Thread: Venison meat hunting in NZ in the past

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

nah it was honesty - one knew if you were ever caught cheating fellow hunters leave the district real quick or you would be a marked man- we did not tolerate that sort of bullshit - neither did we ever interfere with vehicles or steal from each other - poach well all I can say is we did not have GPS to tell exactly where boundary was

Ha,ha the only ones that lost out on occasions were like I mentioned,,the big companies.
The ariel shooters themselves were pretty close mates,,not all of them but a few we were living with along with a coupla pilots.
We had a thing goin on and no one was jumping up and down about it either.
There was bugger all poaching on each others blocks..that was a no. The poaching I mentioned was around areas where joe cocky boundried
the bush etc, not where we were in South Westland..other areas in the South Island.
Sounds like you were a tad more civil Barry the hunter than us lot were back then...lol good fi you.

Originally Posted by doinit

Ha,ha the only ones that lost out on occasions were like I mentioned,,the big companies.
The ariel shooters themselves were pretty close mates,,not all of them but a few we were living with along with a coupla pilots.
We had a thing goin on and no one was jumping up and down about it either.
There was bugger all poaching on each others blocks..that was a no. The poaching I mentioned was around areas where joe cocky boundried
the bush etc, not where we were in South Westland..other areas in the South Island.
Sounds like you were a tad more civil Barry the hunter than us lot were back then...lol good fi you.

nah some of those Matawai meat hunters one did not muck around with bloody loose cannons - called themselves the bush rats

An old Tokoroa mate of mine who was a very capable hunter, and accomplished poacher, put some through the chillers/system, and some cash.
He had a restaurant in Auckland that took meat. He would drive up, and return with cash, not sure what state he provided them in? Whole animals, skinned or not.

I also remember him complaining about all the tax, so he split the sales up between his two kids to stay in the lowest tax bracket.
Hard, strong men who did it for a crust, he worked full time at Kinleith, and hunted his days off, and nights if on day shift.
He had a legendary reputation for his ability to carry large animals whole for hours.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

nah some of those Matawai meat hunters one did not muck around with bloody loose cannons - called themselves the bush rats

Neville Tohill wrote 2 books based around Matawai on the ground based venison era; Out Spotlighting and Bushrats. An index in Spotlighting has a number of explanations for various terms.

Originally Posted by charliehorse

So was the chiller manned full time? What would have stopped someone from swapping tags or pilfering carcasses?

Chillers that I had anything to do with always had a guy on hand except down in one particular area in South Westland.
In this area you had guys that were shooters on machines etc and guys ground shooting on foot,from buggys,4x4's etc and jet boats.
Every one capable of holding a big moon or knowing where ti put a bullet was on board,local and their wifes alike.
Myself and a coupla mates ground shot an area or three down at the Haast and were parked up at Mussel Point fi some time.
We were in the habit of swapping our kills for the bigger stags etc that were hanging in the chillers whenever we had the chance. The dudes dropping off the big boys were working off the machines for companies and did'nt give a shit. We did very well outa the chopper boys.
We each had silly names on our tags..mine was miro,when the tax man finally arrived.......well thats another story eh.
I'm sorry if I jumped the gun here charliehorse

I was building down in TeAnu on the waterfront mid 70s for about 18months.Up to 26 choppers operated out of TeAnu chasing deer.Some evenings youd see 4 or 5 choppers racing down the lake with a few deer hanging under edge one of them.Our part time crane operator was their chopper machanic as well.Use to be some piss ups on a Sunday afternoon out at their shed hanger.
There was the odd scap at the local pub between the pilots shooters verses fisherman shearers.No body really won.Cops wouldn't get involved till the next day if needed.
Use to be a lot of flash uts n cars around in those days.Good money n deer,crayfish n shearing.Another good money spinner was possum skins.Lot of freezing workers use to come to TeAnu and do a lot of trapping for the winter.

yip and the odd chop up with the chainsaw in the public bar . it was a bit wild west at times .

So how about now? I assume there are`t as many people as before doing it, how much is for a game red deer worth in SI now? I understand most of those meat will go to pet food company, only small portions actually will appear in market for human consumption. I heard one guy doing rabbit hunting in Qtwn area and supply it to a restaurant, and another making pie sell it online. premium wild catch meat....

spotlighting FROM helicopters was common place around lewis pass area too Im told ,and the main highway wasnt immune to being done from the air either.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

spotlighting FROM helicopters was common place around lewis pass area too Im told ,and the main highway wasnt immune to being done from the air either.

The main culprit was a dude called Noel Boyd. The chopper boys would do an evening run and pack a hand held spottie to pick up any stragglers on the way home.

Fitted a number of light kits to 500’s. As things got harder in the eighties, operators were constantly looking for an edge and the law enforcement style lights fitted underneath the machine and remote operated from the cyclic were the ducks nuts.

you can only imagine the carnage/slaughter that would occur now with thermals added to that mix,....

Ratting around and found this old flyer.Used to live in my truck glove box along with the black notebook.Any greying Nth Is hunters recognise their local Berg's depot for dropping off carcasses for beer money?John Tilley at the Opotiki chiller got a few from me,and curiously cause not listed was the Martinborough chiller,can't remember his name,but do also remember dropping off at the Masterton depot just along from the Hansells factory.Also dropped off animals at a Turangi chiller but maybe it was Consolidated cause also not listed.Cant remember that

Mboro was boggy Ramsden Fred burling had the one up by hansells in masterton