Join Kyle and Dodge as they take a nostalgic journey back to a memorable family hunting trip at Canyonleigh in Nsw , where the challenges of navigating rough terrain with young children led to unforgettable and often hilarious adventures. We reminisce about the joy of living without social media and the simple pleasures of nature, wildlife, and revisiting old articles and books. These stories highlight the deep connections between family, nature, and the thrill of the hunt.
We cover dodges new favorite question, what defines a successful hunt for you? In our conversation, we explore this multifaceted question, sharing experiences from varying terrains and recounting the heartwarming tale of shooting a first deer with family. We delve into the balance between personal satisfaction and practical outcomes, discussing ethical motivations, culinary delights of game meat, and the lessons learned from persistence during rut season. From bagging unique trophies to crafting delicious recipes, this episode celebrates the hunting journey in all its forms.
For the latest information, news, giveaways and anything mentioned on the show head over to our Facebook, Instagram or website.
If you have a question, comment, topic, gear review suggestion or a guest that you'd like to hear on the show, shoot an email to accuratehunts@gmail.com or via our socials.
Join Kyle and Dodge as they take a nostalgic journey back to a memorable family hunting trip at Canyonleigh in Nsw , where the challenges of navigating rough terrain with young children led to unforgettable and often hilarious adventures. We reminisce about the joy of living without social media and the simple pleasures of nature, wildlife, and revisiting old articles and books. These stories highlight the deep connections between family, nature, and the thrill of the hunt.
We cover dodges new favorite question, what defines a successful hunt for you? In our conversation, we explore this multifaceted question, sharing experiences from varying terrains and recounting the heartwarming tale of shooting a first deer with family. We delve into the balance between personal satisfaction and practical outcomes, discussing ethical motivations, culinary delights of game meat, and the lessons learned from persistence during rut season. From bagging unique trophies to crafting delicious recipes, this episode celebrates the hunting journey in all its forms.
For the latest information, news, giveaways and anything mentioned on the show head over to our Facebook, Instagram or website.
If you have a question, comment, topic, gear review suggestion or a guest that you'd like to hear on the show, shoot an email to accuratehunts@gmail.com or via our socials.
I took a shot at it and it ran away and missed and then I saw it. I assume it was the same fox. I saw it again over the ridge and it did not want a bar of the whistle. It ran the other way at the sound of the whistle.
Speaker 1:You know, for the last couple of months these goats have been in the same spot every time I've been there and I was like I'll come back with a couple of mates and we'll just clean them up because the property owner wants them gone. And you know Murphy's law of hunting. When we went there they weren't there, so that was kind of like well, you don't get his hands in the gut cavity. I don't know why that's fair.
Speaker 2:You gotta take them out when it's cold enough, I think, cause then it's not warm in there. Get your hands in there, mate, warm up. I don't think nighttime's a good time to do it. I think it's gotta be a morning stuff, so that you've got the day. Yeah, first time testing out the new glassing chairs. Sorry for the camera, just got a good arsing of my glassing Bit down here.
Speaker 1:Unconventional fox whistling while we're talking, full audio yeah, so when they're running in they don't seem to mind too much about like noise or movement, but once they like, stop and look. If you move, yeah, you're busted. So I tried this one. This is one from the UK. It's like Best Fox Call UK or something. You should Google that.
Speaker 2:It's a big call.
Speaker 1:And it's like a reed caller, and it's good, because it's like I don't like to go too loud too soon. Could we just close? Could we just close? Probably not now.
Speaker 2:Give it a go. Whistling Is that weaned rider back? Yeah, I like that. You can use that one hands free there. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Definitely an appeal to that. I'll sort of do that to see if there's anything close, because then this is pretty loud. I start hearing birds calling, foxes running back and forth. Yeah, sometimes it's an indication. Sometimes they're reacting to the whistle. If you sort of know your bird species, you can sort of pick the difference between this sort of alarm call and just the shatter. It's not the best time of year to be whistling them because they're starting to get into the mating season, so they're more interested in each other than in food. But it's also sort of dependent on how much food is around. I found out west. It didn't matter what time of year, it was just always hungry.
Speaker 2:I can manage when I'm good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but around home I think they're pretty well fed. I've seen that moths and stuff around at the moment, yeah, and like it's been so wet, like the amount of frogs and all that sort of stuff that they're eating.
Speaker 2:You can hear all those frogs in the creek down there, crickets.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went out a few weeks ago and saw a fox. It saw me, Took a shot at it and it ran away and I missed. And then I saw it. I assume it was the same fox. I saw it again over the ridge and it did not want a bar of the whistle. It ran the other way at the sound of the whistle. Maybe that's because it was spooked by the shot.
Speaker 2:I usually flick an ear and pull up and have a think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I normally sort of get a bit inquisitive, but I think they're very well fed.
Speaker 2:I've been hunting, like, how do you deal with your misses? Misses as in missing shots, not, mrs misses, you've had a few, I've had a few, I remember. Why don't you blame one of them on me because I had to shoot? I remember one. Don't you blame one of them on me because I had the shooting sticks.
Speaker 1:I remember one morning I went out and I missed three out of three foxes at like chip shot distances like 20 meters and then I called in past the property owner how'd you go?
Speaker 1:Carl yep three clean misses, which is always weird. It's a shame. How'd you go, carl yep three clean misses, mate? Which is always a bit. A bit of a shame when you have to tell the property owner that, especially on the foxes on foxes, yeah, and that was a sheep station too, so you know it's money coming out of their pocket. He was baiting pretty hard anyway. He'd always say to me he's like oh, I baited pretty hard. Lately I don't know if you've seen anything you always end up whistling something in.
Speaker 2:Baits don't get everything.
Speaker 1:They don't get them all. No, but yeah, the misses it's. I think you said to me after the last time that I missed that buck in February that I was dirty about because it was like.
Speaker 2:When I was dirty about because it was like the best part when I was trying to make you feel better because I had you shoot the sticks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much, pretty much trying to give me some consolation. And he basically said if you're not missing, you're not shooting enough. I mean, the more you shoot, the better you get at it. But the more it hurts when you miss yeah, especially when it's an easy shot or something. Or you know, just the the week before I missed that bark, I'd shot a fox at about 120 metres. No sticks, no bipod, just shooting.
Speaker 1:That was with Alex yeah, offhand yeah, not quite offhand, but like this, like elbows on knees sort of thing, which, like I'm not I don't claim to be an amazing shot, so I was pretty happy with that. I think I'd range find it later and it's like 120 meters or something. It kind of hurts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it. Like you said. If you're not Sorry about that, well, we'll take that camera reset as an opportunity to introduce you to the 2% of listeners who don't know who your voice is. It's the velvet voice, kyle himself, as Unton called you, was it? Yeah, it was Unton, kyle Usher. Welcome to the show. Bit of a different introduction. We're sitting here on the side of a hill.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Trying a hand at some late season fox whistling.
Speaker 1:How good is it? It's great. Lucky the wind died down too. Yeah, it was pretty windy this morning.
Speaker 2:And some rain. We haven't had any rain last week, yeah, even by the creek crossing. We just crossed. Yeah, very wet. We're just here to have a chinwag. Cole and I have been friends for a fair few years now. Pretty kids, just on kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, about the time the kids were born Five years or so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, friend of a friend introduced us Another Carl Young Carl, congratulations. He's had his second. Yeah, congratulations. Sorry to hear it. Doesn't know what he's in for.
Speaker 1:I'm on my third. Two's, all right, two. I am crossing that bridge into three.
Speaker 2:well, I'm on the other side and I think someone ripped the ridge down like you can't go back, there's not much going back on the other side of the bridge. But no, I'll just add again in the chat got the 243 ready. It's not? I was just saying it's a little bit noisy with us talking. To be really productive, yeah, it's not. We'll give it a bit here and then we'll move on to another little spot. If you're watching, you'll see the camera move, not like it did when it just fell over because of the $2 tripod I'm using. But no, kyle's been well. We were co-hosts originally before we both got shafted for different reasons at different times. I bailed out. Yeah, you pled girthly early. You took the early guilty plea and I got stuck fighting the charge for a while. Nah, good times, nah good memories. The first three episodes we were in for a little while, yeah, yeah we did a few.
Speaker 2:there was a hashtag going around for a while. Yeah, yeah, we did a few. There was a hashtag going around for a while who killed Carl? Yeah, Carl's disappeared.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just living like it's the early 2000s again. I've got a mobile phone, but no social media.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's very hard to send you funny memes. I got a screenshot of them and I'm just reading old Nick Harvey articles and I bought his book. The other day the one, you the one, yeah, it was good. And some familiar faces there in the photos. There were some familiar faces yeah, yes, yeah, it's good. But uh, yeah, we're inmates for a few years now and done a few little things together hunting wise not too many. Yeah, one big mission with the children early on? Yeah, talk about that soon that was good.
Speaker 1:I still bring that up sometimes with my eldest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. No, the grace can remember it. No, I don't think. I don't think they can remember it. If I showed her a photo, she'd remember it. Yeah, or just relive the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was out with the kids the other day and and we were doing like a rock crossing, he was like, oh, these rocks are a bit wobbly. And I was like, mate, this is nothing. I crossed a river twice as wide. Dead goat, two children, yeah, and yeah, like they were like two years old or something. Yeah, they were young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but old enough that we didn't want to carry them on our shoulders. Yeah, and that was a hell of a hike in Cracking property. It's the only time I ever got the opportunity to go there too. Yeah, it's sold. Ah, down at Canyon Lee. I was thinking about that the other day. I was like what happened to that property? It was a great spot. There was a heap of red deer sign down there, big footprints Before I really know what print wise, yeah heap of goats as evidence by that morning anyway, I remember I was talking about it now that you're post-poding it.
Speaker 2:It was a hey, you want to take the kids for a stroll? Yeah, no worries, and you can look at a property that I hadn't looked at other than on maps, and the farmer sort of gave us an indication of where to go, or the manager. We parked up the vehicles at the furthest point we could on the track because it was pretty washed out from there. Yeah, it was a fair drive in just to get. Yeah, he said he could get his buggy past, but, like I want to be a tracked machine, yeah, we parked up and loaded the kids in our backpacks. I think they walked down most of it, most. So yeah it, yeah I had like the.
Speaker 1:Did you have like a kid?
Speaker 2:carrier yeah, yeah, the Asprey yeah, yeah, osprey Poco or something like that. Definitely highly recommend those things For the good 18 months of each kid's life. Yeah, very handy for that. As soon as they can hold their neck up, they're in the backpack. Yeah, and yeah, it was a pretty rough, it was a track, but she was pretty washed out and I took the gun.
Speaker 1:We were just going down the bottom for a picnic really yeah, like let's go for a bush walk with the kids, take the gun just in case, cause that's the Murphy's law, right, you don't take a gun.
Speaker 2:See a giant 16 point red state yeah, imagine hiking out with that.
Speaker 1:Who would have done it? Kids, it's time to you know.
Speaker 2:Start pulling weight no kids start a fire. We're back after one trip. You've got to take the important stuff first, all the meat out, and then come back for the trophy the kids in the head. We had a good lunch down the bottom, drew the nice little creek down the Walden River and then I was like there's some goats over there just on the other side of the creek on the face. So you took the kids, you took Grace and Maith, moved 50 metres away or so and covered ears.
Speaker 2:They had ear muffs, or fingers at least, and I had the 223, I think, and I plugged two, two of them on the side of the two or three on the side of the hill, and they tumbled down. No worries, jobs on, we went across. We left a bit of gear. I left the gun. I think I left the gun on my side, on the side we were on. Yeah, and backpack one backpack, and I think we took the two kids and one backpack across. We didn't even take a backpack, we just took the two kids and one backpack across. We didn't even take a backpack, we just took the two kids. That's right, cause we end up with sticks. Yeah, there's a photo somewhere of like the kids were the backpacks. Yeah, yeah, and a beautiful day, cracking day, yeah, got across the other side and the clouds rolled in, yeah, and it rained. We'd like rock hopped across. Yes, it was a pretty heavy river, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then the rocks got real slick.
Speaker 2:Hold on Bombat. This property is laced with bombat and it got heavier and heavier, and then the rocks were not so grippy. It was already sketchy going across. I think we took back straps and four back legs. We had two each Something like.
Speaker 1:I think we at least took two back legs, cause there's a photo somewhere of Leif on my hip and a stick over my shoulder with two legs like balancing on the stick. I think we had that each.
Speaker 2:It's hard to find a solid stick. You look like a little pink can. Yeah, I saw that earlier shows up like a sore thumb, yeah, anyway, the walk back across the creek was rough. It was at some point we just decided we're getting wet. Getting it wasn't worth the risk. It was slipping off. It wasn't waist deep, but it would have been above knee thigh deep. Yeah, pretty nippy. I don't remember what time of year it was, but it was January. It was warm enough because we saw a red snake. It was a red bird, yeah, yeah, in the creek.
Speaker 1:We just, yeah, we were almost to the other side and it was like back up black snake there.
Speaker 2:Yeah and it was passing the kids from rock to rock. Yeah, get your foot.
Speaker 1:Pass the meat first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, important stuff, yeah, yeah we don't wanna get that wet. From memory, I froze it and then I jumped on the head now, but I froze it and then I ran it through the bandsaw with full frozen legs here on, yeah, and did round snake steaks for the dogs, yeah. And man, that lasted ages cause they had frozen meat in summer and then a ring of leather and they played with that and chewed that for days With their bit of hair on it, had a mess of the bandsaw cut through the hair. We got across and regrouped and all the kids worried about was snacks.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I think I remember them, that's the number one tip for taking kids hunting Quiet snacks, quiet snacks, quiet packaging.
Speaker 2:Mandarins are better. They're in their own little package. Oranges are a bit messy, apples are even a bit crunchy. Anything in a packet, no go. Yeah, if you've got to take a packet, put it in a ziploc. They're quieter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no chips hunting dad hacks yeah hunting day 101 yeah, but I don't think I really remember that Like every now and then, like they remembered it afterwards, I remember they both bring it up. Yeah, my oldest would be like feeding the goats down the road from my parents' place and he'd be like dodge come shoot the goats and my dad's like no mate, not these ones.
Speaker 2:Not these ones. That was a great memory from us. Yeah, these ones, that was a great memory from us. Yeah, it's a great memory for me. Yeah, we should redo it, not on that hill, not on that hill I've got a property in mind.
Speaker 1:We can go and do some gentleman hunting. This is gentlemanly hunting, this is gentlemanly hunting too.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's good fun. Getting out with the kids yeah, I don't do it as often as I should. I'm a little bit too productive minded knowing that there's a lower chance always when you take children I'm getting to the stage now.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm going to be able to go without my oldest in tow right and the younger one he's almost three he, um, he kicks up a stink when we go. So it's getting to the point that's like he kicks up a stink when we go. So it's getting to the point that it's like I think it's just gonna become a family thing All of us go All in or none in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, something like that. But you've been hunting longer than I have. You got family memories, haven't you? When you were a kid?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a bit Like just, I think I shot my first rabbit when I was 12 with my dad and say, my uncle, but it was his mate, um, on the property of Merriwa, you know, under spotlight 22 pretty classic sort of introduction to shooting. You know, like they hand you a 22 and you've never shot there. You go, mate, shoot that rabbit out there. You're like doing the wobble, doing the wobble, and then you kind of like I'm just gonna have to have a crack here and bang and I headshot it. They're like, yeah, headshot mate, killing it. And I'm like, yeah, yep, that's what I meant. Yep, that's exactly right, hit it. Um.
Speaker 1:And then more so like my, so my other uncle, so dad's brother, um Jeff, he took me out a few times um chasing rabbits with a, yeah, like an old single barrel shotgun and um did a bit with him. Uh, so yeah, like some introduction. And then you know you start playing sport and then you start working and that sort of stuff and other stuff gets in the way. So then I came back to it in my early 20s.
Speaker 2:Is it when you moved out west?
Speaker 1:Yeah, broken Hill, wasn't it? Yeah, broken Hill hill. But I'd wanted to for a while because I had this idea that, like I'm not comfortable eating meat that's, you know, may or may not have been farmed under ideal conditions and slaughtered by somebody else. Now, like I was interested in the ethical and environmental sort of aspects of it. So I was like I'm gonna, I'm gonna get back into hunting and that's going to be my thing. And then I moved out west where chances of hunting for meat aren't great. At that time goats were worth money, so you couldn't shoot goats. You don't really want to eat the pigs out there after you've seen what they've been eating. No a dragon used to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I used to shoot the odd rabbit and eat that. That's pretty good, um, but then it was when I come back home to the coast in the holidays and I chased deer, started chasing deer central west central west oh, I wasn't stuck, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah it, yeah, I was really lucky. One of Dad's mates had a couple of hundred acres not too far from home and introduced me and gave us access and shot my first deer there, which was a pretty cool experience for my old man. He was next to you, he was with me, he spotted it actually, and it was right on last light. Right on last light and like laying down in a patch of stink. Was it this gun? It was this gun. It was this gun. Yeah, two, four, three.
Speaker 1:And you know, you're like I don't even know if it's a thing or if it's your brain telling you that you saw it, but when you see it go down in the muzzle, flash. But but when you see it go down in the muzzle, flash but yeah, that's what I felt like, yeah, and then carried it out from there. That was a big carry out, like it was only a like small size block, but it was a big carry out back up the hill. So that was, that was like a cool introduction to hunting. You know, it's always like that when you introduce somebody to hunting and you're like I don't want it to be too easy, like you don't want to just drive in a paddock and be like oh, there's a stag there, smoke it. It's like you got to earn it.
Speaker 2:Like we didn't start with your red stag. Yeah, yeah. But I think on that topic, I think the personality of people these days is the opposite. If they don't get it easy and fast, yep, they drop off, yeah, they lose interest. I don't think I've got a bit of that on that personality, and if I came at hunting from the state forest point of view, I don't think it would have lasted.
Speaker 1:You might not be dodged accurate.
Speaker 2:No, if you dodge it, I don't know, super cheap order or something. I don't know what I'd be doing. Still be riding horses probably? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, well, leading to this question, I started asking I don't know, they didn't ask it the last one because he didn't hunt but what do you? What do you clarify as a successful I?
Speaker 1:know, like you and I've talked about those the stages of hunting, and, like you, get to a stage you know people I saw references to it the other day it's like it was a study in the us and people get to a stage where it's the experience, it's the being out in nature and stuff that they class as a successful hunt. But for me I can appreciate coming out here this afternoon. If we don't shoot anything, I'll be like this was still awesome, sit on the side of this hill just having a chat, looking for animals and that. But you know, the hunts that I remember are the ones where you still drop something and it depends too like it's all in relation to your objective too. You know, I was telling you before we started rolling.
Speaker 1:I went out recently to cull some goats with a couple of mates of ours and for the last couple of months these goats have been in the same spot every time I've been there and I was like I'll come back with a couple of mates and we'll just clean them up because the property owner wants them gone. And you know Murphy's law of hunting. When we went there they weren't there. So that was kind of like well, we didn't achieve what we set out to achieve.
Speaker 1:But you know, talking about state forest hunting and stuff, you can't set yourself like really, especially if you're just getting into it. You can't set the objective of a state forest hunt as I want to kill something, I want to drop a deer, because chances are it's not going to happen. And if that's what your criteria is, you're going to be easily discouraged as where if you kind of say I want to go out and have a great experience and learn, then that's going to happen every time. So yeah, I'm still at that stage where you know I want to go hunting, I want to get something, but I can still enjoy it when I don't. What about?
Speaker 2:you oh, death is success. Death is success, yeah. Yeah, I don't do many personal trips anymore, just like me, by myself, so those ones are. I don't do many personal trips anymore Just like me, by myself, so those ones are deemed on success. Because I spend enough time in the bush to enjoy that. Yeah, when I go by myself, if I don't shoot something, I'm cranky. Yeah, out there to drop something, I'm pretty lucky with this block. I have close to home opportunity to harvest meat pretty readily if I really want to flick a spotlight around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or I can hunt it traditionally yeah, well, that see, that's where I'm at too, like I still enjoy the hunt. You know I'm not like I can go and do a bit of like walk around spotlighting and stuff, but it's not really my preference should do with your kid in the car on your way home from school, when you're packing the house or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah told that story in the old potty. But yeah, had the car fully packed or something just drove. You were moving from. I've been staying in this place while doing renos, that's right, and you're moving. So I had like stuff back and forth and I'd been hunting in that as well. So I had like guns in dad's safe and then was taking them back home and just swung by the property where the owner had been seeing some deer and went past and said g'day to him and like was driving out and was like oh, there's two deer, two deer there, and I was like what happens if I get out? What happens if I get a gun out? And they're still standing there. I ended up smoking two fallow in the paddock with like my youngest one asleep in the car and the other one in the car as well, and then had to ring my very understanding, very patient wife and explain the situation to her and test that patience and understanding.
Speaker 2:How do you deal with the misses?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do?
Speaker 2:I deal with the misses.
Speaker 1:Circle back around Different misses and yeah, ended up because the car was like fully packed with all our stuff so had to drop the guts out of the two animals and it was like this time of year it was pretty cold. You left them. Them didn't you left them and then came back that night after settled back in and put the kids to bed and stuff, and then went back and grabbed them. I think it put them in your quarry. It was like a big, big round trip. My wife was not happy but she understood. It was a good opportunity to stock the freezer.
Speaker 2:But they don't come around all the time.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's the thing too like you talk about. Like what's your criteria for success? Like sometimes I'll go out to my local block and be like I just want to go for like just a fox whistle. And this happened the other day. I took my eldest hunting Because he even asked me. He said year dad, can we go shoot a fox? I was like, yeah, yeah, we'll go, we'll go before it gets too cold. We'll go, try and shoot a fox. So I picked him up from school, rushed home, got changed, grabbed the rifle, went up, didn't see a fox, spooked a deer, went down the hill a little bit more and then found this mob of goats that we'd been trying to find two weeks before.
Speaker 1:And, um, I'm real like hesitant with like taking kids hunting to be like to like take them on a cull. It's like it's pretty, pretty brutal, yeah, really in their face. And especially if you're culling and you're dealing with, you know, young at foot or anything like that, it's pretty confronting. I don't know if I want to sort of subject my five, six-year-old to that just yet, but I sort of had to turn around and be like mate, put your earmuffs on, and he had a big grin on his face Every time I told him to put his earmuffs on. He knows that we're close to shooting something and he stands there kind of like a gundog, shaking a little bit big smile on his face.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, I shot about five goats, but they were all pretty good shots, so it wasn't like Not too horrific, it wasn't too horrific or anything, and I always sort of just like check in with him. He's like you alright. He's like yeah, I'm like alright, I'm going to start cutting some meat. He's like okay, and he sits on the side of the track eating snacks, eating snacks and killer pythons, killer pythons jeez, they've gotten smaller these days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not so killer. I remember they were like a dollar and they were like, yeah, I remember going, yeah, like corner shot and you're cute, and they're like, yeah, long as you're on. Anyway, I want to segue there. What's next?
Speaker 2:Hashtag solo eater. Been a while since that's come around.
Speaker 1:So he sits there and watches, Sits there and watches oh he his first Can I give you, can't hear the knife.
Speaker 1:Yet His first deer that we shot together, like I shot it just to clarify like he was really interested and there was a lot of discussion around like why is there so much blood? Like how does the? You know and you're explaining this is how the heart works and this is how your blood works and this is what these bits are and stuff like that. He's very interested and you know he was like holding a leg for me while I was doing the cutting. I think some of the cutting I got him to do it like hand on hand to do it, which was a good experience. He didn't want to get his hands in the gut cavity. I don't know why. That's fair. You've got to take them out when it's cold enough.
Speaker 2:I think it's not warm in there get your hands in there, mate, warm up. I don't think night time is a good time to do it. I think it's got to be a morning stuff, so that you've got the day Just to like. You do need to take that time. Yeah, you can do it. It's much easier in day time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then it's also like the early wake up, depending on what your kids are like. That's where I find like afternoon good, just like this time of afternoon.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty lucky now with that block close to home. Yeah, very lucky, you're very lucky how that came about. Yeah, I remember you're very lucky how that came about. I remember you. I remember you messaged me or rang me. When we're talking about the first, oh, it's an opportunity. It was leather work related, wasn't?
Speaker 1:it yeah, yeah, like I kind of knew, yeah, and reached out for some leather work and started talking oh, you still got that family property out there and that snowballed into multiple property access yeah, and I and I said to him many deer out there. He's like oh, the bloody deer. And I'm like tell me more, mate, tell me more about your woes we've seen that meme.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what movie it's from, but you know hearing the farmer across the room mentioned he's got a deer problem, yeah, and he's like ignoring the 10 out of 10 hot chicken.
Speaker 1:Looking at the farmer that's the feeling, that's right and yeah, and then, like his family's, got a property up north as well northern New South Wales that now I've got access to and yeah, it just just develops from there, so it's been awesome. I went up to that northern property about a month ago now with Kyle, our mutual mutual friend, kyle, mutual Kyle Mutual Kyle Because he loves shooting pigs.
Speaker 1:He's missing deer he's got a deer, he's got a little one. He was going to get you to tell it. Well, no, you can't tell it, he'll tell it, he'll have to tell it. Same before about, like when you take somebody hunting for the first time Not that it was his first time, but because he kind of actually like helped me get into it as an adult but like first year you don't want it to just be like roll in the paddock and shoot it, like he definitely had to earn that first year. But yeah, that's a story for him.
Speaker 1:It's taken a few years, taken a few years. A few years and a few close opportunities and a few misses and stuff. But yeah, few years and few close opportunities and few misses and stuff. But yeah, you went north. You know I went north and got stuck in some pigs and some goats and stuff. So that was, that was a good trip. That was right before his second job came, so it was like the last hurrah before. Um, I might as well come and join the podcast at this point give it a whistle.
Speaker 2:I don't know what we've done with no hornets mate.
Speaker 1:I've had fallow. You come into the whistle, I'm sorry. How'd you go up north? How'd we go? Good, you got on some pigs. Yeah, that was the. That was the.
Speaker 1:That was the second time being on that property. Went up there just after Christmas with Bo and Josh so friends of the show and we got onto some. Oh well, I got onto a good pig and a good mob of goats and a few foxes and stuff. We had a really good first day. We went up at Christmas, drove in. I got him to a good pig, got him a good mob of goats and a few foxes and stuff. We had a really good first day. Like. We went up at Christmas like, drove in, had two deer no, three deer like run across the track, had shot this mob of billies that first afternoon.
Speaker 1:That evening sitting there at camp with the property owner and just finished dinner and they were kind of like this and then looked across on the neighbouring hillside and I'm like that's a pig and I was heading towards his property. I was literally just taking my last mouthful of steak. Talk it Run. Joys of summer, long days. Yeah, ran grabbed the gun and ran across the paddock and sort of worked out where he was going to cross and headed this boar off. He was a pretty good boar, because I haven't done heaps of pig shooting so I haven't shot any massive boars yet, so that was a pretty good one. And then when I went up with Kyle recently, a good one. And then, uh, yeah, when I went up with with kyle recently, um, didn't see anything the first day and then started the um the next day and I've been raining all night. The ground was really soft and started the next day and uh, saw a fox within a couple hundred meters and whistled that in and shot it. And then we just like took some pictures and stuff and then turned around and I was like man, pigs and pigs trotting across the paddock right towards us and, yeah, we lined those up and got a few of those.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, I'm talking about the Christmas trip like we'd had a really good first day and then the next day shot nothing and I think Josh and Bo were a bit dejected. I said, right, let's go for a fox whistle and it's a real good property, like it's a long property and it's kind of like we drove up to one rise, got out, had a whistle and when we, we'd gone to jump in the car, but I would said I've never seen it done successfully. I was like what, fox whistling? Yeah, it's like you're on mate, the pressure's on. Challenge accepted, knowing that, like january, like december, january is a pretty good time to whistle them because a lot of young ones coming out of the den they're very young and dumb will come to the whistle.
Speaker 1:So we went for a bit of a drive and shot a couple of foxes. So that was cool. Kind of livened things up, perks up the mood does does Only so much because I shot both, so you didn't get the opportunity. No, I had the shotgun. So One of those things, yeah, and then. So it's not a bad property up there, it's just a bit of a drive, but trying to get back up there as much as possible.
Speaker 2:You referenced Nick Harvey earlier. Yeah, talking about riders. Yeah, sitting here with a published author. The current issue of Sporting Shooter magazine yeah, june 2024, there's an article that Mr Asher has penned a bit of a nostalgic one. Yeah, he can. There used to be a saying that I can read, but I don't. This guy can write and read.
Speaker 1:I don't do either yeah, I mentioned earlier my, my uncle. That took me hunting a bit chasing rabbits with his old single barrel. And then when I moved out west for work, that took me hunting a bit chasing rabbits with his old single barrel. And then when I moved out west for work and got my gun licence and that he was getting to the age that he didn't really have much use for a gun anymore, so he signed the shotgun over to me and I started using it out west and shot a few rabbits and stuff and then didn't use it for a while. There I've got a under over morocco as well, which is pretty good shotgun, um, so use that a bit.
Speaker 1:And then, just like last year, I was starting to see a few rabbits around on the local property and I just had this sort of sense of like, speaking of nostalgia, like this sense of man I just want to go for a bit of a walk and just knock out a few rabbits with the old single barrel. And then I was like we talked a bit before about riding something, like we had Mick Matheson, the editor, sporting shooter, on the old potty and had a real good chat with him and Ben Unten, who's also a writer for the SSAA magazine and I was always kind of like I should have a go at writing something. And so when I started knocking over a few rabbits and foxes and that with the old single barrel, I was like, oh, there's a bit of a theme here. There's a bit of a theme here, you know, and almost a way, uh, to sort of like do something to honor my uncle. He's still with us. I'm not talking like past tense sort of thing, but um, but just thanks, like, and I think that's one of those things, right, like you know, there's all the nice things that you say about people after they're gone and stuff, but like you should go and say those things to them too when they're with you.
Speaker 1:So I thought, you know, um, I might as well write it now and so that he can read it and sort of know what it means to me. Because like that was all that was, like me getting my start in hunting, like with that old single barrel, um, and now it's like it's, it's my passion, it's like you know, it's sort of what I, what I live for. Like you know nothing I'd rather be doing on the weekend get out hunting, um. So yeah, I wrote that article and sent it to mick and a few pictures and stuff and and he, he liked it and was happy to run it.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, it's come out this month and you know they're always looking for contributors. So someone out there with a good story and, very importantly, the good pictures to go with the story, as they say, got to be good pictures. Yeah, a picture paints a thousand words. So if you've got a good story and and some good pictures to go with it, write something up and send it to Mick, so yeah, that's, that's been good. It's kind of like another sort of avenue where hunting is taking me something you can do at home when you're not hunting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's so. You sit down after kids go to bed and a couple of pages, like a couple hundred words. Trouble with me is like I'm real, like I'll procrastinate, procrastinate, but then, once I start next minute, it's like midnight and I've written a thousand words. I'll be up for work in the morning um, math is like wind it back, mate.
Speaker 2:It's not a book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, probably that's. That's always my thing. I send it to him and I'm like just like tell me if there's things I need to cut out or condense or something have you read the version he put out?
Speaker 2:because?
Speaker 1:they usually tweak it a little. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty close as far as I know, like there wasn't anything that I read and I was like, oh, hang on, I didn't like you've cut a bit out.
Speaker 2:They don't yeah they don't ad lib. No, I know Anton's always said they, you know, he'll throw 10 jokes and then they'll remove five, not jokes, so much. But anecdotes.
Speaker 1:He's a funny guy, not as funny as Ben, yeah, so I was saying yesterday to somebody, because some of the boys were talking about motorbikes and stuff, and they said, when are you going to get a motorbike?
Speaker 2:and I'm like I don't need another hobby, that you know I feel like that's a recurring conversation those boys have with you at every kids birthday party. Oh yeah, 100% wasn't this goose just trying to sell his.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he just sold his. But then the other ones have, you know, planted troops and stuff. Yeah, right, but what I was saying is like I like all my hobbies to be connected. So, unless I'm going to get like a, a dirt bike with the rock on the front, yeah, I probably wouldn't be getting a motorbike. But yeah, like doing the riding, doing a bit of leather work, starting to get into reloading, like everything's sort of connected. That's a rabbit hole. That is a rabbit hole. It's a rabbit one. Yep, yep. And I'm like, like I said before, like I procrastinate a lot and I kind of suffer from paralysis by analysis. It's kind of like, from paralysis by analysis.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like it's the opposite to that, because I think that's me Like all the gear, no idea, probably. Just jump it in and Nah fly around the scene, reload Nah, just find a mate. That's good enough to do that. Shout out to Tom.
Speaker 1:Tom's been helping me out. We just have ongoing messenger threads about this reloading gear and do I need to do this and do I need to buy that?
Speaker 2:Whereas I have a short messenger thread. Tom got a 260. He goes what do you got Nothing. Okay, I'll buy it. You pay for it. Okay, here's 100 rounds, Thank you. He's telling me some details. I'm like I don't need to know, as long as it shoots yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I don't have enough mental capacity. The good thing about talking to him is he's got the like real world experience yes, it's not paper knowledge Like I read an article and I'll be like, oh, I've got to. Like I read that I've got to and do this like resize and this and that. And he's like, oh, you can do this, but you can get away with not doing that and, you know, just for hunting mode. So it's been um, been good having him as a sounding board for some direction I'm going in. So I'm gonna start reloading for the 243 soon and then my 3006 as well. But you start getting into like rabbit holes and then that's like, maybe I need a 28 nozzle. I know a guy Maybe I need a 28 nozzle so I can Test my long-distance capability.
Speaker 2:I haven't really found out why I need one yet, but I've got one.
Speaker 1:But you've got one, I've got one. You know what they say better to have it than not need it, better to need it than not have it.
Speaker 2:You know, I've got a few that I probably don't need but have. Yeah, I think I had someone in the gun room the other day and Grace comes in same age as you know, she's five and she says, oh, that's my gun. And she's five. And she says, oh, that's my gun. I'm like, ah, just to clarify, it'll be yours when you're old enough. It'll be yours when you're old enough, but there's a couple in there that I blame on the kids yeah, one for each kid.
Speaker 1:Yep, the 270. Is that? Bought it for the boys?
Speaker 2:yeah right yeah, so you can show me how to use it. Yeah, my 270 I bought for the farm and I haven't even put a scope on it yet. You got a scope for it? No, no, I had the money at the time for the gun. Yeah, I'm like I'll get the scope when I get to it. I haven't had the money since. I've got extra money hanging around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but, you know, what, as long as you keep them well oiled and that they're not.
Speaker 2:They not depreciating value. No, I've seen that happen in the last five years everything going up in value. Yep, on the writing and the book topic, as a non-book reader myself and knowing that you've got a few, what's your favourite? I know you like some of your old African stuff. Yeah, I like the African stuff. What's the nostalgic point of view, peter Hathaway?
Speaker 1:capstick he's. I know you like some of your old African stuff. Yeah, I like the African stuff. What's the nostalgic point of view? Peter Hathaway capstick, he's good. I always liked we mentioned Nick Harvey before. I always liked his articles In terms of books. I like the Kiwi stuff as well. There's a bloke a lot of people would know of him Paul Paul, john Michaels. Paul Michaels, your podcast, the Deer Point. Yeah, he's the, the blueprint guy. He wrote a book about his experiences. I think it's called Hunting Lucky. I think that's his book about like possum trapping and deer hunting and stuff for months on end with his dog. I think that's sort of where his whole blueprint system came from. That was a really good read. But yeah, I think my interest in Africa came from reading Wilbur Smith, which is fiction, but he was a big game hunter and an author and so when he wrote about big game hunting he was writing about pretty much personal experience. So that's sort of something that I'd like to do one day in Africa, next year, next year, I reckon.
Speaker 2:Good show, mate. I got Anton talking to it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, That'll be his third trip. Oh yeah, he might get his kudu this time.
Speaker 2:That's what you want, isn't it?
Speaker 1:That's what I want. I want a kudu.
Speaker 2:It'll tie a few good ones up.
Speaker 1:That's the thing about, especially like south africa, like it's all game farm. I know a lot of them are huge, but it's like they're all fenced in some regards I think pretty much all of them but without sort of experiencing it you don't know sort of what comfortable with, I guess and and there's no guarantees talking about Anton he's he probably said it on the other podcast.
Speaker 2:He said it a thousand times that he shot just as many kudu as my grandma just none. And he's been. He's been to Africa twice and chased kudu significantly. Yeah, seen some just. And he's been to Africa twice and chased kudu significantly. Yeah, seen some just missed opportunities or juvenile or whatever People think Africa's slam dunk To slam dunk, you'll shoot something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there are places where you know it's like very small paddocks and stuff like that, like there's those places that you can go to, but yeah, that's not what these guys are after. Yeah, that's not the norm.
Speaker 2:What's the time? We move around the corner. Yeah, it's five o'clock. I'm going to take a pause, pause the video. I'm going to move around the corner and set up and try another spot. I need to walk before my legs chatter off. I'm gonna take a pause, pause the video. I'm gonna move around the corner and set up and try another spot. I need to walk, for my legs chatter off. Yeah, put another layer on. I don't have a layer to put on. Stand up and scare a fox away. Yeah, probably that walmart's still there, I don't know. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. So we move spots, we just move spots. I had a Russell from Carl's pocket Turned out he bought a couple spare killer pythons left over from the heat hunt.
Speaker 2:You thought it was too cold for snakes, too cold for proper snakes. Yeah, never too cold for a killer python. We just threw the whistle out. We actually saw a fox start off in this spot when we pulled up in the car, so bit of a last light chance before we call it. Yeah, how'd you go this year on the rut? Now we're really running out of light, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's all right. Now I want to see our face anyway Nah. That's why I just go start.
Speaker 2:Face for radio. I'd see it, me, not you. Both of us mate. Anyway, it's happened twice now. Yeah, camera just fell over. I'm going to delete that part. What happened in that downtime was Carl, supplied with killer pythons, very much appreciated Asked him where his rut was going, then he talked me through that story and now he's going to start again. Yep, so that was a rut for you, carl.
Speaker 1:Yeah it was good. Um, I didn't shoot a monster or anything, um, but in terms of like that sort of criteria of success we talked about earlier, it was successful. It was, um. This is the third year I've hunted this local property I've got access to, and, um, I haven't shot a buck on there yet until this year. And I shot a nice chocolate buck, uh, that was. It felt a bit like I was starting to um, you know, play, play the game with him, play that cat and mouse. Um, I was picking him up on the trail cameras, um, and he seemed like a pretty aggressive buck too. He was like terrible antlers, like you'd call him a cull. For sure, no palms kind of forky looking things. Apparently, there's a fair bit of like mesogenetics in that area.
Speaker 2:What's that out of interest? Not out of interest because I don't have the answer For the listeners.
Speaker 1:Mesopotamian, or what do they call them? Uh, persian, persian fellow um which they were sort of introduced. The genetics were introduced in some places because they're a bigger bodied animal worse antlers, depending on how you look at it, like like, compared to a traditional classical fallow, like antlers aren't as good.
Speaker 1:But bigger body size, so better carcass weight for deer farming, but they make a mess of fallow genetics when they cross yeah yeah, so, but then the one that I ended up shooting was a chocolate buck, which is not necessarily like a meso, but maybe had mesogenetics in there, or or maybe it's just poor genetics and that's why the antlers are like that, but they were far, pretty close to there though, yeah yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:yeah, it would make sense. And there were ones that I got on camera that you looked at me like yeah, definite may so, but that was early in the run and then that like that full looking, that meso looking one disappeared as I think the bigger boys moved in, even like later in the rut. So, yeah, I shot this nice chocolate buck that I'd seen on trail camera like chasing other bucks away and stuff like he was very aggressive. And when I shot him I sort of came down the hill and, um, sort of heard something move off in the scrub, sound like maybe antler brushing timber, and he kind of popped out of the scrub and was looking at me like he wanted to staunch me because I had like rifle over the shoulder, shooting sticks in front of me, because I had my shooting sticks. This time, don't you? That's what you didn't miss. I did, yeah, and he was looking right at me and I was watching my thermals go towards him. I could see my breath going towards him with the thermals. I was like he's going to spook and then I'll see if I can get a chance. And he started running and I gave him a few meh, meh, meh sort of doe calls to try and pull him up and in that time I swung the gun up onto the sticks and chambered one and got him to look back and put one in the boiler room and then he ran a bit more and went down and, like I said, like the head, you know, you talk about trophies and like we had a conversation a while ago about the trophies in the eye of the hunter, really like what you class as a trophy, and for me, like I was stoked because that was the first buck on that property, it was taken in the rut, like it was a cool build up, it was a just a crack in the morning, like it was. It was very cool.
Speaker 1:And then I shot another buck on that property. Uh, similarly, like he was quite aggressive and I just checked the trail camera and seen two really good, mature, like good racks on them, um, bucks on the on the camera. And I was coming back up the hill. I did this full, you know big walk around the property coming back up the hill and I just saw this like flash of antler coming through the, the scrub and I just plonked myself down the middle of the track and then I got eyes on him and realized that he had one good antler and one like nub, and I was like, ah, you know he's not one of the ones on the camera, but he was still cool and he was coming towards me. And when he saw me, same thing when he saw me in the track, he like came towards me Cause he I guess he figured I was another buck and, um, shot him Cause you I guess he figured I was another bark and shot him.
Speaker 1:Was he 6'3"? I was kneeling down in the back of a truck, 6'1". I plumbed my back down and knelt behind that. So, yeah, got him, which I did, the like half head sort of mount, like cut the Euro mount right down the middle. So I'm going to mount it to a bit of timber and and put that on the wall, which is sort of interesting, yeah, so like, yeah, successful, right, um, and you know I didn't catch up with the, the bigger boys, there was one real cracking buck. I got on camera and uh, but he was only coming through like middle of the night. So and for reference.
Speaker 2:It's a pretty small block, yeah, and not that far from a lot of houses.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's in a rural area, yeah we're not talking farmland, yeah thousands of acres. Yeah, exactly. So the bucks are sort of only there for the rut and then they disappear into a larger property that I don't think is hunted. So I'm kind of like, oh well, I didn't catch up with them this year, but high chance I'll see them. Yeah, at least they were the ones spreading their genetics and maybe I'll catch up with him next year, I feel like that here too, yeah, if I miss one prior to someone moving in here.
Speaker 2:But there was an opportunity that I'd see him again and I did. I saw particular bucks several times over several years, yeah, and that just builds to the story of them. I don't run cameras, yeah, but be cool to see that guy again next year. Yeah, and you can judge, you know, is he going forward or is he coming backwards, or yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was another really nice chocolate buck on the camera that had a real nice shape rack, and I think he'll only get better, so it'd be good to catch up with him.
Speaker 2:The other tricky part about that block is you're essentially there to get rid of everything. Yeah, it's a biobank block or something, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah.
Speaker 2:So the owner's like shoot everything, you see, you know. But If they're two standing next to each other, you're like, oh, just miss one, just shoot one. Hey, it's hard, whereas here, yeah, you can be selective yeah, because the owner likes the, we leave them here.
Speaker 1:But you know what? The bucks are only on that property for the rut. So it's like I'm out there to hunt them during the rut. If they're there, I'll shoot them, um, you know, and then through the year I'll try and cull a few does, which is basically what you want to be doing for population management anyway, so that it works and at the end of the day, you're just happy to have access, happy to have access, access close to home.
Speaker 2:What are you doing with them when you shoot them? What's your favorite? I know you're a recipe man, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I know you and I, our favorite cutter is the shoulder Shoulder. I know we've joked that like if you come through the bush. You know, sometimes you come through the bush and you'll find a car of deer with just the shoulders.
Speaker 2:That can you know yeah, sure, been out for a while when I had the. Uh, when I first set up the cool room, the cost was a shoulder. Yeah, everyone's like oh, you know, whatever, you can have one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like yeah, you guys are wasting it on the back legs, yeah, and that's why I'm like a big fan of the behind the shoulder shot. Yes, like I know there's a chance they might run a bit further because you're not breaking the shoulder. Just in front on the neck, yeah, or just in front of the neck. Neck shot's good at closer range.
Speaker 2:I've been doing a fair bit of high neck stuff, especially on goats, and I talked Alex into it and he's been doing it quite successfully and enjoying it. He'd never really considered it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was me the other day when I culled those goats with the young bloke, like they were very close.
Speaker 2:The 243 with a like SST projectile. Do yourself a favour next time. Next time you shoot something, no matter where you shoot it. When it's dead on the ground, lay it on its side and work out where you should aim for a high neck shot. Look at where the vertebrae come into the neck cause. It's not high, like I call it a high neck shot, but it's not close to the back line. It's a little bit lower because it drops down in through the chest cavity a bit.
Speaker 1:You're talking about a high shoulder shot, yeah I'm talking about a high neck shot, no, just in front of the shoulders, where the neck yeah joins the shoulders, when I'm doing like a neck shot I'm often aiming for, like behind the base of the yeah basis. Yeah, right now I'm back further than that, like if I'm going to take a chance with that shot. Yeah, that's where I'm going. Do yourself a favour, though, and skin it out, bone it out lay it on its side and think, oh yeah, that's where I'd have to aim. So what are you saying? Like the vertebrae runs.
Speaker 2:Because it comes off the back of the head and it's, you know, in the centre part of the neck. But as the neck sort of fans out, it doesn't stay in the center, it drops down closer as it. It's closer to the bottom third of the neck because there's a bit of meat above and there is bone in there, but it's that vertical bone that comes up which, if you hit them, they do drop, but they often hop up and run away you have to be prepared.
Speaker 1:It's not fatal again it's only a wounded sort of just like flicks that vertebrae and it's it's like a concussion. Yeah, um, but speaking of recipes like that, that choccybuck I shot um, you had mentioned um on here a few episodes ago about neck meat yeah and um, just boning out that neck and I've. You know I don't even have a lot of meat animals. So you're shooting like yearlings and does and stuff. There's not a lot of meat on there. So you're shooting like yearlings and does and stuff. There's not a lot of meat on there.
Speaker 1:But when you shoot a buck and a rat, that's a good bunch of meat that you get off there. So I did a lot of because, like I say, in shoulders, I like the pulled meat, I like doing ragout. That's a staple in my household. Once my wife started eating the ragout and the kids started eating the ragu and the kids started eating the ragu, I was like we're on here, got the green light to go hunting more often keep taking shoulders definitely helps when you can feed it with the slow cook neck.
Speaker 2:I don't even bone it out, so I'll just with that red stag that I shot up in Nundle. I cut it off in front of the shoulders and then at the base of the skull, I took my whole thing as is, dropped it in the slow cooker luckily it fitted took the esophagus out and things and then, as it's finished cooking, you just pull the bones out and it leaves a fair bit of flavor coming from the you know the bone. It's like cooking anything. Bone gives a bit more residual flavor.
Speaker 1:So two takeaways from that um time you're talking. Talking about the neck meat on that episode you also talked about cooking a bunch of pulled meat and like portioning it up, and that's what I did with the neck and then did some as like barbecue pulled venison on rolls.
Speaker 1:Because once it's slow cooked and pulled, you can use it however you want to use it, yeah, and I kind of kept the stock from it too, and the amount of like gelatinous, fatty sort of material tissue in there gives you a real good idea about how much like collagen and stuff is in the neck, which is that stuff that cooks down and gives you that real nice, silky, beautiful pull.
Speaker 2:It's the lamb shank kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, the tendons turn to jelly, and when I run out of shoulders because you know you only get two per animal and sometimes the shoulders got a bullet in it um, I'll bone out the shanks and use them in a ragu, because if you get that acts the same. Um, sorry, it acts the same. Yeah, yeah, it's the same. It's full of all that like collagen and stuff that cooks down. Um, so it's, it's good too.
Speaker 1:Um, what else have I been cooking? The? Um jagger schnitzel, your favorite yeah, that's a big favorite of mine, which is you can do it either as like a crumbed, like traditional sort of schnitzel, you can do it as just like a fillet. Often I use backstrap and cut like butterfly medallions, so you sort of like cut through and then cut almost all the way through, and then cut through and then lay them down and hammer them out. I like to crumb them and then you make a sauce that is bacon, mushrooms, onions. You make like a red wine, which is you make like a red wine, which is interesting, like a red wine gravy, and then add cream to it as well and it's just. Yeah, that's phenomenal, that sauce. Just do a Google on that recipe. Jager schnitzel with a J it's a German, as in Jager Meister. As in Jager Meister, as in, yeah, jager meaning hunter. So I think traditionally they do it with wild boar. I've got I've now got a bit of wild boar backstrap in the freezer.
Speaker 1:Pork schnitzel's a thing Pork schnitzel is a fantastic thing I have to borrow my.
Speaker 2:I recently invested in the and I will say I bought it for the jerky slicer. Yeah, the Carnivore Collective jerky slicer. Yeah, you sort of have you seen it. You feed, you cut yourself a steak 25 mil thick and you put it in the top and you crank the shaft and it pulls it through in five mil slices and slices it Ah right, but it has set of blades that if you take those out and you put them in and it's just fingers so they go in and tenderise so you can put your, you do a bunch of schnitzels, schnitties through and a free tender like it just goes in and chops up a heap of fibres.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing too, like I know you and I spoke about this recently too like a lot of people going like, oh you know, ruddy bucks, take their head, don't even bother taking the meat. And I found, you know, from you and a few other people like Rick saying as well, like aging back straps and stuff. So you know, a few days to a couple of weeks, either wet aging in the vac seal or you can do the sort of dry aging in the fridge at home. Oh, the meat's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Anton proved a point to me and feel free to argue with him. We were up chittle hunting and we shot something that day and we took the backstrap off and I said let's eat it and he goes no, I said let's eat it, he said it'll be chewy. And we did an AB comparison. Like we did it that night and we did it three nights later. Huge difference, huge difference. Not rested at all.
Speaker 1:Very chewy Because you've got to let it go through your mortars and come out the other side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it just didn't happen. And you see people, it's a bit different if you're living off the land and whatnot and you just want to throw something on the grill. But if you see meat eater, do it, it's the ribs. Yes, like they're not doing a muscle or something. Yes, like they're not doing a muscle or something. They're cooking something on the fire. That's the organs or the ribs that don't really need to do that.
Speaker 1:Generalization progress yeah, the organs are definitely a lot of people's go-to first aid consumption liver or heart because, yeah, same thing, it doesn't have to go through that muscle relaxation. But I'm, like, I'm not a huge heart fan. I know a lot of people talk about it and I sometimes wonder how much of it is a bit of that like march up, like yeah hook into the heart, mate.
Speaker 2:It's the best beer you know. My general comment is nah just eat the real meat. I agree with that.
Speaker 1:The best way I've had it. I shot a yearling out in a state forest with a mate one time and I took the heart. And that night I was sitting on the hillside watching the moon rise and it was on a yearling heart, quite small, and we sliced it and battered it with egg and we didn't have any breadcrumbs, we had like Pringles or Doritos or something, and crushed them up and crumbed them in that and fried them in butter and just sat there on the hillside eating it. That was like if all heart was like that, I'd be a heart convert.
Speaker 2:Do you think, though, that I think things taste different depending on the situation? 100%, we're in the bush, we've shot it. Yeah, we're having some great memories. Yeah, it's doused in Pringles. Yeah, but if you did that at home on a Saturday night with your wife, you're probably not gonna get the same level of yeah, you're insane. Yeah, speaking of insane, pretty late and cold. It is getting pretty late and cold. It's actually not as cold here as it was when we sat on the other's face. It's definitely dark. If you're watching, you've probably seen us dwindle into the darkness. We haven't moved. I can see your illuminated ready. I can see you've turned it off. Anyway, thanks for coming out. Tonight. Didn't shoot anything. Saw 3000 wombats, giant kangaroo. Saw a fox.
Speaker 2:Some deer on the drive in saw a fox. It was admittedly as soon as we pulled up and pulled the handbrake on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was a good size one too, he was a big boy.
Speaker 2:I haven't shot many out here. I'd like to get a full winter coat one and do a full body mount.
Speaker 1:That's the challenging thing, right? The worst time to whistle them is middle of winter, when they look the best and when they're looking the spotlight run with the thermal?
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I'd have a thermal, but Jack's borrowed it and he's not home yet. So if he makes it home, anyway, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Welcome back again. It's been a long round trip. Yeah, now it's good to get on and have a chat again. Yeah, we chat all the time, but these sorts of chats are a bit different. Until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening. Yeah, thanks a lot.