Thread: Mount Pirongia

Originally Posted by hunter308

I may just do that went for a drive the other day and talked to a property owner whos property has a poled Doc track going through it and they said the same cullers etc had been through and done their thing. enough to piss me off opportunity of hunting close to home (where I can actually afford to travel) and they bugger it up with that 1080 and bugger up our enjoyment of hunting.

Remember every single DoC culler you meet will be there because they like hunting not because they want to personally extinctify goats or bugger things up for others. They are hunters like you and me. 1080 is different but again the motivation comes from elsewhere and the guys who actually administer the drops are conscientious civil servants (servants of the people) trying to do their given job well.

There area lot of annoying reserves in the Waikato where the boundary and fence line runs hard up against the bush which is not where the goats like to be and a pain to hunt. If you've got good internet, compare the online DoC boundaries at their hunting permit site, legal access (WAMS site) and google earth to find where the fence and boundary include a bit of old farmland. eg Karikariki reserve just north of Whatawhata. A couple of years ago I caught a mob of goats out there but it was an epic of fence hugging and poled walkway route through farmland to get to and from. Systematically visit one reserve each month starting nearest where you live and more often than not the itchy finger will get some exercise.

Don't be put off by stories of "cullers just been there" "helicopters thrash it"; locals tend to exaggerate and discourage you. Cullers are generally more efficient than you or I but often weather or other factors prevent them killing much on the day.