Thread: Is shooting / hunting less popular in NZ these days?

I was back in NZ in Dec/Jan this year and went to my old 22 indoor club and air rifle field target club for a shoot (in Auckland.)

In both cases, the senior club members said numbers were down. In the 22 club, we used to run 3 details per evening... now they typically run 1 and maybe 2 if there's demand! Field Target similarly small turnouts whereas 10 years ago, match days would be full with at least 3 shooters per squad per lane.

Is this just an Auckland thing, and people becoming more urban? Teenagers preferring xbox over getting in the outdoors?
I took my teenage son and daughter for a possum shoot.... both show absolutely zero interest in guns or hunting.

In my circle of friends, I only know 1 other shooter and he's purely competition. Doesn't hunt. I don't know any reloaders. Maybe my crowd is too urban gentry lol

We have had two new families move in to neighbouring properties over the last few months, the fathers are both hunters so we have a bit of a cluster here now.

as a percentage....the hunting fishing run around bare feet stomping in cow pats are getting less each generation..but we are hanging in there,and as long as we keep trying to introduce others ,we will contiue to do so.
its a hard thing when your kids dont follow the path we wish...we can only show them and hope they follow of their own accord.

One of our sons is a mad keen hunter, and the other one is glued to his computer
In todays woke society it’s not trendy to advertise you go out and actually hunt your meat
Because the stuff in the supermarket miraculously appears, but no animals were harmed in it’s manufacture.
Ok, enough cynicism, I’ll grab another beer

Have no idea, though I have noticed huge differences in the number of hunters between the two major work environments ive been in. As a shelf stocker, i did not know of any other hunter . In an agriculture research campus, feels like 50% of the people there hunt. Even just walking into the cafe for a quick coffee and I overhear people talking about hunting.

In rural areas everyone knows someone who hunts/shoots and opportunities are readily available. I know of landowners who would love a responsible hunter to clean up mobs of goats or reduce their deer numbers.

I guess if I lived in a city and had no connections to access land for target shooting and small game hunting (how many of us started out), it would be a different story.

Everyone fishes in Northland as there's fuck all else to do (apart from meth). To be fair, the fishing is very good. As for hunting, in my work circles, there's quite a few hunters who have moved in to the area from overseas or other parts of the country. However, they are not interested in fighting the bush for a goat or pig, preferring to travel south for guided and/or private land hunts. Overall, my impression is that the number of hunters has increased in line with population increase more or less.

Originally Posted by muzza

Urbanisation and single parent families are the death knell of shooting sports

Im a city kid that only ever had a Mum. Not sure what happened here.

There are some mums you don't mess around with and do as you are told by them...

I have to say more hunters then ever, its never been easier to shoot a animal. Private and DOC land.
Just about every kid at my sons rural school has been hunting or involved in hunting
Been pest control or big game

Originally Posted by muzza

Urbanisation and single parent families are the death knell of shooting sports

Police range regulations (proposed) are another death knell - no under 16s on shooting ranges.

Thanks all for the replies - seems there is some truth that urbanisation and being an Aucklander is the issue!! But glad to hear that there's still plenty of shooters and hunters out there.

If someone told me a farmer wanted to get rid of goats/pigs, I'd be thrilled to make a 5 hour drive!!
My main access is a farm about 1.5 hours away - plenty of possums, some turkeys... and I appreciate the access.

One possibility could be your sphere of influence. Like many things/ideas going on these days, you only know what people around you are doing or thinking... and if they are doing it and thinking it, well that's just human nature that you follow. It was a good question to ask here, and pleasing to see some of the responses.

Some more anecdata for you: I moved back from the UK to very urban Wellington. One day ended up going and helping two neighbours who were battling to cut old ivy of their boundary fence (any excuse to bust out the sabre saw). It mistakenly slipped out that I had just installed my gun safe prior to FAL inspection. I was waiting for the words of scorn and derision, but it turned out the lady next door, and the guy two along both had their FALs. Then not long after, another neighbour across the road said he and his wife and daughter had just been to Wairarapa to a friend's farm, where they had a great time blasting bunnies.

Dunno, maybe as we all become a bit more insular, we miss this sort of stuff. If you listen to some people the world's going to end... now I'm a pretty cynical, grumpy fuck at the best of times, but even I see there's a lot out there to be positive about, if you look for it.

Best thing we can do is be good ambassadors for our sport, and encourage people to get into it. @Sika stag is a fine example. Arranging trips for families, and kitting out kids who might otherwise not have the means to get out - bloody legend. It's people like him who will ensure people new to hunting have an opportunity to try it, and are maximising the chances they will enjoy it. I hope I can do the same one day.

Take a mate with you next time go out to that farm, see what they think (just hammer home the safety stuff!)

Anecdotally there seems to be as many hunters as ever. It's a pretty mainstream activity now. Shooting, I can't speak for many disciplines, but I can tell you that service rifle competition has had a kick in the balls with the gun bans that it has never recovered from. We used to get between 15-30 shooters on club days, 40-60 on competitions. Club days lucky to get 5 shooters now.

Hunting....all those out of the way spots where I never used to see a soul 25 y ago are now overun with hunters.

Whether that is a percentage of population gain or not I dont know....but going by the amout of new subdivisions id say its probably a net loss percentage wise.