Thread: DOC land - The real Hunters bragging rights?

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

this would have to be one of the most bull shit pieces put on this forum - who really gives a crap where your deer come from - really DOC or private its shooting deer - bringing meat home maybe a head - is that not more important - the experience - a few beers after the hunt - a camp fire good mates - later trying out the steak on a bbq - bleating about where it came from is bullshit - bloody hell you buggers get real

Couldn't agree more, sitting in a hotel room in Thailand, been to Hong Kong and off to Maldives for work. The mass of humanity in these places makes you long for the simple solitude of the bush. We lose prospective of how lucky we are when we can just get away from all the BS and take some time out without the masses of people around and the pace of these places. As said above just chill out and enjoy the opportunities we have.

go and enjoy some of that wonderfull food just please dont tell us

Originally Posted by gmm

Couldn't agree more, sitting in a hotel room in Thailand, been to Hong Kong and off to Maldives for work. The mass of humanity in these places makes you long for the simple solitude of the bush. We lose prospective of how lucky we are when we can just get away from all the BS and take some time out without the masses of people around and the pace of these places. As said above just chill out and enjoy the opportunities we have.

Thailand has its chill areas, just got to get well out of the cities

Looking forward to hunting private land next Saturday, it is a spot I have only hunted once before which resulted in a nice fallow.
This country is steep hard terrain similar to Doc land but has a few more animals, I am looking forward to the challange as I know any venison will be hard earned.

All land has it's share of challengers, the mission here is spotting the animals before we are seen and doing it with a neighbour with very little experience and loves to talk and make plenty of noise.

Originally Posted by Gibo

Thailand has its chill areas, just got to get well out of the cities

Yea but have meeting with clients so unfortunately have to be where they are.

It's all about the experience.

Whether a hunter gets a deer, or not, hunting a farm or public land is not that far different to a fella scoring at either the brothel or the pub, or getting turfed out of either.

If you don't take it too seriously, you'll probably enjoy it more.

As you have come to realize social media and the internet can distort ones sense of reality.
People can get a misconception of what it should be like verse what its actually like.
It always cracks me up how triggered we can all get when there's a difference of opinion, values, ethics or techniques.
Some we align too while others we have strong opinions against.
I don't know but the digital age imho makes some people angry or lazy and way less patient. Others may beg to differ.
Like any skill we learn there is a steep and sometimes long learning curve, but one day something just clicks and then you're away and the struggles that you went through make the journey that much more satisfying.
It took me 5 years from my first bush hunted deer to my second, then the flood gates opened and I was off.
I am a slow learner. Individual results may vary.
You're getting off the couch and getting out there so that's the first and most important hurdle completed.
Each trip believe it or not are micro learnings, you just don't know that yet.
Good luck with your journey.

Originally Posted by craigc

‘A real hunter’? Who cares. But a great person is someone who doesn’t generalise and then have a crack at people on the internet.
In my experience a deer shot on DOC doesn’t taste any different to one shot on private property (depending on what it eats).
Also, as Gimp says, where are you hunting mate? There’s no shortage of deer on DOC land. Next time reflect on your own hunting ability, not others.

You interpreted my post incorrectly.

Most of my hunting has been around Craigieburn/Arthurs pass with some trips to st James and Kaiks.


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Originally Posted by Kudu

You should tag along with another hunter for some tips down there. As up here you can see lots of deer in a day on DOC land. And I've been down south and I reckon you guys have a lot more deer than we do.

Maybe you are just looking in the wrong spots? But you are right... A lot of hunting on Farms is just target shooting. For example, a friends son shot 53 in one hunt the other evening. All left where they fell as they are pests.. And that isn't hunting.

Unbelievable number - 53, even on a farm.


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Originally Posted by Jt89

I share similar sentiments, not necessarily in a resentful way and I do recognise that judging a hunter by the location they hunt does them absolutely no credit. However, it is definitely easy to view farm hunting as 'simple' compared to public land hunting from the outside looking in. I also have no real farm/private land contacts, mostly due to understanding that getting and keeping permission to access private land requires significant time and effort to acquire and then maintain. Building and keeping a good relationship with landholders takes time, and I personally think that if I was a farmer I'd want to really get to know a bugger who's running around my property with a rifle. I just can't give that the energy that it deserves, nor do I even have a suitable vehicle for getting around on a farm which is half the reason to do so - covering lots of ground efficiently and being able to get a whole animal out. Frankly if I were to get onto farmland, I would probably be only trying to chase bunnies with a rimfire.

It certainly takes time to learn. In the first two years of my hunting I wandered the bush solo for several trips seeing nothing. Got invited to a roar block in Haast with some very seasoned hunters (a rough introduction to the joys of being cold and wet) Joined the local deerstalkers and got onto an organised animal control hunt where I got my first deer. Later on I repeated this and got several in one morning (right place, right time, good numbers) and absorbed a bit from a very seasoned bush hunter but only a small fraction of what he knows. I've spent nearly 5 years visiting the same patch of public land close to home and it has an access road right to the top of the mountain... Very well travelled by locals out sight seeing, running their dogs, pig hunting, and often spot-lit by those who choose to do so. It took me 4 years to even see a deer there, and then one day I sat on a knob in the late evening sun to get out of the windy side of the ridge and saw a spiker doing pretty much the same. Another time up there I drove right to the top to find the wind blowing witches off their broomsticks and decided it was a bust, got down out of the wind and stopped the car to check a promising gully; 50m off the track in public land was a likely patch of bush and behold there was another young one sneaking out.

I've bush bashed, walked riverbeds and watched slips at dawn and dusk, I've visited huts and checked the visitor books for clues (some hunters note what they found where, others leave a colorful up yours about not paying for the hut and little else) I've read books and watched youtube. I think like many before me, I've learnt as much or more through failed attempts as I have through success. The thing I've found hardest is moving to NZ and starting to hunt in my 30's when most (but not all) are about 20 years ahead in experience. Asking for tips, areas, to tag along if others are heading out - might as well pull my own teeth. Met a really good bloke through the deerstalkers who is a highly skilled bush hunter and he definitely helped me along, and after a few years had one or two other hunters whisper about handy creeks to try for good numbers but its definitely not been plain sailing to success.

A couple of things I've learnt that others here are echoing:

1. Altitude means options, but tops doesn't always mean deer. They are where they are, and sometimes it just takes repeated trips to the same patch of bush to figure it out.
2. You can march yourself 5km into the public bush, and crash about and not see anything. The seasoned hunter will probably be hiding in the bush and hear the amateur go on past, shoot a deer not 500m from where everybody parks up and have it boned out and gone before we get back.
2a. Movement, movement, movement. It gives us all away. The best thing I've ever heard is "Ever seen a crocodile sneak up on you? Move like a croc. Imperceptible, calm, quiet, practically still." Good bush advice, still handy in the open.
3. Off the back of 2a, I've lain down for an afternoon nap in the sun in that lazy time between midday and mid arvo, and then sat up and seen deer moving around without a care in the world. Relax, hunt lazy, take the pressure off and let the world go by. Almost every deer I've identified and shot has been when I'm not focusing too hard on 'hunting.' If deer are around and you've got plenty of country to look at, doing sweet FA is a good way to let yourself and the land relax into the natural rhythm of the day.
4. Know what they eat and where they sleep/hide from nasty weather, hard to do in the bush but vital for all hunting to not waste time in the wrong places.





I can't quantify this as truth, but myself and a workmate have passed through the Molesworth a time or two for jobs. When talking to an old hand on the Molesworth (been there 25 years) his words were - "No deer on the St James anymore, not since they pulled the grazing out of there." His definition of many deer may be a little different to ours though, as he also said that seeing a dozen before breakfast from the back of his horse was low numbers.

Have you hunted the Lake Sumner RHA? Heli-activity is prevented in there. I was up the Sylvia tops before the roar and can confirm deer numbers are not huge but worth the effort.

Great write up and excellent feedback. I’ve been to the places you mentioned with no luck yet but am loving getting out and trying my hand. I do realise that there’s no instant success secret, but the journey to date sure is great..


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Originally Posted by 9STAGS

As you have come to realize social media and the internet can distort ones sense of reality.
People can get a misconception of what it should be like verse what its actually like.
It always cracks me up how triggered we can all get when there's a difference of opinion, values, ethics or techniques.
Some we align too while others we have strong opinions against.
I don't know but the digital age imho makes some people angry or lazy and way less patient. Others may beg to differ.
Like any skill we learn there is a steep and sometimes long learning curve, but one day something just clicks and then you're away and the struggles that you went through make the journey that much more satisfying.
It took me 5 years from my first bush hunted deer to my second, then the flood gates opened and I was off.
I am a slow learner. Individual results may vary.
You're getting off the couch and getting out there so that's the first and most important hurdle completed.
Each trip believe it or not are micro learnings, you just don't know that yet.
Good luck with your journey.

Great post - what were some of the main things you learned in that 5 year period? Or what did you change that brought more success?


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Originally Posted by Mrfants

Unbelievable number - 53, even on a farm.


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53 is a good number alright but around 30 is doable some places around the country. Not on a nightly basis for long though. I’m pretty happy to get 15 or so over a 7-8 hr night. Around now is good for a few weeks with animals feeding up pre-winter. Turnip and oat crops sure make it easy. As others have said though, it’s target shooting not hunting. But when animals are in high numbers you do whatever required.

Originally Posted by Yesmate

he'd be unelectable.straight up and honest are traits the masses can't deal with.unfortunately.

Not probably real anyway..... Probably AI of ChatGPT generated........

Originally Posted by Mrfants

is there a case to be made that someone who can hunt successfully and get their meat on Doc land are really the true hunters?

I don't know anyone who shoots pests on farms off a quad bike who claims that to be hunting. Myself included.
My nearest public land that holds deer is the Kaimais, which requires traversing Auckland and roughly 4 hours of travel. I don't even like hunting there for various reasons and prefer to go further to central north. So at 5+ hours away.
I have a family and other hobbies, so to invest 10+ hours of a weekend into driving plus hundreds of dollars worth of fuel to go do "real" hunting simply isn't where I see value.
When I get access to go cull some local deer for meat then of course I'm going to do that.

Originally Posted by Mrfants

Great write up and excellent feedback. I’ve been to the places you mentioned with no luck yet but am loving getting out and trying my hand. I do realise that there’s no instant success secret, but the journey to date sure is great..


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I lived in Hanmer for 7 years moved back 2 years ago, there are deer in the St James, had a work colleague who hunted there monthly and always brought one back, me I struggled to see them as am a newish hunter.