Thread: Zeroing on public land?

Evening, I was pretty sure that this was a no no - your permit was for hunting not shooting.
However a colleague is completing the better hunting on line training and it states that legally you can sight in wherever you have permission including open hunting areas.
I think I pasted the picture below - has something changed? Or did I just have it wrong?

This one comes up every so often.

Ultimately it comes down to the part of the act below. I am not even a bush lawyer let alone a real lawyer so take my opinion only as an opinion. But the way that I interpret that in practice is like the tree falling in the woods.
Most other users of public land might acknowledge the sound of one or two shots and then carry on as they were. 10 or 20 shots will probably draw attention. I have fired a shot to check zero after dropping my rifle and I don’t see a problem with doing that in a discreet way. Load development or first time zeroing is probably best done at the range. Laws aside it’s just more convenient.


Discharging firearm, airgun, pistol, or restricted weapon in or near dwellinghouse or public place
A person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to a fine not exceeding $10,000, if the person, without reasonable excuse, discharges a firearm, airgun, pistol, or restricted weapon in or near a dwellinghouse or a public place so as to—
(a)
endanger property; or
(b)
endanger, annoy, or frighten any person.
Section 48: replaced, on 25 June 2020, by section 75 of the Arms Legislation Act 2020 (2020 No 23).

If a gun is never zeroed and the owner discharged the gun at a non-controlled range, for example, a public land, will it violate the Rule 2: Always point firearms in a safe direction, where the owner has no control of where the projectile will land?

It was always my understanding that it’s fine to drop a few to get on the mark, but I goes without saying in doing so you need to really think about who what when where. And make sure all appropriate laws are followed.

When I was much younger we didn’t have a range local, and the only place was a 150m clearing into a hill face on the bush edge, valley front and rear of the firing line.

Couldn’t have been a better natural range if you tried, anyway it was the local zero before you go spot and had been as far back as anyone could remember. Found plenty of gun shaped police evidence boxes with identifiers scribbled on them out there over the years.

I vividly remember a British couple seeing us up there and making the 20min drive back to service to ring the police, he eventually turned up in the police rodeo, and ended up spending 30min or so giving us pointers on our technique and having some mighty old fun on the SLR, told us maybe try a weekday afternoon or Sunday instead of Saturday morning, followed up with a free ride home.

In his words “rather your out here doing it”

I’m sure if that was to be called in nowdays, it certainly wouldn’t end the same way.

Where appropriate, I'll fire the odd shot to confirm zero after the scope has had a bash or something, but wouldn't plan on a full on zeroing session. Not that there is 100 metres of unobstructed, flat public land in Northland anyway!

My opinion checking zero with a few shots should be ok a range day no

Yes it is fine. I mean whats the difference shooting a couple of shots into a bank and say going through a couple of mags bombing up on a mob of goats.

A couple of places in this area that are regularly used for informal sighting in. One, 40 mins out of town, I doubt if cops would even bother checking on unless there was a serious incident. Forest security guys, ex-police, don’t seem too worried about it. I frequently hunt in the area. Always interesting to see what cases are left behind at times. If someone is shooting there I go elsewhere.

As said, there are quite a few threads here on this topic.

Legal aspects aside, some practical considerations are:
A quick zero check may be only 4 or 5 shots and you’re done but a full target practice session with several shooters multiplies the risk of a mis stake by a lot.
Shooting at longer ranges increases the chances of stray shots and incomplete assessment of your firing zone. Specially, shooting at rocks …
Checking a previously zeroed rifle is different from first shots out of a new rig, where they could start way off the paper.
More shots are more likely to annoy, endanger or frighten.

In the past, it was usual to sight in at 25 yards and you can see why.

It used to be normal to cook all your food in the bush on an open fire. Now is standard to use a gas stove. Hunters prefer not to disturb their hunting grounds.

well I dont zero on DOC land but I have taken out some bloody idjits than when we get there and they miss deer or admit they have not zeroed then a cardboard box and a check zero safe away from hut has been called for - dont have a problem with that - takes a few minutes

Originally Posted by eamars

If a gun is never zeroed and the owner discharged the gun at a non-controlled range, for example, a public land, will it violate the Rule 2: Always point firearms in a safe direction, where the owner has no control of where the projectile will land?

No more so than shooting an animal standing in the same place would.

There was a rabbit sitting Infront of that log...

Originally Posted by eamars

If a gun is never zeroed and the owner discharged the gun at a non-controlled range, for example, a public land, will it violate the Rule 2: Always point firearms in a safe direction, where the owner has no control of where the projectile will land?

it's never going to be that far off worst case 1 or 2 meters in any direction at 100m you should be picking a safe spot with a large safe backstop
if there is any chance that the bullet could miss or even come close to missing your chosen backstop is too small plus if a rifle has never been zeroed you should start close