Thread: Venison meat hunting in NZ in the past

This thread is why I have dragged out my copy of 'The Venison Hunters' and am re re rereading it. An awesome commentary on an awesome part of our rural history.

Some photos from the past put up for old time sake.

Was I a bonified meat hunter, no but I sold the odd carcass just like any body else at that time. By bonified, I mean doing meat hunting full time day in day out. Did I particularly enjoy meat hunting, no the reason being is carrying the carcasses. If I was built like Superman there would be no problem. Again a hard way of making a living.

I'm also going to start a new thread called 'New Zealand Bush Hunting - A lifestyle for some people'. So that means you can put your meat hunting stories over there or on this thread, what ever you like.
I might put some more meat hunting photos up here.... maybe?




A scene repeated many a time in the bush, attending to a deer and if you were lucky enough to hang it in a shelter. I have never seen it, but I heard that some hunters hanging the odd carcass up inside a hut.




Body in the boot of a car.... A meat hunting crime scene to some hunters that didn't like meat hunters

A scene repeated many times in NZ. I did the odd bit of meat hunting around the Central North Island, and was lucky enough to shoot this deer about 10 minutes from the car.

More meat hunting photos from the past.... Who knows, perhaps these scenes will be repeated in the future?




Horse meets deer
A horse can come in handy in some circumstances. I'm not a horse person but however we were lucky enough to get into this place, I didn't shoot the deer I just went along for the ride to help out.




A collage of photos?
I walked over a hill from one place to the helicopter as shown above. I shot a deer like the one in the photo and hung it up in a tree for later recovery.
I met a meat hunter at a hut, he had a carcass hanging up by the hut and then I took a photo of him attaching it to the helicopter.

Some of you guys will know Brian Goodwin used to be based in Taihape. not sure of the date , probably around 1990 ish. These deer were all shot ground hunting ,just carried out the easy way

Originally Posted by 30late

Attachment 232539
Some of you guys will know Brian Goodwin used to be based in Taihape. not sure of the date , probably around 1990 ish. These deer were all shot ground hunting ,just carried out the easy way

Ha! Good 'ol HLL

We threw a lot of $$ for air time in HLL. (NZ Army)

Its also had more than a couple of non notified prangs.

There was an excellent VHS video of he and his shooter Bugs using buckshot in the Ruahines. Was awfully effective in the later part of the venison days

I believe Brian is now in Aussie??? Not sure if he's still airbourne.

He propped up the Gretna's profits for quite a few years...

Originally Posted by XR500

Ha! Good 'ol HLL

We threw a lot of $$ for air time in HLL. (NZ Army)

Its also had more than a couple of non notified prangs.

There was an excellent VHS video of he and his shooter Bugs using buckshot in the Ruahines. Was awfully effective in the later part of the venison days

I believe Brian is now in Aussie??? Not sure if he's still airbourne.

He propped up the Gretna's profits for quite a few years...

I know Brian was still flying around 2015 -17 as i heard him interviewed on the radio while i lived in WA. He was based in Esperance in the south west of WA.

Couldn't find this photo before to add to my earlier post , this after Brian dropped our load of deer at the road end.!!

Originally Posted by XR500

Ha! Good 'ol HLL

We threw a lot of $$ for air time in HLL. (NZ Army)

Its also had more than a couple of non notified prangs.

There was an excellent VHS video of he and his shooter Bugs using buckshot in the Ruahines. Was awfully effective in the later part of the venison days

I believe Brian is now in Aussie??? Not sure if he's still airbourne.

He propped up the Gretna's profits for quite a few years...

Bugs Bosher ?

Originally Posted by tararua60

Bugs Bosher ?

Yes Bugs Bosher, he was there on that little mission along with Brian's other shooter /loader driver at the time.

Originally Posted by 30late

Attachment 232539
Some of you guys will know Brian Goodwin used to be based in Taihape. not sure of the date , probably around 1990 ish. These deer were all shot ground hunting ,just carried out the easy way

@30late

Is there a story around this you can share? Curious about ground hunters using helicopters to take out shot animals in any number as late as ~ 1990? Used to see it a bit in the earlier days, but not so much that late in the piece?
Cheers

Originally Posted by Maxx

@30late

Is there a story around this you can share? Curious about ground hunters using helicopters to take out shot animals in any number as late as ~ 1990? Used to see it a bit in the earlier days, but not so much that late in the piece?
Cheers

Yeah mate, its a bit complicated but it certainly helps to have a friendly helicopter pilot !!! we had a very active hunting club going at the time in Taihape which funded some of the helicopter costs.

Originally Posted by Maxx

@30late

Is there a story around this you can share? Curious about ground hunters using helicopters to take out shot animals in any number as late as ~ 1990? Used to see it a bit in the earlier days, but not so much that late in the piece?
Cheers

...I think the answer to your question is lying on the ground to the RHS of the carcasses.

By the early 90's the deer had wised up big time to the helis shooting and netting the tops and slips and valley bottoms. Yet up in the thick northern Ruahine forest proper there remained a reasonably healthy population of forest dwelling deer that only came out onto the tussock well after dark. The only way to get onto those sorts of animals was wait till they came and fed right out well clear of the forest edge, then hit them with the Murapara moonbeam. Access to those hallowed high tops around Ruahine corner (.....and a wee bit further north) for this sort of caper was really only by Helo, in and out of valleys etc. Tidy a bunch of redskins up over a couple of days, hump them into groups capable of being lifted by a 500C, and wait for the tail rotor whine to tell you he was on his way back to pick you up.

Originally Posted by XR500

...I think the answer to your question is lying on the ground to the RHS of the carcasses.

By the early 90's the deer had wised up big time to the helis shooting and netting the tops and slips and valley bottoms. Yet up in the thick northern Ruahine forest proper there remained a reasonably healthy population of forest dwelling deer that only came out onto the tussock well after dark. The only way to get onto those sorts of animals was wait till they came and fed right out well clear of the forest edge, then hit them with the Murapara moonbeam. Access to those hallowed high tops around Ruahine corner (.....and a wee bit further north) for this sort of caper was really only by Helo, in and out of valleys etc. Tidy a bunch of redskins up over a couple of days, hump them into groups capable of being lifted by a 500C, and wait for the tail rotor whine to tell you he was on his way back to pick you up.

Couldn't have said it better myself mate, wondered when someone would notice the spotlight lying beside those carcasses!!

Originally Posted by XR500

This thread is why I have dragged out my copy of 'The Venison Hunters' and am re re rereading it. An awesome commentary on an awesome part of our rural history.

Haha me too , actually nearly finished it , it’s probably the best book on that era with the details as he was there doing it , I really like the way Mike Bennet has written that book as well