Thread: What sort of hunter are you?

Originally Posted by Ned

The latest posts in the thread on MPI involvement in deer control lead me to looking at the GAC website.
On the section that talks about herd management, it reads weighted towards hunters being motivated for chasing trophy animals.
Which isn't my motivation for hunting at all.
And leads me to ponder whether the bemoaning of the lack of a unified voice for 'hunters' is in part due to not everyone who goes hunting, being aligned in their values.

So I thought I'd put up a poll to try and get a quick snapshot from here.

Is there evidence supplied on the website about 'weighted towards hunters being motivated for chasing trophy animals'?

I mean to say, is this clearly stated and used by the site to inform choices by making assumptions that are not clearly factual?

Originally Posted by John Duxbury

They consider hunters are only after trophies because it suits their own agenda; so they can belittle or ignore our contribution.

Just about everyone I know is all of those at various times and at different times of the year.

If you want to see the effect that hunters have - just remember what the result was after the year of Covid - when I went back to hunting when the lockdown was over there was young animals all over the place. From my own experience of that, I believe that hunters shoot half at least of the new generation each year.

Yup this. They only seem to want to push hunting contributions as “trophy hunting” so it paints a picture to the wider public and politicians that they don’t actually have to take is seriously.

Never mind that every single hunter I’ve talked to will shoot young animals and hinds all year and only go after trophies during the roar when they’re not great eating anyway - and even then we’ll often shoot the first thing we see.

Well if you look at it like this. Shoot all the stags and all the bulls ...how many on foot would venture up the big valleys AT ALL..... So yes in some degree you DO need trophy/ mature animals to motivate folks....

Its all about adventures and food for me
If a trophy steps out well then that's a bonus

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For me it's the hunt, which encapsulates 2 & 3 having a purpose and intent whilst out in the big wide yonder, to find, secure and retrieve food has, over the last couple of years or so become an important part of defining who I've become.
It's been a journey away from "store bought food" that started 5 years ago. Doing so has nudged me into a more natural flow of living and that's a process that continues to evolve as I learn more and understand that there's so much I've yet to learn. It has changed me on a fundamental level, becoming more in tune with this world that I live in. I've spent decades chasing filthy lucre and now I'm far more enrolled in living a life on my terms outside the "norm" and that's a little scary but outside the comfort zone is where the good oil is.
It's not for everyone but being optimistically at the half way mark, I'm buggered if I'm wasting the second half on anything that doesn't call me forward to a life lived that fulfils and enrichens myself and those around me.....so yeah meat and hills, that's me

you dont have "Rubbish hunter that doesnt get out enough" option

An average one…

Hahaha a crap one

But I enjoy myself

Originally Posted by Ned

The latest posts in the thread on MPI involvement in deer control lead me to looking at the GAC website.
On the section that talks about herd management, it reads weighted towards hunters being motivated for chasing trophy animals.
Which isn't my motivation for hunting at all.
And leads me to ponder whether the bemoaning of the lack of a unified voice for 'hunters' is in part due to not everyone who goes hunting, being aligned in their values.

So I thought I'd put up a poll to try and get a quick snapshot from here.

Are you talking about this section? https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz/management/

It does seem fairly generic I though, about all reasons for managing wild game. The examples are weighted more to 'trophy hunting', mainly because like FWF those are the only real examples in place at the moment.

Gonna ruffle a few feathers but I think 90% of people are liars about their true desire for a 'trophy" and they just dont have the resolve required to achieve one. They are the first when they get lucky and shoot a trophy to be bragging about it.

If you walk past a hind to shoot a stag you are a trophy hunter, if you take antlers without taking ALL the meat you are a trophy hunter, if you hunt areas where you can only recover small amounts of meat you are a trophy hunter, and if you shoot multiple males without utilizing ALL the meat you are a trophy hunter. Just because you shoot small non mature animals doesn't make you not a trophy hunter it just makes you a shit one.

People have been shamed by the term "trophy hunter" mostly being a derogatory reference referring to people doing activities like high fence where the sole focus is a large animal but there isn't any difficulty involved in the achievement. Everyone likes to distance themselves from this. Its a classic case of ego and people that aren't good at things tend to diminish then achievements of others (classic tall poppy). Everyone including myself is guilty of this to some degree. To me trophy hunter is just about being a selective hunter and targeting specific animals rather than being a generalist.

I personally hunt because I love it. I feel i have a connection to it ands its the natural thing to do. Its innate. I yearn for adventure in the hills and if i just wanted meat I can do that easily and the front country with easy access meaning I could yield more meat. I still hunt like this for meat and with small windows.

Once I was proficient at general hunting I then adapted to wanting more challenge and that challenge is to take mature animals because its not something everyone can do it requires time, skill, and commitment. As well as some level of 'luck' (any of the 3 parts can contribute to your 'luck').

From my desire for mature animals i now see the path forward aligning with conservation outcomes and dont see hunting continuing without lower animal numbers and that this will benefit the quality of animals again. So now i try shoot females wherever i see high numbers and shoot as many pigs and goats as I possibly can. I leave animals below this to either mature or so that someone earlier on there hunting journey can enjoy the animal more than i will at my point. To now sometimes the trophy is targeting a specific meat animal that is in a highly recoverable area to allow maximum utilization of the meat. I often plan trips with long flat walks out with the goal being to harvest an entire hind or yearling.

I dont judge people early in there hunting career and think they are at a stage the achievement is the trophy. I am lucky enough to have guided overseas and have taken out many new hunters in NZ and introduced many more non hunters to the experience and see the sense of accomplishment it brings to newer hunters. But beyond that i dont see what the point of shooting males just for the sake of it is. They eat worse and most of the time we cant even recover an entire hind never mind a stag. I view it like limiting on your fishing quota everytime even when you dont need it, legal but greedy and somewhat unsustainable.

I'm really just an well past 60 "Armed Tramper" and have been hunting that way since I was 9 or 10 but in recent years shooting a lot more meat cause I stumble over many, many more unlucky deer!

Originally Posted by Oscar

Are you talking about this section? https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz/management/

It does seem fairly generic I though, about all reasons for managing wild game. The examples are weighted more to 'trophy hunting', mainly because like FWF those are the only real examples in place at the moment.

https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz/i...over-quantity/

This part here where there is a generic description of what a hunter does. Within the context of how better management can be achieved going forward. Maybe I'm being nit picking but this statement "Naturally, as hunters we are tuned in to primarily target mature male game animals. These are the animals we see mounted on the wall, profiled in magazines and feature in the stories we are told as kids." Grabs my attention and I'm just wondering how many others on here who hunt are more motivated for reasons other than trying to bag trophy animals.

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For myself it's both time in the bush and filling the freezer.

Fill the freezer 1st. Love eating fresh wild meat that isn't fill of herb/pesticides.
And love spending time walking around the beauty hills our country has to offer

Originally Posted by Ned

https://nzgameanimalcouncil.org.nz/i...over-quantity/

This part here where there is a generic description of what a hunter does. Within the context of how better management can be achieved going forward. Maybe I'm being nit picking but this statement "Naturally, as hunters we are tuned in to primarily target mature male game animals. These are the animals we see mounted on the wall, profiled in magazines and feature in the stories we are told as kids." Grabs my attention and I'm just wondering how many others on here who hunt are more motivated for reasons other than trying to bag trophy animals.

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Primarily is different from exclusively, I guess.

The way I see it, in NZ the management approach for meat and trophies is the same. Keeping the density below carrying capacity, a female-dominated kill and a male-dominated herd means better, fatter meat animals and a population that has a slower rate of increase so is easier to control, which keeps the habitat in better condition and produces bigger trophies as well. Win:win.

Doesn't matter what your motivations are, shoot the hind/doe/nanny.