Thread: Hand held thermal now legal on public land

Shooting at night on public land is prohibited in any form.

Please remember we are not the only legitimate recreational users of the Conservation Estate

There are Trampers, Runners, Mountain Bikers, 4x4 users, climbers, kayakers and rafters.
The list goes on.
That is why we need to identify beyond all doubt what we are shooting it.

These other user groups behave vastly differently to hunters in the conservation estate and therefore pop up in different places doing different things.
A newby hunter or the vastly experienced hunter can all make fatal mistakes in identification.
Using a thermal is just a new way of making old mistakes

For day light spotting in open country I don't think there is any harm in it, certainly a game changer for spotting game with the high end models. If anything it's annoying that they will soon become a must have an another very expensive piece of kit that everyone carry's around.
However the rifle scope versions for night shooting are definitely crossing the line and should not be used on DOC Land. To me thats definitely in the realm of pest control and not hunting.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Please remember we are not the only legitimate recreational users of the Conservation Estate

There are Trampers, Runners, Mountain Bikers, 4x4 users, climbers, kayakers and rafters.
The list goes on.
That is why we need to identify beyond all doubt what we are shooting it.

These other user groups behave vastly differently to hunters in the conservation estate and therefore pop up in different places doing different things.
A newby hunter or the vastly experienced hunter can all make fatal mistakes in identification.
Using a thermal is just a new way of making old mistakes

Agree wholeheartedly with this, was in the position of walking behind a mate in the Pureora(s - haha) who was wearing a faded blaze cam shirt. In the afternoon sunlight, passing through ferns - the colour fully matched the summer coat of a red hind and several times it had me going oi and getting my radar twitching. I grabbed the shirt off him and went for a walk holding it, and he was shocked - saw the same thing I did. I'll never touch faded blaze again that's for sure. It's already easy for bad calls to happen, you don't need to help them along when you don't need to.