Thread: Meat hunter in NZ

Originally Posted by Stocky

Didn't find the episodes great especially it being private land if I remember right. Doesn't represent real NZ hunting.

I listen to his podcast and on a whole he's not exactly a big fan of the NZ hunting scene. Mainly as he sees either high fence or us call everything a pest and use it as an excuse to do what we want when as I do think it's a bullshit excuse that that's why we hunt. As if that was true us hunters would be happy when animals are wiped out. Better to be honest and say while controlling populations is a benefit we hunt because we enjoy the challenge, the terrain, the meat, etc.

Met Janis is Montana got him kind of convinced to come back and do a real NZ hunt. Although I told him I do wish we charged for overseas hunters to come here.

I haven't watched the NZ episodes (will do now though) - but I have watched the last 3 seasons - I can see some of the reasons they may not like the NZ hunting scene, some of them I agree with.
Steve is pretty big on fair chase - so would be against a lot of private land shooters (or public poachers) who spot light / use thermal etc. Private land that is deer fenced holding animals in is something he is hugely against - not talking farmed deer, wild deer that are confined to someones farm.
There is not much in the way of game animal management in NZ (exception is Wapiti), partly because of the pest classification - but also because some with the attitude to go out to kill as many as possible / everything they see.

There is a lot of waste with many hunters in NZ when it comes to butchering and packing out - some only take the heads, so many just take the back steaks, maybe back legs - watch the butchery they do on the show and there is very little wasted - it's all packed out - I believe this is law in most States.
Some of the other reasons they would be at odd's are just the way they have been brought up as hunters where they have tags - are more selective as they are only able to take a regulated number of animals each season, and it must be a specified gender, in some cases a certain level of maturity etc In NZ it's often the first animal seen is going in the freezer regardless of age/sex etc. Something to consider is that hunters in America invest in game animal management - they buy tags for animals, they pay 5% tax on all hunting goods that goes to animal management - in NZ most hunters get wound up at this idea and believe its their right to take what they can (based on social media reactions anytime someone suggests a hunting licence).

There are differences in NZ because all game animals here are introduced species and classified as pests, however I do think we could take some lessons from overseas and look to manage our resources better.