Born and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales Australia, Dave Byrnes came to hunting relatively late at the age of 22. This started with meeting Matt Hanson when they served their time together as apprentice electrical fitters. Two months in they had obtained their Firearms licenses and commenced a continuing journey of building skills in hunting, marksmanship, reloading and mateship. Two years later Dave’s brother Buster joined the duo and many adventures where shared. Initially it was shooting and spotlighting rabbits and foxes and progressed to chasing feral pigs and goats in the ranges of Sou-Eastern Australia.The drive and passion grew to hunting deer and dreaming to hunt in the mountains of New Zealand. With the advent and wide spread penetration of the internet and social media still over decade away New Zealand would wait till time, finances and opportunity intersected. In the mid 2000’s State Forests of New South Wales opened to limited public hunting thanks to extended efforts of a number of dedicated individuals – a long awaited triple bottom line win for hunters, the environment and taxpayers of the state. Like many others keen hunters Dave made forays into the public lands exploring the opportunities.