Thread: NZFS ammunition article by Lynn Harris

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

yes I would agree with that about helicopters - it became to big a job after WW2 - and private land was not really touched by NZFS - the heli boys certainly did a job - one station I worked on had in 60,s likely 80-120 deer on it - one 500 hughs pilot was given rights to live capture it with a 50 / 50 agreement - barely 3 months later maybe two very scared ones left - 80,s and into 90,s deer in a number of areas were slim pickings -now yeah ha - young hunters have the best hunting in years - numbers are huge in some areas - I dont doubt shoot to kill missions with helis will become more frequent -currently DOC internal policy is not to specifically target deer with toxins and long may that continue - bring back the cullers - no I cant see it except in areas where success is likely - we have to live with the simple fact that ground hunting over much of NZ is not a likely or successfull option - a lot of hunters simply dont realize that to control an animal population you must shoot more than the breeding rate -you need to remove over 90% of target animal population otherwise go tip ya money in ocean - if you only remove 10% well ya have had some fun but meaningful control no nyet non no way

Actually I think the line below which populations cannot readily recover is 30% residual. 10% residual is very drastic. That 30% assumes an approximate 4-7 year population recovery assuming no further culling so for sustained herd management a 30% residual population to start a sustained management herd would be a reasonable start point depending of course on a known ecological balance. E.g. The Lake Monk study.
Filing the tips of 303 ball ammo worked very well. Ground based culling from strategically located huts and fly camps was pretty effective and allowed semi-permanant pressure on the animals in many areas. If better and cheaper hunter access was invested in today I think the knockdown achieved by heli operators uears ago could have been capitalised upon and the current situation of exploding numbers avoided.