Ep 153 The Hunting Stories Podcast: Aaron Jennings

Send us a text Aaron Jennings transports us to the rugged landscapes of New Zealand's North Island, where hunting isn't just a recreational pursuit but a way of life woven into the cultural fabric of communities. From his earliest memories of sitting in the truck with his father and grandfather (koro) to his present-day adventures pursuing wild boars through blackberry-choked gullies, Aaron shares stories that reveal the unique hunting traditions of his homeland.Perhaps most compelling is Aaron's description of hunting's role in community support. He and his brother harvested approximately 250 deer in a single year, distributing the meat to families facing food insecurity. This practice transforms hunting from recreation into service, embodying the Māori saying "kai moti te pu" (food for the table) that guides their ethical approach.Want to see more of Aaron's hunting adventures? Follow him on Instagram at _ajdventures and experience the passion that drives New Zealand hunters to venture out every weekend in pursuit of wild game and community connection. Support the show Hunting Stories InstagramHave a story? Click here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Michael (00:04):
Howdy folks and welcome to the hunting stories podcast.
I'm your host, Michael, and wegot another great episode for
you today.
Today we're actually connectingwith Aaron Jennings.
Aaron is from New Zealand soobviously we had some technical
issues, we had some schedulingissues, but we got it recorded
and it does not disappoint.
Aaron has some amazing storiesabout hunting stag in New
Zealand and hogs taking his wifeout going with his granddad

(00:25):
just all sorts of just amazingstories about hunting stag in
New Zealand and hogs taking hiswife out going with his granddad
just all sorts of just amazingstories.
So, Aaron, thank you so much forreaching out and asking to be
on the podcast and, of course,for sharing your stories.
Really do appreciate it.
I hope you guys enjoy it aswell.
Please give us a like and afollow and subscribe and share
the podcast with one person orwhatever else we're supposed to
ask you guys to do.
But that's it, guys.
Let's go ahead and kick thisthing off and let Aaron tell you

(00:46):
some of his stories.
Thank you All right, Aaron,welcome to the Hunting Stories
podcast.
Man, how are you?
Yeah?

Aaron (00:56):
not too bad, man Yourself .

Michael (01:02):
I'm doing well, brother .
I'm doing well.
I'm super excited to talk toyou.
You're officially the secondperson on the podcast that I've
talked to.
That is technically in thefuture, because it is tomorrow
where you are, sir, whichprobably explains why we're
having all of these technicalissues.
But hopefully we can getthrough this thing right.

Aaron (01:15):
Fingers crossed.

Michael (01:17):
Yeah, all right, man.
Well, let's do this.
Aaron, why don't you introduceyourself to the listeners so
they know, uh, who they'rehearing some stories from today,
man so, hey guys, um, I'm aaronjennings.

Aaron (01:28):
I'm obviously from new zealand in the future, as you
fellas will probably think.
Um, and I've been an avid kingpig hunter, deer hunter,
waterfowler.
Oh, since before I could walk,I can remember my father taking
me out hunting, putting me inthe back of the truck and off we
went.

Michael (01:48):
That's super cool, man.
So you're the second NewZealander we've had on the
podcast.
The other guy, he did not startlike you did for his entire
life.
He kind of picked it up late.
But I'm super interested tohear, because he didn't have any
pig stories.
I feel like you guys are inentirely different parts of the
country.
So the other thing I want tomention is that you are a

(02:10):
listener and you reached outsaying, hey, I've got some
killer stories and I'd love tocome on.
So a question I have for you,man, is did you just randomly
stumble across the podcast ordid someone recommend it?

Aaron (02:20):
I actually stumbled across it.
I was bored at work one day andthought, oh, I need something
else to listen to.
And I stumbled upon yours andgot hooked from the very first
episode.

Michael (02:31):
Oh man Cool.
I appreciate that.
I appreciate that Cool.
Well, so you've been huntingyour whole life hunting hogs,
deer.

Aaron (02:43):
Where do you want to start this thing off, man?
Why don't you set the stage forthe first story?
Let's just jump right into it.
I'll take us back to when meand my partner decided to go on
our very first hunt together.
Okay, so we had only beenseeing each other for a couple
of months, and one day I askedher if she'd be keen to tag
along on a pig hunt.

Michael (03:02):
All right.

Aaron (03:04):
Yeah, I knew then I should have never asked, but, um
, we went anyway and we decidedto go for a pig hunt in the
moonlight, because that's when,over here, our pigs are most
active okay.

Michael (03:16):
So question for you on the pigs over there are they
just like in texas, in the inthe south of, uh, in this, the
us south?
Um, they're just domestic pigsthat got loose and then became
feral.
Is that the same species thatyou got there?
They just basically farm pigsthat are free oh, yes and no, um
.

Aaron (03:35):
So all of ours was introduced and released, um,
okay, back I don't know when,years and years ago, and um, so
I know we have the Russian Bluesin some places of New Zealand
and then we also have CaptainHookers, and I'm sure along the
line too there's been a lot oftame ones escape, and in our

(04:00):
case a lot of people do releasethem too.
To get the numbers up, becausewe don't actually have a great
pig population in the area thatI'm in.

Michael (04:07):
Oh, interesting, huh.
So they're not necessarily anuisance.
They're more of like a game andmore sporting, because where
they are in the United Statesthey are a nuisance and people
want to get rid of them andwe'll kill them any way they
possibly can.

Aaron (04:21):
See, I wish we had that problem.

Michael (04:26):
I would absolutely love to come over there and that's
interesting.
Yeah, so hogs are one of the fewthings, um, that basically have
no rules right.
So, like elk and white-taileddeer, mule deer and all these
other wild game species, you gotthe seasons, you have to have a
tag.
You need all of that.
Hogs, you don't need anythingand you can go out at any time
of the day and with any weaponyou want people.

(04:47):
Uh, maybe you've seen videos ofpeople in texas with, uh,
automatic rifles in a helicopterjust chasing hordes of hogs.
That's how much where they wantto get rid of them.

Aaron (04:56):
They're like, use whatever you can yeah, I've seen
stacks of those videos and thissort of will make me jealous.
But at the same time we're sortof um, we were brought up dog
and knife.
Okay, you know, use our dogs tocatch the pig and then sneak in
and um, how do you say, put thepig down as quickly and ethical

(05:17):
as possible that's awesome.

Michael (05:20):
I have a friend who's done that in hawaii, but I don't
know anyone else that has donethat method.
So you say you were raiseddoing that.
When was the first time youstuck a pig?

Aaron (05:30):
Very first pig I stuck would have been I just started
primary school.
I was about five years old.

Michael (05:37):
No way, I'm assuming it wasn't too big.
Your dad was probably likelet's get a little one for him.

Aaron (05:41):
Yeah, yeah, exactly one for him.
Yeah, yeah, it's exactly that,is exactly that.
Yeah, we had walked into a mall, the pigs and, um, the dogs
caught a couple and, yeah, dadgrabbed the first one for me at
the dog's head and he flipped itand I stuck it and we were all
happy after that.
And then that's amazing, justnever stopped that's amazing.

Michael (06:00):
I have a six-year-old.
I cannot imagine him sticking apig right now but okay I took
us way off course, because Ijust had some questions.
But okay, back to you with yourpartner and hog hunting for the
first time.

Aaron (06:13):
Yeah.
So one late afternoon I decidedto ask her if she wanted to
come for a ride and we'll gochase some pigs around, and she
agreed, which I know now thatshe regretted.
She agreed which I know nowthat she regretted and, yeah,
just happened to be one of thosevery lucky and it was a big

(06:33):
fluke on the way the night endedup.
So we got there, the river wasin flood and we had to walk
across the river to get into thearea where this certain pig
that I'd been after for a whilehad been hanging out.
So we finally made it acrossand got all the dogs across and
we started walking in throughthe native and pulled up to a

(06:58):
bit of a what would you call itlike a terrace, almost where you
can look out across the gully.

Michael (07:03):
All right.

Aaron (07:05):
And we had my thermal handheld, so we were thermaling
around looking for deer too,because you can shoot deer at
nighttime over here if you're onprivate land but not on public.

Michael (07:15):
Okay.

Aaron (07:17):
And looked across the gully and spotted a morbid deer.
And I said to my partner, nell,I said, oh, would you like to
have a crack?
And she said no, because shehad never been around the
firearm in her life.
And so we left them and Ithought, oh well, what we'll do
is we'll drop down off thislittle terrace and get onto this

(07:38):
old forestry road and walk upthe road.
And just as we got down ontothe road, I said to her I was
like, oh, have you seen my, um,my dogs?
And she looked at me and said,oh, I thought they were behind
me, but they weren't.
They had snuck off from when wewere sitting on the terrace.
And then, in about 30 secondsof saying that, um, I heard the

(08:00):
dogs up above me, about 400meters up on top of this ridge.
They opened up and they startedbailing and of course but at
this point it is 1130 at night.
Okay, um and the moonlight with.
I had a head torch.
She had no phone.
She had her phone light.

Michael (08:18):
Oh, no yeah.

Aaron (08:21):
Um so, uh, yeah, from then on it was it was fun for me
because I finally got the pigthat I'd been after for so long,
and anyway, um yeah, the dogsopened up, it broke, it, got
away from the dogs, it ranstraight down past me and her,
probably at two meters away noway.

Michael (08:40):
Okay.
A couple quick questions.
Um how many dogs do you do youhunt with?

Aaron (08:45):
so typically we've always ran between three and five pig
dogs okay um, and they do both.
So I don't know what you fellascall it over there.
I know you just call them curdogs and all of that, okay, but,
um, we call them finder holdersor finder balers, so they'll
find the pig and hold it, orfind the pig and bark at it and

(09:07):
keep it contained.

Michael (09:08):
Got it, Got it, Okay, cool.
And then this particular hog.
You say you've been after itfor a while.
Is that because it was just atoad, just a big old hog, or was
there something about it likealbino or who knows?

Aaron (09:21):
It was exactly that just a cunning old pig Over here.
If a pig gets of a significantsize, he didn't get to that size
without being cunning and smart.

Michael (09:31):
Yeah, okay.
And that's exactly what he was.
Got it Okay cool, so he sprintsby you, sorry.

Aaron (09:43):
Yeah, he cut across the old forestry road just behind us
at about, yeah, two, two meters, and I'd just seen a flash in
my headlight.
And then I had two youngpuppies with me at the time and
they were about eight months oldand this was the second or
third pig they'd ever seen andthey ran in and they managed to
stop the pig and keep himcontained long enough which

(10:03):
would have only been 10, 15seconds for the rest of my more
experienced dogs to show up andfinally sink a tooth.
And anyway, I looked at mypartner and I said, oh well,
it's all on now, you know,follow me.
And of course most forests overhere have blackberry and it is
the worst fucking plant existed.

(10:25):
I wish it never existed.

Michael (10:29):
That's so funny like I told you, I lived in seattle,
washington, and they have thateverywhere and it I've never
even thought about trying to gothrough a blackberry bush
because it is so nasty.
Um, and here, at least inwashington, filled with spiders.
Is that the same in New Zealand?
Is it just like a bug haven?

Aaron (10:46):
No see, we don't have any dangerous spiders per se.
Obviously there are spiders andwhatnot, but then there's
nothing that should be scarylike you see on TV in other
countries.
But it is just a hell of aplant and, yeah, the pigs love

(11:07):
it because they can tunnel inunderneath it and they create
runs and they that's how theyget away from the dogs.
They get into these runs andthey run away from the dogs and
because they've lived in theblack, they know how to use it

(11:37):
to their advantage.
Yeah and um, yeah.
So, yeah, the worst blackberryI've ever probably been in, to
the point that it was, oh, seven, eight foot above my head.
Oh, wow, and from tree to treeand it's a pine forest, so it
was growing from tree to treelike a Tarzan vine.

Michael (11:56):
God and for the listeners, just so, because I
know you and I know this.
But blackberry bush not as justlike a bad vine.
It is covered in thorns, likenasty thorns, and it will cut
you up.
So I just want to make surethat people know that, as
they're picturing what you'retelling us here.
Uh, but keep going.

Aaron (12:14):
Yeah, it's awful and so anyway, yeah, um, after about
five minutes of trying to pushover the top of this blackberry
we, I thought to myself, I waslike I'm not going to get there
in time, and the dogs had.
I could already have heard thedogs get punched a few times.
They gave a few yodels and a fewyelps yeah and in the back of

(12:36):
my head straight away I thoughtno, I've got to get there to get
this pig under control and putit down before it either hurts
my dogs or gets away.
So I just happened to look tomy left and I seen this hole in
the blackberry, almost like atunnel.
So I stood in it and I wentthrough it and I ended up

(12:57):
actually in the pig tunnelitself.
So I managed to get my partnerdown in there with me and I was
on my hands and knees and wecrawled through this pig tunnel
for about 80 meters.

Michael (13:09):
Good, gracious and remembering too.

Aaron (13:10):
This is my partner's first ever pig hunt and I'm
dragging her through prickles.

Michael (13:14):
Yeah, and she doesn't have a headlamp or a torch,
she's just got her phone light.

Aaron (13:18):
That's awful man, she's just got her phone light and
she's just holding on to me fordear life phone light and she's
just holding on to me for dearlife and she gets afraid of the
dark sometimes because she'squite spiritually so.
She was following me, stickingto me like glue and um, sneaking
along this pig tunnel gettingcloser and closer and closer.
Then it goes quiet and I sortof on my hands and knees, look

(13:42):
back past me and I looked at herand I was like this isn't good.
And then about 10, 15 secondslater the dog started bailing
again and I thought sweet, we'reaway, they've got him again.
He obviously just broke to tryto make that last ditch effort
to get away and at that exactmoment I heard my dog start
yelping and yodeling and Ithought, oh no, I've got, got to

(14:04):
get there.
So I looked back at my missuswhile we're still in the pig
tunnel and I said to her sorry,babe, I've got to go.

Michael (14:10):
And I just and I left her in the blackberry I can't
believe she's still with you,man.
It's like my wife.
I would never every day.
Oh my goodness, she would nevertalk to me again if I did that
to my wife.

Aaron (14:24):
Good geez that part's coming.
I'll fill you in on that, right.
So anyway, um, I take off fromher and um, I break out on the
edge of the swamp and there's,um, there's only, I'd say, about
40 meters by 60 meters, andit's a real shallow swamp, you
know, just between ankle andknee depth, but real muddy and

(14:46):
yuck.
So yeah, we keep punching, Ikeep punching through the swamp
and there's one little mound inthe middle of the swamp and the
dogs had him just on the otherside of the mound.
So I was like, okay, if I canget onto this mound I'll be able
to look down on him.
And this mound would have onlybeen a metre high, but it was

(15:07):
enough to keep me hidden fromhim.
And so he didn't know I wasthere.
So I turned my head torch off,because the moon was that bright
, crawled on top of this moundand I had my rifle and my
spotlight and I just looked overand I could see a black figure.
So I flicked the spotlight onand as soon as he turned to look

(15:30):
at me, I just popped onestraight in behind the ear and
dropped them and I was like,sweet, got him right.
So first thing I've got to dois check my dogs over, make sure
there's no rips, that there'sno damage.
So I checked them over andeverything was sweet and I was
like cool.
And then I remembered my missusis still in the blackberry.
So I yelled out woohoo, I gothim, babe.

(15:56):
Yep, I've got him, I've got him.
And then I get back excuse theswearing, fuck you, I'm never
coming again that seems like apretty reasonable answer from
her yeah, and I don't blame her.
I don't do not blame her one bit.
But um, yeah, so I walk backthrough the swamp, get to the

(16:17):
blackberry tunnel.
I help her through, help herback out.
We get to the edge of the swamp, I chuck her on my back and go
to carry her across, but, um, Iended up sinking in a bit of mud
and so she hopped off and thatwent straight over her boots and
filled her boots with water mud.
She was dirty and wet up to herknees this keeps getting worse

(16:39):
yeah.
And so I finally get um, wefinally get over to the mound
you know that little knob in theswamp and I take her up on top
and I say, right, you ready,look at this.
And she said the same thingfuck off, don't talk to me.
So I turn the spotlight on andshow her this ball and straight

(17:01):
away her mood changed.
She was over the moon.
She was wrapped, like okay, wecame, was over the moon.
She was wrapped, like okay, wecame, we saw and we conquered
sort of thing, like yeah, we'vegot it.
And I thought, okay, I might beout of the bad books here.

Michael (17:16):
Yeah, you're lucky yeah .

Aaron (17:18):
If I'm lucky.
So anyway, what had happened iswhen I had put my partner on my
back to go across the swamp,she didn't know where she put
her phone because she obviouslywanted to hold on for piggyback
and she put her phone somewhere.
So she was like I want to takea photo of this pig.
And then she starts feeling apockus and she goes I can't find

(17:42):
my phone and I thought, okay,if I was out of the bloody woods
then I'm definitely goingstraight back in now.
So we're standing there andshe's feeling her pockets,
feeling her pockets and pullingout the insides of her pockets,
and then I looked down at theside of her leg and, because she
was wearing tights, you couldsee the phone was down by her
knee.
They were side pockets downreal low and that got me out of

(18:13):
the woods.
So I was like, oh, that'sbloody awesome, cool.
So we got stacks of photos,heaps of photos of her with it,
because it's the first ever pigshe had seen.
Um check the dogs over, and bythis point it was 1 am in the
morning.
So we were oh yeah, this iscool, we'll start carrying it
out, because over here we huntpork for the table, for food?

(18:33):
Yeah, absolutely, we have aMaori saying called kai moti te
pu which means food for thetable.
It's in our native language,maori.
That's awesome.
Yeah, so we carry this pig out,and it probably took me.
It was a couple of Ks.
I know you, fellas, go a mile,so this will probably annoy a

(18:56):
few of you, fellas, we'll figureit out.

Michael (18:58):
You do, you, man?
We want to hear your story, sodon't worry about it.

Aaron (19:01):
It was probably about six , seven Ks from the truck.
Okay, and still had to crossthat river, your story, so don't
worry about it.
It was probably about six,seven k's from the truck, okay,
and um, still had to cross thatriver.
How big was the hog?
How big was the hog?
Oh so, over here, if a pig sortof depending on the which area
of the country you're in likeI'm in the bay of plenty region,
which you know, you do get pigsover here uh, monster pig is

(19:25):
something that would be anywherefrom 170 pound to 200 pound.
200 pound was like you're alegend if you can catch one of
those sort of things yeah, okayand um, this, this hog.
He was an old pig who had gonebackwards, so he started losing
weight and then he'd.
Then his days had finallybecome numbered, and I just

(19:47):
managed to fluke him out thatnight when he was trying to get
a good feed on the grubs and themoonlight.

Michael (19:52):
Yeah, so do you take him out whole, or do you quarter
him up, or how do you get thatfood out?

Aaron (19:59):
Oh, we carry everything whole.
Okay Damn, we strap the legstogether like a backpack.

Michael (20:05):
Okay.

Aaron (20:06):
And so what we'll do is we'll bring the left side of the
body, bring its legs together,and we'll tie the hocks together
with a cable tie or just string, obviously gutted.
We take the offal out guts,heart, lungs, hang the heart in
a tree for our Maori gods aslike a thank you, and then, yeah

(20:27):
, put it on our back like abackpack and carry out the whole
thing.
Same with the deer too that'samazing.

Michael (20:32):
Was that tough to get that thing out with?
Uh, through like the theblackberry tunnels with that
thing on your back, or did youput it down and drag it through
the tunnels?

Aaron (20:40):
well, the funny thing is, when I put it on my back, what
had happened is that when thepig ran into the blackberry, he
ran off the road about 30 metersand then ran parallel with the
road and then darted into theswamp.
So when I put the pig on myback I grabbed my spotlight and
flicked it out across the swampand I could see the side of the

(21:02):
road.
So there was no blackberry.
If I had to just walk back upthe road to the swamp and walk
straight in, I could have comein from behind him and got him,
maybe before he had broken andyou also wouldn't have had to
leave your your partner in thetunnel.
So that's pretty funny the wholeordeal and come in with me to
see me.
You know, shoot the pig in thebale and all that sort of stuff,

(21:23):
but no, that's funny man.

Michael (21:29):
So that old hog, was he tasty, or do you feel like
maybe he was a little past hisprime?

Aaron (21:32):
Oh, way past his prime, but we'll get them done and sent
away into sausages, salamis,patties Okay, you know the boars
anyway.
The male pigs, the balls, umokay, they're typically not as
nice eating as what we call asow, which is a female pig yeah,
okay, um interesting yeah, sowe'd rather eat a nice fat sow

(21:57):
that's, you know, been on goodtucker, or maybe even one that
because pigs are a pest in newzealand Like if you catch one
you're supposed to kill it,because if you get caught
releasing you can actually get abig fine and get sent to jail.

Michael (22:14):
Huh, interesting.
Okay, a couple of questionsabout your dogs.
What's a typical injury, justlike cuts and bruises and
scratches, and then what's theworst injury from hunting with
dogs, cause I imagineoccasionally the hogs get the
better for the day.

Aaron (22:31):
Oh, they sure do, mate.
Um.
So the typical injury.
Depending on a smart dog, we'llknow where the danger area is
and where to avoid and stayclear of.

Michael (22:43):
Okay.
But um if my dog's anythinglike me, they're not too clever,
right and um, yeah, so my dogs?

Aaron (22:53):
I have finder holders but they do bail.
They'll bail on a better pigbut, um, on a bigger pig, but on
anything sort of you know.
120 pound down they'll hold andthe typical injury is a tusk to
the ribs, the shoulder, the ass, the neck, the ear.
We've had dog hair rippedeverywhere, gotcha so like a

(23:18):
tusk is.
It's kind of like a stab woundkind of right, exactly like a
stab wound, but it's not a staband pull out, it's a stab and
drag.
They'll typically whack theirhead to the side until they feel
a connect with the dog, andthen they'll lift their head up
at the same time.
So you can imagine it's like abig slice.

Michael (23:36):
Okay, jeez, okay.
Well, that's all the questionsI have.
I'm sorry if I interrupted.

Aaron (23:45):
Is that where the story wraps up, or is there more to it
?
Not much more, but that nightMrs did come around.
She was happy in the end andshe even carried it the last
kilometer back to the truck.

Michael (23:55):
Oh, that's amazing.
That's amazing.
So she found enjoyment in themisery, which is what hunting is
all about, I think.

Aaron (24:03):
Exactly At the time she hated me.
Possibly the next day or twoafter two, when she was trying
to have a shower and all theblackberry cuts on her legs, you
know, and the hot water don'tmix too well, but yeah, no, she
did love it.

Michael (24:19):
I mean yeah and has she gone back out and has she
harvested anything on her own?

Aaron (24:25):
nah, so she doesn't really hunt on her own.
She'll only come with me if Idon't have a mate with me, sort
of thing okay, but has she everuh, has ever shot at an animal?

Michael (24:34):
or is it always you with that are putting the
animals?

Aaron (24:36):
down.
Um, so four days after we gotthat ball, we got another ball
that went 150 pound and um, wewere actually driving to head
out to go for a pig hunt andcome around the corner on the
main road and there was a bigboar standing on the side of the
road.
So, me being the keen pighunter I am, I huffed my dogs

(24:59):
out of the truck and sent themstraight in, because it was a
main highway but through anative gorge gully.

Michael (25:06):
Okay.

Aaron (25:08):
And so the pig obviously had been coming back or going
somewhere and just happened tocross the road at the wrong time
.
And yeah, so I seen the pigcross the road, so I let my dogs
out, ran them up to where Iseen the pig go into the
blackberries again and, yeah,the dogs took off, and then I

(25:28):
remembered I hadn't put mytracking collars on them, so for
the next five to ten minutes Ihad no clue on where my dogs
were.

Michael (25:37):
Okay.

Aaron (25:39):
And the only thing that I could do to think about where
could my dogs be is listen forthe bark or head in the general
direction that I've seen themgoing.
So I walked back to the truck,grabbed my gun out, grabbed my
knife, and my knife pouch outand started walking up the road.
And we just look up the roadand out pops this big bull,
jumped onto the road with thedogs hot on his ass and where he

(26:04):
went in to get away from me iswhere he popped back out.
And he jumped out onto the roadand my dogs followed it
straight out and just whackedhim on the nuts and that makes a
pig stop pretty much in itstracks and sit down to protect
his nuts, because everyone knowswhat a nut shot's like.

Michael (26:21):
Yeah, and that's what I would do, so that makes sense.

Aaron (26:23):
Yeah, exactly, and sat him right on the main road and
the dogs bailed him and Imanaged to sneak in.
You're not allowed to justcharge a firearm on a public
road around here, so I had towait for the dogs and then I had
to suck them into it.
You know I'd walk up and grabthem.
And they grabbed him.
And then I grabbed his back leg, flipped him over and then,

(26:45):
yeah, stuck him.

Michael (26:47):
That's awesome.
That's amazing.
It's nice that after the, thehard fought one, they had to
like crawl through those brush.
The next one just was likeright next to the road oh, my
missus was like okay.

Aaron (26:59):
So how often is it like this part?
You know, how often do youcatch them on the road?
I said probably once in a bluemoon it it's very rare.

Michael (27:08):
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense.
They're not trying to sit onroads.

Aaron (27:12):
No.

Michael (27:13):
Cool man.
Well, that was a great story.
I appreciate you telling methat it was fun to picture you
crawling through the blackberrybush and honestly, I don't know
how you are still talking tothat woman, your partner because
my wife would just absolutelysay no and I bet most of the
guys listening would be like,yeah, my wife wouldn't handle
that.
Sure, there's some out therethat have that kind of lady, but

(27:35):
not me.

Aaron (27:38):
Oh, I'm very lucky in May , though I count my chickens
every day.
She's a blessing.
And we actually got her herfirst couple of deer this year
under her belt.
She'd shot and she stuck.
Oh yeah, she stuck her first,her first ball, probably about a
year after those two.

(27:59):
So she sort of stopped comingfor a bit because I had heaps of
mates wanting to come along,stuff.
So yeah finally organized thehunt with her and we went out
and, yeah, she managed to stickher her first ever ball and it
was a bloody good pig too nice.

Michael (28:14):
How did?
How did she feel?
Because I know that, like I'vealways heard that stabbing
something it just takes a littlebit more like effort mentally
than to just shoot something.
It seems a little bit morepersonal.
How did she handle that portionof it?
Seems like she loved everythingup to that point, so I don't
imagine it was a problem, butI'm curious yeah, she, um, she
didn't show any emotion, but sheis very.

Aaron (28:38):
What is it?
She has a very strong face,like.
She doesn't let off heremotions.
You can't tell what she'sfeeling at the time.
She's a a real straight face.
But when we flipped this pigshe was standing next to me and
I said, oh, do you want to stickit?
And she was like yeah, so Ipassed her the knife, flipped it

(29:00):
over and I held the leg up andwe typically go in to stick them
just at the start of prettymuch the sternum area, right up
at the start of pretty much thesternum area, right up at the
base of the throat and angledthe knife back in towards the
heart.
And yeah, I obviously hadn'ttold her how to stick a pig and

(29:22):
never shown her, and in my headI just thought she'd know, but
she didn't.
So I flipped the pig, shegrabbed the knife, she went to
stick it and she stuck it in thewrong spot was it close at
least, or did she stab in theguts or the ass or something?
it was in the throat, but it waslike what you see in a movie a

(29:43):
movie stab, you know, in and outyeah and I said to her I was
like no, no, come back here,we've got a, you know.
I grabbed her hand while she washolding the knife and I showed
her the proper angle anddirection on how to hit the
heart.
Okay, huh, interesting.
And then she stuck it and shewas wrapped.

(30:03):
After that she was actuallyvery happy, and I'd say it was
more so.
After seeing me going outhunting the whole time because
we hunt every weekend over hereum, after seeing me going out so
many times bringing pigs home,bringing deer home, you know,
maybe it was a thing that shefelt like she was included
because she actually had done itherself okay, very cool, man.

Michael (30:27):
I love it.
I love that she's going outwith you still, especially after
the first story.
Um, but cool.
Well, what are the stories yougot for us man?
Uh, more hog or deer.
Well, I know, in new zealandyou guys have all sorts of
different species.
So what are the stories you got?

Aaron (30:42):
um, I've got my red stegosho in the last rule.

Michael (30:49):
Let's do it.

Aaron (30:50):
Here's a big 14-pointer.
I think I sent you a photo.

Michael (30:56):
You may have.
I'll be honest with you andI'll tell this to anyone else
that wants to come on the show.
I typically don't look at mostof the things until after the
fact, because I often feel likeI'll want to ask questions in
the moment and I'll ruin thestories for myself when I
actually get you on to record.
So I I have everything you sentme, but I don't always look at
everything okay, well, untilwe're done it's yeah.

(31:19):
As soon as we're done here,I'll be clicking through all of
it.

Aaron (31:21):
Guarantee that well, yeah , I'll, um, I'll kick off the
raw, although I don't know ifyou call it the rut mating
season, yeah, so over here wecall it the raw.
That's when our red stags, youknow, mating season.
They get all territorial, getall pissed up and fight for
ladies, I guess.

Michael (31:42):
What month is that and what season does that fall into?
Because it'll be the oppositefor us.

Aaron (31:48):
So end of march, okay, so two, two weeks towards the end
of march and two weeks into thestart of april.
Mainly that first week tosecond week of april is when
they're really cranked andthey're really firing and they
really want to give it allthey've got okay, and so is that
your fall, like right beforewinter, autumn, okay.

Michael (32:11):
Okay, that's kind of the same rut for us, except ours
is september, um, or september,through november, really.
So like deer are more towardsnovember, but elk are fall in
september, um, and I thinkantelope, antelope, like october
, uh, but still it does fallinto our fall or our autumn.

Aaron (32:30):
Oh, okay.

Michael (32:32):
Yeah.

Aaron (32:32):
Oh, that's cool.

Michael (32:34):
Yeah.

Aaron (32:35):
But so yeah.
So I had a mate ring me up andhe was working on a big dry
stock station over in theGisborne District.
Over in I'm in the North Island.
Okay, that other fellow you hadon, I think he was in the south
island okay um yeah.
So I had a mate rigby up and heasked me if I wanted to come

(32:57):
down for the raw and if anyoneover here knows what station
hunting like.
If, if you get an opportunityto hunt a station, you take it,
that's going to be some of thebest hunting you've probably
ever had.
So what?

Michael (33:07):
uh, I mean, I guess I'm not sure what is that like
private land or?

Aaron (33:11):
is it military land or what does?
Station mean exactly station isa um big private land owned
farm.
You know like um one guy owns amassive farm, got it huge.
You know the ranch or somethingover in your fellow's place of
the world.

Michael (33:29):
Yep Ranch or farm or whatever, but yeah.

Aaron (33:32):
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, rang me up andasked me if I wanted to go down
for the war and I jumpedstraight at it and said I'll be
down there this weekend.
And um, so I grabbed all mygear and jumped in the truck and
kissed the kids and the partnerand said see you later, I see
yous in a couple of days, andoff I went and I arrived in

(33:55):
gisborne and it's about a threeand a half hour drive from my
house, and, um, first thing Idid when we get there is make a
jump in the bike.
That's us.
We'll go for a.
And the first look we went out,for we'd probably seen close to
50 to 60 different deer, wow,and there were stags and hinds.

(34:18):
You know they were all groupedup, they were all roaring there,
but it was just nothing that wewanted to take.
You know it was nothing.
If we're going down there,we're going to shoot something.

Michael (34:28):
That's worth it and easiest recovery okay question
for you, aaron, do you so?
With a lot of our species?
You can call or rattle or youcan do something when they're
all rutted up to try and bringthem in.
Is that a method that you guysuse out there, or no?

Aaron (34:44):
yep, no.
So we um, we just roll like ared stag.

Michael (34:47):
Okay, and do you use calls or do you just yell with
your mouth?

Aaron (34:52):
So typically we like to use a sort of tubing that's
ribbed, and it gives it the samethroat effect as the throat out
of a red stag and just yellinto it.

Michael (35:05):
Okay, I'm going to ask something of you.
So that's the same thing we dowith elk.
Right, we got a big bugle tube,I get one sitting right next to
me and then we do the the buglecall.
But it's hard to do thatwithout a read because they hit
these high notes, kid.
But could you, for the peoplethat don't know what a red stag
sounds like, could you, and I doso.
I'm hoping you do this for me,but would you do a call for us.

Aaron (35:28):
Yeah, I can, but no one better clip this and send it to
me.

Michael (35:35):
Um, so I don't have, obviously, a tube or anything
handy, so it'll just be with myhand, so I won't have that deep
throaty effect okay, step backfrom the phone just a little bit
before you do it, so you don'tblow us out.
But yeah, let's do it.
Do it so you don't blow us out.

(36:01):
But yeah, let's do it, that'spretty good.
That's pretty good.
I like that.
Thank, you.

Aaron (36:04):
Thank you for for putting up with me, aaron.
Oh, my way to I'm being a wayto embarrass myself, I guess
that was awesome.

Michael (36:09):
No, that was great, and I'm sure a lot of people have
never heard a red stag roarbefore, so that was really cool.

Aaron (36:14):
Uh, but continue obviously they do get a lot more
aggressive and they do havethat real throaty rumbly effect
to it.
Yeah, but uh, I'm not a bighearty stag, not yet.
There's still time well, yeah,um, so yeah, we went out, we've
seen all these deer and wedecided to take a couple of meat
animals, you know justsomething.
So we're on the board and cantake something home okay, and is

(36:37):
there any kind of licensing ortags?

Michael (36:40):
or is it similar to, I think, my friend on the south
island where it's just kind offair game because they're all
invasive or non-native?

Aaron (36:47):
all invasive, just honestly.
Um, we normally go by the mottoif it's brown, it's down,
unless we're in the raw where wecan actually target better
stags.

Michael (36:57):
Okay.

Aaron (36:58):
So you can shoot as many as you want with any caliber you
want.
Okay, the caliber thing is on.
Oh, no, you can shoot anycaliber, as long as it's ethical
, obviously, yeah can you usearchery equipment?
I thought maybe australia youcouldn't oh, I'm not sure about
aussie, but um over here yeah alot of people here that um

(37:22):
archery everything okay, cool,all right, continue.

Michael (37:27):
Sorry, I keep asking so many questions.

Aaron (37:28):
It's so interesting so, yeah, um, we decided to take us
a couple of meat animals.
So we shot a couple of hinds,you know, because they're in
good nick, they're feeding up,because they're getting ready to
be, or what do you say?
Um, breed, breed, almost, andum, yeah, so we shot a couple of
hinds.
I think we ended up shootingtwo or three hinds and we were

(37:51):
wrapped.
So we, that was the end of thatafternoon, so we went home and
had a few beers and a bit of acatch-up, as you do.
I think you, fellas call it atthe camp, but we're at the
mate's house okay and um, hesaid, oh, first thing in the
morning we'll shoot out andwe'll have a look for the stag
that I've been seeing, becausehe wanted to shoot the stag that

(38:11):
he had been seeing.

Michael (38:13):
Okay.
Do you guys use game camerasout there at all like we do here
in the United States?

Aaron (38:20):
I know people that do.
Personally I don't.
But, I know a lot of peoplethat do to scout the areas that
they're hunting pre-rut orpre-raw and throughout the rest
of the year just to locateanimals.

Michael (38:32):
Okay.

Aaron (38:34):
But personally myself, nah don't use game cameras.

Michael (38:38):
Okay.

Aaron (38:39):
But yeah.
So we made a plan get up niceand early, jump in the Polaris
and shoot down to the back ofthe farm and have a bit of a
look around.
Virus and shoot down to theback of the farm and have a bit
of a look around and, um, yeah,we went down there.
We saw.
What do we see?
10, 15 different deer and allin range, all shootable.
But they just weren't what wewere after okay so we pulled out

(39:03):
, went home, had breakfast andthought we'll go back to the
same spot this afternoon, butwe'll punch past those deer that
we saw and get into unchartedterritory that we haven't
spooked yet.
So we stalked our way throughand got up onto this little um
same thing, an old forestry road, okay, and we're sitting there
and, um, I said to my mate I waslike give us, give us a roar

(39:27):
and we'll see if anythingreplies.
And then, if they reply, that'swhen you sneak in and go for a
look.
And he gave out a roar and Ijust happened to look up to my
left and I looked on this bigslip and I'd just seen this big
12-point stag standing therestaring at us.
And my mate hadn't spotted itat this point.
So I grabbed his chest andpulled him in behind me and we

(39:50):
slowly walked backwards andhugged the bank and I said to
him I was like, look, bro, ourstag's just up there on that
slip.
And he's like oh, yeah, okay,we'll back up, we'll climb up
onto the spur just to the leftof us.
So we've got a bit of heightand we can look down.
So if he does come down for alook, we can shoot him down the

(40:16):
bottom or we can get a good shotat him on the slip.
So we get on the spur and welook up there and of course the
stag's not there and we're sortof humming and harring,
scratching our heads, and I justhappened to look down below us
and here's the stag walkingstraight straight towards us,
straight from where he heard usroar from, and I said to my mate
I was like mate, fuck, he'sright there, he's coming, he's
coming.
And, yeah, he, he startedshaking a little bit.

(40:37):
And I started shaking becauseit was a nice stag, real nice
stag yeah was it the?

Michael (40:42):
one that he had been eyeballing, the one he had been
hoping for it was the big boythat he'd been after nice.

Aaron (40:49):
And, yeah, he just carried on coming, keep walking
straight towards us, and thenjust walked onto the same
forestry road that we werestanding on, probably 20 meters
from where we had backed awayfrom okay and I said to my mate
I was like I'm gonna give alittle roar to stop him so he'll
listen, and then you drill him.
And he's like yep.
So I just started roaring andhe stopped straight away and my

(41:10):
mate boom shot him straight inthe neck, dropped him on the
spot and he was.
If he hadn't dropped on thattrack, we would have spent the
next probably hour or two tryingto find ways to strop him out
of the gully, because he was abig boy, body wise he would have
been.
Oh no, we got us.
We got his whole body out andwe took him to a hunting

(41:31):
competition and he weighed in at160 kilos.

Michael (41:34):
Oh, so I know stags are smaller than like an elk, but
how does that Like what is anaverage stag?

Aaron (41:43):
Average stag on public land away from the farms and the
stations.
You'd be lucky to get somethingthat pushes around 120 kilo
mark, but majority of everythingwill be between 60 to 80 kilos
max sort of thing okay and um,yeah, now they on these private

(42:06):
blocks or farms.
I should say there's obviouslya lot more tucker because
they're living around onfarmland where there's grass and
everything else you can imagine.

Michael (42:18):
Less pressure, probably less hunters coming after them
and stuff like that.

Aaron (42:21):
Exactly, it's only the hunters that work on these
stations, or if they let theirmates on to go and try to put
their over for themselves.

Michael (42:31):
Okay.

Aaron (42:33):
And yeah.
So we smoked him and we werewrecked and we thought, oh well,
and he goes to me.
Oh well, next one you can shoot, mate, because that was the
plan.
We wanted to get his one andthen we were going to go after
and get one for myself.

Michael (42:47):
Okay.

Aaron (42:48):
So we made a plan for the next day we'll go out first
thing on daylight.
But um, that afternoon, the sameday, we shot a stag.
We decided to go out foranother look and I shot another
eight pointer, uh, another twoor three hinds two hinds I think
it was and um, same thing, justfor meat animals.

(43:09):
So we thought, alright,tomorrow morning bright and
early we'll go up to the backblocks and we'll have a good
look around and see what we canfind.
So at the ass cracker dawnwe're already sitting up on top
of this big ridge, up the backof this fellow's farm, and it's
all been planted in pine treesfor carbon credits.

(43:30):
So the pine trees would onlyhave been waist high, if not a
little bit taller, but withgrass between it.
So it's good living conditionsfor a red deer.
And we gave out a roar andlooked straight down the hill
and here was a stag and he had10 hinds and we watched him for

(43:51):
a couple of minutes but wedecided nah, too far, too hard
to get to leave him, okay, hewould only be 350 meters from us
, easily shootable.
Just it wasn't worth going aftersort of thing.
He would only been a 10 pointer, okay.
So, um, we carried on along thetop of this ridge and got out

(44:12):
to this next little spur orlookout, lookout point, gave out
a bit of a bit of a roar, and,um, we had two replies straight
away and we managed to pinpointthem and had a look and we're
watching them through the binos,and same thing.
There was another 10 pointerand another 12 pointer or
something, but wasn't that bigold mature animal that we were
watching them through the binos?
And same thing.
It was another 10-pointer andanother 12-pointer or something,
but it wasn't that big oldmature animal that we were after

(44:33):
.
They were still quite young andprobably had a bit more
potential for the future.
So we decided, nah, we'll leavethose and we'll carry on.
So we carried on along the ridgeand then we checked another
spot same thing.
A couple more stags with heapsof hinds, and so they weren't

(44:54):
even worth looking at either.
And when we got to the end ofthe ridge with one last gully,
and just as our hopes werestarting to fall and fade, we
were like, oh yep, no, you know,there's not going to be
anything worth shooting downhere.
Yeah, we give out another roarand right down the bottom of the
gully we hear this fuckingmeaty, hearty roar, deep rumble.

(45:18):
And we thought to ourselves Ithink he is a better animal just
by the way he roared and he'snot moving.
So that means he's got hindswith him and he doesn't have to
leave.
He's just got to fight offother stags.
So we roared at him for 10, 15minutes and we figured out nah,
he's not moving.
But from his response we couldfigure out the general area that

(45:42):
he was in.
So we decided, all right, we'llcut down the side ridge and
we'll get down around below himand cut the wind and hopefully
we'll be able to find him.

Michael (45:55):
Yeah.

Aaron (45:55):
So we did just that got to the bottom, looked across the
gully and gave out a roar.
And no response, of course, yep, that's typical.
That's always our luck.

Michael (46:06):
Yeah.

Aaron (46:07):
And so I was like oh, I'll give a hind call, so I'll
give a female deer's call andthat might spark the stag, after
thinking that there's a hind inheat coming in for him.
So we gave one of those and aseparate stag to the one we were
going after would have onlybeen 15, 20 metres out to our
left and roared and bellowed atus.

(46:29):
So that created anotherobstacle for us because we had
to punch our way around thisthere because we knew it wasn't
the one we were after.
Get around him without himspooking the other ones that we
were going for.

Michael (46:46):
Do they have an alarm call?
An elk can chirp and a whitetail can huff and do all sorts
of stuff.
What do they do?

Aaron (46:55):
A hind will bark like a dog.
Just one single bark Like justone lonely bark, but she'll do
it repetitively until thedanger's clear.

Michael (47:04):
Okay.

Aaron (47:06):
And a stag.
He'll sort of do the same thingand at times I have heard them
do the odd bark.
It's their defence mechanismand the other ones in the area
nah, get out of here,something's not right, and yeah.
So we sat there for 15 to 20minutes with the stag just

(47:26):
screaming his head off, justthem beside us, and I started
thinking to myself.
I was like we're gonna have toshoot him because otherwise
we're not going to be able toget around him without spooking
him and potentially spooking theone we were going after yeah,
and you guys use silencers.

Michael (47:43):
I, I assume you do.
I know that my other friend innew zealand, he does, do you as
well?

Aaron (47:49):
yep, okay yeah, so we run um suppressors on most of our
most of our rifles and whatnot.
So, um oh, but he would havebeen this stag that was next to
me if I had a shot him.
Little did I know.
The stag that we were after wasactually just over the other

(48:10):
side of this creek, at 290meters.
So if I had a shot him he wouldhave heard the gunshot and yeah
off.
So yeah, we decided not, we'renot going to shoot him, we're
going to try cut around him okayso we backtracked our way out,
climbed up the ridge a littlebit and then sidled around above
him.

(48:30):
So we went back up and then,yeah, parallel to him, but at a
higher level, to the point wherehe couldn't smell us if the
wind was to swell.

Michael (48:38):
Okay.

Aaron (48:39):
While still heading in on the same direction that the
stag was, and we were justsneaking along, sneaking along,
and by then these two stags sothe one that we were next to and
the one that we were trying toget they had sparked each other
up and started roaring at eachother, so we didn't need to make
any noise.
And, yeah, we just walked alongthis, sidled along this ridge a

(49:02):
little bit and then looked outthrough the trees and there just
happened to be one gap that Ilooked through and there was a
stag where I was just standingthere broadside on this little
plateau at the bottom of a slip,and he was side on, looking
straight down the gully, but wewere sort of just a little bit
above him, so he was lookingdown below him for potential
threats, but where we were hedidn't know we were there.

Michael (49:23):
Okay.

Aaron (49:25):
And he was still roaring and everything.
And when he turned his head andlooked straight at us, I
thought straight away nah, I'mhaving him.
He was probably the best stagI'll ever shoot in my life and
I've still got a lot of yearsleft in me, okay.

Michael (49:40):
Well, how was he compared to your buddy's stag?

Aaron (49:44):
Oh, smashed it Double, double.

Michael (49:46):
Double.
No way.
That's amazing about.
How'd your buddy feel aboutthat?

Aaron (49:52):
oh, he was stoked okay, yeah no, we over here, we, um,
we don't really get jealous orenvy of people.
We more encourage each other,you know and that's amazing gas
each other up.
So if someone goes out, catchesa good pig, all the boys will
go around to his house and havea beer with him.
We want the whole story, wewant the full rundown and we

(50:15):
encourage and keep trying toencourage each other, I guess
because, that's what the cultureis about over here.

Michael (50:23):
Absolutely.
I love that.
I love that I had a questionbut I spaced it, so keep going
and I'll try and remember myquestion.

Aaron (50:33):
So, yeah, I seen him, he turned, he looked straight at me
and I thought to myself, nah,I've got to have him.
So I laid down and I was justusing a 308, and swung over into
just behind his shoulder,center around bang whack does a
big jump up in the air like ahorse and sort of walked a

(50:53):
couple of steps and then turnedaround.
So his other side was exposed.
So I thought, ah, bugger it,I'll give him another one, you
know, just to ensure he's notgoing to go anywhere.
Boom whack rears up again,drops.
I was like sweet.
And then I looked back over athim.
after you know giving the boys ahigh five and a handshake like

(51:15):
yeah, we got him and we allhappened to look back and he's
standing back up.
No, and because they're thatfull of adrenaline, they did
that right yeah they're thatamped that they're, they're just
living on adrenaline, so, andtestosterone, so they, they
didn't.
They don't know what's hit themyeah and um, and so I thought,
oh, I'll give him another one.
So I put another one in thesame shoulder and that dropped
him and I was like cool, sweetBoy, a little handshake, high

(51:37):
five, yep, that's us, we'll goand get him.
We dropped down there, droppedinto the creek, and that stag
that was from beside us, he hadrun down past the stag that we
had just shot and ran up aboveus and taken the stag that we
had shot, stole all his hinds inthe process and taken all his
hinds and his dead mate's hindsup the hill and over the ridge

(52:02):
all right, an opportunist ohyeah, they bloody are and um,
that's crazy we got over thereand I walked up to it and I just
seen it through a couple ofgaps in the trees and I was like
, oh, he's not moving.
I get a bit closer and he pickshis head up and looks at me and

(52:22):
I thought, bloody hell, you knowhe's had three rounds on him.
They should go down you.
He should be down.

Michael (52:28):
Yeah, were they all good shots?
When you finally got up to him,where were those shots located?
Were they all decent?

Aaron (52:37):
first one on the on the side.
Where I shot him once was justin behind the shoulder, so
double lung.

Michael (52:42):
Okay.

Aaron (52:43):
The other side was through the other side of the
lungs.
And then the one in the centerof the shoulder.
I found in the other shoulder,but he just missed his heart by
a couple of mil.
So, he was just, he was livingon borrowed time.
He was just trying to try out,you know.

Michael (53:00):
Yeah, that's crazy man.
Animals can win.
They're in the middle of therut, they can take some damage.
I remember my brother-in-lawshot an elk with a .50 caliber
muzzleloader and that thing wason its feet for like 30 minutes
after it was shot twice.
So they're just tough man.
All of them are tough.
And here's a question I havefor you about the meat Was it

(53:23):
decent after he was that ruttedup, or was he a little?

Aaron (53:26):
meh, a little meh.
So typically with a ruttingstag, if we can't carry them out
we will bone them out, butwe'll only take the back straps,
or back stakes, we call them,and the back legs if they're in
good nick.
And we might bone out the frontlegs for mints and all that

(53:47):
sort of stuff.
He would have been probablypushing 170, 180 kilos so there
would have been no way fromwhere he was to get him out at
all unless we had a helicopterhave you ever done that with a
helicopter?

Michael (54:01):
I know that some people do, but is that something
that's like common?

Aaron (54:05):
over here.
No, um, but my old man, thefellow who taught me everything
I know, okay, he he's actuallydoes pest control for a living,
so he's a full-time hunter.
Pigs, deer and goats oh, wow.

Michael (54:20):
That's an amazing job and it's something I think that
we all wish we could do.
Right, like, just be aprofessional hunter, do that
kind of stuff.
Does he get to, um, keep themeat that he hunts?

Aaron (54:32):
yep, so obviously, with it being a job, he, um, his job
is to eradicate from the areasthat he has hunted and been
hired to hunt him.
So he will take out meat ifit's easy to get to and
accessible, if you know what Imean, cause sometimes he might
be miles or kilometers from abuggy or bike or truck or

(54:55):
whatever and he's there toeradicate.
So it's shoot and leave on theside of the Hills.
Fertilizer, okay, but, um, yeah, anything handy he will bring
out, because it is against ourmorals on how we hunt over here.

Michael (55:09):
Yeah.

Aaron (55:10):
We hunt for kai, which is food Okay cool.

Michael (55:14):
Who typically hires your dad?
Sorry, continue.

Aaron (55:18):
The regional councils.
So he works for the councilsthroughout the areas in new
zealand.
So each district has a districtcouncil.
They might have an area that'sgot a deer problem.
So, yeah, got a.
Got another one about whenpretty much the first hunt.
I can remember vividly, umhunting with my father and my

(55:42):
koro, which is my grandfather.
Um, oh, I don't even know howold I was.
All I all I can rememberclearly is the hunt, but nothing
prior or after.
So that's cool what I remember,I must have been young.

(56:02):
But um, yeah, one day or onenight, late afternoon, um, my
koro come around and my old man.
They asked if you know I wantedto go for a hunt with them.
I don't even think they asked,I think they just took me
because you don't really get toask over here, you just go yeah
and, yeah, I remember we weredriving.

(56:24):
There was a farm not far fromour house that had a bit of a
pig problem.
You know, there was a few pigson there that were doing damage
to his maize paddocks, croppaddocks and so forth.
And yeah, I remember we weredriving through the raceways or
the road through the raceways,or the the, the farms, through
the road, uh, the road throughthe farm, and we were driving

(56:46):
along and, um, we decided, yep,sweet, we'll let the dogs out
and we'll go from here and we'll, and we'll start running the
dogs and see what we can do.
And I remember sitting in theback with a blanket, probably a
teddy too I don't know what isthat um, a teddy oh teddy, okay,
I could have sworn.

Michael (57:07):
You said a titty and I'm like, okay, he doesn't mean
a titty, it's got to besomething else so a teddy makes
total sense, okay.

Aaron (57:13):
A teddy bear, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay um yeah, and I was
sitting in the back and I justremember looking out the window
and seeing the old spotlightswaving around and as we were
cruising, along with the dogsrunning beside the back.
And I just remember looking outthe window and seeing the old
spotlights waving around as wewere cruising, along with the
dogs running beside the truckand a couple because we hunt the
dogs, if we can hunt somewherewhere we can drive over here,
we'll put the dogs on the bonnetof the truck.

(57:34):
It saves them having to run, itsaves their energy and they can
just wind from the front of thetruck, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, absolutely, we'rebonneting the dogs and a few
dogs are running alongside thetruck and we thought we'll check
out this first paddock.
And it's a big paddock, it'shuge, and we've seen all the
dogs get keen and winded andthey jumped into the paddock and

(57:56):
they started going through thislong.
It must have been an oatspaddock or something.
It started going through thislong must have been an oats
paddock or something.
It was a crop paddock and itwas long, but we had permission
to drive through them and, um,we hear the dogs open up across
the paddock and I remembersitting in the back seat and
then just hearing the, the truckthat we were in at the time
just pick up and start speedingacross the paddock.

(58:18):
And I remember dad saying, yeah, we got a pig, we got a pig,
sweet.
So we're flying across thispaddock.
And I remember Dad saying, yeah, we've got a pig, we've got a
pig, sweet.
So we're flying across thispaddock.
I don't know how fast we weregoing.
Like I said, I was very, veryyoung and we're coming along and
then all of a sudden we feel abig like.
We had a jump in the truck,bang Throws the truck up to the
side, big jump.

(58:39):
Then again, I was young too, soit was probably just like a
speed bump and we carried onacross the paddock and got to
this pig and we the old man inthe corner jumped out, ran over,
grabbed the pig and pulled itback through, flipped it over
and stuck it and dealt with it,and that stayed in my head and I
always remember that, as that'sthe you know, that's what

(59:02):
hooked me into this hunting wasseeing.
When I think back now, Iremember how the dogs worked,
how they contained the pig, howmy uh, my koro and my dad dealt
with the pigs when they gotthere and it was just something
that stuck in my head till thisvery day.
And so, anyway, they dealt withthe pig, they gutted it, which

(59:26):
is, take the offal out and putit on the back of the truck and
we're off to go get another one.
And anyway, we sort of droveback through our same tyre ruts
that were going through thispaddock because we didn't want
to damage too much of thefarmer's crop paddock, and we
were following our tyre tracksthrough this oats paddock
because we didn't want to damagetoo much of the farmer's crop
paddock.
And, um, we were following ourour tire tracks through this,
this oats paddock, and that bigspeed bump we felt was another

(59:48):
pig that was hiding in the grasstrying to sneak away from the
dogs and we had hit it with thetruck without even knowing.
Oh, okay, yeah, well, that's,that's what the speed bump was.
So, yeah, I was just a shock.
Still to this day I'm shockedbecause I couldn't have thought
of a.
if he had just drove, you know,a half a meter to the right or

(01:00:09):
half a meter to the left, weprobably never would have
touched it yeah but it justhappened to be on their right
track and, yeah, we the olds,jumped out, grabbed the pig and
it was a nice pig too so wedealt with that and chucked it
on the back of the truck andtook that one home and I think
we ended up with a couple morepigs for that night and I if I
remember correctly my koro shotthree deer, and so it was sort

(01:00:31):
of like the.
What I think back is theintroduction and to how I fell
in love with hunting and yeahwhat we do over here, because it
was not only the catching, thekilling, it's the clean up
afterwards, if you've got acouple of mates around having a
few beers, butchering your meat,cutting it up, and the stories

(01:00:55):
and the yarns that come fromthat.
And then not only that, it'sthe family time that you get
while you're doing it.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a whole array of thingsthat made me fall in love with
the sport, and the biggest thingwas watching those dogs work
that night.
At the time I didn't know theywere working, but I remember
that clearly that now that Ithink back how I remember they

(01:01:19):
were working, they were doing it, you know, and it's just
something that sort of stuckwith me for a very long time
yeah, understandably, manunderstand.

Michael (01:01:27):
That's such a cool story and it's amazing that you
have this story and it's soimportant to you.
And it has three generations ofhunters.
Yeah, um, I love it.
I'm I'm jealous, I, youprobably know, I'm a, I'm a
newer hunter, so I don't, Idon't, I have never even hunted
with my dad and probably neverwill.
So it's cool and it's reallyamazing and impressive that you

(01:01:49):
have all that.
And a question I have for you,because you say the food is
really important, and I think itis to a lot of hunters, but you
also say you go every weekend.
Is there a sense of communitywith the or you?
I just have to assume that,like, you're going out and
you're putting things down,you're bringing the, the food,
back and then you're giving itto people that can't necessarily
still get out there and do thehunting.

(01:02:10):
Is that, is that accurate, oram I just making stuff up?

Aaron (01:02:13):
oh, that's very accurate.
So me and my brother, um, myyounger brother two, just three
years ago we sort of had a bitof a break from pig hunting and
wanted to focus on shooting afew deer for the sole purpose of
helping people that in our areawe're struggling to put food on
their table okay so between meand my brother in that one year

(01:02:35):
we probably shot close to 250deer okay, and um 99% of it we
gave away, so we'd just jump on.
Facebook.
Go on to our local communitygroups, put a post up and say is
anyone out there struggling forkai food?
And anybody who's struggling,get in contact with us and we'll

(01:02:59):
sort something out.
And the amount of people overhere that message like if we'd
done one post, we'd be lucky toprobably get 50-60 messages of
people asking is there any leftor can I have some or something.

Michael (01:03:12):
So I was assuming as much and I think that's really
cool that you're doing that andthat the community is so into it
and that you're getting so muchresponse when you're going out
there yeah, well, like all mymates, they hunt.

Aaron (01:03:25):
All my family hunt, so that's something that we've been
brought up amongst, and when wecan help other people, that's
that's all we like to do, and itgives us another reason to go
out the next weekend too, youknow yeah, absolutely, man.

Michael (01:03:37):
That's amazing.
Do the people typically likethrow you like ammunition, like
money for ammunition or anythinglike that, or is it just all
you know you saying you know onme?

Aaron (01:03:47):
uh, so it's actually illegal to sell wild game over
here.
Okay, um, and you're notsupposed to accept donations, or
we call it koha.
It's like you know, a gift forof a gift, so sort of receiving
of a gift that you've given tosomeone and, um, you're not
supposed to, but, um, the oldperson that isn't struggling as

(01:04:10):
much, they'll offer, you know,yeah, 20 bucks, 50 bucks for a
whole deer, um, it can gotowards gas for your next trip
and yeah 99 of the time we sayno, but you get the odd
persistent person that'll sayI'll throw it in your truck if
you don't take it.

Michael (01:04:23):
Okay.

Aaron (01:04:25):
We get more of a kick out of watching those people that
are actually struggling, knowingthat they can go home, feed
their kids, feed their family,and they have a sense of this.
Meat is clean, if you know whatI mean.
It hasn't been through a plant,it's not processed, it's come
off the grass or out of the bushand it's gone straight into
their freezer and it'll be someof the purest, cleanest meat
they've ever eaten I love it,man, I love it.

Michael (01:04:49):
I love it.
That's cool.
I, I love I.
Was just sort of like man.
He kills a lot of stuff.
I'm wondering where it all goes, and so I'm glad that that's
what happens, because I thinkthat is perfect and I think it
fits kind of what you've beentelling me about the ethics that
your community has, with allthe hunting that goes on there
in New Zealand.

Aaron (01:05:06):
No, we love it, we live for it, we breathe it.
We do it every weekend.
We might lose friendships overit, but at the end of the day
we'd rather probably be with ourdogs and have our lovely missus
and kids with us while we'redoing it.

Michael (01:05:20):
Yeah, that's cool man, that's very cool, that's a way
to life over here yeah.
Awesome man.
Well, aaron, this was fun, man.
We had some technical issuesbut we persevered, and thank you
for sticking with me as I keptdropping out of the thing here.
Hopefully I can edit this intosomething that's reasonable.
But, man, why don't you sharewith the folks We'll wrap it
here because, who knows, mycomputer might explode.

(01:05:41):
But yeah, why don't you sharewith the folks how they can get
in touch with you if they wantto, or where they can follow you
and see some of your huntingadventures and take some
pictures of this amazing stagthat you got?

Aaron (01:05:51):
So if you want to follow me, I'm on Instagram, underscore
AJ Adventures no space, justunderscore AJ Adventures and I
am on Facebook, but all of myhunting stuff goes onto my
Instagram.

Michael (01:06:06):
Okay, cool, man.
Well, aaron, I appreciate youreaching out, man.
I really do, um and againputting up with my technical
issues that we've had on on thisparticular recording.
But, uh, I want to stay intouch and I want to have you
back on.
I have a feeling that you doenough hunting that you have.
You'll have a whole bunch ofnew stories for us pretty
regularly, so, um, we'll haveyou back on, man and uh, yeah,
man, if you're ever in thestates, let me know.

Aaron (01:06:27):
I mean if, specifically colorado I'd love to, I'd love
to buy you a beer oh man, I'llbuddy love that and I have
stories from last weekend if youwant to hear them.

Michael (01:06:38):
We'll save them for next time.
We'll save him for next time,aaron.
But thanks again, brother, Iappreciate you great, thank you
thank you, sir.
All right, guys, that's it.
Another couple stories in thebooks.
Again, I want to thank Aaronfor coming on the podcast.
I want to thank Aaron forputting up with the scheduling
and we did have quite a bit oftechnical issues, and so I want

(01:07:00):
to say thank you to Aaron, ofcourse, for putting up with me
while we're trying to getactually connected, while we
were sitting there in the middleof my night and middle of his
day.
So thank you, aaron.
I appreciate you and yourstories were wonderful man For
you listeners.
Thank you guys so much fortuning in.
I really, really do appreciateit.
I would love to hear from all ofyou.
If you guys have stories, thatwould be wonderful.
Go ahead and share them with me.
If you have someone else thatyou'd like to recommend, reach

(01:07:22):
out to me.
I'll reach out to them andwe'll try and get them on the
podcast.
But that's it, guys.
Please share the podcast.
Like the podcast, it's actuallypretty important.
If you give me five stars forthe podcast, let's get out there
and make some stories.
Thank you.