Some time back there was a polite first post from young @george_coote who was asking a few questions and introducing himself.
Right from the get go I thought to self..wow what a polite young chap. the next few posts just reinforced that. A pm or three were exchanged and I made offer to take young fella out for a hunt when my winter break arrived. well sure enough end of April there was a pm in inbox politely asking if offer was still open.... again I was struck by the manners of this young man. Duckshooting opening weekend is huge thing for me so I got that out of the way and then a couple of days ago we hatched a plan...initially I had planned to head out after a wallaby ,but when I realised Mum would be uber/taxi to both drop off and pick up young fella common sense kicked in and I hatched plan B.
so this morning I left home at 07;00 and headed north while George was taxied south by his Mum,meeting me at hunting area at 08;00 infact they were five minutes early (big tick in my book) introductions made ,Mum set off homeward and George n I headed away for a hunt.I have hunted this area for a lot of years and rated our chances at 10% of success but was determined to take young fella for a walk and suss him out.
initial impressions were good. sensible dressed,hiking shoes and he wasnt thumping (in fact he didnt thump all day) it was plurry cold and after a bit of a faulse start with track blocked by gorse growth we were up and into block slowly wandering upwards...a possum in a trap was spotted beside our track which didnt fill me with hope of an easy deer before hitting bush proper..explained how people walking along here every day to do trap line will push deer away,young fella seemed to be enjoying the walk and taking in my nattering.
along an old bulldozed track little was seen but just enough sign to keep my hopes up. pointing out prints and poop was all taken in stride,fortunately very few wasps were encountered all day.up and up some more we slowly stalked.
now over the years Ive taken a lot of folks out for a hunt but I can hand on heart say George is one of the quietest walking folks Ive ever had with me (either hes really quiet or Im going deaf) no breaking of sticks,no thumping of feet,really made the day pleasant to just stalk along like I do along and know this young man was three steps behind happy to be there.
Bellbirds were in song and enough came to visit us to keep us entertained,they really are neat to see and hear,a riffleman visited at smoko time,couple of fantails seen and a tom tit even came to check us out...awesome.
we kept climbing spur,peering into a few distant slips as we climbed,the sign was getting fresher by time I got to my "hot zone" I explained that the next 500yards,oops half a km were a really prime spot for me to find deer so we slowed down some more (great for a fat puku truck driver lol) lots of stopping and looking,the wind,,what of it there was was playing ball for a change,gentle up hill easterly perfect for this spot as we were climbing with breaze going in same direction we were heading with prime area off to our left and slightly below our level..nothing seen by time we were at top of jelly fern clearing so smoko stop was called.Young man said he was enjoying himself and personally I was happy to just be out in my happy place again,the deer sign was fresh so my hopes were high
Moving off the sign just got fresher,eyes now on stalks we crept onwards,now sidling across tops of the two clear guts that have been so good to me over the years,nothing seen on 2nd clearing either but the sign was fresh and wind perfect,I explained how over the years we have been busted by deer over a dozen times in the next 200 yards and have even manged to shoot a few deer too,slowly quietly we continued then it happened!!!
deer jumped up out of bed 20-30 yards infront and slightly above us,rifle came up,cocking lever pulled dropping barrel fook fook fook,sorted that and watching through scope deer stops maybe further 30 yards ahead,just fat arse showing...not taking THAT shot with trebly,wait,be patient,sure enough deer moved slightly exposing left shoulder POP goes the suppressed trebly and down like sack of spuds goes deer....quick reload and we head forwards keeping eye on deer,it moved all of ?10-15?? yards directly down hill and piled up...I stopped where could see it and watched through scope,head came up wobbly,Xhair on neck POP goes trebly again and its all over...turned to Geoge and may or may not have been super excited myself said weve got our selves a deer mate.....
I was farkin stoked......
took photo to send to his mum and we then set to the butchery bits.
now again over the years Ive had many folks out hunting with me and here is where a few came unstuck...no worries with George.he was hands on not scared of getting them dirty,asking questions and helping out without prompting. backsteaks were popped into pillow case the we gutted animal to remove eye fillets and heart,no worries at all here either hands went in to feel diapham etc animal moved without me even asking to make job easier..just a pleasure to do stuff with him helping.
I decided to take backwheels out in one lump to start with so all the meaty bits in pillow case (back steaksx2 eye fillets x2 heart x1 front shoulder meat x1,5..trebly makes a mess with 63grn sierras lol) all went into his daybag and off we went...noise no longer an issue we happily wandered along till broke out of bush onto fenceline,then we sat down n finished our lunches.at this point I finnally remembered I wasnt 18 anymore and boned out the back wheels...now at this point George did another thing that really impressed me...with no prompting from me he asked if I wanted him to chuck the skin and bones away in the scrub,a little thing but huge tick for me. packed up and hourish of plodding along we got back out to car,stopping along the way to chat to possuming couple on the way.
got out to pick up point and we got meat out of bags and I did best effort to slice up majority of the steak worthy bits for young fella to take home,the thanks was unprompted and came often. Mum arrived and with few parting words on how to best rest steak and cook it the day was over.
SO if any of you folks have a space for young fella to tag along with you I have no hesitation in recommending young George.

That's a great fun story. Last time I tried to help someone like this, was on a Chukar hunt in the Utah west desert. We had limited success but it was nice being outdoors.

Couple weeks later I talked to the kid again, he said he'd taken out cousins and uncles to the same spot and complained it wasn't as good as the day we went out.

That spot never came back with birds, and I've never taken someone else out hunting one of my spots again. I will give new hunters a rough idea of where to go hunt, but good hunting just are just too rare anymore to invite people into.

Case in point: our deer hunt. Success in my unit dropped to about 10% harvest. So 90 people went without filling a tag, competition is really fierce as you can imagine. I've found after decades of hunting, a very small place that produces 3 or so bucks a year. Me, my son and my wife fill all our tags generally every year. I have neighbors who haven't killed a buck in 10 years now (and not for a lack of trying). People are always trying to figure out where we go, and I only give the vaguest of directions (I might point east, but the distance might be 1 mile or 10 miles, they dont know lol).

I know we need young people in the sport to carry on, but atm we have way too many hunters than tags for big game. I think the draw odds for say Moose in my state will put you at 1000 years of applying now (its a pyramid shaped statistic. X in top tier, X+100 in next tier, X+250 in 3rd, etc etc until bottom tier which is X+ several thousand. 35 tags in my unit the year I drew my moose, after a 24 year wait).

I tell people to go fish, fishing is incredible in my state, truly Blue Ribbon fisheries. And people aren't super tight lipped about spots either. I will take people fishing with me, especially if they don't have their own boat ahhaaha. Even if they did they aren't going to spend the money to have the right gear to fish as I do (a lifetime of earning and building up that equipment).

-DallanC

I hear you and know what you mean,the situation is similar here but also very different in that our deer numbers are still increasing faster than we can kill them.the instant the helicopter shooters stop harvesting,the deer bounce back. I did give young fella the hard work about going back....but....most folk won't bush hunt like I do,it's tooooo haaard... It takes time and patience,you have to go slow n be quiet. These days there is an entire generation of " hunters" who are really only part time harvesters,if they can't spot it out window of ute with thermal,lean over bonnet to shoot it..not interested.some don't even bother retrieving any meat!!!! Private land hunting is vastly different from public bush hunting so I'm not worried that spot will be ruined. Thermal usage is already moving deer away from front country and open ground,spotlighting did it years ago too.

It’s pretty much the same here in Australia. Hunting spots, especially deer spots, are very closely guarded…good fishing spots are the same.

It’s got to the point where Hunting Clubs or Organisations organise for sole access only for their group and pay the property owner for said access. Unfortunately we can’t hunt public lands here in QLD (thanks greenies).

The Aust Deer Association (ADA) have even instituted a ballot system for their members, charge members for trophy hunting or meat hunting and have in place a system whereby every member is obliged to do two weekends work, to assist the property owner, at the deer property each year…or pay if they can’t. They even instituted seasons (their own) for hunting.

It’s fantastic Elvis that you have made a mate of the young fella and have taken him out on a bit of a tramp and harvested a deer into the bargain. Depending on his age, you can also look at helping him acquire a rifle suitable for hunting.
Well done mate, introducing the next generation to hunting, and teaching him about the bush and stalking will put the future of hunting in a good light mate.

Our draw application results came out last night for the '26 hunting season. Got the trifecta, both me and my son, and my wife all drew Buck deer tags for the fall. Going to be fun times again!

-DallanC