Some feel I might be hammering the points too hard. With PL insurance now a major hurdle for recreational hunters and the knowledge we are existing in a grey area at best, what are we supposed to do? Sit on our wharzoos and do nothing or stand strong as the men and women we remember did, to protect our rights and freedoms. Make your choice.

This clip shows the exhilaration of being in the bush with stags roaring all around, the respect and sadness when a mighty stag is taken but also, the reality of knowing that you are on someone else's land, someones private property. The harsh reality that many do not wish to face, is that if deer have no value to landholders, eventually they will be gone. Your choice people, embrace a fair Sustainable Use system or reject it and risk it all.

There is usually a day on each trapping program when you realise that it will be either successful or just tough going. When things start falling into place, when your carefully laid plans begin to work, you know nothing succeeds like success.

In this clip, I try to summarise the issue as best I can. Anyone still taking the "she'll be right" attitude towards recreational hunting, private firearms ownership and our freedom, should take a good hard look at themselves first before they point fingers.

Too many people have accepted the "Pest" rhetoric without thinking hard about where that trail will lead. Hunting is a pastime to some, or a way of life to others, maybe even an essential part of our culture or a combination of these and much more. Treat them as a Pest and all this will be lost.

As the old saying goes, we have Good news and we have Bad news. Fortunately for hunters, it is mostly all good news so hopefully this clip will see the start of more sustainable use projects to control and utilise wild deer as a resource and not as a Pest.

Trapping this wild and beautiful country is actually a privilege. To stand on ground that few actually have ever tread makes you humble. My thoughts always go back to the reality of what we have and what we almost lost and this makes me determined to do all I can to protect it for all future generations of Australians, no matter colour or creed.

As a hunting guide, you often have to scout the trail ahead. Use the lessons learnt over the year now past, scan the terrain ahead, look for sign on the ground to judge what is actually happening, then pick the best path.
This is the same for trying to establish a fair, equitable, moral and safe system for hunting, management and control of a species like wild deer.

There looked to be a number of very cunning, trap-shy dogs cruising around the area that had been trapped by some of the local coal mine workers on their "days off". Although well intended, this practice leads to very educated, hardened killers right in the middle of the calving areas. Time for a well thought out strategy.

If you are one of the growing number of people who wish to see common sense and practical solutions return to our hopes for the future, then the time to act is now. Wild deer management is just one small but vital part of this sustainable use approach.

Do we want to see the historic herd of wild chital deer in North Queensland Australia, managed sustainably or slaughtered? Since this clip was made, terrible things have happened in North Queensland. Most hunters don't have a clue what has, is and will happen.

There were quite a few wild dogs in the area that had survived the best efforts of shooters with thermal gear, spotlights, sharp eyed landholders, weekend trappers and two of my own traplines. They were very cunning and trap shy, largely nocturnal and most probably responsible for the spate of calf kills in the area. Game on!!