Instagram: @eat_hunt_sleep
About:
Hi, I'm Nick Sartori, I'm a 27 year old keen hunter living in the hills of south Gippsland. I'm a qualified carpenter currently working as a project manager for a local building company in the Latrobe Valley. I generally get out hunting a couple of times a week especially over the rut chasing fallow and reds.
I predominately rifle hunt but don't mind picking up the bow every now and again for something different.
For me hunting and sourcing our own meat is such a simple and natural way of life, something I feel a lot of people have lost touch with and have adapted to buying a wrapped steak from the supermarket.
What inspired me to start hunting:
I was practically born into it. My dad (Greg) was and still is a keen and passionate hunter. dad used to carry me in his pack and as soon as I could keep up with him there wasn't many hunts that I missed out on. From as early as I can remember, all of my spare time was filled with either being in the outdoors and hunting or thinking of what adventure we could do next
What I enjoy about the outdoors:
I enjoy every aspect of hunting and being outdoors. You see and experience things a lot of people will never get the opportunity to experience unless they watch it on a David Attenborough documentary.
I love both the solo component and the social aspects. Its a great feeling getting out into the outdoors on your own and pushing yourself to succeed, you never know what might be over the next rise or in the next gully. No hunt is ever the same and you can never predict how the hunt or day will unfold.
I also really enjoy being able to share my lifestyle and passion with my wife, family, friends and people just starting out. Sitting around a campfire telling stories about the day or past hunts never gets old.
Favourite piece of clothing:
Its a bit hard to choose a favourite but my top 2 would be my Zeiss RF 10x42 binoculars and my Zeiss HT 3-12x56 with the ASV turret. Having the best optics in my opinion is probably one of the most important things you will purchase for your hunting kit. its amazing how animals will just materialise from no where when I am glassing especially in low light. Confidence is key when it comes to taking the shot and being able to get an accurate range and if needed I can adjust my turret and know exactly where my point of impact will be goes a long way to taking the animal cleanly.
Advice for new hunters:
If you have ever been interested in a fun and challenging hobby/lifestyle or even just another way of providing meet for the table get your licence and give it a go!
Be genuine and hunt for the right reasons, don't get caught up in hunting for social media and just shooting animals to post pics.
Be respectful and appreciate the animal, other hunters and land owners and utilise what you harvest.
If you expect nothing you will gain everything.
Best hunting experience:
every hunt is so unique in its own way so to pin point a 'best' hunt is not easy.
Some of the hunts I have enjoyed the most have actually been when I have been hunting with family and friends and been a part of there success.
One of the most recent highlights would be our mouflon hunt Mariska and I done in Hawaii on our honeymoon. I had always been interested in hunting mouflon and the fact that there wasn't much information on hunting them in Hawaii made me even more motivated to make it happen. The hunting was next level and the terrain and animals demanded respect. In my opinion they are a very underrated animal.
After 3 days of hunting on the lava flows and doing big kms each day we got lucky and took some beautiful rams. I left it right to the last minute and took a big mature ram in the last 10 minutes of the last day and the feeling of accomplishment is next level especially when you have already accepted that you are going home without that dream animal but it just goes to show you never know how the hunt will unfold.
