Thread: Deer Population Growth

Originally Posted by motorb

Hi, New member here just signed up having read this thread while looking for some clues as to worthwhile deer hunting spots, and thought I might add to some of the robust discussion going on here....

It's certainly painful hearing these stories about secret spots with deer spilling out of the bush while some of us are resigned to spending 8 hours driving and 8 hours tangled in supplejack to find nothing but weeks old sign or not even that. Worse yet that DOC and landowners are resorting to paid culling operations!

That said, I can also relate to those privileged with those secret spots not wanting some muppet turning up and ruining a good relationship with a landowner. I'm much the same with the spots I go rabbit/possum hunting, and on my own property it's already hard enough to maintain good relations with certain neighbours without adding random armed visitors into the mix.

I've also seen a trend these days that everyone is terrified of the H&S act (unsurprising since an entire industry has sprung up around fearmongering and misinformation around this), but it also seems to be the case in my area that if a farmer isn't shooting, then he doesn't want any shooting on his property at all, and if he IS shooting, he doesn't want anyone else shooting there either!

The difficulty here is that for some of us, what we are hearing from the lucky few is not matching up at all with what we are seeing out there on open permit doc land.

Drive south for 4 and a half hours to the top of the Desert road. Park your car in the car park and walk East along the poled route into the Kaimanawa State Forest Park for 2 hours. Not a single piece of supplejack will encumber you. With the wind in your favour, within a few hours of first and last light and a pair of binos by your side if you haven't got onto a couple of deer by then you are doing something terribly wrong. Get back to us and we will review your progress and suggest amendments to your technique!

Added bonus: if you go there between 11 Feb and 19 March (less Fri and Sat nights) you will find the place quite tranquil, as the road is closed 6pm through to 6am every day for resealing