Kōrero: Hunting

Whārangi 4. Rifles, bowhunting, safety and literature

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

A male sport

A 1991 survey found that only 7% of New Zealand men rated hunting and shooting as one of their favourite leisure activities. Still, the 37,000 deer hunters killed about 80,000 deer a year. Rural people were four times as likely as urban dwellers to be active hunters.

Rifles

The Lee Enfield .303

For decades, most hunters used ex-army guns. Introduced in 1895, the Lee Enfield .303 (commonly called the ‘three-oh-three’) was the main military service rifle of countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth for over 60 years. This reliable rifle was very popular, and is still used by some hunters.

The guns were relatively cheap, because the army had surplus stock after both world wars. They were rugged and could withstand abuse – many hunters customised them by sawing off part of the stock. Much of the ammunition came from the Colonial Ammunition Company’s Mt Eden factory. Today, all that remains there is the tower where lead shot was made for shotgun cartridges.

Later models

In the 1960s, lighter rifles became popular. These new guns shot smaller (lower-calibre) bullets at higher velocities than the .303. Today’s deer hunters have a huge choice of rifles, and most choose a high-velocity, medium-calibre gun with telescopic sights.

Bowhunting

Organised bowhunting in New Zealand dates back to 1945, when a field section was formed within the Auckland Archery Club. Ten years later the New Zealand Bowhunters Society formed. Using compound bows, bowhunters target big game such as deer and pigs (and even koi carp in the lower Waikato River). These weapons have a much shorter range than rifles, and hunters must get close to their targets to ensure a good shot.

Safety

Hunting safety campaigns have been running for decades, and safety improvements have reduced the number of accidents in which hunters are shot. But they still happen: one study found that 33 deerstalkers died in this way between 1979 and 2002 .

There are many contributing factors. One common mistake is failing to accurately identify the target. This is especially a problem when hunting in the bush, where hunters often cannot see the whole of a deer. In some cases, hunters are struck by ‘stag fever’ – they are so expectant of seeing a stag that when something moves they are convinced it must be a deer.

Books and magazines

There is a wealth of New Zealand hunting literature. Barry Crump’s novels A good keen man (1960) and Wild pork and watercress (1986) have mythologised deer and pig hunting. A good keen man is one of New Zealand’s top-selling books, amassing sales of 400,000 by 1992. Although fictional, Crump’s accounts are rooted in experience, as he was a deer culler for a time.

Many non-fiction books by recreational hunters and deer cullers describe hunts and expeditions to remote areas. Among the notable accounts are Joff Thomson’s Deer shooting days (1964) and Newton McConochie’s You’ll learn no harm from the hills (1966). Full of anecdotes and humorous diversions, such books provide insights into both the history of the backcountry and the psyche of a rugged type of New Zealand male in the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. There are also specialist magazines such as Rod and Rifle and NZ Outdoor Hunting (first published as New Zealand Outdoor in 1937).

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārangi:

Carl Walrond, 'Hunting - Rifles, bowhunting, safety and literature', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/hunting/page-4 (accessed 19 March 2024)

He kōrero nā Carl Walrond, i tāngia i te 24 Nov 2008