deer on my deck
after that.
What's the importance of havinga bow-only section?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We just tried to keep it from getting shot out too
quick or like spookingeverything up, because rifle
will do that.
But there's a fair few hundred.
There's a few hundred acropatic, but it doesn't take long to
push a deer out when you startletting shots off all day.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Sure.
And then you reckon just onerifle shot will spook them far
enough away.
Because my personal experience.
You know I've shot.
You shoot one off a scrape.
You know you kill it whatever.
But then another one will movein to the scrape.
Yeah that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We had that happen here actually, but up this place
apparently it's prettypressured up there and it
doesn't take much to turn thedeer off and they just wanted to
have a little bow hunting onlysection.
And after a few days it's sortof like oh well, we've got good
deer, we might as well let therifle hunters in there.
And I took them in and startedputting some animals on the
ground.
But no, like you were saying,I've got this scrape here at
(07:05):
home, had this monstrous deer, abloody moose of a deer I call
him the moose and I had a goodmate, jesse Pokey, come out and
he come out and he put that oneon the deck and then it was only
a day or two later and thatsame scrape got replaced and
Jasper took our beautiful buckoff that and then I think we got
a third one off it as well, I'mpretty sure.
(07:26):
But it just depends where itcomes from.
I don't rifle shoot here at alland hardly anyone does.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So it's kind of not really pressured that hard in
that way.
Do you think that they're allworking that scrape
intermittently or it's you know,one guy's or one buck's holding
it and it's only because he'sgone that the others have an
opportunity yeah, that's what itis, because when you take out
that buck, you take out hisharem as well.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So then there's a.
You know there could be sevento fifteen girls there ready for
the pickup.
The next dominant buck willmove in and take that one.
But I spent a lot of years heremanaging the deer, like
shooting a lot of shitheads allthe time and leaving all these
good ones.
So now these good ones thataren't old like, we filmed a
video here with Unspike.
It will be out probably latethis year, next year, and that's
(08:13):
going to be a really good oneto watch, for we put down quite
a few bucks in that video andthey were all old, like old in
the sense they had poppedeyeballs and stuff from fighting
.
They started going backwardsand they were just the dominant
ones but the so much better deerthat came through that.
I sort of managed that.
We thought we'll take out allthese old ones finally and that
will bring in the new ones togive them a chance to breed.
(08:34):
And yeah, it's worked out too,because a lot of these deer were
right on their end.
A lot of them actually gotbashed off their scrapes, and
that by younger deer.
So it's good to take out themold ones.
They've done their job.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Now let the new blood come through I, when I've,
early in the hunting days, Iused to think it was an odd
thing that people would shoot a,shoot a buck pre-rut, because
it never had its chance to, youknow, spread its genetics and
seed uh, but I can't rememberwho it was.
We're having this discussion,but it was more like it doesn't
matter what you do, because evenits son, the tiny little spiker
(09:08):
, has the same genetics.
That's right, as long as you'redoing what you're doing.
The management and the geneticsare of that line, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It shouldn't impact it too much.
It's a long-term thing.
It's not saying it happensquick Like eight years.
I live on this place.
I've managed it for that long.
I've hunted on this place forprobably 15 years.
They've always really been realselective of the deer that we
shoot here.
Um, if there's spikers runningaround and we just want meat, we
won't shoot longhorn spikers.
You get some spikers here.
(09:39):
They've got, like you know,eight inches to ten inches
hanging out of them.
It's like they're the spidersyou want to leave alone because
you know you're going to end upto be something special.
It's all about I don'tunderstand where I am.
It's easy to do because, like I, live here, so you can sort of
be picky.
But if I only hunted twice ayear, complete different story.
You know, if you go to a blockyou're like, right, that's a
(09:59):
good deal, that gets me excited,I'll shoot it.
There's a big difference, likemanaging your herds, and if
you're here all the time, youknow what I mean the other
tricky part of that is if you'vegot shared access with other
people, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It's hard to get other people on the same page,
and even not just on your block,but neighbors.
I mean, the property you'retalking about is probably large
enough that I know you've gotneighbors access too.
But if you're on a small block,a couple of hundred acres, and
the neighbours are smashingeverything it doesn't matter,
then it's really hard to do thatmanagement on your block.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I've got a really good block about two
blocks away from here and gotsome really good fallow on it.
I was a bit disheartened theother day.
I was actually going therelooking for goats and I got the
head here.
Actually, I found the head thatthe roo shooter got and it was
just like I wish he'd never shotit.
Young deer one side had 18points for a young fellow.
(10:54):
It had like the front end of ared deer, like it had the three
times going off the start onboth sides, not just the two.
And I'm like, oh, he shot thisBecause you saw the head there.
Then you saw the feet.
I was like, oh, daru shot it.
Daru should have got it.
I was like, at the end of theday he's going to make money too
, so it's just unlucky in thatcircumstance, but it would have
been nice if a deer like thatgot to live on.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It just is what it is , not everything control no, no.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Do you know what they're getting at the moment
for venison?
The root boy?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think it's just under two bucks a kilo.
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, that's what I thought buck 90 or so.
It's a considering.
It's only half that, orsomething, for a room, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
85, 90 cents, I think yeah at the minute, it's only
just started up again here allright.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Where's the local chiller?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
you know it's uh, sort of near you.
Yeah, right, you're right outthat way.
Yeah, about half an hour fromhere, maybe not even.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah right, I hope they don't come too close to our
place, but there's plenty ofroos around.
There's actually more wallabies.
I see more wallabies than I seeroos.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
They have exploded here.
Yeah, those black swampwallabies we call them.
They have exploded everywherenow.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, we've got sort of two types.
I'm calling one a wallaroo andthe other one a wallaby, but
both of them man, like everyhillside's, just crawling at
night time and mornings.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, you get the brown ones and the grey ones, eh
.
Yeah, and they don't care.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Because they know they've got no fear.
Yeah, no, they don't care,because they know they've got no
fear.
Yeah, no one shoots them.
That's why no fear bred intothem.
And just for the record,someone asked me this on the
weekend.
You can't shoot kangaroos witha bow.
Just to clarify for anyonelistening.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
No, I'm not sure.
I'm a native species.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Can't shoot them with a bow.
No, now you told me off airthat you are bow only.
It's not something I am by anymeans.
I call myself a bow shooter,not so much a bow hunter,
meaning that I'll happily go fora bow hunt, but I'm also
usually got the rifle over theother shoulder.
I don't mind the personalchallenge, but yeah, I'm a
slacker.
I'll take the easy option.
(13:01):
Why bow?
Only Like what's?
Why is?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
that so special for you?
I've been doing it all my lifewell, literally, and I don't
know, it's just something aboutit.
I've always loved it.
I never get tired of it.
I'm even practicing every day.
I never get tired of it.
I always pick up my bow andhave a few shots at the target
and that.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
It's part of me.
If I didn't bow hunt I'd gocrazy, I reckon.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah right.
And it's nice that you've gotit there on your own block.
I see a video you put up on theweekend your kids out and about
.
That was your young fella.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I took our young Finn out.
He's nine years old now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
He's got two, three goats and a pig and a hare under
his belt.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Now, with the bow.
So he's going pretty good, hegot his first kill when he was
seven actually, so you know hegoes really good at it.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What about the other boys Are?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
they into it too.
Yeah, sort of I bought them alla bow and Finn's the one that
really took off of it, the otherones sort of didn't.
And they're older.
But they're going through thatstage in life now.
They're starting to go fromboys into men and they're too
worried about their mates andthat yeah they might circle back
.
Yeah, they might come back toit.
If not, it doesn't matter.
(14:18):
They do what they want to do.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What bow are you shooting right now?
What's your current setup?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
what?
What bow are you shooting rightnow?
What's your current setup?
I got a matthews v3x 33.
Um, it's a bow I've had for acouple of years now.
I did get the phase four, but Iwasn't the biggest fan of it,
so I gave it away in one of myinstagram giveaways and um, yeah
, I've got two v3x's.
Now actually got one.
I use all the time in a backupone because it's just such a
good bow from a from a non-bowperson point of view.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Why is it such a good bow like and what was the
difference when hitting thephase four?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't know, it's just it fit me better.
It felt better like they'repretty much the same bow.
They just the phase four hadthe split limbs on them and, um,
I don't know, I found that Ihand talked to phase the Phase 4
a bit more.
It just didn't feel ascomfortable and consistent as my
V3X does.
That's why I just stuck to it.
(15:12):
No point changing anything.
That's no good.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
There's nothing wrong with it From a beginner's point
of view, if someone's startinginto bow hunting, do you think
that, feel that you've gotdevelops?
Or you can just pick up any bowand make it work for you early
on and then, once you startdeveloping skills, or it's
important to spend time at a bowshop or something and actually
find one that fits you wellbefore you develop a hat.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That's the best bit of advice I'll give you.
If you can get to a bow shop,shoot as many bows as you can,
like I know you'll look at bowsand think I really like the look
of that, but it might shootlike shit for you, like it might
not feel right, reallyinconsistent.
So the best thing just shoot asmany different brands as you
can If the pro shop has them,whatever and then find the bow
that, whatever bow suits you,that's the bow you should go
(15:57):
with and like knowing how a bowshould feel a lot of outcomes
from a lot of experience as well.
But, um, you will build that upas you start off.
Everything will change.
You'll go through so manydifferent changes even with the
same bow.
You'll be playing with drawlength, half inch here, half
there, um, or your knock heightsand all sorts of stuff.
Like you, really, the more youget into it, the more you'll
(16:18):
develop with it and, um, getmore in depth, in a sense, and
that's when you really start tofeel what's right.
Then you might shoot someoneelse's bow and go, oh, don't
like that, or I really like that.
So you develop like, yeah, yourskill as you go along with it
and you'll start sensing thesethings and I'd assume even with
that phase four you were talkingabout, you were still shooting
(16:40):
accurately.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It was just a feeling and a comfort thing, so it's
still performing it's just forme, yeah, for me.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It just wasn't right, it's still a good day.
Thank you really good, but Ijust didn't have the confidence
in it like I do with mematthew's me v4x one that was
all sure.
Just becomes an extension ofyour arm at some point yeah,
like I knew that bow so well, Ikilled that many deer camelsels,
buffalo, pigs, all sorts ofstuff with it.
(17:06):
I had it fly out of the utewhen we were hunting buffalo and
it got smashed up all down theroad but nothing wrong with it.
So it's a good, solid bow.
I've taken it all overAustralia and that and they
never let me down.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
One thing I find from a rifle point of view is
sometimes you walk into thesmaller shops and, as a beginner
as a beginner, you ask thewrong question sometimes and the
people behind the counter cango one way or the other.
Hey, I just got my license, Iwant to shoot deer, what should
I buy?
And quite often, unfortunately,they get sold whatever's on the
shelf.
Yeah, not what's specificallyright for them.
(17:42):
Is there a shop that you'drecommend or that you like?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
what's your shop that you go to?
I've got no shop where I ambecause I'm in a bloody no area.
But if you want to get to broadlike a Mount of Bows different
brands I'd recommend probably goto Benton Archeries or Abbey in
Sydney if you're there.
If not, if you're in Sydney youwant to drive a bit further up
(18:08):
to Newcastle.
Bowhunting only them boys.
They're on top of their gameand exactly what they're doing,
like Nick and Jack Crick andthat they got it all sorted
there.
And if you're in Queensland,apex is up there and I believe
he's got quite a big range.
There's a few other mobs.
There's Far Ahead Bowhunting, Ithink it's called, and Ian
Summers, he's a guru, he's theone I talk to.
(18:30):
He knows all his stuff thatgood about every single bow
because of all the tuning hedoes for everyone.
And that, yeah, it just dependswhere he's based really, but
those would be the main ones I'dlook at.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That Far Ahead Bow bow hunting.
Is he the one who's got a rangeinside his factory unit as well
?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah it looks like that, like an industrial airs
got a range in it.
I'm pretty sure he does.
I don't know him.
I've never spoken to him.
I've just seen it come up onInstagram and that yeah likewise
.
They do days and stuff there inshoots and chewing people's
bows up for them and stuff yeah,well, that's important.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I'm south of sydney, I live in um barrel, midigong
sided, and we've got one inmarool and I'm just trying to
think tobis archery.
It's actually run by a fellowcalled graham benson, not to be
confused with benson archery,but he's he's doesn't have a
amazing range of bows, but canget them in for you once you
decide what you want, but whathe's got is a full 3d archery
(19:25):
target range out there and anamazing ability to spend time
with you and help you set it upor correct any problems you have
.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That's the thing you go to the bigger shops and use
all their sort of stuff and workit out.
Then if you've got to do a daytrip, make a weekend of it to do
that.
Then if you've got a smalllocal store, then you know what
you want or whatever.
And I find is get like this,the smaller local ones.
You get sort of more of anintimate um like time with them
and they'll really focus on youand help you out a lot these, uh
(19:56):
, these fellas I had on theweekend.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
They're very new to uh bow hunting especially.
This was their first hunt butthey they were full of advice
from 3 000 different people.
And that gets tricky too,because everyone you ask has a
different opinion.
Uh, you know, you shoot whatyou shoot.
I shoot a hoyt like onlybecause that's what I've got,
it's not because I've shot allthe others.
(20:18):
So everyone you has has adifferent opinion on whether
they're like ford or holden sortof thing.
Yeah, that's right.
So you've got to take it with agrain of salt and give it a go.
But that's hard when they're$3,000 per setup.
You're not going to go and buythree or four and pick which one
you want.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's a lot of money, eh.
Well yeah, it's an investment.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Definitely investment , I think it's on par with rifle
hunting.
I mean, a rifle is the samesort of money.
And then you've got to buybullets or you've got to buy
arrows.
You can reuse an arrow, youcan't reuse a bullet.
That's right.
So what?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
arrows.
Are you running?
Was that sorry?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
What arrows are you running?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Nap time Nap time.
Crucifix 250s they are 250spine.
We've beenifix 250s they are250 spine.
We've been running them forthree, four years, maybe a bit
longer now.
They're a good arrow On atechnical side of things.
What does spine mean?
To be honest, I don't reallyknow.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
As far as I know, as high as a pound is lower to
spine, it's a flexing arrow likestiffness.
As far as I know.
As far as I know, the higherthe pound is, lower the spine.
It's the flex in the arrow likestiffness.
As far as I know, I don't getlike I'm going to get crucified
here.
I don't really get into thatstuff like grains per square
inch and all that shit.
I just it's the way I startedthat many bloody years ago, like
over 20 years ago now.
It's like I just shot the arrowand it worked.
(21:41):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Like I know, 250s are goodcoming out of my 75-pound bow
Through paper.
They shoot good, you get a goodbullet out with them and you
watch them fly.
I shoot a lot of long distanceat home when I'm practicing and
they fly by dart Sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
What's long?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
distance I go out to 100 with my bow if I practice.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Most comfortable is at 40 metres for me is where I'm
most comfortable with my bow,but I can take it out to 100.
40 or less, or is that thesweet spot?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The sweet spot for me is 40, just on target.
But when I'm hunting I do takea few longer shots when I have
to.
But I do prefer to be 30 andunder.
But 40 has always been sweetfor me.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah With practising anything.
The more you practise,obviously, the better you get at
it.
But it's interesting that youwant to practise at 100, even
though you're not really goingto use that in actual hunting,
even though you're not reallygoing to use that in actual
hunting.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you can hit, you know, buddy a bit bigger than a
tennis ball at 100, then whenyou get into 40s or 20s and 30s
it's like a chip shot.
Yeah, makes those easier.
And what about broadheadsCayuga?
I'm actually been using theCayuga Trizot since it come out
(23:08):
and that is an awesome freakinghead.
I um did a bit of management onthat block the day before.
I took my son there to cockyruns cattle and um, yeah, goats
aren't worth anything there andI used to muster his goats for
him and he goes.
We just got to take him out,otherwise he'd be spending a
fortune on hay to try and feedhis cattle.
So he said, go in there andjust, yeah, smack as many as you
can.
And I, in under an hour I smackfour pretty good billy goats
(23:31):
for them tries us, and it justcarnage.
I like everything I've shotwith them.
It won't go more than 10 metersif you shoot in the right spot,
but they are a very, very goodhead.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Those go good drives yeah, yeah, I put a lot of
research into that.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And they're accurate too.
Actually, my russety in thatbig, wide open country because I
drove so far to go hit one.
The shot ended up being a65-metre shot.
It was the only opportunity Ihad and I was that confident in
the gear and I hit him.
It's all on camera.
I got, and I was that confidentin the gear and I hit him.
It's all on camera.
I got him smacked square bangin the heart.
He probably went 10 metres andhe did one spin and that was it
(24:10):
fell over.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's a bit of a dream animal for you.
Been keen on that for a while.
It was your first one, wasn'tit?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, first time I've ever seen him.
Never seen a rooster.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I often get asked how do you hunt a species?
Pretty fun say when the videocomes out.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Well, I'm keen to see it.
But I get asked you know, whenyou change species or areas and
things like that, how do youtake your skills that you've got
now and then put them in placein a whole new area?
You were self-guiding orsomething, weren't you up there?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, no, I was just on my own.
I got into a private blockthere, 100 solo, um the cocky,
he showed me where water was andlike in that country I was
central queensland, like water'slife, so they're not going to
be too far from it and um, whenI came into the place, there's a
creek.
Well, it's off a ball that runsinto a creek.
And um, yeah, there was.
I saw two hinds there on theway in so I go, go, oh, there's
a deer here, so I also focus myenergies here.
(25:07):
And then he took me, showed mea couple of water holes.
There's only like six waterholes on this place.
There's like tens and tens ofthousands of acres.
And I just came back thatafternoon, walked a fair few k's
along this creek and juststopping and glassing, stopping
and glassing, trying to get high.
It was all fat country likeclimb up trees and that, and
(25:28):
just looking in the grass orantlers and whatnot, yeah, I
found four of them and bedded upand um, hey, that's how it all
happened with them.
And um, yeah, the whole time Iwas there it's the only time I
saw d that one afternoon.
So I was pretty stoked.
It was the first afternoon Iwas there first hunt afternoon
so I was pretty stoked.
It was the first afternoon Iwas there, first hunt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
So yeah, I just put in everything I had to get that
done so and that's a goodreminder to people the old don't
pass up on Monday what you'dshoot on Friday sort of thing,
exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, don't let walk on the first day what you shoot
on the last, and you knowthey've been a 31 inch rooster,
so I was bloody pumped aboutthat open country stalking.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
How do you go about that Question from a listener,
michael Galbraith, shout outbecause he sent it to me.
But you're pretty successful instalking open country fallow
especially.
But what are you doing to getin on an open country rooster?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, I use the grass and the wind to my advantage,
like noise from wind and that Ispotted them.
It probably took almost an hourto get to them.
I got to within about 40 metresit was 42, I'm pretty sure
until it was last cover.
So I took off my binar, harness, everything and I was literally
on my belly trying to just keepmy profile below the grass and
(26:40):
whatnot, because there's noundulation there to sort of
assist with me.
And, yeah, like there's a creek, so I'm like sweet, if I come
in close to the creek, the soundof the water running will sort
of hide my noise through thegrass and whatnot.
And it was a hard crawl too,because it was every cat head
bindi, thistle spike you couldthink of.
Like I went back, I still hadantibiotics from last time I got
(27:03):
blood poisoning and I actuallytook a few of them when I got
back, as all my knees areinfected, my hands, my elbows,
uh parts on my mid-body fromcrawling through all this shit.
And, yeah, I got to last cover,which was a tree where they were
bedded up about 42 meters away,and I sat there for two and a
half hours on my knees behindthis tree and, um, that was
(27:23):
freaking hard.
That's the thing it's a lot of.
It's mental, like somethinglike that in front of you, like
you'll wait hours and hours ifyou have to, and um, yeah, here
with the fallow it's a bitdifferent with the open country,
because you got the undulationsof the hills here in the grass
country and that, and that'swhat I've grew up hunting.
So that's how I've learned itand I try not to move unless
(27:45):
there's a good breeze of windand stuff.
That's when I start to movebecause I know that grass is
making a bit of noise and Ialways watch the deer or the
pig's tails, make sure to wagthem side to side, whatever, and
when everything goes still onan animal, you sort of know
they're sort of listening.
You've got a bit of alertnessabout them.
So there's kind of a lot of itto do of reading body language
(28:07):
of the animals and stuff.
And with deer you can see theirantlers.
They keep moving as they'refeeding and stuff.
As soon as they stop, I'll stopand um, it's just sort of like
that and playing the wind, mostimportant of anything, like
getting that scent going theright way and um, that can be
tricky with deer here or deeranywhere, um, in the open, like
the old bucks.
There's no point hunting withthe wind, you know, in your
(28:30):
favor and trying to ambush theseolder bucks, because they're
going to walk away with the windin their face.
They're never going to comewith the wind blowing up their
ass.
So a lot of the time here I'llhunt crosswinds, and there's
some times you get busted fromswirls and that, but other times
that's when I've been mostsuccessful.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
All right, a few little tips about yeah, no,
they're all good ones with uhcircling back to these clients
out on the weekend, justsomething it reminded me of.
That doesn't again happen somuch when you're rifle hunting,
but when you're close and I'mgoing to use goats because
that's where we're on you blowthe stalk right, the goat spots,
(29:09):
you movement, sound, smell,whatever it needs to be, but
they look at you and if youfreeze they're still staring at
you and, depending on the levelof alertness and the level of
blown you've been, they quiteoften put their head back down.
And then the mistake the clientmade it was just a learning
mistake, it's fine.
(29:30):
As soon as it put its head backdown he started moving.
But in my experience what Ifound is they put their head
down as a ploy and then put itstraight back up.
Is that something you found aswell?
They'll put it down and thentrick you.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, people get into a stare off with them and it's
sort of like you know if youhold out you win.
But they always do that.
They will always look back, gono matter what If they see a bit
of movement.
You can sometimes trick them.
If you just stay still longenough and they finally get over
it and they walk off, startfeeding again.
Or it comes to the point ifthey've smelt, you it's all over
(30:06):
.
They may not run right off, butas soon as they sneeze, you
know it's all over for you.
They will do that, they willlook away and you'll go oh sweet
, how good is this.
And then boom, they'll turnaround straight away.
It depends how heavy they'rehunted as well, what pressure's
on them, and that.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The sneeze is interesting because it'll be one
.
It's not the one you're huntingusually, but another one spots
you, it'll sneeze, and theothers they all look at it and
then look at what it's lookingat and then they go back to
feeding quite quickly becausethey're like, ah, I can't see
what they're talking about.
And then they they up.
But that one, like we literallyhad a group of 60 within 50 of
(30:48):
us the other day and there wasjust this one that was about a
third of the way up from theback of the group and it pinged
us pretty early.
We were stuck in an openbecause we didn't know these
goats were there.
We were just moving through abit of an open country, heading
to a spot, and one come over thecrest.
I thought, oh, that's cool,there's a goat here.
It turned out he was the leaderof this long procession, but it
(31:11):
pinged us and it did not giveup and we outstared it, but it
was still semi-alert for an hour.
It was never, never fullycomfortable like the others were
.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
But we ended up losing light.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
That day ran out and bailed.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
There's always a century goat that's always
looking out for him.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yes, have you someone said the other day too.
If there's one nanny that'sparticularly spotty and she's
always spotting you and givingaway, you should shoot her.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh, you want to.
You want to shoot her, becauseshe always gets you yeah.
The nannies are the hardestbecause they're the most
switched on, because they've gotkids on them most of the time.
Like an old nanny, she's alwayslooking around see what's about
.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, do you use calls when you're outside of
deer hunting and the rut, but doyou use calls for goats?
No, no, you've never bleepedone in.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I sort of tried once, like I'll use a call to stop
them.
If I'm drawn back and theystart moving, I'll go back or
you know whatever, and they'llstop.
Then I'll let the arrow go.
But I've never called one in.
I haven't really tried, to behonest.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, I've got a story to tell you and I've never
done it before successfully.
But we had a lonely goat.
He was in a group in a thick ofgreen stuff.
We spotted him from 150 awayand we made a plan.
We made two steps forward inour plan and there was three
behind a tree that I couldn'tsee and they spotted me and they
(32:42):
were alert, but this other onewasn't.
We continued with our plan andit turned out that those three
racked off with whatever otherswere there, but they didn't make
a sound and they left this onein the thick stuff.
And then we got to the thickstuff and we saw it.
We were 30 and he had movedjust to the other side of it and
then he realized he was byhimself.
So he was screaming and it's anoise I hadn't heard before from
(33:05):
a goat.
And I've heard most of theircalls, but this was literally
hey guys, where are you?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
where is?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
everyone what?
What's happened?
Why is there no one around?
And he'd moved.
It was about 50 from us and wesat down behind a bush and I
just gave a little meh meh andhe's like, oh, oh, no, no, there
is someone back there.
There is someone that stayedbehind and he literally came
into 10 and the client I hadwith me.
(33:34):
It was his first bow kill, justactually hit it, perfect shot,
but straight through this brushin front of me.
I thought he was going to waituntil it popped out on the
left-hand side, but he had alittle opening that I couldn't
see.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Any no unleashed he had an old-school cayuga on the
front and that thing, uh, didsome damage.
Yeah, they did damage.
There's like any animal you cancall in if you say the right
thing in the right situation.
I like what you're sayingdescribing then he's lost in
that and one of everyone elsewent and you make sound of a
goat.
They got him in drag.
So a lot of it depends on thesituation too.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It was young too.
If it was an old Nene or an oldBilly, I don't think they would
have understood my accent.
But I've tried it before too,and it works the opposite they
run.
So it's anecdotal that itworked, but it's definitely
worked.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I want to circle back to.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
You spoke about earlier some of your trips
you've been on.
You know camel, buffalo andthings like that.
Are you changing your setup fordifferent species on the?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
bigger things, my boat from down to rabbits, up to
buffalo, it's all the same.
So I don't really shoot rabbits, but they're like goats and
pigs, deer, buffalo, whatever itis, it's all the same.
I don't change anything.
Got it the shot placement ismore important than yeah, that's
where you hit them.
And um, yeah, my bow is just,it's all around.
(35:01):
So that's why I love it so much.
It's just an all round bow,even though it's 75 pound.
That hell shoot.
You'll take anything inAustralia with it.
Put it that way Around theworld.
Even I reckon Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And what's been one of the harder ones, whether it
be, you know, hard to get theaccess to, hard to make the
stalk on or hard to actuallykill.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Buffalo are pretty hard where we were.
Hey, like, buffalo is myfavorite hunt hands down.
Look, there's something abouthunting buffalo.
I love it.
And um, yeah, a lot of thosestalks are freaking hard.
Hey, like, once they're clearedon the zone, that's it, it's
over.
You can chase them all day ifyou want.
You won't ever catch up to them.
But, um, yeah, camel was prettysimilar to sort of hunting deer
(35:46):
because they're so tall, open,flat country their eyesight's
frigging incredible.
But the buffalo was quite hard.
It was real challenging in thatdifferent country and that hot
climate and that.
But everything can be as hardas the next thing.
It just depends on thesituation, how pressured the
animal is and how hard they'rehunted.
(36:07):
If they're not hunted at all,I'm pretty sure you could get
away with a lot with a buffaloor a pig or anything if they're
never pressured.
But it just all depends on thecircumstances as well, I think.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But I think the yeah when there's nothing much more
spine tingling memory than abuffalo staring you down because
he spotted you at 30 orsomething.
That's good, I love it.
You know with a deer, you knowwith a fellow that they're not
coming for you, like that's notan option, it's a it's away from
(36:39):
you, but that's, I'm gonna sayit's pretty much the only animal
in Australia that other thanscrub bull maybe I've heard of
probably a samba that's attackedsomeone, maybe by accident, but
that's coming for you at some,like that's an option for it.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
That's not an option for a fellow.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
He's got choices, yeah, and we've got less than
him.
That's right, it's not muchbackup with a 75-pound bow.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Oh yeah, buddy, we got charged.
Eh, when I was up there I shotmy bull.
Then I think we got the balland I shot a cow this day like a
big buffalo cow, and they wereskinning it out, taking a heap
of meat off it and stuff, and Iwas on one side of the cow and
Harry was on the other.
And next minute he's just likeoh shit, and he's launched over
(37:25):
the cow and nearly landed on meand I'm like what's going on?
You get bit by a snake orsomething and he just grabbed
his gun.
I looked up and here's thisfrigging bull.
He's like under 10 of us.
He just come in and say quietfor his fiction, and he was not
going to leave us alone and hecame in.
He tried to get us and Harryhad to put him down.
But they're crazy animals.
(37:46):
Like you were saying, if theywant you and they decide that's
what they're doing, they'll getyou.
They're not an animal to messwith.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, very similar situation, but I hadn't got to
the skinning part it was.
I don't even know if I'vespoken about this on the podcast
.
I had an interesting bowhunting trajectory which
involved a rabbit one week, afallow doe the next day and then
two weeks later I was buffalohunting.
That was my entry to bowhunting, with very minimal skill
(38:16):
study or tuning.
Anyway, I shot it.
I shot a buff.
It was facing straight on rightin the little white triangle,
which I learned later is a goodidea, but it was purely just
instinct and luck, mostly luckand this thing turned around and
bled out within 30, 50,whatever fell on its side.
But what happened instantly wasanother one came in and flipped
(38:39):
it over.
A bull that we hadn't evenreally seen like was in the
periphery.
He came in and had a go at thisbull that was having his last
breaths, which I was, you knowthat was pretty crazy to watch
the strength to flip a bull overwith its horns.
Like those, things are a ton.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
They're just tanks of animals.
They're very powerful and veryprecise.
I've got a mate who worked upthe territory and they were
catching wild buffalo and hesaid, like back in them days
they had little tobacco tins.
He goes, you could flick thetobacco tin into the yards and
the bull will hit it with thevery tip of its horn and knows
exactly where that is.
I asked a few people about thatwhen I was up there.
(39:23):
True story.
They know exactly how big theyare.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Freaking crazy, that's a skill and a tough.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Harry's got a pretty good outfit up there.
He's got some amazing access.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Oh it's freaking, incredible mate.
I'm actually going to go backup there.
I'm going to start talking withhim, work out another trip.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I fly out, I'm going up in two and a half weeks, I
think.
Oh yeah, sure, yeah, good toknow, but yeah, not a personal
one.
Well, sort of I've got twoAmerican clients where I'm
hosting, taking them up there,yep, but we're not going with
Harry, we're going with Jaggersin his.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Ardenley Yep.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
They're both rifle hunters from Texas, but yeah,
it'll be good to get up there.
It's a special part of theworld.
Oh, it's magic, isn't it?
I love the comments online.
Why do people pay to shoot cows?
Well, you've obviously neverexperienced it.
Because that's right.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Go out there and do it.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
It's hard to explain the buffalo hunting part itself,
especially from a rifle pointof view.
Not hard, it's not hard at all.
It's which one you want toshoot, but it's the whole
experience.
It's the flight, it's the eighthour drive, it's the middle of
nowhere, it's the people, thecommunity.
If you're in the blackfellacountry or the farm, like at
(40:40):
harry's place, it's a workingrent cattle station.
Um, you know that that farm ispumping with life 24 7.
There's always someone comingin the door for a feed and, uh,
whether it be a you know 300millionaire american client or
someone that's just there torustle some cattle, like that's
(41:00):
it.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's it incredible perception of community, but the
buffalo like you can drive pasta lot of them and that was just
standard.
But as soon as you get out ofthat car and go near them, it's
a whole different story.
They will piss off thatfrigging quick.
It's not as easy, like you saidthat one snuck up on you.
That's right, it's not as easyas it looks.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Did you have a chance at any scrub bulls while you
were up?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
there there was two, we saw two or three.
We saw two regularly and thenone random one.
But yeah, I wanted one butnever got a chance, because
after I shot my ball I don'tgive a shit about scoring that
it was a 97.
But then later in the trip wecome across this other ball and
it was just frigging out of itsworld like next level, like
(41:51):
massive bull, and he offered itto me if I'd have a crack at him
, like shit, yeah.
So then we spent a fair bit oftime chasing him but never got
to make it happen on him.
There's too many donkeys thatwould get in the frigging way
and ruin stalks and stuff,because once a donkey knows
you're there, that's it.
Eh, like they will just stay atyou and just honk at you the
whole frigging time and eh nevergot a chance on him.
(42:13):
But I had some awesome friggingstalks and calling in Buffalo.
We had Buffalo walking behindus and that and, like you said,
the experience of having someonethat can kill you so quick and
being surrounded by them it's apretty cool feeling, it's pretty
surreal.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, I mean it's all part of what you pay for too,
True, true.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
There's not many goats that have gored people to
death.
There is Buffalo, there's notmany goats that have gored
people to death.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
They're not worth being scared of what's left on
your list For those that arelistening.
Behind Brett, he's got a fairtrophy wall happening.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah, I do have a list.
After shooting that rooster.
I'm kind of getting a bitobsessed with the Grand Slam now
and I've been looking atChittle and I'm pretty sure I
found a place not far from whereI got my rooster.
I can go hunt Chittle, butbefore I think I hit the grand
slam, like when you start goinginto, like the chitterland, the
(43:12):
hog deer, which is very hard todo, I'm pretty obsessed still
with bavines.
So I was just I need to scrubcattle and a band tank and
that's all the bavines tickedoff the list, but their band
tangs are top of the list.
Chittle, second sambers, third.
For me at the minute, but I'mstill going to go hit victoria
(43:32):
as much as I can trying to umget a sandbird, but on public
land.
But um, yeah, it's time I startreally looking at either going
chittle hunting or going after abantang you uh nearly don't
have to go that far now I'm inthe thing.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
You uh nearly don't have to go that far now I'm in
the the weird noise outside theum, the sambra pushed up into
new south wales pretty heavilyand there's a facebook page new
south wales, sambah hunters orsomething some stonkers.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Like I've hunted them a fair bit, like I've been in
their country a lot.
I've only seen a few.
I've been a part of two gettingshot.
But at my place actually I waswith Jasper.
It was when he was last here,I'm convinced in the back there
in this real thick country we'rewalking through, I found a pile
(44:23):
of sandbush shit Convinced ofsandbush shit it's too big to be
a fellow and I've seen a lot ofSambas shit so I'm pretty
convinced they've come up herenow.
Well, I know of one that's nottoo far from here that my mate
sent me a video of, and I've gotanother mate who's got.
He's a fair few k's from here,but he's got cameras up and he
sent me a picture of it to seewhat type of deer it was, and it
(44:44):
was a Samus tag that went pasthis camera.
So I'm like shit, they're herenow.
But I want a Victorian publicland, one.
That's a dream, right, that'sthe pinnacle, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
That's what I want.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Having one at your back doorstep is pretty exciting
.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Oh mate, it got me frigging excited.
Eh, so I've out there now inall different spots in order to
fix shit on good game trials andhoping that one comes up on it.
That'd be pretty cool to see,because they've only got fallow
here, so something else that'dbe pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
What about wild dogs?
Got many of those at all Nothere.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
There was one shot about 20 k's away I'd say 17, 20
k's away, because I'm a farmer,I am a part of baiting programs
and stuff like the foxes andwild dogs and that, and we have
a wild dog baiting group hereand all the farmers in this
district or our area, ourvillage, we all get together
(45:39):
twice a year with local landservices and we supply baits to
them and they inject them for us.
We've double shot at 1080.
So we all bait at the exactsame times.
So we've kept a check on thempretty well.
We haven't had any sightingshere, like I found dog tracks
(45:59):
and that, but I assume they'rejust pig dogs because I've had
no stock attacked or anythingand no one else has yet.
But we're pretty on top of themwith our baiting program.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And when you say wild dog shot 20k's away, are we
talking, like I said, pig doggone wild, or no?
No, it was a proper wild dog.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, this one.
Yeah, the howling of that.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
It looked like a dingo talking about, uh, big
high country that's.
You know spine tingling.
I've had it a couple of nightsdown there.
Just you spend the whole timeyou're like where is that?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
is it close?
What's?
Speaker 1 (46:32):
happening.
That's right.
That's like um, the dingo stolemy baby, is it?
It's gonna be a fairly bigdingo to drag me out of a tent,
but that's it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Wherever I was at um queensland, every night the dogs
got closer and closer.
Because I was out there on myown and at one point the cocky
had to go somewhere else, about170 k's away, for shearing at a
different block, and he said youknow, you'll probably be the
only bloke in 100 k radius.
Right now, after I leave here,I'm like, yeah, no, that's all
sweet and I work on my own.
(47:02):
I've had my whole life alone,pretty much like work-wise and
whatnot, and um, yeah, friggin,every night the friggin dogs.
They got closer and closer andcloser.
I got to the point I took a bitof meat off the rooster, like
the bones, and had.
After I banged it out and Itook them about 400 meters away
from camp.
Yeah, sure as shit.
That night you could hear himall going mental down there.
There's an eerie feeling, hey,like you're laying there in your
(47:26):
swag and you know there'sfreaking dogs out there but it's
up there with that buffalostuff.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I mean, we just these american clients have got
coming.
They're not so much themspecifically, but the comment
from americans is, oh you know,we're so scared of snakes and
spiders like, no, no, I'mworried about the bears and
cougars and stuff.
The bigger thing is that'sright?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
the?
Speaker 1 (47:46):
wolves yeah, like a wild dog is up there with.
It hasn't happened much likecomparatively to mountain lions
taking people and things, butthey have the ability to, Like
we said with the buffalo, it isan option for them.
That's right, I feel a lotsafer with snakes than I would
(48:12):
bears and that, yeah, snakes andspies.
I mean they're in your shoes oraround your shoes and around
the house and things.
But you know you can shoo themaway.
It's a bit hard to shoo an800-pound bear away, 300-pound
bear or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
That'd be another hunt that might be coming up too
bear hunt.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Oh yeah, Swapsies for your Canadian friends.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
That's right.
We've got the connection there,so we're sort of trying to work
out getting over there when thebest time is and getting a what
do you call it?
It's not an alien tag, I thinkit is Alien tag that you can
hunt a predator.
I think it is Alien tag you canhunt a predator, I think yeah,
you know hate more than I wouldhave been.
Predator tag, I'm pretty sureit is.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
So that's something that might be in the works too
soon.
In Canada?
Yeah, I think.
Well, the areas we hunt inCanada, which is Saskatchewan
mostly, but I don't think you'reallowed to spot and stalk.
No, that's right, I'm prettysure it's tree stand.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
That's where we're going Saskatchewan or whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, yeah, it's a tongue twister Saskatchewan, and
there's a town there calledSaskatchewan.
Yeah, right, there you go.
Just to add to it.
But yeah, I'm pretty sure, howdo you feel about tree stand
hunting versus?
Speaker 2 (49:24):
spot and stalk.
That's the thing.
If I hunt bear, I want to spotand stalk it.
Eh, I don't want to sit thereand bait it.
I know it just doesn't feelsporting to me.
I'd rather be on its level andhunt it that way.
But when you get an opportunitylike that, you've got to just
roll with it, eh.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Sure, yeah, and I think my experience with that in
the past is I think from alegal point of view, it's
actually not legal to spot andstalk them.
However, because they do thatall the time and just sit in
tree stands, I don't think thebears would know what's going on
.
If you spot and stalked oneLike I think they'd be like like
(50:02):
I think you do.
Quite well, they're not used tothat style of being hunted.
Yeah, that's how I'd like to doit, but I've got to do what I've
got to have they do it, I guesswell, the other thing they do
is they usually put you in astand and leave you there, so if
you hop down and walk around,they might not know I don't want
(50:22):
to get arrested over there,mate.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
Oh back.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Well, the cops aren't walking around in the bush, but
yeah, in, yeah, in Montana youcan spot and stalk.
They're a smaller bear,normally the black bears, but
man, yeah, they're an incrediblecritter.
There's some big ones comingout this year of our block over
there.
So on the international side.
So bears predators interest you, and if you want to go to the
(50:47):
bovines, does that mean you wantto do like african bovine stuff
?
Is that interesting?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
yeah, I'm not too interested in africa at the
minute.
A lot of africa is out ofblinds too.
In it like hunting over water.
Yeah, africa to me saying I'dlike to leave you know, until
you're old and crippled.
Yeah, until I'm crippled upWhile I'm still going the way I
am like I want to do New Zealand100% on this.
(51:13):
I want to get a tar and achamois with the bow and, if I
get the chance ever in the tagsystem I'm doing, to go to
America mule deer, which isweird.
I'd rather shoot a mule deerover an elk, to be honest.
So he's saying about mule deer.
So that'd be like backcountrymule deer in the snow, or if you
(51:34):
can hunt them in the snow forboth days.
I don't know if you can, butthat is, that's a dream.
If, if the opportunity come upto do that, I'd jump on it in
the heartbeat well, I wouldn'tblame you for it.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
They're a pretty spectacular animal animal and a
little bit underrated.
I think the white tail gets alot of rap just because it's.
It's a bit like the, the fallowof america.
You know, the most people haveaccess to it and it's hard or
easy, whatever, but a lot ofthem get shot.
But the mule deer areimpressive and similar to our
(52:09):
rusa and samba in the way that.
This is my experience anyway.
Huge ears, humongous ears andgood luck.
Like that's where they get mulename from, isn't it?
Yeah, well, I suppose.
No, no, I hadn't consideredthat, but it's um, they don't
taste amazing.
The ones where we were inMontana, they ate sagebrush.
So they literally just use sageas a herb.
(52:33):
When you're cooking, that'sfine, but when all you're eating
is sage, it's hard to leave theflavor.
Are you an eater?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
everyone's an eater, but do you eat?
Yeah, live on it.
Live on the.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Eat it every week.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Yeah, I actually got the back legs off the goat my
young mate just shot.
I won't eat like a bigger goator nothing, because they just
taste like shit, like billygoats and that they just you
smelled them.
They're not very appetizing,but I won't eat pig only because
I know exactly what's in themaround here and the worms and
parasites and whatnot.
But deer I eat probably fourtimes a week.
(53:16):
Yeah right, like as in like fora dinner meal.
But I eat it every day becauseI make you know like smoked up
sausages and that, likeMetworths and stuff like that
and jerky all the time.
So I've always got some form ofvenison on me.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Hardly ever buy red meat.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Oh yeah shit.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
yeah, I love it Because you're on the farm.
You might have, you know, theodd cow or lamb here and there
that you can knock.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, we don't have cattle Like I'll kill lamb here
and there, but they are mainsource, or lamb here and there,
but they are main source, evenfor the family, the main source
of red meat's venison here.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
We've got cool room and all that stuff Makes it easy
.
It's nice to hear.
I think the only protein we buyis pork and chicken, and the
wife only buys pork when it's onsale, and chicken we buy
semi-regularly.
But my kids are a bit youngerthan yours, so steaks are kind
of off the record, off the youknow, off the menu at the moment
(54:13):
.
So it's mostly mince you know,man, you can put mince into so
many things.
Oh shit, dude, it's veryversatile.
Eh, it is.
I did two dishes on the weekendfor these guys and one I'd
never tried before.
I just saw a picture onInstagram the night before I
went.
I was like I'm going to do thatand I'm calling it dodgebachi,
(54:34):
which is dodgy habachi, meaninglike three.
You can use it if you want, butit's three Bessa blocks I
picked up from Colburn Bunningson my way down, so you put one
next to each other and then oneat the back, a shovel full of
coals or two underneath it, andthen I cut the back strap up in
like three to five mil, tinylittle slices, tiny little
(54:55):
stakes, and then I fed it backand forth over the skewer with a
little bit of onion betweeneach layer.
I did about eight, eight tinyslices with eight little bits of
onion on this metal skewer andthen dropped it over the top of
the.
I'll put some photos up.
And one guy wanted it a bitmore cooked, so we just left his
on longer.
I like mine rare, medium rare,so I pulled.
(55:17):
Oh, it was so nice cooked onthe coals.
Give that a go.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Next, time you sit down.
I might have to come and crashyour deer camp next time you're
up here.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Dodge Barchie.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
Well, I might actually see you in person.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
If you're cooking that, I might have to come over
and take a bit.
Yeah, well, the hardest partwas making them.
It just took forever to threadin the needle.
Yeah, Little bits on stupidskewers.
It'd be pretty tedious.
But I said, are you guys full?
Oh no, oh bugger, I don't make,make another one Start making
some more, but the venison rump,I think, is my favourite cut.
It's either the shoulder or therump just above that hip joint,
(55:53):
that whole big muscle on the top.
Yeah, that's always nice upthere.
Cooked that up for him too.
But no, you and I are both thesize of good eaters.
The kids, they don't reallyknow any difference.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
No, they grew up with it.
Yeah, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Did your missus hunt or anything, she just enjoy the
food no, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
And she just eats a bit of it, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (56:14):
yeah, that's fair enough oh well, let's uh cover
what I needed, and I just wantto have a chat about your bow
hunting experience and expertise, and I appreciate your little
tips and tricks too.
That'll surely help me.
I'm uh, I'm going to put alittle bit more effort into the
bow, I think, especially from apersonal point of view.
It was just a really goodreminder these last few days
(56:35):
with these guys about how easyit is with a rifle, and even one
of them said if I want meat, Iwould use a rifle.
If I want to enjoy the hunt, Iwould use a bow, and that kind
of reminded me how it was.
If I want meat, I would use arifle, if I want to enjoy the
hunt, I would use a bow, andthat kind of reminded me.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
True, I don't take anything away from rifle hunters
or that, but you can be a hellof a lot more selective with a
rifle when you're going to bow.
Yes, yeah, like I saw it happenthis year, I watched 16 bucks
hit the deck.
It was the first time he reallydid it with rifles and, um,
(57:11):
yeah, trying to knock a few ofthe numbers down.
And every other year I'll do itmyself with a bow.
It might get three or fourthere you can see.
You can see the difference init, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (57:20):
yeah, yeah, it's an effective tool and again, I'm
not going to take any away fromit either, because I mean I'm
sitting next to a gun safe witha heap in it and I've got one
bow and a heap more guns but andI love shooting them it's just
nothing better than the smell ofan empty cartridge.
But it's if, uh, yeah, from apersonal point of view, I think
I'll I'll slowly put a littlebit more effort into it, um, but
(57:41):
but I hope you need any help,hesitate to ask.
Well, I that and I'll take youup on that, but it's more the
help getting up the hill Iprobably need.
Those hills near you aren'tsmall.
That's why I asked thatquestion about the flatland
stuff.
You know approaching deer onflatland.
That interests me.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Bowhunting definitely makes you fitter too.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Yeah, yeah, you can't get to the end of a stalk and
be puffed.
You got to be ready to perform.
Yeah, that's right.
So anyway, thanks for jumpingon, brett.
It's been good talking to youand look forward to seeing you
down at the local pub yeah, mate, no worries, thanks for having
me.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
No worries, talk soon .
Bye, bye, thank you.
Music what are you doing to get in on an open
country rooster?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, I use the grass and the wind to my advantage,
like noise from wind and that Ispotted them.
It probably took almost an hourto get to them.
What's long distance?
I go out to 100 with my bow.
I practice Most comfortable isat 40 meters.
For me is where I'm mostcomfortable with my bow.
(00:31):
But the old bucks.
There's no point hunting withthe wind, you know, in your
favor and trying to ambush theseolder bucks because they're
going to walk away with the windin their face.
They're never going to comewith the wind blowing up their
ass.
So a lot of the time here I'llhunt crosswinds.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome back to another episode, accurate Hunter
Life Outdoors.
We're here with the Aussie bowhunter himself, brett Meldrum.
Welcome to the show, mate.
There you go, mate.
Thanks for having me, that'sall right.
That's all right.
That's all right.
We've crossed paths a fair bitin the last six or eight months,
but never physically tied eachother down in the same location.
No, and it all came to a pointthe other night when I had some
(01:21):
clients out of my block, whichis really close to where Brett
lives and hunts, and he shootsme a message and it's a picture
of one of the clients sayingdon't you feed these guys,
because they were at the pubhaving a beer and I wasn't with
them.
The odds of you being at the pubwhen they were there.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I would have went if.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I knew you were going to be there.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
What was it?
Saturday or Friday, I can'tremember.
Now it was the weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, and I think it was Friday night.
They went in on Saturday nighttoo.
They were chasing reception.
They didn't do well without thereception one of them.
He had some issues at home hehad to sort out.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But he said the feed was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I haven't been in there for Tucker yet.
No it's good feed, you shouldcome up.
Yeah well, next time I'll tryand come up a night earlier and
tee it up and meet you out there.
Once I get out to the block,though I couldn't really Like
it's.
You know, half an hour back outit's set up in there.
I struggle to get back out.
I usually tell the clientswe're not coming out unless it's
(02:16):
a medical emergency.
That's what I got the EPIRB for.
I can hit the helicopter buttonif I have to.
That's it.
Have you had any uh medicalissues out in bushes?
Um?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I did this year actually at um this rut camp.
We went to northern new southwales.
I got um real bad bloodpoisoning and um had to get
myself to hospital, I don't knowbloody.
I think it all was a series ofthings.
I've been hunting for 22 plusdays straight and, um, we had
(02:48):
spike right here filming a videoat home for a week and then we
went somewhere else and I wasdoing my hunting, then went to
do another um sort of videothing on this other hunt and, um
, I think the body was just wornout and then the immune system
was completely shot.
Know, because you're up allnight after guiding, all day
sorting meat out and all thatsort of stuff and bugger all
(03:09):
sleep up at four in the morning.
And yeah, I got a little tinynick on my thumb when I was
gutting deer out and that's allit took and it rolled me on the
last night of deer camp and yeah, I got severe blood poisoning
tossed and turned all night withthe hot and cold flashes and
that.
And yeah, I had to hit up thehospital first thing in the
morning and drive seven hoursback home to another hospital.
(03:31):
So that was a pretty wild day.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
But it could have been worse.
Definitely not the plan.
Was it a little Havalon orsomething you were using?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
No, no, it was just one of these new spiker knives
we were trolling at the time andI was pretty lucky.
I had to go for two rounds ofintravenous antibiotics and then
they had to cut it open andactually do surgery and clean
all the bone out and stuff.
It got pretty nasty.
That's gnarly, did it scar up?
Yeah, not really.
(04:02):
They did a really good job whenthey glued it back together
because the only little cut theyhad to do to it.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Tell me a bit more about that spiker camp.
That looked pretty fun.
A bit of photo I miss now inthat sort of party.
There's some big names thereand some cool animals dropping.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, that was a really good time.
It was a hunt organised by WildSafaris up in northern New
South Wales there and Zero Techwas there.
Southern Cross Distributors,sporting Shooter, lifco Arms and
Spiker were the main lot there.
The Lighting Company came, I'mjust not sure I can't remember
(04:40):
exactly what their name wasagain, but no, it was a really
good hunt and we had someinternational people there too
and me, jasper, uh, going infrom spike and that we sort of
guided people and gave um, allthese people here and trying to
put deer down had some reallygood country out there, a lot of
good deer and um, I think weguided.
I got on the four good bucksand jasper got four good bucks
(05:01):
as well and um, you know, we hada real good time out there,
like meeting everyone and goodtimes at camp every night.
No, it was good fun.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, it looked good.
Fun.
They're always putting out goodphotos and makes everyone
jealous.
And that rig they had out therewith the Spiker logo on it was
pretty big, the Unimog orwhatever it is.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Oh yeah, the Unimog.
Yeah, no, that was cool, thatwas Wild Safari's.
Wild Safari's put on a reallygood show, A really good feed
and that, and real professionalboys.
They made it really good.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, seemed like a pretty primo setup from what we
were watching.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It was pretty sport.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Was it rifle and bow?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, everyone else was rifle.
I had a bow only section of theproperty that I guided on I
guided two Canadians to startwith onto deer but real, real
thick black pine sort of countryand that.
And yeah, we had opportunities,we were under 20, had a few
good bucks, but you justcouldn't get a shot because the
low branches on that black pinemade it near impossible.
(05:59):
And so now we saw some reallycool critters and then I started
taking rifle hunters in there.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, I started putting a few deer on my deck
after that.
What's the importance of havinga bow-only section?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We just tried to keep it from getting shot out too
quick or like spookingeverything up, because rifle
will do that.
But there's a fair few hundred.
There's a few hundred acropatic, but it doesn't take long to
push a deer out when you startletting shots off all day.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Sure.
And then you reckon just onerifle shot will spook them far
enough away.
Because my personal experience.
You know I've shot.
You shoot one off a scrape.
You know you kill it whatever.
But then another one will movein to the scrape.
Yeah that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We had that happen here actually, but up this place
apparently it's prettypressured up there and it
doesn't take much to turn thedeer off and they just wanted to
have a little bow hunting onlysection.
And after a few days it's sortof like oh well, we've got good
deer, we might as well let therifle hunters in there.
And I took them in and startedputting some animals on the
ground.
But no, like you were saying,I've got this scrape here at
(07:05):
home, had this monstrous deer, abloody moose of a deer I call
him the moose and I had a goodmate, jesse Pokey, come out and
he come out and he put that oneon the deck and then it was only
a day or two later and thatsame scrape got replaced and
Jasper took our beautiful buckoff that and then I think we got
a third one off it as well, I'mpretty sure.
(07:26):
But it just depends where itcomes from.
I don't rifle shoot here at alland hardly anyone does.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So it's kind of not really pressured that hard in
that way.
Do you think that they're allworking that scrape
intermittently or it's you know,one guy's or one buck's holding
it and it's only because he'sgone that the others have an
opportunity yeah, that's what itis, because when you take out
that buck, you take out hisharem as well.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So then there's a.
You know there could be sevento fifteen girls there ready for
the pickup.
The next dominant buck willmove in and take that one.
But I spent a lot of years heremanaging the deer, like
shooting a lot of shitheads allthe time and leaving all these
good ones.
So now these good ones thataren't old like, we filmed a
video here with Unspike.
It will be out probably latethis year, next year, and that's
(08:13):
going to be a really good oneto watch, for we put down quite
a few bucks in that video andthey were all old, like old in
the sense they had poppedeyeballs and stuff from fighting
.
They started going backwardsand they were just the dominant
ones but the so much better deerthat came through that.
I sort of managed that.
We thought we'll take out allthese old ones finally and that
will bring in the new ones togive them a chance to breed.
(08:34):
And yeah, it's worked out too,because a lot of these deer were
right on their end.
A lot of them actually gotbashed off their scrapes, and
that by younger deer.
So it's good to take out themold ones.
They've done their job.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Now let the new blood come through I, when I've,
early in the hunting days, Iused to think it was an odd
thing that people would shoot a,shoot a buck pre-rut, because
it never had its chance to, youknow, spread its genetics and
seed uh, but I can't rememberwho it was.
We're having this discussion,but it was more like it doesn't
matter what you do, because evenits son, the tiny little spiker
(09:08):
, has the same genetics.
That's right, as long as you'redoing what you're doing.
The management and the geneticsare of that line, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
It shouldn't impact it too much.
It's a long-term thing.
It's not saying it happensquick Like eight years.
I live on this place.
I've managed it for that long.
I've hunted on this place forprobably 15 years.
They've always really been realselective of the deer that we
shoot here.
Um, if there's spikers runningaround and we just want meat, we
won't shoot longhorn spikers.
You get some spikers here.
(09:39):
They've got, like you know,eight inches to ten inches
hanging out of them.
It's like they're the spidersyou want to leave alone because
you know you're going to end upto be something special.
It's all about I don'tunderstand where I am.
It's easy to do because, like I, live here, so you can sort of
be picky.
But if I only hunted twice ayear, complete different story.
You know, if you go to a blockyou're like, right, that's a
(09:59):
good deal, that gets me excited,I'll shoot it.
There's a big difference, likemanaging your herds, and if
you're here all the time, youknow what I mean the other
tricky part of that is if you'vegot shared access with other
people, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It's hard to get other people on the same page,
and even not just on your block,but neighbors.
I mean, the property you'retalking about is probably large
enough that I know you've gotneighbors access too.
But if you're on a small block,a couple of hundred acres, and
the neighbours are smashingeverything it doesn't matter,
then it's really hard to do thatmanagement on your block.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I've got a really good block about two
blocks away from here and gotsome really good fallow on it.
I was a bit disheartened theother day.
I was actually going therelooking for goats and I got the
head here.
Actually, I found the head thatthe roo shooter got and it was
just like I wish he'd never shotit.
Young deer one side had 18points for a young fellow.
(10:54):
It had like the front end of ared deer, like it had the three
times going off the start onboth sides, not just the two.
And I'm like, oh, he shot thisBecause you saw the head there.
Then you saw the feet.
I was like, oh, daru shot it.
Daru should have got it.
I was like, at the end of theday he's going to make money too
, so it's just unlucky in thatcircumstance, but it would have
been nice if a deer like thatgot to live on.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It just is what it is , not everything control no, no.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Do you know what they're getting at the moment
for venison?
The root boy?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I think it's just under two bucks a kilo.
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, that's what I thought buck 90 or so.
It's a considering.
It's only half that, orsomething, for a room, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
85, 90 cents, I think yeah at the minute, it's only
just started up again here allright.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Where's the local chiller?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
you know it's uh, sort of near you.
Yeah, right, you're right outthat way.
Yeah, about half an hour fromhere, maybe not even.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah right, I hope they don't come too close to our
place, but there's plenty ofroos around.
There's actually more wallabies.
I see more wallabies than I seeroos.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
They have exploded here.
Yeah, those black swampwallabies we call them.
They have exploded everywherenow.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, we've got sort of two types.
I'm calling one a wallaroo andthe other one a wallaby, but
both of them man, like everyhillside's, just crawling at
night time and mornings.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, you get the brown ones and the grey ones, eh
.
Yeah, and they don't care.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Because they know they've got no fear.
Yeah, no, they don't care,because they know they've got no
fear.
Yeah, no one shoots them.
That's why no fear bred intothem.
And just for the record,someone asked me this on the
weekend.
You can't shoot kangaroos witha bow.
Just to clarify for anyonelistening.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
No, I'm not sure.
I'm a native species.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Can't shoot them with a bow.
No, now you told me off airthat you are bow only.
It's not something I am by anymeans.
I call myself a bow shooter,not so much a bow hunter,
meaning that I'll happily go fora bow hunt, but I'm also
usually got the rifle over theother shoulder.
I don't mind the personalchallenge, but yeah, I'm a
slacker.
I'll take the easy option.
(13:01):
Why bow?
Only Like what's?
Why is?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
that so special for you?
I've been doing it all my lifewell, literally, and I don't
know, it's just something aboutit.
I've always loved it.
I never get tired of it.
I'm even practicing every day.
I never get tired of it.
I always pick up my bow andhave a few shots at the target
and that.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
It's part of me.
If I didn't bow hunt I'd gocrazy, I reckon.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah right.
And it's nice that you've gotit there on your own block.
I see a video you put up on theweekend your kids out and about
.
That was your young fella.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, I took our young Finn out.
He's nine years old now.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
He's got two, three goats and a pig and a hare under
his belt.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Now, with the bow.
So he's going pretty good, hegot his first kill when he was
seven actually, so you know hegoes really good at it.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What about the other boys Are?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
they into it too.
Yeah, sort of I bought them alla bow and Finn's the one that
really took off of it, the otherones sort of didn't.
And they're older.
But they're going through thatstage in life now.
They're starting to go fromboys into men and they're too
worried about their mates andthat yeah they might circle back
.
Yeah, they might come back toit.
If not, it doesn't matter.
(14:18):
They do what they want to do.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
What bow are you shooting right now?
What's your current setup?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
what?
What bow are you shooting rightnow?
What's your current setup?
I got a matthews v3x 33.
Um, it's a bow I've had for acouple of years now.
I did get the phase four, but Iwasn't the biggest fan of it,
so I gave it away in one of myinstagram giveaways and um, yeah
, I've got two v3x's.
Now actually got one.
I use all the time in a backupone because it's just such a
good bow from a from a non-bowperson point of view.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Why is it such a good bow like and what was the
difference when hitting thephase four?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't know, it's just it fit me better.
It felt better like they'repretty much the same bow.
They just the phase four hadthe split limbs on them and, um,
I don't know, I found that Ihand talked to phase the Phase 4
a bit more.
It just didn't feel ascomfortable and consistent as my
V3X does.
That's why I just stuck to it.
(15:12):
No point changing anything.
That's no good.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
There's nothing wrong with it From a beginner's point
of view, if someone's startinginto bow hunting, do you think
that, feel that you've gotdevelops?
Or you can just pick up any bowand make it work for you early
on and then, once you startdeveloping skills, or it's
important to spend time at a bowshop or something and actually
find one that fits you wellbefore you develop a hat.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That's the best bit of advice I'll give you.
If you can get to a bow shop,shoot as many bows as you can,
like I know you'll look at bowsand think I really like the look
of that, but it might shootlike shit for you, like it might
not feel right, reallyinconsistent.
So the best thing just shoot asmany different brands as you
can If the pro shop has them,whatever and then find the bow
that, whatever bow suits you,that's the bow you should go
(15:57):
with and like knowing how a bowshould feel a lot of outcomes
from a lot of experience as well.
But, um, you will build that upas you start off.
Everything will change.
You'll go through so manydifferent changes even with the
same bow.
You'll be playing with drawlength, half inch here, half
there, um, or your knock heightsand all sorts of stuff.
Like you, really, the more youget into it, the more you'll
(16:18):
develop with it and, um, getmore in depth, in a sense, and
that's when you really start tofeel what's right.
Then you might shoot someoneelse's bow and go, oh, don't
like that, or I really like that.
So you develop like, yeah, yourskill as you go along with it
and you'll start sensing thesethings and I'd assume even with
that phase four you were talkingabout, you were still shooting
(16:40):
accurately.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It was just a feeling and a comfort thing, so it's
still performing it's just forme, yeah, for me.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It just wasn't right, it's still a good day.
Thank you really good, but Ijust didn't have the confidence
in it like I do with mematthew's me v4x one that was
all sure.
Just becomes an extension ofyour arm at some point yeah,
like I knew that bow so well, Ikilled that many deer camelsels,
buffalo, pigs, all sorts ofstuff with it.
(17:06):
I had it fly out of the utewhen we were hunting buffalo and
it got smashed up all down theroad but nothing wrong with it.
So it's a good, solid bow.
I've taken it all overAustralia and that and they
never let me down.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
One thing I find from a rifle point of view is
sometimes you walk into thesmaller shops and, as a beginner
as a beginner, you ask thewrong question sometimes and the
people behind the counter cango one way or the other.
Hey, I just got my license, Iwant to shoot deer, what should
I buy?
And quite often, unfortunately,they get sold whatever's on the
shelf.
Yeah, not what's specificallyright for them.
(17:42):
Is there a shop that you'drecommend or that you like?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
what's your shop that you go to?
I've got no shop where I ambecause I'm in a bloody no area.
But if you want to get to broadlike a Mount of Bows different
brands I'd recommend probably goto Benton Archeries or Abbey in
Sydney if you're there.
If not, if you're in Sydney youwant to drive a bit further up
(18:08):
to Newcastle.
Bowhunting only them boys.
They're on top of their gameand exactly what they're doing,
like Nick and Jack Crick andthat they got it all sorted
there.
And if you're in Queensland,apex is up there and I believe
he's got quite a big range.
There's a few other mobs.
There's Far Ahead Bowhunting, Ithink it's called, and Ian
Summers, he's a guru, he's theone I talk to.
(18:30):
He knows all his stuff thatgood about every single bow
because of all the tuning hedoes for everyone.
And that, yeah, it just dependswhere he's based really, but
those would be the main ones I'dlook at.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That Far Ahead Bow bow hunting.
Is he the one who's got a rangeinside his factory unit as well
?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah it looks like that, like an industrial airs
got a range in it.
I'm pretty sure he does.
I don't know him.
I've never spoken to him.
I've just seen it come up onInstagram and that yeah likewise
.
They do days and stuff there inshoots and chewing people's
bows up for them and stuff yeah,well, that's important.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I'm south of sydney, I live in um barrel, midigong
sided, and we've got one inmarool and I'm just trying to
think tobis archery.
It's actually run by a fellowcalled graham benson, not to be
confused with benson archery,but he's he's doesn't have a
amazing range of bows, but canget them in for you once you
decide what you want, but whathe's got is a full 3d archery
(19:25):
target range out there and anamazing ability to spend time
with you and help you set it upor correct any problems you have
.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That's the thing you go to the bigger shops and use
all their sort of stuff and workit out.
Then if you've got to do a daytrip, make a weekend of it to do
that.
Then if you've got a smalllocal store, then you know what
you want or whatever.
And I find is get like this,the smaller local ones.
You get sort of more of anintimate um like time with them
and they'll really focus on youand help you out a lot these, uh
(19:56):
, these fellas I had on theweekend.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
They're very new to uh bow hunting especially.
This was their first hunt butthey they were full of advice
from 3 000 different people.
And that gets tricky too,because everyone you ask has a
different opinion.
Uh, you know, you shoot whatyou shoot.
I shoot a hoyt like onlybecause that's what I've got,
it's not because I've shot allthe others.
(20:18):
So everyone you has has adifferent opinion on whether
they're like ford or holden sortof thing.
Yeah, that's right.
So you've got to take it with agrain of salt and give it a go.
But that's hard when they're$3,000 per setup.
You're not going to go and buythree or four and pick which one
you want.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's a lot of money, eh.
Well yeah, it's an investment.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Definitely investment , I think it's on par with rifle
hunting.
I mean, a rifle is the samesort of money.
And then you've got to buybullets or you've got to buy
arrows.
You can reuse an arrow, youcan't reuse a bullet.
That's right.
So what?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
arrows.
Are you running?
Was that sorry?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
What arrows are you running?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Nap time Nap time.
Crucifix 250s they are 250spine.
We've beenifix 250s they are250 spine.
We've been running them forthree, four years, maybe a bit
longer now.
They're a good arrow On atechnical side of things.
What does spine mean?
To be honest, I don't reallyknow.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
As far as I know, as high as a pound is lower to
spine, it's a flexing arrow likestiffness.
As far as I know.
As far as I know, the higherthe pound is, lower the spine.
It's the flex in the arrow likestiffness.
As far as I know, I don't getlike I'm going to get crucified
here.
I don't really get into thatstuff like grains per square
inch and all that shit.
I just it's the way I startedthat many bloody years ago, like
over 20 years ago now.
It's like I just shot the arrowand it worked.
(21:41):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Like I know, 250s are goodcoming out of my 75-pound bow
Through paper.
They shoot good, you get a goodbullet out with them and you
watch them fly.
I shoot a lot of long distanceat home when I'm practicing and
they fly by dart Sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
What's long?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
distance I go out to 100 with my bow if I practice.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Most comfortable is at 40 metres for me is where I'm
most comfortable with my bow,but I can take it out to 100.
40 or less, or is that thesweet spot?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The sweet spot for me is 40, just on target.
But when I'm hunting I do takea few longer shots when I have
to.
But I do prefer to be 30 andunder.
But 40 has always been sweetfor me.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah With practising anything.
The more you practise,obviously, the better you get at
it.
But it's interesting that youwant to practise at 100, even
though you're not really goingto use that in actual hunting,
even though you're not reallygoing to use that in actual
hunting.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
If you can hit, you know, buddy a bit bigger than a
tennis ball at 100, then whenyou get into 40s or 20s and 30s
it's like a chip shot.
Yeah, makes those easier.
And what about broadheadsCayuga?
I'm actually been using theCayuga Trizot since it come out
(23:08):
and that is an awesome freakinghead.
I um did a bit of management onthat block the day before.
I took my son there to cockyruns cattle and um, yeah, goats
aren't worth anything there andI used to muster his goats for
him and he goes.
We just got to take him out,otherwise he'd be spending a
fortune on hay to try and feedhis cattle.
So he said, go in there andjust, yeah, smack as many as you
can.
And I, in under an hour I smackfour pretty good billy goats
(23:31):
for them tries us, and it justcarnage.
I like everything I've shotwith them.
It won't go more than 10 metersif you shoot in the right spot,
but they are a very, very goodhead.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Those go good drives yeah, yeah, I put a lot of
research into that.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And they're accurate too.
Actually, my russety in thatbig, wide open country because I
drove so far to go hit one.
The shot ended up being a65-metre shot.
It was the only opportunity Ihad and I was that confident in
the gear and I hit him.
It's all on camera.
I got, and I was that confidentin the gear and I hit him.
It's all on camera.
I got him smacked square bangin the heart.
He probably went 10 metres andhe did one spin and that was it
(24:10):
fell over.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That's a bit of a dream animal for you.
Been keen on that for a while.
It was your first one, wasn'tit?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, first time I've ever seen him.
Never seen a rooster.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I often get asked how do you hunt a species?
Pretty fun say when the videocomes out.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Well, I'm keen to see it.
But I get asked you know, whenyou change species or areas and
things like that, how do youtake your skills that you've got
now and then put them in placein a whole new area?
You were self-guiding orsomething, weren't you up there?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, no, I was just on my own.
I got into a private blockthere, 100 solo, um the cocky,
he showed me where water was andlike in that country I was
central queensland, like water'slife, so they're not going to
be too far from it and um, whenI came into the place, there's a
creek.
Well, it's off a ball that runsinto a creek.
And um, yeah, there was.
I saw two hinds there on theway in so I go, go, oh, there's
a deer here, so I also focus myenergies here.
(25:07):
And then he took me, showed mea couple of water holes.
There's only like six waterholes on this place.
There's like tens and tens ofthousands of acres.
And I just came back thatafternoon, walked a fair few k's
along this creek and juststopping and glassing, stopping
and glassing, trying to get high.
It was all fat country likeclimb up trees and that, and
(25:28):
just looking in the grass orantlers and whatnot, yeah, I
found four of them and bedded upand um, hey, that's how it all
happened with them.
And um, yeah, the whole time Iwas there it's the only time I
saw d that one afternoon.
So I was pretty stoked.
It was the first afternoon Iwas there first hunt afternoon
so I was pretty stoked.
It was the first afternoon Iwas there, first hunt, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
So yeah, I just put in everything I had to get that
done so and that's a goodreminder to people the old don't
pass up on Monday what you'dshoot on Friday sort of thing,
exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, don't let walk on the first day what you shoot
on the last, and you knowthey've been a 31 inch rooster,
so I was bloody pumped aboutthat open country stalking.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
How do you go about that Question from a listener,
michael Galbraith, shout outbecause he sent it to me.
But you're pretty successful instalking open country fallow
especially.
But what are you doing to getin on an open country rooster?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Well, I use the grass and the wind to my advantage,
like noise from wind and that Ispotted them.
It probably took almost an hourto get to them.
I got to within about 40 metresit was 42, I'm pretty sure
until it was last cover.
So I took off my binar, harness, everything and I was literally
on my belly trying to just keepmy profile below the grass and
(26:40):
whatnot, because there's noundulation there to sort of
assist with me.
And, yeah, like there's a creek, so I'm like sweet, if I come
in close to the creek, the soundof the water running will sort
of hide my noise through thegrass and whatnot.
And it was a hard crawl too,because it was every cat head
bindi, thistle spike you couldthink of.
Like I went back, I still hadantibiotics from last time I got
(27:03):
blood poisoning and I actuallytook a few of them when I got
back, as all my knees areinfected, my hands, my elbows,
uh parts on my mid-body fromcrawling through all this shit.
And, yeah, I got to last cover,which was a tree where they were
bedded up about 42 meters away,and I sat there for two and a
half hours on my knees behindthis tree and, um, that was
(27:23):
freaking hard.
That's the thing it's a lot of.
It's mental, like somethinglike that in front of you, like
you'll wait hours and hours ifyou have to, and um, yeah, here
with the fallow it's a bitdifferent with the open country,
because you got the undulationsof the hills here in the grass
country and that, and that'swhat I've grew up hunting.
So that's how I've learned itand I try not to move unless
(27:45):
there's a good breeze of windand stuff.
That's when I start to movebecause I know that grass is
making a bit of noise and Ialways watch the deer or the
pig's tails, make sure to wagthem side to side, whatever, and
when everything goes still onan animal, you sort of know
they're sort of listening.
You've got a bit of alertnessabout them.
So there's kind of a lot of itto do of reading body language
(28:07):
of the animals and stuff.
And with deer you can see theirantlers.
They keep moving as they'refeeding and stuff.
As soon as they stop, I'll stopand um, it's just sort of like
that and playing the wind, mostimportant of anything, like
getting that scent going theright way and um, that can be
tricky with deer here or deeranywhere, um, in the open, like
the old bucks.
There's no point hunting withthe wind, you know, in your
(28:30):
favor and trying to ambush theseolder bucks, because they're
going to walk away with the windin their face.
They're never going to comewith the wind blowing up their
ass.
So a lot of the time here I'llhunt crosswinds, and there's
some times you get busted fromswirls and that, but other times
that's when I've been mostsuccessful.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
All right, a few little tips about yeah, no,
they're all good ones with uhcircling back to these clients
out on the weekend, justsomething it reminded me of.
That doesn't again happen somuch when you're rifle hunting,
but when you're close and I'mgoing to use goats because
that's where we're on you blowthe stalk right, the goat spots,
(29:09):
you movement, sound, smell,whatever it needs to be, but
they look at you and if youfreeze they're still staring at
you and, depending on the levelof alertness and the level of
blown you've been, they quiteoften put their head back down.
And then the mistake the clientmade it was just a learning
mistake, it's fine.
(29:30):
As soon as it put its head backdown he started moving.
But in my experience what Ifound is they put their head
down as a ploy and then put itstraight back up.
Is that something you found aswell?
They'll put it down and thentrick you.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, people get into a stare off with them and it's
sort of like you know if youhold out you win.
But they always do that.
They will always look back, gono matter what If they see a bit
of movement.
You can sometimes trick them.
If you just stay still longenough and they finally get over
it and they walk off, startfeeding again.
Or it comes to the point ifthey've smelt, you it's all over
(30:06):
.
They may not run right off, butas soon as they sneeze, you
know it's all over for you.
They will do that, they willlook away and you'll go oh sweet
, how good is this.
And then boom, they'll turnaround straight away.
It depends how heavy they'rehunted as well, what pressure's
on them, and that.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The sneeze is interesting because it'll be one
.
It's not the one you're huntingusually, but another one spots
you, it'll sneeze, and theothers they all look at it and
then look at what it's lookingat and then they go back to
feeding quite quickly becausethey're like, ah, I can't see
what they're talking about.
And then they they up.
But that one, like we literallyhad a group of 60 within 50 of
(30:48):
us the other day and there wasjust this one that was about a
third of the way up from theback of the group and it pinged
us pretty early.
We were stuck in an openbecause we didn't know these
goats were there.
We were just moving through abit of an open country, heading
to a spot, and one come over thecrest.
I thought, oh, that's cool,there's a goat here.
It turned out he was the leaderof this long procession, but it
(31:11):
pinged us and it did not giveup and we outstared it, but it
was still semi-alert for an hour.
It was never, never fullycomfortable like the others were
.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
But we ended up losing light.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
That day ran out and bailed.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
There's always a century goat that's always
looking out for him.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yes, have you someone said the other day too.
If there's one nanny that'sparticularly spotty and she's
always spotting you and givingaway, you should shoot her.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Oh, you want to.
You want to shoot her, becauseshe always gets you yeah.
The nannies are the hardestbecause they're the most
switched on, because they've gotkids on them most of the time.
Like an old nanny, she's alwayslooking around see what's about
.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, do you use calls when you're outside of
deer hunting and the rut, but doyou use calls for goats?
No, no, you've never bleepedone in.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I sort of tried once, like I'll use a call to stop
them.
If I'm drawn back and theystart moving, I'll go back or
you know whatever, and they'llstop.
Then I'll let the arrow go.
But I've never called one in.
I haven't really tried, to behonest.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Well, I've got a story to tell you and I've never
done it before successfully.
But we had a lonely goat.
He was in a group in a thick ofgreen stuff.
We spotted him from 150 awayand we made a plan.
We made two steps forward inour plan and there was three
behind a tree that I couldn'tsee and they spotted me and they
(32:42):
were alert, but this other onewasn't.
We continued with our plan andit turned out that those three
racked off with whatever otherswere there, but they didn't make
a sound and they left this onein the thick stuff.
And then we got to the thickstuff and we saw it.
We were 30 and he had movedjust to the other side of it and
then he realized he was byhimself.
So he was screaming and it's anoise I hadn't heard before from
(33:05):
a goat.
And I've heard most of theircalls, but this was literally
hey guys, where are you?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
where is?
Speaker 1 (33:13):
everyone what?
What's happened?
Why is there no one around?
And he'd moved.
It was about 50 from us and wesat down behind a bush and I
just gave a little meh meh andhe's like, oh, oh, no, no, there
is someone back there.
There is someone that stayedbehind and he literally came
into 10 and the client I hadwith me.
(33:34):
It was his first bow kill, justactually hit it, perfect shot,
but straight through this brushin front of me.
I thought he was going to waituntil it popped out on the
left-hand side, but he had alittle opening that I couldn't
see.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Any no unleashed he had an old-school cayuga on the
front and that thing, uh, didsome damage.
Yeah, they did damage.
There's like any animal you cancall in if you say the right
thing in the right situation.
I like what you're sayingdescribing then he's lost in
that and one of everyone elsewent and you make sound of a
goat.
They got him in drag.
So a lot of it depends on thesituation too.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It was young too.
If it was an old Nene or an oldBilly, I don't think they would
have understood my accent.
But I've tried it before too,and it works the opposite they
run.
So it's anecdotal that itworked, but it's definitely
worked.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I want to circle back to.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
You spoke about earlier some of your trips
you've been on.
You know camel, buffalo andthings like that.
Are you changing your setup fordifferent species on the?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
bigger things, my boat from down to rabbits, up to
buffalo, it's all the same.
So I don't really shoot rabbits, but they're like goats and
pigs, deer, buffalo, whatever itis, it's all the same.
I don't change anything.
Got it the shot placement ismore important than yeah, that's
where you hit them.
And um, yeah, my bow is just,it's all around.
(35:01):
So that's why I love it so much.
It's just an all round bow,even though it's 75 pound.
That hell shoot.
You'll take anything inAustralia with it.
Put it that way Around theworld.
Even I reckon Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And what's been one of the harder ones, whether it
be, you know, hard to get theaccess to, hard to make the
stalk on or hard to actuallykill.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Buffalo are pretty hard where we were.
Hey, like, buffalo is myfavorite hunt hands down.
Look, there's something abouthunting buffalo.
I love it.
And um, yeah, a lot of thosestalks are freaking hard.
Hey, like, once they're clearedon the zone, that's it, it's
over.
You can chase them all day ifyou want.
You won't ever catch up to them.
But, um, yeah, camel was prettysimilar to sort of hunting deer
(35:46):
because they're so tall, open,flat country their eyesight's
frigging incredible.
But the buffalo was quite hard.
It was real challenging in thatdifferent country and that hot
climate and that.
But everything can be as hardas the next thing.
It just depends on thesituation, how pressured the
animal is and how hard they'rehunted.
(36:07):
If they're not hunted at all,I'm pretty sure you could get
away with a lot with a buffaloor a pig or anything if they're
never pressured.
But it just all depends on thecircumstances as well, I think.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
But I think the yeah when there's nothing much more
spine tingling memory than abuffalo staring you down because
he spotted you at 30 orsomething.
That's good, I love it.
You know with a deer, you knowwith a fellow that they're not
coming for you, like that's notan option, it's a it's away from
(36:39):
you, but that's, I'm gonna sayit's pretty much the only animal
in Australia that other thanscrub bull maybe I've heard of
probably a samba that's attackedsomeone, maybe by accident, but
that's coming for you at some,like that's an option for it.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
That's not an option for a fellow.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
He's got choices, yeah, and we've got less than
him.
That's right, it's not muchbackup with a 75-pound bow.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Oh yeah, buddy, we got charged.
Eh, when I was up there I shotmy bull.
Then I think we got the balland I shot a cow this day like a
big buffalo cow, and they wereskinning it out, taking a heap
of meat off it and stuff, and Iwas on one side of the cow and
Harry was on the other.
And next minute he's just likeoh shit, and he's launched over
(37:25):
the cow and nearly landed on meand I'm like what's going on?
You get bit by a snake orsomething and he just grabbed
his gun.
I looked up and here's thisfrigging bull.
He's like under 10 of us.
He just come in and say quietfor his fiction, and he was not
going to leave us alone and hecame in.
He tried to get us and Harryhad to put him down.
But they're crazy animals.
(37:46):
Like you were saying, if theywant you and they decide that's
what they're doing, they'll getyou.
They're not an animal to messwith.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, very similar situation, but I hadn't got to
the skinning part it was.
I don't even know if I'vespoken about this on the podcast
.
I had an interesting bowhunting trajectory which
involved a rabbit one week, afallow doe the next day and then
two weeks later I was buffalohunting.
That was my entry to bowhunting, with very minimal skill
(38:16):
study or tuning.
Anyway, I shot it.
I shot a buff.
It was facing straight on rightin the little white triangle,
which I learned later is a goodidea, but it was purely just
instinct and luck, mostly luckand this thing turned around and
bled out within 30, 50,whatever fell on its side.
But what happened instantly wasanother one came in and flipped
(38:39):
it over.
A bull that we hadn't evenreally seen like was in the
periphery.
He came in and had a go at thisbull that was having his last
breaths, which I was, you knowthat was pretty crazy to watch
the strength to flip a bull overwith its horns.
Like those, things are a ton.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
They're just tanks of animals.
They're very powerful and veryprecise.
I've got a mate who worked upthe territory and they were
catching wild buffalo and hesaid, like back in them days
they had little tobacco tins.
He goes, you could flick thetobacco tin into the yards and
the bull will hit it with thevery tip of its horn and knows
exactly where that is.
I asked a few people about thatwhen I was up there.
(39:23):
True story.
They know exactly how big theyare.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Freaking crazy, that's a skill and a tough.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Harry's got a pretty good outfit up there.
He's got some amazing access.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Oh it's freaking, incredible mate.
I'm actually going to go backup there.
I'm going to start talking withhim, work out another trip.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I fly out, I'm going up in two and a half weeks, I
think.
Oh yeah, sure, yeah, good toknow, but yeah, not a personal
one.
Well, sort of I've got twoAmerican clients where I'm
hosting, taking them up there,yep, but we're not going with
Harry, we're going with Jaggersin his.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Ardenley Yep.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
They're both rifle hunters from Texas, but yeah,
it'll be good to get up there.
It's a special part of theworld.
Oh, it's magic, isn't it?
I love the comments online.
Why do people pay to shoot cows?
Well, you've obviously neverexperienced it.
Because that's right.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Go out there and do it.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
It's hard to explain the buffalo hunting part itself,
especially from a rifle pointof view.
Not hard, it's not hard at all.
It's which one you want toshoot, but it's the whole
experience.
It's the flight, it's the eighthour drive, it's the middle of
nowhere, it's the people, thecommunity.
If you're in the blackfellacountry or the farm, like at
(40:40):
harry's place, it's a workingrent cattle station.
Um, you know that that farm ispumping with life 24 7.
There's always someone comingin the door for a feed and, uh,
whether it be a you know 300millionaire american client or
someone that's just there torustle some cattle, like that's
(41:00):
it.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's it incredible perception of community, but the
buffalo like you can drive pasta lot of them and that was just
standard.
But as soon as you get out ofthat car and go near them, it's
a whole different story.
They will piss off thatfrigging quick.
It's not as easy, like you saidthat one snuck up on you.
That's right, it's not as easyas it looks.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Did you have a chance at any scrub bulls while you
were up?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
there there was two, we saw two or three.
We saw two regularly and thenone random one.
But yeah, I wanted one butnever got a chance, because
after I shot my ball I don'tgive a shit about scoring that
it was a 97.
But then later in the trip wecome across this other ball and
it was just frigging out of itsworld like next level, like
(41:51):
massive bull, and he offered itto me if I'd have a crack at him
, like shit, yeah.
So then we spent a fair bit oftime chasing him but never got
to make it happen on him.
There's too many donkeys thatwould get in the frigging way
and ruin stalks and stuff,because once a donkey knows
you're there, that's it.
Eh, like they will just stay atyou and just honk at you the
whole frigging time and eh nevergot a chance on him.
(42:13):
But I had some awesome friggingstalks and calling in Buffalo.
We had Buffalo walking behindus and that and, like you said,
the experience of having someonethat can kill you so quick and
being surrounded by them it's apretty cool feeling, it's pretty
surreal.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, I mean it's all part of what you pay for too,
True, true.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
There's not many goats that have gored people to
death.
There is Buffalo, there's notmany goats that have gored
people to death.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
They're not worth being scared of what's left on
your list For those that arelistening.
Behind Brett, he's got a fairtrophy wall happening.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah, I do have a list.
After shooting that rooster.
I'm kind of getting a bitobsessed with the Grand Slam now
and I've been looking atChittle and I'm pretty sure I
found a place not far from whereI got my rooster.
I can go hunt Chittle, butbefore I think I hit the grand
slam, like when you start goinginto, like the chitterland, the
(43:12):
hog deer, which is very hard todo, I'm pretty obsessed still
with bavines.
So I was just I need to scrubcattle and a band tank and
that's all the bavines tickedoff the list, but their band
tangs are top of the list.
Chittle, second sambers, third.
For me at the minute, but I'mstill going to go hit victoria
(43:32):
as much as I can trying to umget a sandbird, but on public
land.
But um, yeah, it's time I startreally looking at either going
chittle hunting or going after abantang you uh nearly don't
have to go that far now I'm inthe thing.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
You uh nearly don't have to go that far now I'm in
the the weird noise outside theum, the sambra pushed up into
new south wales pretty heavilyand there's a facebook page new
south wales, sambah hunters orsomething some stonkers.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Like I've hunted them a fair bit, like I've been in
their country a lot.
I've only seen a few.
I've been a part of two gettingshot.
But at my place actually I waswith Jasper.
It was when he was last here,I'm convinced in the back there
in this real thick country we'rewalking through, I found a pile
(44:23):
of sandbush shit Convinced ofsandbush shit it's too big to be
a fellow and I've seen a lot ofSambas shit so I'm pretty
convinced they've come up herenow.
Well, I know of one that's nottoo far from here that my mate
sent me a video of, and I've gotanother mate who's got.
He's a fair few k's from here,but he's got cameras up and he
sent me a picture of it to seewhat type of deer it was, and it
(44:44):
was a Samus tag that went pasthis camera.
So I'm like shit, they're herenow.
But I want a Victorian publicland, one.
That's a dream, right, that'sthe pinnacle, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
That's what I want.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Having one at your back doorstep is pretty exciting
.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Oh mate, it got me frigging excited.
Eh, so I've out there now inall different spots in order to
fix shit on good game trials andhoping that one comes up on it.
That'd be pretty cool to see,because they've only got fallow
here, so something else that'dbe pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
What about wild dogs?
Got many of those at all Nothere.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
There was one shot about 20 k's away I'd say 17, 20
k's away, because I'm a farmer,I am a part of baiting programs
and stuff like the foxes andwild dogs and that, and we have
a wild dog baiting group hereand all the farmers in this
district or our area, ourvillage, we all get together
(45:39):
twice a year with local landservices and we supply baits to
them and they inject them for us.
We've double shot at 1080.
So we all bait at the exactsame times.
So we've kept a check on thempretty well.
We haven't had any sightingshere, like I found dog tracks
(45:59):
and that, but I assume they'rejust pig dogs because I've had
no stock attacked or anythingand no one else has yet.
But we're pretty on top of themwith our baiting program.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And when you say wild dog shot 20k's away, are we
talking, like I said, pig doggone wild, or no?
No, it was a proper wild dog.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, this one.
Yeah, the howling of that.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
It looked like a dingo talking about, uh, big
high country that's.
You know spine tingling.
I've had it a couple of nightsdown there.
Just you spend the whole timeyou're like where is that?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
is it close?
What's?
Speaker 1 (46:32):
happening.
That's right.
That's like um, the dingo stolemy baby, is it?
It's gonna be a fairly bigdingo to drag me out of a tent,
but that's it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Wherever I was at um queensland, every night the dogs
got closer and closer.
Because I was out there on myown and at one point the cocky
had to go somewhere else, about170 k's away, for shearing at a
different block, and he said youknow, you'll probably be the
only bloke in 100 k radius.
Right now, after I leave here,I'm like, yeah, no, that's all
sweet and I work on my own.
(47:02):
I've had my whole life alone,pretty much like work-wise and
whatnot, and um, yeah, friggin,every night the friggin dogs.
They got closer and closer andcloser.
I got to the point I took a bitof meat off the rooster, like
the bones, and had.
After I banged it out and Itook them about 400 meters away
from camp.
Yeah, sure as shit.
That night you could hear himall going mental down there.
There's an eerie feeling, hey,like you're laying there in your
(47:26):
swag and you know there'sfreaking dogs out there but it's
up there with that buffalostuff.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I mean, we just these american clients have got
coming.
They're not so much themspecifically, but the comment
from americans is, oh you know,we're so scared of snakes and
spiders like, no, no, I'mworried about the bears and
cougars and stuff.
The bigger thing is that'sright?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
the?
Speaker 1 (47:46):
wolves yeah, like a wild dog is up there with.
It hasn't happened much likecomparatively to mountain lions
taking people and things, butthey have the ability to, Like
we said with the buffalo, it isan option for them.
That's right, I feel a lotsafer with snakes than I would
(48:12):
bears and that, yeah, snakes andspies.
I mean they're in your shoes oraround your shoes and around
the house and things.
But you know you can shoo themaway.
It's a bit hard to shoo an800-pound bear away, 300-pound
bear or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
That'd be another hunt that might be coming up too
bear hunt.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Oh yeah, Swapsies for your Canadian friends.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
That's right.
We've got the connection there,so we're sort of trying to work
out getting over there when thebest time is and getting a what
do you call it?
It's not an alien tag, I thinkit is Alien tag that you can
hunt a predator.
I think it is Alien tag you canhunt a predator, I think yeah,
you know hate more than I wouldhave been.
Predator tag, I'm pretty sureit is.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
So that's something that might be in the works too
soon.
In Canada?
Yeah, I think.
Well, the areas we hunt inCanada, which is Saskatchewan
mostly, but I don't think you'reallowed to spot and stalk.
No, that's right, I'm prettysure it's tree stand.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
That's where we're going Saskatchewan or whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, yeah, it's a tongue twister Saskatchewan, and
there's a town there calledSaskatchewan.
Yeah, right, there you go.
Just to add to it.
But yeah, I'm pretty sure, howdo you feel about tree stand
hunting versus?
Speaker 2 (49:24):
spot and stalk.
That's the thing.
If I hunt bear, I want to spotand stalk it.
Eh, I don't want to sit thereand bait it.
I know it just doesn't feelsporting to me.
I'd rather be on its level andhunt it that way.
But when you get an opportunitylike that, you've got to just
roll with it, eh.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Sure, yeah, and I think my experience with that in
the past is I think from alegal point of view, it's
actually not legal to spot andstalk them.
However, because they do thatall the time and just sit in
tree stands, I don't think thebears would know what's going on
.
If you spot and stalked oneLike I think they'd be like like
(50:02):
I think you do.
Quite well, they're not used tothat style of being hunted.
Yeah, that's how I'd like to doit, but I've got to do what I've
got to have they do it, I guesswell, the other thing they do
is they usually put you in astand and leave you there, so if
you hop down and walk around,they might not know I don't want
(50:22):
to get arrested over there,mate.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
Oh back.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Well, the cops aren't walking around in the bush, but
yeah, in, yeah, in Montana youcan spot and stalk.
They're a smaller bear,normally the black bears, but
man, yeah, they're an incrediblecritter.
There's some big ones comingout this year of our block over
there.
So on the international side.
So bears predators interest you, and if you want to go to the
(50:47):
bovines, does that mean you wantto do like african bovine stuff
?
Is that interesting?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
yeah, I'm not too interested in africa at the
minute.
A lot of africa is out ofblinds too.
In it like hunting over water.
Yeah, africa to me saying I'dlike to leave you know, until
you're old and crippled.
Yeah, until I'm crippled upWhile I'm still going the way I
am like I want to do New Zealand100% on this.
(51:13):
I want to get a tar and achamois with the bow and, if I
get the chance ever in the tagsystem I'm doing, to go to
America mule deer, which isweird.
I'd rather shoot a mule deerover an elk, to be honest.
So he's saying about mule deer.
So that'd be like backcountrymule deer in the snow, or if you
(51:34):
can hunt them in the snow forboth days.
I don't know if you can, butthat is, that's a dream.
If, if the opportunity come upto do that, I'd jump on it in
the heartbeat well, I wouldn'tblame you for it.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
They're a pretty spectacular animal animal and a
little bit underrated.
I think the white tail gets alot of rap just because it's.
It's a bit like the, the fallowof america.
You know, the most people haveaccess to it and it's hard or
easy, whatever, but a lot ofthem get shot.
But the mule deer areimpressive and similar to our
(52:09):
rusa and samba in the way that.
This is my experience anyway.
Huge ears, humongous ears andgood luck.
Like that's where they get mulename from, isn't it?
Yeah, well, I suppose.
No, no, I hadn't consideredthat, but it's um, they don't
taste amazing.
The ones where we were inMontana, they ate sagebrush.
So they literally just use sageas a herb.
(52:33):
When you're cooking, that'sfine, but when all you're eating
is sage, it's hard to leave theflavor.
Are you an eater?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (52:42):
everyone's an eater, but do you eat?
Yeah, live on it.
Live on the.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Eat it every week.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
Yeah, I actually got the back legs off the goat my
young mate just shot.
I won't eat like a bigger goator nothing, because they just
taste like shit, like billygoats and that they just you
smelled them.
They're not very appetizing,but I won't eat pig only because
I know exactly what's in themaround here and the worms and
parasites and whatnot.
But deer I eat probably fourtimes a week.
(53:16):
Yeah right, like as in like fora dinner meal.
But I eat it every day becauseI make you know like smoked up
sausages and that, likeMetworths and stuff like that
and jerky all the time.
So I've always got some form ofvenison on me.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
Hardly ever buy red meat.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Oh yeah shit.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
yeah, I love it Because you're on the farm.
You might have, you know, theodd cow or lamb here and there
that you can knock.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, we don't have cattle Like I'll kill lamb here
and there, but they are mainsource, or lamb here and there,
but they are main source, evenfor the family, the main source
of red meat's venison here.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
We've got cool room and all that stuff Makes it easy
.
It's nice to hear.
I think the only protein we buyis pork and chicken, and the
wife only buys pork when it's onsale, and chicken we buy
semi-regularly.
But my kids are a bit youngerthan yours, so steaks are kind
of off the record, off the youknow, off the menu at the moment
(54:13):
.
So it's mostly mince you know,man, you can put mince into so
many things.
Oh shit, dude, it's veryversatile.
Eh, it is.
I did two dishes on the weekendfor these guys and one I'd
never tried before.
I just saw a picture onInstagram the night before I
went.
I was like I'm going to do thatand I'm calling it dodgebachi,
(54:34):
which is dodgy habachi, meaninglike three.
You can use it if you want, butit's three Bessa blocks I
picked up from Colburn Bunningson my way down, so you put one
next to each other and then oneat the back, a shovel full of
coals or two underneath it, andthen I cut the back strap up in
like three to five mil, tinylittle slices, tiny little
(54:55):
stakes, and then I fed it backand forth over the skewer with a
little bit of onion betweeneach layer.
I did about eight, eight tinyslices with eight little bits of
onion on this metal skewer andthen dropped it over the top of
the.
I'll put some photos up.
And one guy wanted it a bitmore cooked, so we just left his
on longer.
I like mine rare, medium rare,so I pulled.
(55:17):
Oh, it was so nice cooked onthe coals.
Give that a go.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Next, time you sit down.
I might have to come and crashyour deer camp next time you're
up here.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Dodge Barchie.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
Well, I might actually see you in person.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
If you're cooking that, I might have to come over
and take a bit.
Yeah, well, the hardest partwas making them.
It just took forever to threadin the needle.
Yeah, Little bits on stupidskewers.
It'd be pretty tedious.
But I said, are you guys full?
Oh no, oh bugger, I don't make,make another one Start making
some more, but the venison rump,I think, is my favourite cut.
It's either the shoulder or therump just above that hip joint,
(55:53):
that whole big muscle on the top.
Yeah, that's always nice upthere.
Cooked that up for him too.
But no, you and I are both thesize of good eaters.
The kids, they don't reallyknow any difference.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
No, they grew up with it.
Yeah, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Did your missus hunt or anything, she just enjoy the
food no, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
And she just eats a bit of it, isn't that?
Speaker 1 (56:14):
yeah, that's fair enough oh well, let's uh cover
what I needed, and I just wantto have a chat about your bow
hunting experience and expertise, and I appreciate your little
tips and tricks too.
That'll surely help me.
I'm uh, I'm going to put alittle bit more effort into the
bow, I think, especially from apersonal point of view.
It was just a really goodreminder these last few days
(56:35):
with these guys about how easyit is with a rifle, and even one
of them said if I want meat, Iwould use a rifle.
If I want to enjoy the hunt, Iwould use a bow, and that kind
of reminded me how it was.
If I want meat, I would use arifle, if I want to enjoy the
hunt, I would use a bow, andthat kind of reminded me.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
True, I don't take anything away from rifle hunters
or that, but you can be a hellof a lot more selective with a
rifle when you're going to bow.
Yes, yeah, like I saw it happenthis year, I watched 16 bucks
hit the deck.
It was the first time he reallydid it with rifles and, um,
(57:11):
yeah, trying to knock a few ofthe numbers down.
And every other year I'll do itmyself with a bow.
It might get three or fourthere you can see.
You can see the difference init, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (57:20):
yeah, yeah, it's an effective tool and again, I'm
not going to take any away fromit either, because I mean I'm
sitting next to a gun safe witha heap in it and I've got one
bow and a heap more guns but andI love shooting them it's just
nothing better than the smell ofan empty cartridge.
But it's if, uh, yeah, from apersonal point of view, I think
I'll I'll slowly put a littlebit more effort into it, um, but
(57:41):
but I hope you need any help,hesitate to ask.
Well, I that and I'll take youup on that, but it's more the
help getting up the hill Iprobably need.
Those hills near you aren'tsmall.
That's why I asked thatquestion about the flatland
stuff.
You know approaching deer onflatland.
That interests me.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Bowhunting definitely makes you fitter too.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Yeah, yeah, you can't get to the end of a stalk and
be puffed.
You got to be ready to perform.
Yeah, that's right.
So anyway, thanks for jumpingon, brett.
It's been good talking to youand look forward to seeing you
down at the local pub yeah, mate, no worries, thanks for having
me.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
No worries, talk soon .
Bye, bye, thank you.
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