Thread: Is shooting / hunting less popular in NZ these days?

Originally Posted by Beavis

Anecdotally there seems to be as many hunters as ever. It's a pretty mainstream activity now. Shooting, I can't speak for many disciplines, but I can tell you that service rifle competition has had a kick in the balls with the gun bans that it has never recovered from. We used to get between 15-30 shooters on club days, 40-60 on competitions. Club days lucky to get 5 shooters now.

I can fully understand that.

Hunting....all those out of the way spots where I never used to see a soul 25 y ago are now overun with hunters.

Whether that is a percentage of population gain or not I dont know....but going by the amout of new subdivisions id say its probably a net loss percentage wise.

More hunters over here now. A lot of the young tradies with dual cab utes and roof top campers etc heading out camping in the bush or remote beaches. Starts with camping, then fishing and some move into hunting. Access to public land in NSW and Vic is supporting it. Pretty positive as it legitimises it further.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you base your opinion on the number of firearms licences per capita it would seem that popularity is decreasing. From what I can find online the number of FAL holders in 1997 was just under 250k and it remained about the same number until 2019. I can’t find any data for the years after that.

The population in 1997 was 3.781M and in 2019 it was 4.979M. So FAL holder rates dropped from 6.6% to 5% based on my very brief internet searching.

However it does seem that the number of firearms owned per FAL holder has increased, so in that sense maybe shooting is more popular. It could be that as a proportion we have more gun enthusiasts who like owning guns than farmers who own firearms as tools of the trade.

Once data for 2020 to present is available we might see an uptick in the number of FAL holders. Anecdotally It seems like firearms have become more popular over the lockdown periods.

Greetings All,
Target shooting has definitely declined over the last 20 to 40 years. The E Richards shoot, a 4P Hastings Deerstalkers Branch shoot had 25 shooters in 1983, down to just 3 in 2019 and none since. The Branch lost the use of the excellent Roys Hill Range in the late 1990's and the next shoot was not until 2010 attended by 13 shooters. Branch membership is up, a range is available but there seems to be no interest in target shooting these days. Perhaps it is the current interest in highly technical long range shooting and the bush hobbits think of a 100 metre shot as a long one. I just don't know.
Regards Grandpamac.

Greetings All,
While some like to blame the current changes in Laws and Regulations for the decline in range shooting the decline has been going on for years. The decline has accompanied the increase in technical style rifles, bipods, fat scopes and the like. Additionally each successive generation of hunters and shooters is different. The idea of shooting without a bipod or dial up scope is foreign to much of the current generation of hunters and shooters. I am not saying this is wrong just that it is different. Consequently the idea of shooting standing without a rest does not appeal. The full bore shooters F class, shooting prone with fancy bipods and scope may appeal to some but for me my days of shooting prone are long gone.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
While some like to blame the current changes in Laws and Regulations for the decline in range shooting the decline has been going on for years. The decline has accompanied the increase in technical style rifles, bipods, fat scopes and the like. Additionally each successive generation of hunters and shooters is different. The idea of shooting without a bipod or dial up scope is foreign to much of the current generation of hunters and shooters. I am not saying this is wrong just that it is different. Consequently the idea of shooting standing without a rest does not appeal. The full bore shooters F class, shooting prone with fancy bipods and scope may appeal to some but for me my days of shooting prone are long gone.
Regards Grandpamac.

You should get into rimfire silhouette shooting. Standing, no rest/sling and ammo's cheap
Bloody good practice considering the targets are barely bigger than a credit card and your shooting out to 100m.

Originally Posted by Steve123

You should get into rimfire silhouette shooting. Standing, no rest/sling and ammo's cheap
Bloody good practice considering the targets are barely bigger than a credit card and your shooting out to 100m.

Thanks for reminding @Steve123,
I actually have a set of rimfire silhuouettes here so should practice more.
GPM.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
While some like to blame the current changes in Laws and Regulations for the decline in range shooting the decline has been going on for years. The decline has accompanied the increase in technical style rifles, bipods, fat scopes and the like. Additionally each successive generation of hunters and shooters is different. The idea of shooting without a bipod or dial up scope is foreign to much of the current generation of hunters and shooters. I am not saying this is wrong just that it is different. Consequently the idea of shooting standing without a rest does not appeal. The full bore shooters F class, shooting prone with fancy bipods and scope may appeal to some but for me my days of shooting prone are long gone.
Regards Grandpamac.

But without F class NRA full bore probably would have died out completely. It allows people to still shoot when their eyesight is gone. I reckon the next move should be the ability to shoot off a bench which would enable older shooters to stay in the game either shooting TR or F class…..as you know you’ve still gotta be able to read the wind….

Originally Posted by omark

But without F class NRA full bore probably would have died out completely. It allows people to still shoot when their eyesight is gone. I reckon the next move should be the ability to shoot off a bench which would enable older shooters to stay in the game either shooting TR or F class…..as you know you’ve still gotta be able to read the wind….

Greetings @omark,
Absolutely agree on that. If I was able to shoot from a bench with the F class type rules I would be into it like a rat up a drainpipe, starting at 300 yards mind.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by omark

But without F class NRA full bore probably would have died out completely. It allows people to still shoot when their eyesight is gone. I reckon the next move should be the ability to shoot off a bench which would enable older shooters to stay in the game either shooting TR or F class…..as you know you’ve still gotta be able to read the wind….

We have installed benches ( one) at 3 5 and 600 yds to accomodate shooters needs, and they get a good amount of use.

I recall back in the '90s when I took up pistol shooting it was the only shooting sport that had any growth at all. The decline has been ongoing for a while now .... well before any law changes and other knee jerk events.
People are less involved or engaged in group activities these days and opt for the self indulgence or reward that comes from shooting in small groups or on your own, hence the seeming of "more hunters".

Where we used to involve ourselves with evening activities such as cards or indoor bowls, dancing or band practice. Now its the solo activity of tapping away on a keyboard.
Such is change.

Another event that took place about that time was the trend away from the 40 hr working week and the develpoement of the 24 / 7 attitude that came in from "overseas"
Remember when the popular joke from tourist ran like this...... I went to NZ on a saturday ... but it was closed.

If NZ follows a similar pattern to Aust following your buy back then, gun sales and participation in shooting sports will increase slowly at first and then more rapidly but not in all areas. Some won’t come back or be replaced. Ie fullbore and some other traditional disciplines.

Hunting, f class, long range, service, pistol, shotgun events, PSR have grown.
Any Friday afternoon on the highways out of Sydney you will see convoys of dual cabs pulling tandem trailers loaded with 2 quads or a side by side, swags, tents, car fridges and camping kit. $150k plus of kit. Not to mention the guys who keep it low key.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The back log of new licence applications is high? Or not?

I’m seeing quite a few young guys from non hunting families coming through the hunting club ADA now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

People getting lazy... and they were too busy for living, and lots people are not interested for learning new things and put it into practice. Take fishing for example, the majority are not those anglers walk 5km to 10km a day for fresher water fish. How many fisherman like to use bait caster reel for lure fishing?