Thread: North Canterbury public land hunting

I’m new to this group and have been reading threw a few of the forum looking for advice on public land hunting, iv been hunting for a few year now but mostly private blocks with family members working on farms ect. Currently don’t have access to much private blocks so I’m looking at heading out for a hunt In north Canterbury around Oxford area mainly just looking for meat animals. Just trying to work out the logistics of it all as I know there a lot of walking tracks around some areas are people abit funny coming across someone out for a walk with their rifle? As I plan on using a track but then heading off track for hunting, but am aware I may come across walkers in the process. Any advice would be great, even if anyone’s looking for someone to tag along for hunt on a day trip to kinda show me the dos and donts that would be greatly appreciated. But any advice would be awesome cheers.

just keep your rifle slung or strapped to your pack until you're off track, I have never had any issues carrying a rifle on public land. obviously make sure you have the appropriate permit. Be prepared to walk a long way as anything close to a car park gets thrashed pretty hard.
haven't been on a public land walk out there for quite a while sorry so can't really offer advice on where best to try.

1.Download yourself a Doc Hunting Permit for the whole of the Mainland.Its called covering your freckle. 2. Some of the other people sharing the tracks get uppity about us permitted hunters strolling along on the public tracks.So to destress the situation, I recommend leaving the bolt (and removable mag if applicable) in your pack til you head off the track to commense hunting. 3. Follow the fine print on the permit and you,ll be sweet. Hot barrels

Have sent you a PM. It might help you.

Cheers mate. Have got appropriate permits and what not. Thought would be the case anything that’s easy to get to would get thrashed so prepared to put in the hard slog.

Don't assume that you have to walk for hours to get away from everyone else to get a deer. Far more deer are walked past than shot.

Within 1hrs drive and 1hrs walk,theres plenty of deer live on public land around you.Doc estate maps will guide you,good luck.

I always stop and have a chat with any walkers I come across when carrying a rifle.

Be as friendly as possible and try to portray us hunters in a good light.

Be sensible and safe as I am sure you will be.

Good luck



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Have a look on here. At bottom of doc features menu is 'open hunting areas' .

Stay within there with correct permit and be safe.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/map/index.html

Originally Posted by kukuwai

I always stop and have a chat with any walkers I come across when carrying a rifle.

Be as friendly as possible and try to portray us hunters in a good light.

Be sensible and safe as I am sure you will be.

Good luck



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Some of them might even tell you if and where they saw some deer. Happened to me a couple times

I used to hunt Tongariro a lot and one of the tracks I used to access my hunting area was very popular. I was not uncommon to see literally hundreds of walkers on the way in or out when camping out. Sling your rifle and as @kukuwai said, smile and say gidday. Often they will stop for a chat and are usually genuinely interested in what you are doing (especially if from overseas). I have had few negative encounters and the worst one was with a volunteer DoC hut warden who fed me a total load of bullshit about what I could and couldn't do.
It is also amazing where you will find deer in popular areas once all the trampers disappear in the evening.

Wasps used to be a big problem hunting Oxford / Mt Thomas area.
Also be careful with fire.

I hear there have been a lot of deer around on private land in North Canterbury. Your expeditions onto public land will be more in the nature of an adventure than a bomb up.

If you can afford the petrol, I’d look up the Lewis Pass area. Wonderful country.

oxford area has good numbers, there's reds and pigs in the back, around mt thomas itself i've seen fallow. biggest issue is that being so close to chch its hit pretty hard so the surviving animals are cunning little buggers.

I'll second lewis pass, I was there last week and the numbers are getting out of hand, if we don't start hitting it more doc may step in and bomb the area

Originally Posted by Jsm268

I’m new to this group and have been reading threw a few of the forum looking for advice on public land hunting, iv been hunting for a few year now but mostly private blocks with family members working on farms ect. Currently don’t have access to much private blocks so I’m looking at heading out for a hunt In north Canterbury around Oxford area mainly just looking for meat animals. Just trying to work out the logistics of it all as I know there a lot of walking tracks around some areas are people abit funny coming across someone out for a walk with their rifle? As I plan on using a track but then heading off track for hunting, but am aware I may come across walkers in the process. Any advice would be great, even if anyone’s looking for someone to tag along for hunt on a day trip to kinda show me the dos and donts that would be greatly appreciated. But any advice would be awesome cheers.

I know exactly what you mean re walkers and firearms as I hunt on public land a lot. What I do is carry the rifle bolt in mag loaded inside an old canvas gun bag. I sling the gunbag upside down and it doesnt look like a firearm unless you know about guns.
What I found is 1) it is better for public perception of hunters and - better response. 2) my rifle doesnt get rubbed on a pack or knocked about in the rough bits or arseing up. The gunbag makes an excellent scabbard on the pack. For a day trip I never see walkers at 5am so this is more for fly camp overnight trips walking in in the afternoon

I came down Mt Richmond about 9am after walking up BlowHard track starting at 4am.Meet about 30 walkers of different ages.Had my pack on back with the old 308 mozzy slug on the sholder.Two woman stopped me and asked what i was doing with a rifle on a walking track in a angry manner. Im said im looking for deer,have you seen any around.The look on their faces was priceless.I said na i finished hunting a few hours ago,my rifle empty and you quiet safe around here.They smiled and said thanks,you must have been up early.You are right there i replyed.