The origin story: Dodge’s Journey from a non hunter to hunting educator with Accurate Hunts

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to transition from a rookie shooter to established hunting entrepreneur? Listen in as we flip the script and put Dodge, who typically fires the questions, on the hot seat. Our guest interviewer, Cass, unpacks Dodge's fascinating journey from his farm upbringing to founding Accurate Hunts in Australia. We explore the critical distinctions between hunting and shooting, and how Dodge's amusing first encounter with a firearm paved the way for his adventurous career. This episode captures the essence of representing the hunting community accurately, encouraging public curiosity and engagement.

Join Dodge as he reminisces about his early forays with firearms, from shooting rabbits on a friend’s farm to booking a daring hunting trip in Africa. Experience the evolution from novice shooter to seasoned hunter, where mastering firearm basics and overcoming public land challenges are key lessons. Dodge reveals how these experiences have shaped his perspective on ethical and effective hunting. Learn why developing a comprehensive skill set is crucial for anyone serious about the sport.

Finally, Dodge opens up about the genesis of Accurate Hunts, sharing pivotal moments and client stories that turned his passion into a thriving business. He recounts memorable adventures, like Melissa’s impressive first deer hunt and a challenging early client experience that taught him invaluable lessons. We also venture into the complexities of wildlife management through his unique Rhino green hunt in South Africa. Ending on a lighter note, we discuss the art of podcasting, maintaining authentic conversations, and exciting listener giveaways. Tune in for an episode rich with humor, insights, and the spirit of adventure.

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 [e-mail] or via our socials.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Well, I believe that we're going to have a chat with
you, dodge, get to know you alittle bit more.
You're often the man asking thequestion and we're flipping
that on its head, and I'm goingto ask you some questions this
evening.
For you, what is the differencebetween hunting and shooting,
and how do you define that?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
And he gave me the gun and I was like, oh, okay,
like I'd had a picatinny rail,and I was like, oh, do we just
clip on a like a red dot sight?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
He said, oh no, you just line up the barrel with the
front yeah.
And I was like, are you joking?
I'm like going to just sidebarrel a rhino.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hey Dodge, welcome to your podcast.
Accurate Hunts A.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Life Outdoors.
Good to have you here for achat this evening.
Thank you for having me Feelslike I'm on that Ray Munro TV
show.
Is it, I don't know, the Lifeof Dodge or something?
Can't remember his TV show heused to have.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's right.
What are we doing here tonight?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, I believe that we're going to have a chat with
you, dodge, get to know you alittle bit more.
You're often the man asking thequestions and we're flipping
that on its head, and I'm goingto ask you some questions this
evening.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, well, back by popular demand, I had a few
people reach out and say greatinterview you did with Cass.
But and I think she'd, you know, be good as a podcaster and I
thought, well, let's give her ashot.
This is your interview.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, that's very lovely and I'm absolutely happy
to be here.
It was a really nice experiencecoming on and having a chat
with you Been a really niceexperience the whole my whole
sort of journey since the ABCstory came out.
So really happy to continuebeing involved in this space and
really excited to have a chatwith you.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Oh well, I'm looking forward to it.
On the ABC thing, just a littleside note.
I saw that Wally, like hiscourses, have like booked out.
Yeah, yeah, from interest,which is great, just random
interest in these things gettinginto the sport.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
And none of it's surprising at all.
This is a thing when youactually get to accurately
represent the hunting communityand what our way of life is all
about.
A lot of people are verycurious to it, so it's really
nice that there's actually beenthis platform to shine a light
on the actual reality of huntingand and from that, people are

(02:29):
having a closer look and gettinginvolved.
So, yeah, really great.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I said that I think it's really important that we
can articulate what we do well Ithink so when it's done
properly, it comes acrossexactly the way you and I feel
about it.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
So exactly right.
Yep, nothing to do about it,whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Righto Tonight's in your hands.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Thank you very much.
Thank you Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I can be that annoying guest that never shuts
up and doesn't stop when youtalk.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
You do whatever you feel the need to do.
Okay, this is your hour Dodge.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Tap the table, click my pen, rustle my ginger nut
cookies.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Could you please?
Yes, this is excellent.
Try and throw me off.
No, well, I do obviously havesome topics I'd like to discuss
with you, because you're aninteresting man and have
undoubtedly had an interestingjourney.
There's a few highlights, Iguess, that I've seen on your
social media feeds that I'vebeen particularly interested in.

(03:27):
First of all, though, I knowthat part of your origin story
for Accurate Hunts is that youwere working as a guide, so
you've been hunting yourself andworking as a guide overseas,
and then, through thatexperience, you had people
approaching you, and rightly so,wanting your expertise back in
Australia, and that's sort ofpart of the origin story for

(03:48):
Accurate Hunts, and I have somemore questions I'd like to
circle back to later, but firstI would really like to know what
is your origin story.
So did young Dodge grow updreaming of hunting wild animals
, or was there ever a time wherethat was something that was
definitely not on the radar?
What's?
How did you first know that youwanted to hunt, and what was

(04:11):
your journey to the to this, toyour start?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
well, the first answer is no.
I definitely never grew upthinking I'd be where I am now.
I actually remember thinking,man, I want an inside job.
My dad was a fencer.
He grew up outdoors Like he wasa farmer and we had a bit of
acreage.
When we grew up we rode horsesand things.
But even that became a bit of achore later in life.

(04:36):
It was a little bit hard tomotivate myself.
Just, you know, I didn't reallyrealise that I was a pretty
lucky kid at that time to haveaccess to those things.
And now I'm a parent, I can seemy kids.
You know you're always tryingto fight for their appreciation
of things.
But no, I came from a family ofnon-hunters, that's like, not
from any particular hatred ofthe sport, just no introduction

(04:59):
to it.
My dad grew up on the farm.
He had firearms growing uparound him but they were, in his
words, just a tool like ashovel.
So he would use it to dispatcha lamb that they then cut up and
cook or, you know, shoot arabbit or shoot a fox or an
injured horse or a cow.
There was no, and it'ssomething he brought up later.

(05:22):
He he said, I can't understandwhy you find joy in hunting, he
said.
I could never find any joy outof shooting things, or you know
the sport itself.
But I think the industry backthen was a lot different than
what it is now too.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And he's not as extroverted as I am.
But so my introduction toshooting came I was 15 or so and
I was horse riding prettycompetitively at the time and
staying with some friends out atCowra every school holidays
cleaning up horse poop andpainting their barn and riding

(05:56):
horses and just having fun.
But they had 300 or so acresand he introduced me to firearms
that way and started off withshooting rabbits and moved up to
bigger animals and you know,the occasional pig wandered
through.
But that was not something I'dever pictured doing.
And you know I'm sure myparents were aware that I was

(06:17):
doing it but it was never reallydiscussed.
Or you know I definitely Idon't think mum really enjoyed
thinking about it.
Yeah, or you know I definitelydon't think mum really enjoyed
thinking about it.
And then I came I think I was19 or 20 when I finally got my
firearms licence maybe 19, bymyself, and I didn't tell anyone
.
And Dad's got a big shed athome and I cleared a corner out,

(06:37):
bolted a gun safe in and thenput mess back in front of it so
he didn't see it.
And I went and got my firearmslicense and then I went to the
it was the penrith arms show,which I've always you know I
keep going back looking for theleg show, but it's always just
the arm show and they had thisguy there selling.

(07:00):
It was my first introduction toa gun show and I was like, wow,
this is amazing.
And now in hindsight I'm like,wow, that's a dinky little
country show in comparison towhat we can get.
But I bought a it's a slasinger22 made by lithgow and a 223.
It was a remington 700 223 anda double hammer shotgun, 12

(07:24):
gauge shotgun.
I thought they were the coolestthings ever.
Turns out it's not really.
It was a Remington 700 .223 anda double hammer shotgun,
12-gauge shotgun.
I thought they were the coolestthings ever.
It turns out it's not.
It really hurts, but that was.
And then it changed from there.
But early on I definitelydidn't see that coming.
I really had an enjoyment forjust shooting things shooting
targets, shooting trees and thatsort of thing shooting rabbits.
I had one mate in particularMatt Matty D is probably
listening things shootingtargets, shooting trees and that

(07:44):
sort of thing shooting rabbits.
And I had a one mate inparticular, matt maddie d, he's
probably listening we um, hejust became my shooting buddy
because he was into it, I wasinto it and we spent every
weekend.
We could you know shootingeverything everything that we
could.
I don't know if I can't rememberwhat you're.
I'm daydreaming now I know yourorigin story.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
This is great, this great.
This is really nice insights.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Now I know it feels like a big guest and go off
track.
How quickly do you think it?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
escalated for you from going out and shooting some
rabbits yeah, our tangents aregreat, yeah.
So how quickly do you think itescalated from shooting some
rabbits in a paddock to goingafter some really majestic big
game, um sort of more, um grandhunting pursuits?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think I was two and a half years into shooting,
maybe having my firearms license, and I booked a trip to africa.
So that was probably why Iended up on the path I'm on now,
on the trophy hunting side ofthings, and I cannot, for the
life of me, remember why Africalike, like, was I reading

(08:51):
magazines and I saw it, was it?
You know some old Ben Untenstories in Sporting Shooter
magazine or something I I reallydon't know where that come from
and I think it's sorry no, no,you're right I was just gonna
say I think it'squintessentially hunting in
africa.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
They go together, um, you know, I think a lot of
people if they don't understandwhat hunting is, they think
hunting is going to america,going to africa and shooting
something over there like it,yeah, whereas people don't
always know what's availablehere.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
But I'd seen a few movies and things, but I haven't
.
You know I'm not a reader.
I probably read magazines justfor the pictures.
But you know there's guys thatused to write, you know, about
hunting in Africa and that wasnever on my radar.
I've only got their books nowand I still don't read them.
I just own the books.
But I don't know what theAllure was.
But the way that worked out wasI had booked, or tentatively

(09:46):
booked, a 10-day safari and Ididn't know anyone over there.
It was purely just internetconnections and I went in very
blind and very naive and luckilyI ended up with a good
outfitter.
But I booked a 10-day trip andthen my girlfriend at the time
got wind because I hadn't toldher I was planning on taking her

(10:06):
and she ended up coming.
We ended up making it a 20-dayholiday with only three days
hunting allowed.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
So it got pretty well .
Oh dear, it got diminished.
So that was, yeah, that was abit disappointing but that was,
I reckon, over.
I went from.
I went from, you know, foxes.
My first animal I shot with myown firearm was at mom and dad's
place and mom not reallywanting me to have firearms a

(10:36):
little bit extra backstory.
At the time I was actuallydoing leather work and leather
tooling specifically and I wassort of focusing on I was doing
a lot of bike seats for bikies,motorbike seats, custom leather
seats, and firstly, mum's like Idon't want these bikies at our
house.
And then it was like now you'vegot firearms here, what if the
bikies come and rob you andsteal your firearms and shoot

(10:58):
you?
I said, well, they wouldn'tneed to steal mine, mum, they've
probably got their own.
Um, yeah, that they'd turn upwith illegally.
But you know she was a littlebit cautious of those things.
And then some time passed,whether it be a month or two,
and she says Dodge, go and getyour gun.
There's a fox in the paddock.
We had chickens at the time.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
So I shot a fox in our back paddock, yeah, and that
was like the first time thatshe had asked me to.
You know, do something withthis thing that I bought, but it
was a little bit taboo.
So I reckon it was only abouttwo or three years in total from
shooting that fox with my ownfirearm to then going to Africa
and shot a wildebeest, a bluewildebeest and two oryx, and

(11:40):
that's all.
And there's a horrible storyabout the end of that.
Because they never got back,african taxidermy robbed me of
those.
So, that's a deep and dark story.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
You have to recreate that holiday.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
I've been back.
Yeah, I've been back, since itwasn't the outfitter's fault.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
That's why I do what.
I do now, so that I canorganise these things for people
and they don't get ripped off.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yep, absolutely Putting all that knowledge that
you've acquired to good use.
You mentioned before about howyour dad shot animals but could
never understand the allure ofhunting.
I think it's one of thosethings as well where there's a
common misconception thathunting and shooting are the
same thing, whereas, you know, Iguess everyone has a slightly
different view on it.
But, you know, shooting ispulling a trigger, hunting it

(12:24):
involves all the rest of it, allyour fair chase and the, the
element of having to work for it.
And you know I don't judgeanyone on their methods.
So long as it's legal, I'm allfor it.
And I think if you want to fillyour freezer and that's all you
want to do and you have privateland you can access to do
spotlighting.
You know, if that's how you'regoing to be proficient, go for
it.
But, um, I think that a lot ofhunters do really appreciate the

(12:47):
fair chase element of it, the,the hunt itself.
Um, is that something I guessI'm sure resonates with you?
But what for you?
What is the difference betweenhunting and shooting and how do
you just, you know, define that?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
I think that we all I used to think that we all start
as shooters.
We all start.
I was very naive at the time.
I had really good private landaccess and come through the
horse riding things.
People own a horse, you have afarm, there's generally a large
enough farm you can shoot on, sothose two things went hand in

(13:22):
hand.
So I had some good access and Ithought that my journey was
standard.
Your firearms license bringyour dad's mate.
Can I come to your farm andshoot some stuff?
Okay, turn up, shoot some stuff.
And I didn't realize that thatwasn't common until later on and
I'll circle back to that.
But when I first startedshooting that's all I wanted to

(13:43):
do shoot, shoot Every weekend,shoot, whether it be at the
range, go and shoot bunnies,whatever.
Some of the farmers had tagsfor kangaroos and things and
we'd jump on that.
We did some home kills for oneof the farmers and that was just
really fun.
But I learnt a lot in thattimeframe and I learnt that it

(14:03):
wasn't that fun.
After a while it became nearlya burden to go and do the bit of
shooting for the farmer.
Just you know he would say oh,can you go and shoot this many
roost for me, fill those tagsand this many rabbits, and then
you can go and try and shootsome of your own stuff.
But that became a bit of aburden and then it.
And then I didn't even reallyknow that hunting was a thing.

(14:24):
That was different like at thattime, and it's not.
Until you learn about huntingand this comes from I didn't
grow up in a shooting or huntingfamily, so I don't have any
passed down knowledge of thesethings.
And Facebook wasn't much of athing back then.
Well, not in the hunting worldeither, no, so I think I
progressed along and I'veroughly written this out of six

(14:48):
stages of becoming a hunter, butit's like if it's brown, it's
down, working your way throughto, you know, trying to fill the
freezer and then being a littlemore specific, and maybe you
know trophy hunting somethingand letting other things walk
that you probably, earlierstages, would have shot all the
way through to hey, I've gonehunting, I didn't see anything,

(15:09):
didn't see anything but stillhad a great time.
I'm not at that point yet.
I still like being successfuland harvesting something.
To me, a successful hunt isharvesting something.
So the journey for me wasprobably very short in the
shooting side of things and thenmove very quickly into the

(15:30):
hunting side of things.
When I started guiding andthat's been a long journey in
the hunting end of that, thatspectrum and I'm not there I and
and you say that you thinkshooting is, you know, just
pulling the trigger I thinkpeople get stuck in the shooting
stage and that's great, that'sfine.
It's not for me.
And I think people I found outrecently, as well as circling

(15:55):
back to that people have startedat the other end and I want to
focus on the R licence systemwhere they don't know shooting,
they only know hunting becausethat's all you have to.
That's all you can do in astate forest you can't sight
your gun in, you can't go andblast everything you see,
because you scare everythingaway and then you don't see that
much.
So I didn't realise that worldexisted and that it was hard to

(16:20):
get private access until reallyI started the other podcast I
was on Endless Pursuit but now Ican't even remember what your
question was.
I'm too far down the rabbithole.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Your perception of the difference, I guess, between
hunting and shooting, which Ithink you covered up really well
.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I don't have any negative perception of any of
those steps.
I just think that there's a lotof skills that are missed if
you start at the hunting end andnot at the shooting end, and I
think that it really paysdividends for people that start
in the hunting end to circleback or pick a mentor or do

(16:58):
something, but get back to somefirearm fundamentals.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
And that's being able to shoot in all positions
firearm fundamentals, yeah, andthat's being able to shoot in
all positions.
You know, go and shoot a .221,000 times and that'll help you
shoot your .308 tenfold yeah.
You just need to do musclememory because I've met people
recently that have been huntingfor they say hunting, hunting
for five years, never shot ananimal yet yeah.

(17:25):
What I would lose interest soquickly, has he not?

Speaker 1 (17:28):
had an option to have a shot Public land hunters in
New South Wales.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Our forests are probably a little bit more
densely populated with humanoidsthan yours and the ones close
to Sydney anyway.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
And for those that are newish to it, I want to say
lessly densely populated withanimals.
I mean, there's areas wherethey can be more successful, but
they haven't found them yet.
But yeah, I think it reallypays dividends to circle back to
some of the original shootingskills that helped me become a
better hunter, because, yesthey're focused on their hunting

(18:02):
skills, and this happened.
Well, you and I spoke about itthe other week, but there was a
guy on a recent local club huntthat shot a sandbird his first
time, but he didn't know what todo with it after he shot it
because all his training hadbeen about what to find, how to
find it.
And then he's like oh, now I'veshot it.
What do I do?
And that's some of thefundamentals that people miss
out on.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Oh, absolutely.
I think all of it's importantbecause you need to know the
whole process and being accuratewith your shooting.
That's part of your proficiency, so you don't want to ignore
that part.
But I think it's just the pointof you know hunting's about
more than just the shooting.
That is a very important part.
If you're wanting to do itethically, then you absolutely
need to spend the time to honeyour skills there.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
There's so many skills I haven't developed in
the shooting side of it either,like I've got mates that are
right into their reloading Zerointerest.
I've got mates that are rightinto long-range shooting A
little bit of interest, but I'vegot no, you know, skill set for
it or no need for it right now.
So there's definitely lots offactors in each step.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, that's good, thank you, you've answered that
question wonderfully.
Um, so I'll circle back aroundto so.
I now know your origin story asa person, as a hunter, and so,
out of the work that you weredoing guiding for another
business, you at some pointdecided to start Accurate Hunts.
What was that like for you?
Going from working for someoneelse to realising, you know, by

(19:34):
popular demand, people seekingyour services, actually
realising that could be a viableoption for you and that sort of
journey between going from anemployee to a business owner and
this is something that you'vebuilt, a skill set up and have
been able to actually make thata viable business option for

(19:55):
yourself?

Speaker 2 (19:59):
It's definitely not an easy industry to be in.
I don't think it was probablyuntil my third trip overseas
that I really realized that likehunting something I could
really enjoy here.
I had a really bad habit I'mgonna call it like undiagnosed
adhd but of starting hobbiesleather work one of them yeah

(20:21):
buying all the gear, thetop-notch gear, and she's I'm
gonna love this from you, know.
And then three months later,you move on to the next one and
everything gets put in a corneryeah and my family thought
hunting was that to me?
yeah, right, and I remember mybrother being surprised like
saying to me you know, I'msurprised, you really stuck with
this and I never thought Icould turn it into a business.

(20:43):
But the first client thatprobably stemmed that along for
me has actually just come fullcircle and been with me in
Australia with his wife, andthat's Ted and Rhonda.
And Ted made a cameo in one ofmy other episodes when I was up
in Darwin.
He jumped in the backgroundthere while we were chatting but
and I just had a really goodtime with them and towards the

(21:08):
end of the hunt I said to themyou know what's next for you
guys?
These guys like to travel andhunt and they said well, what
are you doing next year?
We want to do what you're doingnext year and I was like hmm
that'snice and then I went back to
canada sorry, that was just tedby himself the first year and

(21:29):
then the next year he boughtronda with him, you know, had a
really good time with me, andthen he said to the outfitter
who I was working for in canadawe want to come back, we want
dodge and we want to go back,you know, into that area and
want to complete, because he'swe didn't shoot a moose on his
first trip.
He shot this mountain goat, butno moose.

(21:49):
We saw some good ones, but notquite legal and then he wanted
to complete that journey.
So he brought his wife with himand we just had a really good
time.
You know, that trip alone wasspecial for different reasons,
but it really set in my mindthat this is something I want to
do going forward, and that'swhere it started.
I mean Accurate Hunts.

(22:12):
I think I technically registeredthe business name prior to that
, but it was more.
I just needed an ABN for what Iwas doing in Canada and I had
to call it something.
So that's what I did.
But it wasn't until then that Irealised that like, hey, these
guys actually want to follow mearound or, you know, interested
in what I've got to say or learnor to teach sorry, and I only

(22:33):
just admitted to Rhonda in thislast trip that her husband's
moose was I think the firstmoose I'd ever actually seen in
person wow that's like the prioryear?
Yeah, and it was.
You know, she was prettyshocked by that.
She's like you know, we didn'tknow that you were so green.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
You didn't show any of that yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Any of that at all.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Fake it till, you make it.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Apparently I made it and it worked.
We ended up shooting one of thebiggest moose, we'd pulled off
that whole concession.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
But that Amazing yeah , that cemented it for me.
And then coming home, I meanthere's not a lot of Australian
hunters that really want to, incomparison to how many hunters
there are go overseas.
That's in the pointy end of thehunting spectrum, whereas I
think the majority of Australiais over here in the shooting.
Lower-end hunting.
I don't mean lower in quality,I just mean lower in quantity of
people.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
So the booking agency side of things it's a little
market, but it was then.
It's grown a little bit nowwith social media and
accessibility and pricing, but Idon't know why I got myself
into a niche market.
But yeah, it did, I did and itworked okay.
My one of my strengths istalking.
Believe it or not, I don't shutup that often.

(23:49):
So one thing I was reallyinterested in was just meeting
more people in the industry andit's definitely helped helped me
do that and one of my strongpoints is my good connections
with people in industry andthat's shown with.
You know the good array ofguests I get on here.
I know a lot of them, or I knowof a lot of them, and they

(24:09):
might know of me and trust meenough to take the plunge and
come and do an episode.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, and that's very evident as well in your
interactions that you've hadeven within the Australian
Hunters Club when you've comealong there, and the trivia that
you prepared.
It's pretty evident that youinvest in in your network, so
not surprising at all thatyou've been able to build some

(24:35):
relationships with other huntersOn your website.
You mentioned that a sharedexperience has the ability to
enhance each person's individualexperience, which I
wholeheartedly agree.
Can you think of a time whereor do you have, I guess, a
favorite moment that you couldreflect on, or a particular

(24:57):
client that had an experience?
I mean, you could quiteliterally be giving them an
experience of a lifetime.
Are there any that come tomemory for you that you'd like
to share?

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, there's lots.
There's some really good, funnyones, there's a couple of
emotional ones.
I think one of the ones thatsurprised me the most was my now
wife, but at the time I don'tnormally talk this much, I
usually just listen.
My wife's family had a property.

(25:30):
It was 4,000 acres and we werejust dating at the time.
I don't even think we were, Ithink it was pre-dating like
just when you're hanging out,and we were at the Sydney Royal
and she said, oh, my parents arelike we're going to go out to
the farm.
And I said, yes, royal, and shesaid, oh, my parents are like
we're going to go out to thefarm.
And I said yes, and she saidyou don't even know what I'm
going to ask.
I said you're all going to askif we're going to go out there

(25:51):
on Easter weekend.
And I said, yes, we are.
And that's what happened.
That was the first time reallymeeting all the family.
I'd met her parents and things.
But this was a really coolproperty where it was just a
super communal gathering pointof all cousins and long lost
cousins and relatives thatweren't cousins would come and
holiday at this farm and it hada lot of history for them and

(26:12):
they grew up there and had agreat time and there was word
that there was deer on theproperty.
So that interests me greatlyand I said yes, and then we
organized and we went and it wasthe night so we'd been there.
We got there late one night,the night before we were to go
hunting, as I would call it.
They are traditionally shooters.

(26:33):
They are not hunters.
She has a firearms license butshe grew up shooting pigs and
rabbits and things.
On this property there was was alot of pigs.
This was during the drought andthe occasional deer had been
seen but not harvested.
And I said, all right, we'regoing to get up at five and

(26:55):
we're going to head out beforesunup.
And her uncle was there and hesaid what for?
And I said, well, I want to bewhere we think these deer might
be.
There was a crop planted in oneof the back paddocks and I said
I want to be in that paddock atSarr and it was a fair hike.
So her and it was my wife,melissa, her friend and her

(27:19):
brother came with and we leftearly.
We got to the paddock and it waslike 25 pigs just and I had
never shot pigs.
I was so excited.
I was like that's pigs.
I just I had an open sight 308spanish mausler that I just
uselessly bought off used gunswhen I was sitting in canada and

(27:39):
wanted to have fun with.
And I was so excited to shootthese pigs and, like, we were
lined up, there was three of uswith firearms licenses her
brother didn't have one and hewas on the binos and we were
lined up on these pigs and wewere waiting for them to feed in
front of us and I stupidlylooked over my shoulder and I
come back and I was like, oh,hold on, you saw something.
Then I look back and there's aginormous fallow buck in the

(28:00):
middle of the field.
Just, this was easter, so ruttime.
Yeah, he was walking slowly.
Just he was so tired from hisnight of rutting, which I didn't
fully understand at the timeand he was, you know, just
browsing along and I was like,oh, I was disappointed because I
wanted to shoot the pigs, but Icouldn't let that go.

(28:22):
It was a big buck.
So I left her brother and afriend there and we made a
beeline across the paddock tothis deer.
There was one tree between usand the deer and the deer was
walking so we had to keep likemoving as well to keep this tree
in line with us.
So we couldn't see it.
Anyway, turned out he had noidea we were there.

(28:44):
She gets to the tree and sheshoots this ginormous fellow at
you know 100 yards or something.
Sorry, I got cough again.
Ah, I need a drink of water.
And I I knew what she'd shotbecause I'd shot some deer and
seen some things.

(29:04):
She knew she shot a deer butshe didn't understand and I
don't think she fully understooduntil you know, two or three
years later, when we tried tochase more fallow with her, how
good of a fallow she shot.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Like it was not a representative.
It was a really good trophy one.
It had a cleft palm, whichdoesn't mean to be explained
right now, but you know.
So some people would see it asa cull, but it was a ginormous
one with this cleft palm, reallythick mass, and I was like
exuberant, like I was just wowthis is amazing.

(29:37):
And I'm not that sort of person,I don't get that so excited and
I was jumping and high-fivingand hugging and I don't think I
was trying to kiss her at thetime, I don't think we're at
that point yet.
But she told me later she'slike I don't like what's this
guy doing, so excited aboutshooting a damn deer, what?
What is this?
And that like.

(29:58):
To be there for her initialfirst experience of that was
pretty fun.
It was very fun and it made heruncle pretty cranky because I
caked this thing out.
It's mounted on the wall inthere.
Now she calls it Mac Daddy andwe name most of the animals in
the trophy room yeah, so BigMac's mounted in there, that's

(30:20):
cool.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, as in, you give them names.
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, nicknames.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
So he's mounted in there and the kids know their
names.
But he said, oh, that's my deer.
What do you mean?
It's your deer?
He said well, I think I sawthat one last year and I was
going to go out and shoot itthis year.
I said, what?
Like?
We were back before theyfinished baking an egg.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
And they were going to go out after that.
So I think they were definitelyin the shooting side of of
things and they'd shot more pigsthan I ever have and ever will
probably.
But uh, yeah, it was.
It was really fun to to do thatwith her and then see it a few
years later when she realizedthat oh yes like that is really
a good one.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, and how nice that it was her that you had
that experience with.
That.
You can now share this storyand like have that shared moment
.
Now you did mention this iswhen you were just in the
hanging out phase, but it waslike I'm guessing there was some
romantic interest there.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Hopefully.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Did you?
You know, were you already inthe stage of just hoping that
this was going to be forever?
And you're like yes, this is abeautiful moment that we're're
like, yes, this is like, this isa beautiful moment that we're
sharing together.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
No, no, probably not.
It was the 4,000 acres thatreally got me over the line, I
think.
No, I haven't been out of font.
I wrote in a diary so we wereyeah, that was April, so we
didn't let's go technicallybecome a couple until like June
or July.

(31:48):
It was that we wrote down onpaper that we were technically
together.
Facebook official, I think itwas.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Oh, that's what seals the deal.
That's it Facebook official.
I think it was.
Oh, that's what seals the deal.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
That's it.
And then there was a shot showin Sydney in June and then, oh
sorry, in July.
So we got together in June.
In July I left to go to Darwinfor four weeks and then I was
back for two weeks and then Iwas gone for four months.

(32:17):
So we had been together sixmonths and I had seen her six
weeks of those six months.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, I like to remind her of that now when she
complains when I go away for oneweekend.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah, like we've done worse.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, we've definitely done worse.
That was obviously pre-kids andlots of other complications in
life, but it was, uh, yeah, itwas.
It was a fun time my life tohave her share that and then
beautiful, she actuallysurprised me in that trip again
things you can do without kidsand home loans but uh, she
organized with the people I wasstaying with just to turn up in
texas so I didn't know until theday she was landing that she

(32:55):
was coming to Texas, I think.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
How good is that.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I was there for two weeks and she flew over for 10
days.
I think of the two weeks orseven days.
Just had a good time with thepeople we were staying with.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Beautiful.
That's really nice.
I like that story.
It is good.
No-transcript.

(33:30):
Do you have any examples youcan think of of experiences
other people have had thatyou've heard of horror stories,
I guess, or things that have?
Just because I think whenyou're a rookie hunter, you you
show up and you don't know whatto expect.
So it's absolutely possiblethat some weird and wonderful
and wild things could happenthat if you didn't know better,

(33:50):
you'd be like oh okay, this iswhat we're doing.
Um, do you have any storieslike that that you can share?

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yes, yeah, one comes straight to mind and there's two
things.
There's one story and thenthere's an analogy that I'll get
into.
If I remember it, remind me ofthat.
But it wasn't anyone.
It was my first booked clientfor Accurate Hunts and it came
through the gun shop at HorsleyPark gun shop.

(34:22):
I knew a guy who worked thereand he said someone had come in
looking for a chittle hunt forhim and his dad.
And I gave them your detailsand these people rang.
His name was Wes.
I remember that because I stillwork for him now fencing-wise
and we've become it's come fullcircle and I'll end with that.

(34:42):
But he booked a chittle huntfor himself and his father.
Now, in the early days ofAccurate Hunts I was new in
business and relied on peoplethat I probably didn't know that
well to.
So I would organise the hunt,take you know, give you the
details and everything, take themoney, pay the guide, organise

(35:03):
the trip.
You would go away, fly away, dothe trip and then come back
don't know how it was, and we'dmake a percentage.
That's how the booking agencyworks.
So that happened and it was aseven-day chittle hunt for
himself and his father up innorth queensland.
And it doesn't matter if Imention the guy's name or not,
because he's no longer inbusiness, because this is pretty

(35:24):
much exactly how his businesswent for everyone.
But I made the rookie mistakeof not going to the property
prior and it's now somethingthat I do.
Basically, any hunt you bookwith accurate hun Hunts.
I've been on Okay.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
You go to Africa.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I've been there.
You want to go to Canada?
I've been there.
New Zealand I've been there.
I've been to the kitchen, I'vebeen to the toilets.
I know what it's all like.
I can tell you every detail.
And that's on purpose.
It cost me money, definitely,to do that Good job, but this
trip is the reason why.
So they flew up there.
He picked them up from theairport.

(36:01):
Their car broke down halfwayout to the property, which you
know, whatever cars are cars,and they finally got out to the
property after doing some bushmechanics and getting it through
.
The farmer had forgot they werecoming and left the gate locked
and this guy didn't have a key,so they had to cut the lock.
Would seem like a first redflag.

(36:22):
Um, yeah.
Then they went in and they sawsome deer on the way in and
things females does, and theyset up and they saw the side of
their rifles in and got, andthen they went out on the trip
and all they were seeing wasfemales and it was, you know,
supposed to be shooting stags,and that's fine, it's hunting,

(36:43):
not always around, and therejust wasn't many of them either.
So they went for, I think, fourand a half days and didn't
shoot anything.
You know four days.
And on the fifth day they saw asmall little antlered animal
and the guide said, no, don'tshoot it, we'll see something
bigger.
And then they saw some wilddogs.

(37:07):
They shot the wild dogs.
It's fine, you can do that in aprivate property in North
Queensland.
Sorry, they could only find oneafter they shot at two of them
and they walked up on it and itwas a puppy with a collar on.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
This was the farmer's dog.
Oh, no so they had to walk tothe farmer's house with this dog
in his hand and anyway they gotkicked off the property
instantly and the guide wasnever allowed back.
So they went to anotherproperty and they just never saw
any, you know, shooting stags,and they were pretty wrecked

(37:51):
emotionally after that situation.
The clients were Wes and hisdad and that was just horrific.
The whole trip was prettyterrible.
The food was terrible, theguiding was terrible, the
animals were terrible, the carwas terrible, the lodging was
terrible, the lack of animalswas terrible.
And then they shoot a puppy.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Far out.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
So it had everything going poorly for it.
So he gets home and I ring himhey, wes, welcome back to work,
how was your trip?
And he lays it all out for meand I said mate, give me your
bank details.
I'm giving you all your moneyback, like that is horrible yeah
, I felt so bad.
So I gave him his complete moneyback, which I didn't have to

(38:36):
give at the time, like I hadmoney, but I had taken my small
percentage and paid the guide,and then I had paid him the full
amount of the trip back because, you know, bad reviews are
worth more than good ones, sortof thing.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
I didn't want to annoy my first proper customer
and then I chased the guide andhe was, you know, oh, I can't
afford to pay you back and allthis sort of thing, and anyway I
ended up dropping off the radarand going a bit crazy.
But it has turned full circle,where Wes actually has now moved

(39:11):
close to me down in theHighlands.
He owns 500 and something acreswith chittle running over it
all the time.
Amazing and he actually didn'tshoot any animals for some years
after the traumatising effectof shooting that dog.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh, that was heartbreaking.
He sort of gave up hunting andshooting.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
And yeah, him and I talk reasonably regularly, I've
done some fencing for him andhe's sort of come back to
shooting the deer.
But it's not he really.
His wife said it reallyaffected him for some years.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yep, so that's a pretty horrible horror story.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
That is absolutely.
That is a horror story.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
And I can't shy away from the fact that it happened
under my banner, like it was myfirst client, but it really
taught me a lot.
But it's just cemented the factthat, hey, if you want to do
this, you'll do it properly.
And that means you've got to goand visit these places.
You've got to yeah meet thepeople, see their outfit.
Make sure the farmer isactually letting them on yes

(40:10):
legally um, and yeah, it wasjust a mess.
Yeah, yeah, it was a mess.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Goodness me.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
But it made me want to do it properly, and here we
are.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, absolutely Learning opportunity.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Try to.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Good way to, I guess, recover from that.
I want to talk to you aboutyour rhino green hunt.
Now, green hunt was a term thatI didn't know about until
seeing your experience there,which, for anyone listening
that's unaware.
That's where you do the hunt.
You stalk the animal and shootwith a non-lethal tranquiliser,

(40:47):
dart.
Is that right?
Yeah, and I know that youparticipated in that so that the
rhino could receive anexamination and medical care.
Can you tell us more about thathunt, because I imagine there's
a lot involved there?
And then I'd also like to knowabout the program itself,
because I understand you have anongoing involvement or interest

(41:10):
in the program there right.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
So you ruined it by saying green hunt.
I usually just say that I shota rhino last year and then wait
for jaw to come up off theground whoops, sorry.
So there's there's a few thingshappening in that hunt.
One of them was that I'm notafraid to stir people and

(41:35):
shooting a rhino rhino is prettyup there with stirring people,
especially when you, you know,don't really tell the green hunt
part of the story.
So I just I don't know, beforeI went over, the offer was there
from the, the outfitter, and Inever really considered it and
it wasn't until we sort of gotthere.

(41:56):
It was like day one.
He's like, oh, I'm gonna shoota rhino today.
I was like, okay, right, oh,it's happening.
Here we go and the yeah, Iwould shoot a rhino legally,
like proper dead shoot, if Icould afford it.
But the finances range from 50,you know, I want to say 30 000

(42:17):
us up to four or five hundredthousand us, depending on what
you're targeting, okay, yeah soyou know you can do it quite
cheaply.
but what you're shooting on thecheaper end is a captive bred
rhino who is past breeding date,been released, and then you
harvest that there.
There's no difference toshooting basically anything else

(42:37):
in South Africa except the costOn the green hunt side of
things.
This property had set up abreeding program and this was
their first female rhino thatthey had purchased, and they had
purchased her under theassumption that she was pregnant
.
But they weren't sure, and Ithink they're pregnant for like

(42:59):
two years or something.
I can't remember the details onit.
Yeah right, it's a long time.
And I was the first person thatwas there in the right
timeframe, that sort of lined upwith when they needed to check
how she was progressing in thepregnancy.
So they offered me this optionto do the hunt.
I said great, what a great wayto stir people back home is

(43:20):
basically what I thought.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
So the vet turns up and the vet's a really nice guy,
old South African fellow whoprobably green hunts 100 rhino a
month.
Like to him, it's just normal,it's just part of business and
he turned up with this.
I could never.
I was too caught up in themoment.
I never really documented whatrifle it was, but it was a break

(43:45):
action 22 that shot blanks.
So I wasn't shooting a round,it was just using that to propel
what I would like to describeas my thumb.
Basically it was a dart.
It's in the other room.
It'll take me too long to goand get it.
I brought it home with me.
Don't tell customs.
It was probably 150mm long intotal the thickness of maybe my

(44:08):
index finger and then just witha flat orange cap on the end
that was loaded so they wouldinject the stuff down in through
the needle, and the needle isprobably, let's say, five mil
wide.
So quite a very thick needleyeah and maybe 80 mil long,
eight centimeters long or so,with a little barb on the back
of it, and they would inject theserum into that and then load

(44:32):
it into the gun.
The 22 cartridge would go offand the gas would go and then
push the dart out the gun Now Ithink it has the aerodynamics of
a brick is probably a fair wayto describe that.
It was horrible.
And he gave me the gun and Iwas like, oh, okay, like I'd had

(44:52):
a Picatinny rail, and I waslike, oh, do we just clip on
like a red dot sight?

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
He said, oh no, you just line up the barrel with the
front yeah.
And I was like, are you joking?
I'm like going to just sidebarrel a rhino, what, anyway,
whatever.
So we walked down next to thehouse, next to the lodge, and we
had a archery target set up 30metres away.
And the way you dialed thestrength on this thing was like

(45:21):
it had a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5,meaning 10 yards, 20 yards, 30
yards, 40 yards, 50 yards.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
So it just provided the strength that you needed.
I don't really know how thatworked, but he put it on 30
because we were at 30 from thistarget.
Then I hold it up and he saidjust you know, normally a gun
with open sights would have asight at the front and then one
at the back that you would lineup.
This had a sight at the frontand then a Picatinny rail which

(45:51):
is designed to have somethingput on it.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
So I'm looking down it and I shot the target and it
hit dead centre and he saidabsolutely brilliant.
I didn't have the heart to tellhim it's not where I was aiming
.
Oh, bless you.
I was aiming at the targetabove it.
So I shot substantially, likeyou know 400 mil low.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Okay, anyway, we did it again and I adjusted.
In my eyes I was like, okay,well, I've got to hold a bit
higher.
Anyway, it went pretty muchright next to the other one.
He said, brilliant, let's goshoot a rhino.
And I was like, oh, like,that's nowhere near.
I was like I don't have theheart to tell him, oh, A rhino
is pretty big, though, right.

(46:34):
Yeah, In saying that he said Ihave to.
So they have a hump, a bit likea Brahman bull.
But further up on, the neck, andthat's where I had to hit it.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Okay, nowhere else.
Why is that?
Does it intake the solutionquicker?
It's like a camel's hump.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
And you could hit them in the side and you could
actually puncture into theirguts and things.
Or if it's in the back in theirrump, uh, their muscles are
quite tight and it takes longer.
So, anyway, so that's a softermuscle and a fattier spot and it
was the magic spot.
So we jumped on the bucky,which is, uh, south african for
ute basically, and it was allhands on deck.

(47:16):
We had, I think we had fourvehicles going and I think there
was about four people in eachvehicle.
We were all driving all overthe property to find her.
No one had any idea where shewas yeah something like 11 or
12,000 acres, and it wasprobably an hour or two,
probably two hours later.
We drove past and we saw her andall we did we kept driving, but

(47:37):
someone threw a rag off theback onto the track and we kept
driving because we didn't reallywant to spook her and then we
got on the radio and everyoneascended on you know a spot just
down the road and we made aplan and we went back to where
the rag was and she was gone,nowhere to be seen, but we
hopped off there excuse me, Idon when guests cough all the

(48:01):
time we hopped off the Bucky andI had a cameraman with me and
he put up a drone and we flewaround for it was a full battery
, so 15 or 20 minutes but wefound her probably 800 yards
away from us and so he flew thedrone back, changed the battery

(48:23):
over, sent it back out, put itover her and just left it there.
And then it was the weirdesthunting experience because I was
hunting the drone at that pointwe were just using the drone as
a marker and we were hunting inon that and there's other
animals zebra and oryx andthings flushing out of places
and that was weird too.
But we finally got to a pointwhere we could see the drone and

(48:45):
we could just kind of make outher 100 yards away.
They actually got really smalleyes and pretty horrible
eyesight, so that worked to ouradvantage.
I ended up getting to about Ithink it was about 18 metres.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
From her and she was broadside with a bush covering
her whole body and her head,except the hump.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
How good.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
It's perfect.
And there's this drone footagefrom above.
Yeah, and I also had thecameraman behind me filming and
I just shot this thing and Ijust watched this bright orange,
aimed bright orange butt of thedart just spiral through the
air.
It's like when you throw a dart.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Like a cartoon yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Like when you throw a dart, like at a dartboard.
But you know when you're a kidand you throw them sideways for
fun, and then they straightenout and they wobble all the way
around.
It's exactly what this did,anyway.
It hit exactly where it neededto Brilliant shot, he says, and
I thought, all right, that's it,it's done, we're done.
And she sort of spun around anddidn't really know what

(49:56):
happened.
And then she jogged off and Iwas sort of dawdling around
getting stuff ready.
He goes run, run, oh.
And I was sort of dawdlingaround getting stuff ready.
He goes run run.
Oh.
Okay, I'm not real good atrunning at the best of times, so
we jogged after this thing andthen we lost her.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
No one could find her .

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Do they not put trackers?

Speaker 2 (50:16):
on, you'd think that would be the smart idea.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
So they split up.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
We split up with vehicles again, uh, one of the
guys crossed her, like shecrossed the track in front of
him.
So we got on the radio and weall got up there and in the
background my guide was gettingpretty nervous and I reckon 15
minutes had passed at this pointand it was about 20 minutes
before she finally laid down.

(50:43):
But at that point the vet wasfollowing her and grabbing her
tail, like she was pretty docileand just stumbling and walking
and whatnot, and at the end heactually just like pulled her
tail and she sat down, fell over.
And it wasn't until later on,after we were doing all the vet
stuff, that I kind of asked myguide.

(51:05):
I was like what's wrong?
Like what am I missing here?
You're a bit weird about this.
And he said, oh, it's the firsttime we've used this vet.
And he said that usually takesthree minutes to knock them out.
He said that took nearly 30.
So the dose just wasn't enough.
Well.
So we asked the vet and he saidoh no.
He said I do this all the timeand I use that dose all the time

(51:27):
.
He used a different concoctionbecause when you say it was
funny, at the start you saidgreen hunt like non-lethal.
If you shoot one with the othergreen hunt the other green dart
, that takes three minutes tokick in and you lose them.
There's a 98% chance they won'twake up.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Right, so they need to be revived on that.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
It's an antidote.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Whereas this one, there's a 98% chance.
It takes a lot longer to enact,but there's a 98% chance.
If you never find them, theywill get up and run away
eventually.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
And when you've got what like 1,200 acres, did you
say?

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Yeah, no, no more, 12,000.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Oh, 12,000.
Yeah, you definitely want tomake sure you can find them,
yeah.
And if you can't, then yeah,tap them.
Well, that's when you get thehelicopter.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
So anyway, that's what the nervous was, and my guy
was fine after that.
He didn't discuss that sort ofdrug detail earlier.
So then she dropped and we gotthe longest ultrasound out I've
ever seen.
It was a bit of like basicallya pool extender pipe because of
the giant uterus, went in thereand ultrasounded and turns out

(52:34):
she had a baby.
So she was pregnant.
Excellent, and that was veryexciting to be a part of,
because the owner of theproperty and my guide are
business partners in the Rhinopurchase and you know it was the
first time for them to see thatand they were pretty exuberant
and whatnot.
And then on the bottom of herhorn, you know when you, you

(52:56):
know you cut your fingernailback or something, but a little
thread goes up the fingernailand just a tiny little frayed
section there was a heap ofthose on the front of her horn.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
From rubbing bushes and things.
Yeah, it just threads off.
And the guy cut a heap off.
I said what are you doing?
He said I'll show you later.
Anyway, gave her the antidoteand she jumped up.
Well, he said I'm going to giveher the antidote now.
Everyone move back.
And then he looked back and hesaid move back.

(53:26):
He was serious.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
And he gave her the antidote and she was up in
seconds like three or fourseconds, yeah and she stood up,
took two steps away from us andthen turned straight at us and
came towards us.
She was not happy that we, youknow, pinned her to the ground
and took photos for half an hour, but that's how that went down
and then we got back to camp.

(53:48):
Later on I'd forgotten aboutthe little things he took off
her horn and he put them in ashot glass.
With Jager and a lot of SouthAfricans are German-based and
there's a I can't remember whatit's called, but there's a song

(54:09):
or a chant that the PHs wouldsing to celebrate the hunt and
it ends in because Jaeger meanshunt master.
I believe Jaeger Meister.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (54:17):
That's why there's the red stag on the logo.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Jaeger Meister hunt master.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
So they used to drink it to celebrate the hunt.
So anyway, he put the phrase ofthat stuff inside it and then
we sculled it.
So basically drunk rhino horn.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
It didn't work as an aphrodisiac.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
And no, I'm not immortal.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
I was going to ask.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
But I don't know.
To circle back early on, Ithink the main reason I shot it
was probably initially just tosay that I had and to start that
conservation conversation basedaround it.
Yeah, I did a talk at our localhunting club at their Christmas
in July and that was pretty fun.
I'd put a little presentationtogether and then I read
actually read an excerpt from mydiary when I was over there and

(55:03):
I ended it with this littlevideo of the hunt.
So it was good fun to have thatconversation.
But they actually had, yeah,people not turn up to the dinner
because there was a picture ofme with the rhino on the paper
on the interesting promotion.
Yeah, if they came they wouldhave got the full story, but
that was my there's always moreto the story.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Well, that's a really good example, isn't it?
About people making assumptions?
Now, that's excellent.
You did mention that you wouldhunt a rhino like flat out on an
actual hunt.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Kill.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Is there anything kill?
Is there anything that is offthe table for you that you go?

Speaker 2 (55:40):
I will not anything legal, so if it's illegal, you
can rule it out.
For that reason, that's fine.
But is there anything legalthat you would not hunt?
No, there's not.
The only thing I'm not allowedto hunt is an elephant.
It's my wife's favorite animalokay, she's a spirit animal.
So I'm pretty happy to forgothat just because of cost
reasons.
At some point in my life itmight become a conversation I'll

(56:03):
have with her.
But it's yeah, no, no, toanswer your question.
Everything like you saidearlier on, if it's legal, I'm
all for it, I'll give it a go,excellent.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
And then you refer to yourself as a solo eater.
Solo eater, is there a mealthat is your favorite to eat?

Speaker 2 (56:26):
look, I probably didn't refer to myself as the
solo eater.
I got called that.
Yeah, I just.
I did one the other week that Iwas pretty impressed with and I
surprised myself.
I actually don't like game meatto be like I don't love it.
I shouldn't say that I do likeit.
I don't love it and a lot ofpeople will say it's probably
just because I've never eaten itthe right way.

(56:47):
But this was venison backstrapover the dodge bachi I'm calling
it, but it was just over thecoals and it was just super
simple and really delicious.
But I think if you want me tonarrow it down to one meal, it'd
be lamb chops, mashed potatoand yeah 11 minute chocolate
pudding in the microwave and ifanyone wants that recipe, I can

(57:10):
give it to you.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
It's a pretty special chocolate pudding self-sourcing
chocolate pudding in themicrowave amazing yeah, it's
pretty I was going to ask if youhad any secret recipes, but if
you're willing to share, that'sprobably not, it?
Um?
Do you have any secret recipes,though?

Speaker 2 (57:23):
like that you will pass on generation to generation
that you're like this is justso good that you need to get no,
no, I think my favorite recipesare blue cans of e and a block
of dairy milk chocolate, butthey're not my recipes.
But I will share that knowledgewith the children.
Um, there's one.
We grew up with.
A lady Lena was her name wasone of mum's friends and she had

(57:44):
this thing called Lena's Logand it was basically the poor
man's version is the chocolateripple biscuits stacked together
and then covered in cream, andthen it soaks the cream up and
gets a bit soggy, and then youcut it on the angle and it looks
like black stripes.
That's the poor man's version.
I could never really work outwhat her version was, but it was
so much better.
That's the poor man's version.
I could never really work outwhat her version was, but it was

(58:04):
so much better.
It was called lena's log.
She used the ginger nut biscuitsor something a little bit
different nice and it was a youknow, a wog dish that she had
grown up cooking and the dealwas she would give me the recipe
when I got married okay I nevergot it and oh, she's still
around and she's one of mom'sfriends.
But but I'll have to chase mumup.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
What's her excuse?

Speaker 2 (58:25):
I don't know.
I don't know whether I did getit.
I just never did anything withit.
I feel like I would have donesomething with it, but it was
the deal she said I'll give itto you when you get married.
I didn't invite her, so maybethat was why.
Yeah, it was going delicious,oh very good, you know what.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
You know what my anti-food is.
I told you that tonight on theflip side.
Oh yes, capsicum, you did say,or and chili?
Yeah, stay away from capsicum.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
There's got to be a sign on my farm gate saying if
you enter with capsicum, juststay on the other side.
Is that the?

Speaker 1 (58:57):
ultimate enemy for you.
Is there anything else thatregisters like that's, that's in
that family, I mean the oldcilantro coriander.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
I don't mind it.
I wouldn't add it, but I'llhave it if it's in a pork roll
yeah um, no, capsicum is thedevil's food, and how
interesting.
The interesting comment thatpeople say is oh, you can't
taste it, just pick it off.
And my standard combat is well,if you can't taste it, just
pick it off.
And my standard combat is wellif you can't taste it, don't put
it on.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I think it's definitely got a taste.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
It definitely has a taste.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Yeah, If you had to, if there was chicken, pork, lamb
, beef, one had to go.
You could never eat it again.
What would you choose?
Which would you eliminate?

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Pork.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Pork?
Yeah See, I thought that too.
But then I was like, oh, butbacon, like the pig has to.
Oh, no, bacon can't go.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I love bacon.
But yeah, I remember thatSimpsons episode where Ham is
like oh Lisa was, are you aSimpsons fan?
Did you grow up watching it?
Yeah, oh Lisa was, are you a?

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Simpsons fan.
Did you grow up watching it?
Yeah, yeah, lisa was listening.
The magical animal yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Ham, bacon, sausages.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
He's like oh yeah, right, lisa, some magical animal
, yeah, pig, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
But no, I think lamb is my favourite of the meats.
I'm pretty reluctant to order asteak when I'm out in public
because I can cook a pretty goodsteak.
I tend to.
If I'm at a pub or a restaurant, I'll order something.
I don't normally cook pasta orlinguinis and things like that.
But if one has to go get somepork on your fork and fork off

(01:00:41):
yeah, fair enough, excellent.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
So I'm looking at the time.
It's approaching an hour.
Is there sort of generallywhere you would say things like
this has been excellent, dodge,thoroughly enjoyed chatting with
you this evening and it's anhonour to have you here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
On my own show.
I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
On your own show, Any you know.
Finishing remarks, anythingthat you feel has been missed,
or you want to circle back roundto no, not particularly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I appreciate you coming on and having me as your
guest.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
You're very welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
It's just a bit of fun.
I said to you before that, likewhen I was doing Endless with
Matt, we had really good banterand it worked really well
together and we got into thenitty-gritty of each other's
stories on some of the episodeswhere there wasn't a guest.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
But when I went out and did my own, a few people
have said and I agree with themthat there's not that banter
when I have guests on becauseI'm meeting them for the first
time or you know, you're talkingabout a topic but you're not
digging into each other andhaving a bit of fun like I
normally had done.
I said to someone today was itJulian I was talking about?
I said I love throwing matchesfrom the side and just watching

(01:01:59):
them, but you can't do that whenyou're the own host.
No, so it's, yeah, I don't know.
Tonight was a good way to sharesome of my stories and
hopefully the listeners get toknow a bit more about me.
It's hard to interview peopleand then talk about yourself,
because one thing I love to doon this thing is just ask a
question and then let them talk.
That's what.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I've got them on for See where it goes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
See, that's what I've got them on for, see where it
goes.
Yeah, see how many tangents youcan go on.
For the people that don'tunderstand, I don't write down
any notes.
I don't really do much researchon purpose, because I like to
just tell the guests this is notan interview, this is a
conversation.
Just have a chat and we'll seewhere it flows.
And if you say something likeyou did tonight or I did tonight
, but your example was you wouldask a question based on what I

(01:02:46):
just said, but if I hadsomething written I would fail
to miss.
I would miss that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Yes, and I'd be always looking at the next
question when can I start thenext question?
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
So I really try and focus on just letting the guest
speak for himself, basically,and then I formulate questions
based on what I think listenersare trying to formulate
themselves while they'relistening to the interview.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Yes, what would someone be pondering right now
hearing this content?
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
With that in mind, if anyone does have questions on
the podcast page or tab on mywebsite, accuratehuntscom
forward slash podcast, there's asection where you can actually
post a question.
And if anyone has a question fora guest that's been on or for
me or anything like that, youcan actually post it on there

(01:03:34):
and I'm going to release it soon.
But what I want to do is, ifanyone gets a question on air so
we do get questions sent in andsometimes they go on air we do
get questions sent in andsometimes they go on air they
will get a hat.
I'll send them an Accurate Hunthat, which I don't have on me,
to show you what they look like.
No, I don't.
And then what I want to do iseither the most popular or the

(01:03:58):
best question at the end of theyear will win a hunt with me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
That's a great prize.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
A reasonably large prize.
It's just a good way for I meanlisteners listen and they send
me messages but, send them tothe page so that I can ask them
on air or whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
That's particularly great because so often people
have questions that other peoplewould benefit from hearing the
answer to as well.
So you know, one of the thingsI absolutely love about hunting
is the community and peopleasking questions and giving
sharing of their knowledge, sothat's a really nice way to
incentivise that kind ofparticipation.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
That's what I think too, and I say this to my guests
like I've got nothing to giveyou guys as thanks for coming on
, really.
So you know, same with thelisteners.
I appreciate them listening,but I have, other than providing
them this content and somethingto listen to, I have no real
way of saying thanks.
So that's an option for them tojump on and ask a question but

(01:04:56):
then go in the draw to winsomething a bit special.
That's me being in my position.
Giving away hunts is somethingthat's a little bit easier for
me to do than others, but it isgood fun and I just love meeting
new people and I thought thatwould be a fun way to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
I think that's excellent.
Well, you heard it here.
Folks Get online, ask somequestions on the page, win
yourself a hat or a hunt howgood, there you go, a hat or a
hunt, how?

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
good there you go a hat or a hunt.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
No worries, yeah awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Thanks for jumping on , cass, I appreciate your time.
Thank you for having me.
What's your sign-off going tobe?
What's your sign-off going to?

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
be.
Stay classy, san Diego, I cantell you what your favourite
movie is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Well, 60% of the time that works every time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Until next time, see you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Yeah.