Our motivations for hunting are personal and varied, it’s not a necessity in modern life but it can soon feel that way. The status quo that most of societies conform to is trading your time for money, which you can then cash in at a supermarket for everything you “need”. After falling in love with hunting, it would pain me to be without it.
Meat is a large and important part of our diets, contrary to what certain political agendas would want you to believe. For many people around the world, the combination of lean protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals make for the nutrient dense food that slingshotted us into supremacy. For readers interested in the anthropological progression of man and the important part meat and hunting played in our elevation from prey to predator, I recommend the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hariri.
Self Sufficiency is the key, If you already have a keen interest in providing for yourself and your family, I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know in a way you haven’t already read. I won’t say much but every skill you don’t have is a skill that you need someone else for. Hunting is for everyone, it doesn’t matter what your current skill set is. Everything can be taught and learned, with your favoured style teased out in the process. Oh yes there are many styles for many environments in different seasons and different conditions etc etc. Teasing out the secrets held by hunters since the dawn of man, will be one of the most satisfying and ongoing things in your life
Money isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. Australia is in a cost of living crisis, it’s the prime motivator for me to start these courses and beckons me to write these articles in order to help other people in the way hunting has helped my life. At the time of writing this -mid 25, Meat all over the world is reaching obscene prices. In Australia, supermarket beef can reach $55 a kilogram, robbery. In September-23 I was in Arizona and Paid $60 US PER POUND for some fancy loin steak, Last night I called a friend of mine from London and again choked on my own tongue when he told me that in fear of the factory farmed beef in the UK he has been buying from the local village CO-OP and paid 80 Pounds per KG, that’s almost $150. These aren’t fair comparison because hopefully these steaks are of a higher quality than our supermarket meat but the cost for something like this is ludicrous. With what I said earlier, working yourself into an early grave to provide your family with sup-par meat at a premium cost, I believe is the main driver of people to Veganism.
Here is what you should really pay attention to. Typically 40% of an animal by weight is lean meat. A 150KG Sambar deer(not hard to find if you hunt right), found throughout parts of Victoria and NSW will yield 60KG of meat. Yes you need to find them, yes you need to work hard in some instances to get them in the cross hairs and yes the real work starts when you’re packing out and processing the meat.
BUT
If you average out a very conservative price of meat at $30/KG; you now have, sitting in your fridge, your freezer and eventually on your table $1,800 worth of meat. Let’s expand on this, you have now harvested $1,800 worth of meat, but in the process have enjoyed some of the following:
- An adventure, with friends, family, your dog, yourself or your club.
- Worked your body in a way that will only make you stronger and healthier.
Provided yourself, friends and family with one of, if not the most nutritious and healthy meat which will change your body.
- Honed a skill, your understanding of the wild and brought yourself closer to nature.
Had a break from the rat race and given your mind the medicine that only fulfilling instinctual desires can provide.
Once you understand the animal and it’s environment. It’s not hard to have consistent luck with harvesting meat. It took me 2 years of hunting easily 3 times a month to get myself this proficient. Covid had me practically living in a Ute, forest to forest. Countless hours, money, fuel, being mislead, making mistakes, having to break bad habits forged by self teaching. All this made for a long and laborious journey.
I don’t charge much for my course, an unskilled labourer makes more and works less, I don’t do it for the money. I do it because we need more hunters, more backpackers and more of us living how we should. Don’t waste your time and money teaching yourself. If you have the time and not the money, please join a club and commit to them. The learning curve to hunting is the steepest I am aware of, especially the purist kind of hunting I want to teach. Get a head start, get out in the field and get Infront of animals. The benefits are more than the uninitiated will ever know.
About the author:
Luke is an avid public land hunter and backpacker who enjoys travelling off the beaten track as much as he does hunting the Australian back country
