Episode 23 · Dog Hunting · Bow Hunting
From Feral Pigs on the Farm to Bow Hunting in the Bush
Taylor Byfield on dogs, pigs, bow hunting & just giving it a crack.
She didn't grow up hunting. Then feral pigs showed up on the family property — and everything changed.
Taylor Byfield didn't come from a hunting family. She grew up on her family's property doing what most country kids do — pest control, a bit of rabbit and shrew work, the everyday rhythms of farm life. Hunting, in the traditional sense, wasn't really part of it.
Then in 2021, feral pigs showed up at home. And that was that.
How it started — 600 metres across the creek
Taylor had never even seen a feral pig in person when she noticed the signs on the property. She called a mate who hunted, told him what she'd found, and asked if he wanted to bring the dogs out. He did. They walked about 600 metres across the creek. His two dogs pulled off — and Taylor found herself holding a 70-kilo boar.
That was her first hunt. She's been hooked ever since.
"After that I've just been hooked. I started with just the dogs hunting pigs, but I've found a love for all forms of hunting now — so I've been going down every avenue I can."
— Taylor
The dogs — and the heartbreak that comes with them
Taylor's first hunting dog was a wolf-cross staghound, already started and about six years old when she got him. She'd only ever had border collies and kelpies before. He was, in her words, "a big idiot who just loved everyone" — and she fell completely in love with the breed.
Now she runs her main girl Sadie, a pure staghound, alongside Copper — a bull arab cross staghound she's watched grow from a puppy into a genuinely impressive hunting dog. At eight months old, Copper had his first bail. He's timid by nature, Taylor says, but she can't hold that against him. He's a lovely boy.
There's been loss along the way too. Her first dog, the one who started it all, was lost to a snake bite not long before we spoke. And Sadie has been in sickbay with ligament damage. Hunting with dogs means giving a piece of yourself to an animal that might not always come home — and Taylor carries that honestly.
What she actually loves about being out there
Ask Taylor why she hunts and the answer isn't complicated. It's nature. It's switching the phone off — which is easy when most of the places she hunts don't have service anyway. It's just her, the dogs, and whatever's in front of her.
"I just do not have to worry about anything outside of that paddock. It makes you feel really one with nature. That's the feeling I like."
— Taylor
She's grown up on properties her whole life. The country is where she feels most herself. And hunting, she says, gave her a way to connect with that even more deeply.
The bow — two years of staring at it before she finally went
Taylor has owned a Hoyt compound bow for about two years. And for most of that time, she admits, she scared herself out of actually using it.
Bow hunting felt too close, too technical, too different from what she knew. She watched people do it on YouTube for months. She thought about it constantly. And then the bow just sat in her office.
"I didn't want to spend the money I spent on it just to sit and stare at it for two years. So I just said — this is the year I'm finally doing it."
— Taylor
She went. On that first bow hunt, she took two animals. The obsession she'd had with bows since childhood — making pretend ones from green branches and baling twine because of Lord of the Rings, of all things — had finally found its real outlet.
On the highlight reel problem
One of the most honest moments in the conversation came when Taylor talked about what hunting actually looks like most of the time — versus what gets shared online.
Everyone posts the photos with the animal. The big boar, the great shot, the moment of success. And that's fine. But Taylor made the point that maybe we need to start seeing the other stuff too — the four hours sitting by a dam watching nothing happen, the long walks through lantana, the hunts where you come home empty-handed.
"You can't catch animals sitting on the lounge. You might come back empty-handed, but you're learning something every single time you step into the bush."
— Taylor
What she'd say to any woman thinking about starting
Taylor's advice is as straightforward as she is. Don't wait until you have the best gear, the best property, or the perfect conditions. Go. Put your boots on the ground and just go for a walk.
The bow sat in her office for two years. She knows exactly what it costs to wait.
"Just go do it. Whether it's a bow, a gun, or dogs — you've just got to get out there and give it a crack. If you genuinely want to be out there, you've already done 80% of the work."
Taylor Byfield is the kind of person this community exists for. Not because she had it all figured out from the start — but because she showed up, gave it a go, and kept finding new things to chase. Dogs, rifles, and now a bow. Whatever's next, she'll be out there doing it.
Listen to the full episode