Thread: Shooting but not necessarily hunting

Originally Posted by vinceblack

That's what I want to hear, a common sense rule is a good rule I think!

That said, does anyone familiar with the Wakatipu area know of any good out-of-the-way spots they can recommend for a bit of shooting?

Some good open DOC land off the Nevis Road out the back of Cromwell/Bannockburn. Nice easy 4wd trip from Garston through to Bannockburn too.

Central Otago has heaps of places where you'll be fine plinking as long as you're sensible and safe about it. Call the local DOC office (probably Alexandra) for a rimfire permit for rabbit shooting as well as the regular hunting permit which only covers centrefire rifles and medium/large game.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Some good open DOC land off the Nevis Road out the back of Cromwell/Bannockburn. Nice easy 4wd trip from Garston through to Bannockburn too.

Central Otago has heaps of places where you'll be fine plinking as long as you're sensible and safe about it. Call the local DOC office (probably Alexandra) for a rimfire permit for rabbit shooting as well as the regular hunting permit which only covers centrefire rifles and medium/large game.

Thanks for that. Maybe I can clarify something here too...



The blue highlighted area abeam the Kingston end of the Wakatipu is the DoC Remarkables/Nevis hunting block, on which I'll need a hunting permit. What about the non-DoC land surrounding it? What kind of permit do I need (if any) to shoot on that area? It's public land but it isn't a specified DoC conservation area or hunting block.

Go have a talk to your local Doc office, maybe they could set you up with permits or something on a bit of land they have that doing the type of shooting you want to do wont piss any bugger off.

Yeh I think I will do that, I just don't see what DoC's involvement is outside of their hunting blocks, or why a permit is required for non-DoC land. Do DoC still issue the permits for non-DoC land? Seems weird. Unless all the public land is DoC controlled and they just have hunting blocks where there are more specific hunting regulations.

I'm pretty sure you don't need a Doc permit for non-doc land. What other public land is there you can shoot on?

You need to find out who administers an area of public land.
It may be DOC, it may be the local council, landcorp, etc. Either way you will still need permissoin to shoot on it.
If there is public land up against a DOC block then the local DOC office will know who looks after it.
DOC administers something like a 1/4 of all land in NZ. Someone will correct that if I'm too far off.

Another member PM'd me informing me that a permit is required on all public land.

I just don't know what the situation is in NZ. According to the documentation such as the arms code and DoC resources, I can shoot a rifle anywhere I want as long as I don't annoy or endanger, have permission if I'm on private land, and as long as I have a hunting permit if I'm in a hunting block. Other than that, it seems like you're free to shoot anywhere. This seems like a very liberal interpretation though so I hoped the community would be able to clarify.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the exact meaning of public land. All DoC hunting blocks are on public land, and a lot of public land is DoC conservation area, but not all public land is in either of these categories, so presumably DoC has no business issuing a permit to shoot on that land?

Originally Posted by Barefoot

You need to find out who administers an area of public land.
It may be DOC, it may be the local council, landcorp, etc. Either way you will still need permissoin to shoot on it.
If there is public land up against a DOC block then the local DOC office will know who looks after it.
DOC administers something like a 1/4 of all land in NZ. Someone will correct that if I'm too far off.

That makes sense. So all public land is administered by some sort of authority, and that authority is who I contact for permission. Presumably QLDC 'own' the non-DoC land round this way then....

move to Trust me it can get more complicated than that, but yes find you manages/administer the land and then you will know what you have to do to shoot on it if at all.
You can't just turn up on a piece of publicly owned land and shoot.

Originally Posted by vinceblack

Another member PM'd me informing me that a permit is required on all public land.

You need permission from the owner for both private and public land.

A permit is a document granting you permission (within certain restrictions) for public land. So for instance, your DOC permit will say you are allowed to hunt but only in designated hunting blocks, not within a certain distance of tracks etc.

Same goes for permits from local or regional councils.

It's an interesting point, I would imagine that the common sense approach is that doc and council permits are for hunting, and not for plinking... Can't see that doc or a regional council would be happy with you using a hunting permit as an excuse to effectively set up an informal shooting range on their land... Of course, I could be wrong

It's probably one of those grey areas nobody thought of

12 month doc permits here and lots of places to shoot handy to town.

Hi all,

I wrote to DoC about this and got a response from the Biodiversity Threats Programme Manager.

Here are the relevant points:

"Hunting permits are for the specific use of a rifle on public land, so although you are not specifically hunting you will still require a permit to sight your rifle. There is no problem with someone sighting in a rifle in a hunting block so long as they can do so safely. Most other areas not in hunting blocks are generally not suitable for firearm use so are unlikely to be available for target practice. I don't have any answers for this."

So it looks like it is indeed a grey area. My interpretation is that a hunting permit allows you to shoot a rifle on any public land, so long as you comply with the arms code.

It may be law to allow you to shoot in a Doc block when you have a hunting permit so I guess its Courtesy not too.

It is called a "Hunting" permit.

NZ seriously lacks shooting infrastructure for recreational shooting. Need a decent rifle range in every city.