Fire Deer | Hunting Sambar After A Controlled Burn

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:09][music] [music] >> Smoke coming in the valley.

[00:00:20]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Well, good day there guys. Welcome to the hunting spot.

[00:00:45]We're going to start this one off with [snorts] getting ready. [music] Now, I'm out hunting with Patty. We're at the same spot we've been to a few weeks in a row.

[00:00:55]And I've been trying to help him get his first deer. [music] I actually worked back a bit late today, so I've only just got off work now.

[00:01:03]And it's taken me about an hour to drive >> [music] >> to the hunting area, but he's been a a good mate and he's gone and set up the the swags and the little campsite and that, [music] so once we're done hunting after dark, that'll all be ready to go.

[00:01:19]So, essentially I've just got to put me boots on, get my gaiters [music] and everything, and we'll be able to get underway.

[00:01:26]But, what's going to make this one special is going to be hunting with a shotgun today.

[00:01:35]And it's also this little spot >> [music] >> I just spoke to the one of the farmers or the neighbors that sort of borders the state forest, and uh I dropped off a a letter saying, "Hey, do you mind if we park on your block? Or can we drive [music] from one end of your block to the other to jump over the fence rather than walk it on foot?" And he called me back and said, "Yeah, I don't really let people do that. I appreciate you trying to get to know us and all those kind of things, but just [music] something a bit personal.

[00:02:03]We don't want people on our land." I said, "Yeah, that's fair enough."

[00:02:06]And uh earlier that day I'd seen [music] dozer tracks everywhere. Along the path had been really cleaned up and everything.

[00:02:12]And thought, "Oh, they've done a bit of work here." And anyway, he said he as I was speaking [music] to him on the phone the next day, he goes, "Oh, yeah, they're burning off today." And everything was lit up, and [music] so we're going to have an area that's recently been burned off. We can actually still see smoke on the way in, so we'll see how that goes.

[00:02:29]There is going to be plenty of smoke.

[00:02:32]Uh the wind's swirling.

[00:02:34]They've definitely doing burn-offs. I don't know whether they relit something or it's been about 2 weeks, so I don't know whether a stump's caught a few more things on fire or just the change in winds pushed the flames back this way, but there's definitely uh like an active fire not too far from here, and I just spoke to Patty on the phone.

[00:02:51]He's telling me that there was um yeah, smoke coming up from where he is and still some smoldering ashes and things like that, so yeah, my thoughts are hopefully hopefully there's still deer in the area. There's a huge amount of farm fringe that obviously hasn't been burnt, so the deer are probably either on the farms or trying to get to the farms and coming back into uh the forest for cover. I'll just show you what I'm seeing in front of me. So, this is where it was all burnt out.

[00:03:23]You can see a lot of that undergrowth is just been stripped away, but there's still a lot of green.

[00:03:32]It's still pretty thick.

[00:03:34]But, uh I'll show you a bit more of that as I head in, but yeah, I was hoping there'd be a good clear out so you can actually get some visibility here, but it doesn't look like it's the case.

[00:03:47]Might have cleared up some of the sticks and things, but yeah, it's still thick as anything.

[00:03:52]Anyway, um I'll probably go a bit further then I'll enter into hunt mode and we'll see what happens.

[00:04:06]Still thick as anything.

[00:04:09]Wow, I could just see a random tree on fire there.

[00:04:13]Um I'm going to check that out.

[00:04:19]I'm going to check that out cuz it was burning back this way.

[00:04:22]That's not where you want to leave your car.

[00:04:35]Very interesting.

[00:04:39]At least the wind's blowing the other way.

[00:05:21]Just do animals quite close to where we are.

[00:05:39]Okay.

[00:05:42]So, I'm just circling around that fire.

[00:05:44]Doesn't look like it's out of control or anything.

[00:05:47]There's actually no or not much wind on this side of the mountain.

[00:05:52]Seems to be pushing up the other way.

[00:05:54]Although, >> [snorts] >> if um if the wind was to change, we'd want to get our swags packed up pretty quick, so I probably won't work walk as far as I was originally going to.

[00:06:10]And uh yeah, it was like that I was talking to you as something busted off.

[00:06:16]Likely a roo cuz it only took a couple of jumps and then stopped, and then when I walked to look at the uh the fire, it happened again, so I think there's a big roo somewhere near here.

[00:06:30]Um yeah.

[00:06:33]We'll see if we bump into it again.

[00:06:36]There's no lack of game trails here, I dare say.

[00:06:41]It's nice little flat spot, a good little bed.

[00:06:44]Probably had a big tree fall over once upon a time, anyway.

[00:06:49]I've got to stop talking.

[00:07:41]All right, that was interesting.

[00:07:43]Bit of fire.

[00:07:45]Lots of ash and smoke.

[00:07:47]And this part behind me, you know, got really burnt out good, so yeah, very, very interesting.

[00:07:54]Um as some areas are burnt completely, and other ones are still really green.

[00:08:00]And you can see the fire break has been doing its job.

[00:08:03]Cuz everything on that side, where the farms are going to be, is um flames haven't gone over there, so yeah, very interesting.

[00:08:13]It's about 30 to 45 minutes max of usable light, so I'm probably just going to get to the end of the uh an area where I can hunt, and hope something walks out because uh All right, guys. Well, I am going to call it for today.

[00:09:09]It's just getting too dark to see.

[00:09:11]The wind has picked up out of nowhere.

[00:09:14]And uh it's blowing back in the direction that I've uh that I wanted to head, so Good no luck. No deer at all. Didn't even not even a hawk.

[00:09:24]Not even a hawk.

[00:09:26]Yeah.

[00:09:28]All right, Patty, what's this little contraption here? Uh it's called a potjie kos.

[00:09:32]Uh hang on, I'll let me just It's It's called a potjie kos. Uh it's like a South African cauldron type thing that uh that's used like uh that's been used by like African type Africans people for like uh generations. And uh yeah, like essentially it's a giant It's a giant cauldron. And yeah, we're going to cook like a big stew in it. And um We're cooking Smurfs or something.

[00:09:56]>> [laughter] >> Yeah. Which witch's cauldron?

[00:10:00]>> Yeah, we've got beef, cauliflower, um broccoli, um I've got like like sort of a curry spice paste. This is like a mix of MSG and salt.

[00:10:14]Uh I've got onions underneath here, garlic here.

[00:10:18]Um beef stock. I'm going to be chucking a bit of a beer in.

[00:10:21]Uh yeah, and then I think what else have I got? Oh, we got some potatoes and um yeah, we got the curry powder somewhere in here. So, should be uh should be all sweet. I'm super excited. But, uh yeah, I got to get this rolling cuz it takes a couple of hours to to get it cooked really really nicely. So, Oh, yeah. Look at that.

[00:10:42]Oh, you can instantly smell it.

[00:10:53]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Well, good day there, guys.

[00:11:43]As you can see, it's pretty wet, pretty rainy.

[00:11:48]And this morning was a bust as well.

[00:11:50]Actually woke up crook as a dog 3:30 spewing [music] my guts out and uh had a cracking headache. And when I woke up in the morning, I still had a bit of a throb going and just had a Panadol, went back to sleep. [music] So, uh pretty unusual for me that happen, but while I was uh as close to where the camera was, which I've been meaning to pick up for a couple of weeks, but just keep on running out of time or having a change of plans last minute.

[00:12:22]Um I just end up not getting [music] that trail camera, which I put out on that wallaby. So, um I'm going to go grab that now.

[00:12:32]Hopefully, it's still there.

[00:12:34]Sort of had that uh anxiety's not the right word, but that slow dread that the longer I [music] leave it out there, the higher the probability that someone's going to walk past and grab it [music] or find it. So, yeah.

[00:12:49]Bit annoying, but that's what happens sometimes. [music] But, uh yeah, hopefully people haven't found this one yet. Um It was one of those annoying things where I used it It's a King's trail camera.

[00:13:02]So, it's actually a pretty decent camera.

[00:13:05]But, uh with the King's ones, if you don't put a 32 GB memory card in them, uh they they don't always work. So, a lot of people say, "Oh, they're crap.

[00:13:16]They don't work. I've had problems with them." If you actually read the manual, I know it's pretty hard to do for most people, it tells you to use 32 GB SD cards only. If you don't, you get some sort of error where it doesn't save properly. So, you know, I had it out for a month, but only had five photos on it.

[00:13:34]And um that was it. But, after going out there and putting a new SD card in it and testing it, it was working. So, hopefully, when I pick it up, I'll uh have some cool images to to take a look at. But, that being said, um it was actually pissing down. So, I pissed down 20 minutes ago.

[00:13:58]I've literally got the poncho on and the Crocs with my blaze orange cap.

[00:14:06]So, no one thinks I'm a deer.

[00:14:09]Uh there's a guy I think he's called the the Bearded Bushranger.

[00:14:14]I don't know if that's his account. He does camping, so I think he he started his channel with the aims of camping like a bushfire and giving you an insight into what it would have been like to live and camp like that back in the day.

[00:14:28]And um he was talking about wearing a Driza-Bone and I was just commenting on his video saying I'd love a Driza-Bone, but they seem to be the same color as sambar deer. And to me, that's a bit of a silly idea. So, yeah.

[00:14:44]Well, seems like it's raining even harder. I'm literally out here in shorts and Crocs.

[00:14:50]Everything my right hand is getting absolutely drenched.

[00:14:54]And the ground's pretty slippery, so I think I got another 600 m or so to walk and I can go into the forest and um yeah, then come back out. Not ideal what I'm wearing, but that's how it goes. I don't want to wait another month to have to go get it and it not be there. So, Michael out.

[00:15:16]Well, here is my wallaby.

[00:15:20]Woah, which I almost fell ass over tit into.

[00:15:25]Here's my trail camera. Had a mini heart attack as I couldn't see it on that little branch there.

[00:15:31]But, we've got it on this one.

[00:15:34]Doesn't look like it's triggering, so oh well, we'll grab it down.

[00:15:39]There's been activity in there.

[00:15:42]There's been a ton of activity there.

[00:15:44]So, hopefully, we'll get it on.

[00:15:47]All right, I'm back in the car after that little camera side quest.

[00:15:51]Uh great success. The camera was there.

[00:15:54]Uh got a little bit wetter than I normally do with the poncho. I don't know whether it was just cuz it was uh raining a lot harder than normal or the water was brushing off the brushing off all the trees and branches and stuff and falling onto me, but yeah, got a little bit wet. Anyway, that's all part of it. And uh we'll show you the photos when I get home.

[00:16:23]All right, I got absolutely drenched retrieving this camera here. So, hopefully, it's taken some good photos for us.

[00:16:34]Especially after being out for a couple of months at a time.

[00:16:39]It can be really frustrating when you It can be really frustrating when you have a camera out for a couple of months and you go check it and then there's nothing on there or it's turned off or even worse, it's been stolen. So, hm 7th of March.

[00:17:11]It's got me setting up the camera.

[00:17:14]I've got a wallaby.

[00:17:20]Uh I've got four things on the 7th of March and three things on the 8th of March.

[00:17:31]Uh [sighs and gasps] and that's it.

[00:17:39]It's been out there for almost 2 months and there's five photos.

[00:17:52]>> [sighs] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]