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

More hunters over here now. A lot of the young tradies with dual cab utes and roof top campers etc heading out camping in the bush or remote beaches. Starts with camping, then fishing and some move into hunting. Access to public land in NSW and Vic is supporting it. Pretty positive as it legitimises it further.


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Originally Posted by Beavis

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.

I can fully understand that.

If you base your opinion on the number of firearms licences per capita it would seem that popularity is decreasing. From what I can find online the number of FAL holders in 1997 was just under 250k and it remained about the same number until 2019. I can’t find any data for the years after that.

The population in 1997 was 3.781M and in 2019 it was 4.979M. So FAL holder rates dropped from 6.6% to 5% based on my very brief internet searching.

However it does seem that the number of firearms owned per FAL holder has increased, so in that sense maybe shooting is more popular. It could be that as a proportion we have more gun enthusiasts who like owning guns than farmers who own firearms as tools of the trade.

Once data for 2020 to present is available we might see an uptick in the number of FAL holders. Anecdotally It seems like firearms have become more popular over the lockdown periods.

Originally Posted by Daniel L

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.

I used to drive 2.5 hour to get to my nearest farm access. Thought nothing of it. Was away most weekends. Wife not happy. It had goats, pigs, ducks and small game. I was new to the sport, so pretty buzzed. I'm a little more measured now.

Originally Posted by MB

I used to drive 2.5 hour to get to my nearest farm access. Thought nothing of it. Was away most weekends. Wife not happy. It had goats, pigs, ducks and small game. I was new to the sport, so pretty buzzed. I'm a little more measured now.

It's amazing how three words can say so much.

Greetings All,
Target shooting has definitely declined over the last 20 to 40 years. The E Richards shoot, a 4P Hastings Deerstalkers Branch shoot had 25 shooters in 1983, down to just 3 in 2019 and none since. The Branch lost the use of the excellent Roys Hill Range in the late 1990's and the next shoot was not until 2010 attended by 13 shooters. Branch membership is up, a range is available but there seems to be no interest in target shooting these days. Perhaps it is the current interest in highly technical long range shooting and the bush hobbits think of a 100 metre shot as a long one. I just don't know.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by GDMP

Proposed regulations......not yet law.And I believe we have a realistic chance of having these new regulations done away with if we manage to get a change of Govt next year.....there is no justification for them from a public safety angle there is nothing wrong with the current set-up of clubs and ranges.

Bloody rediculous aye. Nanny state at its worst AGAIN>>>>>>

How on earth are young fellas supposed to learn all the good things about firearm safety, shooting, etc etc.

Personally, Im so sick of having every aspect of our lives controlled by these drongos.

Greetings All,
While some like to blame the current changes in Laws and Regulations for the decline in range shooting the decline has been going on for years. The decline has accompanied the increase in technical style rifles, bipods, fat scopes and the like. Additionally each successive generation of hunters and shooters is different. The idea of shooting without a bipod or dial up scope is foreign to much of the current generation of hunters and shooters. I am not saying this is wrong just that it is different. Consequently the idea of shooting standing without a rest does not appeal. The full bore shooters F class, shooting prone with fancy bipods and scope may appeal to some but for me my days of shooting prone are long gone.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
While some like to blame the current changes in Laws and Regulations for the decline in range shooting the decline has been going on for years. The decline has accompanied the increase in technical style rifles, bipods, fat scopes and the like. Additionally each successive generation of hunters and shooters is different. The idea of shooting without a bipod or dial up scope is foreign to much of the current generation of hunters and shooters. I am not saying this is wrong just that it is different. Consequently the idea of shooting standing without a rest does not appeal. The full bore shooters F class, shooting prone with fancy bipods and scope may appeal to some but for me my days of shooting prone are long gone.
Regards Grandpamac.

You should get into rimfire silhouette shooting. Standing, no rest/sling and ammo's cheap
Bloody good practice considering the targets are barely bigger than a credit card and your shooting out to 100m.

Originally Posted by Steve123

You should get into rimfire silhouette shooting. Standing, no rest/sling and ammo's cheap
Bloody good practice considering the targets are barely bigger than a credit card and your shooting out to 100m.

Thanks for reminding @Steve123,
I actually have a set of rimfire silhuouettes here so should practice more.
GPM.

Originally Posted by Cordite

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

They would still be allowed on ranges, just not to compete:

This option does not prevent young people using a firearm under the immediate supervision of a licence holder on private property or hunting or on a range but removes the option of participating in the competing elements of club organised shooting activities


I submitted my feedback this morning and went for the second option that allows 10 - 16 year olds to participate in club activities.

Originally Posted by cbfb

This option does not prevent young people using a firearm under the immediate supervision of a licence holder on private property or hunting or on a range but removes the option of participating in the competing elements of club organised shooting activities

How on earth does that improve safety, which is supposedly the aim of these rules!

Come on guys. It's nothing to do with 'safety' .
It's all about making shooting in all forms more difficult to get into, not worth the hassle or the paperwork for users of firearms and range owners.

As for the long range and other shooting sports , I think expense alone is enough to put a large chunk of people off . Just look at the price of ammo nowadays, either factory or handloading (if you can even get components) .
The only thing not going up is wages, and the family still needs a roof, food, clothing, electricity , even petrol alone has virtually doubled the last few years...etc , so priorities and all that ...
And everyone seems to think you need the latest and greatest rifle, scope,bipod etc etc. When you add it all together it's actually a huge commitment of funds and few have that amount of pocket money nowadays.
Myself, I have been slowly selling off my guns and gear just trying to pay the bills and kids expenses.
Sold my reloading gear as I can't justify the expense and so on ...
We're not all lawyers or doctors ... I'm just a humble parts guy / shop manager.

If NZ follows a similar pattern to Aust following your buy back then, gun sales and participation in shooting sports will increase slowly at first and then more rapidly but not in all areas. Some won’t come back or be replaced. Ie fullbore and some other traditional disciplines.

Hunting, f class, long range, service, pistol, shotgun events, PSR have grown.
Any Friday afternoon on the highways out of Sydney you will see convoys of dual cabs pulling tandem trailers loaded with 2 quads or a side by side, swags, tents, car fridges and camping kit. $150k plus of kit. Not to mention the guys who keep it low key.


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The part I was particuarly concerned about was section 38Q (in Appendix 2) which makes it mandatory for a duty officer to be present while shooting takes place.

Effectively shuts down awesome facilities like my local RRGC where you can turn up on your own any time during the day.

The more people that submit feedback to the proposal the better.