Thread: DOC land - The real Hunters bragging rights?

I don't know what makes a "true hunter" and not really interested either, but the OP makes a valid point. There is a gap between how hunting is portrayed on social media which is often relatively long range shooting on open farmland and bashing through the bush on DOC land. It can be disheartening for the beginner without access to the former.

For my own part, it takes me a day of travel by road to get anywhere near a good hunting area, then there's the walk in and out. I just don't have time to spend 3 days getting into a position where I might get a chance at an animal, so it's going to be a helicopter ride or paid access to private land a couple of times a year for me. That plus chasing goats around Northland bush (DOC) is just about enough. More would be good, but that's not the reality at the moment.

EDIT: I should add that we are fortunate in global terms. There's not many places in the world that you can go for a hunt on public land.

@Mrfants

If you are considering whether paying for a block with some high likelyhood of success might be easier than putting in the miles, firstly it might be, but secondly it will give you some exposure to deer so that you can learn their habits, test how quiet you have to be to sneak up on them, how much you can move before they see you etc, what plants have been browsed.
Once you have some or most of that figured out, it is a lot easier to find them regardless if it's public or private land.

I am not in the top 10%, but I can say exposure to numbers helped me move from 'occasional lucky chance encounters' to 'occasionally predictable encounters'.

Originally Posted by longshot

@Mrfants

If you are considering whether paying for a block with some high likelyhood of success might be easier than putting in the miles, firstly it might be, but secondly it will give you some exposure to deer so that you can learn their habits, test how quiet you have to be to sneak up on them, how much you can move before they see you etc, what plants have been browsed.
Once you have some or most of that figured out, it is a lot easier to find them regardless if it's public or private land.

I am not in the top 10%, but I can say exposure to numbers helped me move from 'occasional lucky chance encounters' to 'occasionally predictable encounters'.

Excellent I’ll have to look at maybe a group trip to keep costs down


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I started to hunt in the early 80"s when there were a lot of helicopters still working and deer were very scarce and hard to find. We would go for 4-5 days and spook a couple and were lucky if we shot one. I was lucky to have some very experienced hunters teach me how to read sign and what areas were more productive to hunt. Due to low deer numbers you learnt where and how to hunt.
I now hunt both public and private land. I will not hunt public in the roar and the North Island, not a dig but have had too many close calls.
I have never seen deer numbers on public land like I have in the past 2-3 years. I reflect back on the miles we did in the early days to now and I would never have believed the deer numbers would be as they now are. The other big change is that with the reduction in the venison export market, many landowners are far more likely to allow you on for a hunt as the perceived value of the deer no longer exists.
DOC or private, it's still magic to be out hunting in the environment we enjoy, the view there beats the view from the office any day.
I encourage anyone to get out and start hunting, it's something we in NZ are privileged with and often take for granted, be safe, be respectful and enjoy the unique opportunity we have here

Originally Posted by MB

I don't know what makes a "true hunter" and not really interested either, but the OP makes a valid point. There is a gap between how hunting is portrayed on social media which is often relatively long range shooting on open farmland and bashing through the bush on DOC land. It can be disheartening for the beginner without access to the former.

For my own part, it takes me a day of travel by road to get anywhere near a good hunting area, then there's the walk in and out. I just don't have time to spend 3 days getting into a position where I might get a chance at an ting animal, so it's going to be a helicopter ride or paid access to private land a couple of times a year for me. That plus chasing goats around Northland bush is just about enough. More would be good, but that's the reality at the moment.

I was just chatting to someone in nz and got told that wild dogs were running amock up in northland, there you go a new species of wolf to hunt.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

I was just chatting to someone in nz and got told that wild dogs were running amock up in northland, there you go a new species of wolf to hunt.

That's the Far North. It went off in the media a little while back. The farmer was asking for hunters to come and shoot the dogs in a coordinated fashion. Someone spotted an emu in the bush up there during the cull.

Originally Posted by MB

That's the Far North. It went off in the media a little while back. The farmer was asking for hunters to come and shoot the dogs in a coordinated fashion. Someone spotted an emu in the bush up there during the cull.

ha still some around I worked at Kaitaia DOC and we shot a few escaped ostrich and emu just south of Houhora damn good eating most were ostrich - there also a few reds around Kaimaumau swamp escapees but they were soon shot out

@Mrfants forget the Minga, there are a heap of deer in the Sumner RHA but you will need to walk in and stay a night or two, Hope valley would be a good start, you should be seeing deer in St James. Locally you have Pinchgut, gets hunted a lot but not hunted well, grab water at the hut and go fly camp up the hill so your on the spot last/first light.

Originally Posted by outdoorlad

@Mrfants forget the Minga, there are a heap of deer in the Sumner RHA but you will need to walk in and stay a night or two, Hope valley would be a good start, you should be seeing deer in St James. Locally you have Pinchgut, gets hunted a lot but not hunted well, grab water at the hut and go fly camp up the hill so your on the spot last/first light.

Thanks for the tip. We did st james last weekend 3 days and didn’t see a deer. Day 2 another 5 hunters came in so it got a bit crowded.
I did see a rabbit, some Canadian geese and a couple wild cats, so I thought I was the nuts to be able to spot those 🫣


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Go down Mailings Pass,nice spot to glass for deer.

Originally Posted by Trout

Go down Mailings Pass,nice spot to glass for deer.

We were right there last weekend for 3 days didn’t see a thing. I was with an experienced hunter - possibly the roar had sent them away?


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Originally Posted by Mrfants

We were right there last weekend for 3 days didn’t see a thing. I was with an experienced hunter - possibly the roar had sent them away?


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15yrs ago I walked 12k up the river from the bottom of the pass.Early morning,seen nothing.Sleeped in truck that night at bottom of pass.Next morning it was drizzly rain,as I drove my way up mailings.Seen 4 deer sheltering under trees from rain,near the top of pass.There was 2 big stags sheltering on bush edge 400yds away,I was very tempted to blast away,but I no spare dry cloths.So just watched them trot up the hill and ly down in the rain.They looked magnificent stag,I was just pleased to see them.
So I walked about 24k the day befor,seen nothing.Next day from truck seen 6 deer.Iv was camp down mailings when the Kaikora quake hit,well that shook the old truck and me.The valley just rumbled.I was a bit concerned for my safety for a bit.Grrrr

Its only a wrought if you are not evolved.
I too got envious of others success on private land and wonder how they would go on some more heavier hunted , poisoned, Arial shot DOC land but got over it around 35 years ago. Go out and learn the skills. No one became a top hunter in 18 months.
I congratulate every hunter that shoots a monster sika stag on private land but know my hard earned stags from Clements road ( probably the most hunted place around ) mean more in my eyes

I only hunt public as I don't know any farmers, I also take a break during the roar and start again opening weekend. I hunt weekdays as I took a job that is Friday to Sunday to try and mitigate meeting other hunters. I go solo and did not grow up around anyone who hunts. I rarely get lucky but I'm still out there enjoying myself.

Never had a Father at all.
But if anyone knew Jim Newman at Tisdalls PNth in the mid 60's, he was the man. You only need one key influencer and it builds from there.
My sons had me so they got off to a good start. Grandsons have their own Fathers' and me, so they are double blessed.
It helps.