Thread: Venison meat hunting in NZ in the past

Always an interesting topic..whether it be culling back in the ol days, dragging out carcasses or trapping live ones
Sadly it aint gunna happen again but those that gave it a go on a casual basis or on a more professional one will tell yi that it was'nt all beer and skittles.
The venison wars were real and outright bloody dangerous ti say the least.
Friendships fell apart...families broke up,people died. Deer were shitless lol. All hell broke loose when the prize hit $1 a pound..wow,look out guys here I come sorta thing.
Personally If I could turn back time I'd be right back into it like many others I guess.
Fist fights in the pub,poaching on every opportunity, sabotaging others bikes or 4x4's etc oh yeah those were the days.
Culling on the other hand was extremely subtle compared to the meat wars fi sure................incredible times and more than proud to have been a part of it all.

This thread is why I have dragged out my copy of 'The Venison Hunters' and am re re rereading it. An awesome commentary on an awesome part of our rural history.

Some photos from the past put up for old time sake.

Was I a bonified meat hunter, no but I sold the odd carcass just like any body else at that time. By bonified, I mean doing meat hunting full time day in day out. Did I particularly enjoy meat hunting, no the reason being is carrying the carcasses. If I was built like Superman there would be no problem. Again a hard way of making a living.

I'm also going to start a new thread called 'New Zealand Bush Hunting - A lifestyle for some people'. So that means you can put your meat hunting stories over there or on this thread, what ever you like.
I might put some more meat hunting photos up here.... maybe?




A scene repeated many a time in the bush, attending to a deer and if you were lucky enough to hang it in a shelter. I have never seen it, but I heard that some hunters hanging the odd carcass up inside a hut.




Body in the boot of a car.... A meat hunting crime scene to some hunters that didn't like meat hunters

A scene repeated many times in NZ. I did the odd bit of meat hunting around the Central North Island, and was lucky enough to shoot this deer about 10 minutes from the car.

More meat hunting photos from the past.... Who knows, perhaps these scenes will be repeated in the future?




Horse meets deer
A horse can come in handy in some circumstances. I'm not a horse person but however we were lucky enough to get into this place, I didn't shoot the deer I just went along for the ride to help out.




A collage of photos?
I walked over a hill from one place to the helicopter as shown above. I shot a deer like the one in the photo and hung it up in a tree for later recovery.
I met a meat hunter at a hut, he had a carcass hanging up by the hut and then I took a photo of him attaching it to the helicopter.

Some of you guys will know Brian Goodwin used to be based in Taihape. not sure of the date , probably around 1990 ish. These deer were all shot ground hunting ,just carried out the easy way

Originally Posted by doinit

Always an interesting topic..whether it be culling back in the ol days, dragging out carcasses or trapping live ones
Sadly it aint gunna happen again but those that gave it a go on a casual basis or on a more professional one will tell yi that it was'nt all beer and skittles.
The venison wars were real and outright bloody dangerous ti say the least.
Friendships fell apart...families broke up,people died. Deer were shitless lol. All hell broke loose when the prize hit $1 a pound..wow,look out guys here I come sorta thing.
Personally If I could turn back time I'd be right back into it like many others I guess.
Fist fights in the pub,poaching on every opportunity, sabotaging others bikes or 4x4's etc oh yeah those were the days.
Culling on the other hand was extremely subtle compared to the meat wars fi sure................incredible times and more than proud to have been a part of it all.

trying to carry loads that were just stupid - with me mate tried a 230 lb stag - got down and put arms thru legs - he boosted me up to my feet - one step and it all turned to shit - with me at about 150 lb had no control over legs - went flatstick down hill and crashed into a big tawa - we had to slowly drag it for half an hour to track where we had the honda 90 - bloody earned our money that day

Originally Posted by 30late

Attachment 232539
Some of you guys will know Brian Goodwin used to be based in Taihape. not sure of the date , probably around 1990 ish. These deer were all shot ground hunting ,just carried out the easy way

Ha! Good 'ol HLL

We threw a lot of $$ for air time in HLL. (NZ Army)

Its also had more than a couple of non notified prangs.

There was an excellent VHS video of he and his shooter Bugs using buckshot in the Ruahines. Was awfully effective in the later part of the venison days

I believe Brian is now in Aussie??? Not sure if he's still airbourne.

He propped up the Gretna's profits for quite a few years...

Can anyone tell me where the chiller was in Taupo during thr mid to late 90s? I can see it in my mind but can't remember where it was?

Originally Posted by XR500

Ha! Good 'ol HLL

We threw a lot of $$ for air time in HLL. (NZ Army)

Its also had more than a couple of non notified prangs.

There was an excellent VHS video of he and his shooter Bugs using buckshot in the Ruahines. Was awfully effective in the later part of the venison days

I believe Brian is now in Aussie??? Not sure if he's still airbourne.

He propped up the Gretna's profits for quite a few years...

I know Brian was still flying around 2015 -17 as i heard him interviewed on the radio while i lived in WA. He was based in Esperance in the south west of WA.

Couldn't find this photo before to add to my earlier post , this after Brian dropped our load of deer at the road end.!!

Originally Posted by norsk

Can anyone tell me where the chiller was in Taupo during thr mid to late 90s? I can see it in my mind but can't remember where it was?

Stag park (truck stop). Just past De Brett's hotel on the left heading towards Napier.

Pull in, sling them into the chiller. Look at what other people have killed. Fill out a "toe tag", attach it to dead deer, drive off and wait for the cheque to arrive in the mail.

One of the chillers I used to drop off at had spare sets of ears for if whole carcasses were missing them. From time to time I would get a tagged deer and I would just cut the ears off and safety pin a clean set on. Smear a bit of congealed blood around from the cavity and it was job done.

ohhhh the storys coming out now - all those missing stock those days - line up - ya may find where daisy went - BBQ in Opotiki - I know one did - I was at BBQ and the steak was from heli kill say no more

Originally Posted by 30late

Attachment 232558
Couldn't find this photo before to add to my earlier post , this after Brian dropped our load of deer at the road end.!!

My god I had a Vdub the same bloody colour at one stage,was'nt chopped down though. I love that pic, brings a lot of aches with great memories
back. They were bloody great wee machines along with the poachers Honda step through 90 lol.

So was the chiller manned full time? What would have stopped someone from swapping tags or pilfering carcasses?