This spring we’ve visited some interesting new places, and revisited some favourite old haunts.

I never fail to be amazed by the variety of hunting experiences available in this country, and every time we come back from a trip I find it’s just opened the door to many more! I’ve seen some young and old fullas get their “first” of several species and trophies in the last couple of months, and as always it’s been a pleasure to see the enjoyment and respect they have gained from the trips we’ve done.

We have been working hard on the new firearms legislation, alongside all the other hunting and firearms organisations to firstly get sensible submissions in about the ridiculous parts of the bill, and then secondly talk to the politicians to see who can actually make a difference when the final versions of it are drafted. It’s still early days yet but hopefully common sense will prevail. We would love to see the final version of this bill left until after the Royal Commission of Enquiry in the Christchurch terror attack releases its findings, but the Prime Minister seems bent on claiming she’s made the country safer with new firearms laws in time for the tragedy’s anniversary. This is pretty silly when common sense would say wait until after we know what went wrong, before you try and write legislation to fix it!

The really pleasing thing I’ve seen through all this is that the firearms and hunting community have managed to come together and come up with consensus positions and submissions – just as we did with the tahr debate – which makes it far harder for the politicians to ignore what we are saying. We have also been putting our views in front of individual members of parliament to provide them with the information they need to demonstrate that the Bill will not achieve its purpose of increasing public safety. It’s a little bit early yet for bouquets and brickbats, but watch this space as with the elections coming up we will totally support those who have actually made a difference on the things we are so passionate about.

We’ve seen some photos on social media of hunters still trying to kill more tahr than they can possibly use. Now that all the culling has pretty much finished for the year and the tahr nanny population has taken a fair old hiding, there is no need for any recreational hunters to still be trying to bomb up tahr. Just take what you would normally need for your meat/trophy purposes, and let’s see what the population looks like early next year. The next Tahr Liaison Group in early December will be the start of looking at what the operational plan might look like for after June next year, so we won’t know for some time what we are going to be asking you to do.

The spot the logo winners are Richard Morton and Lyn Kuzman. The logos were on page 33 in the Federal advert and on page 57 in the Ruger advert.

Get out there and gather lots of nice juicy venison and crank the barby up over summer and we’ll see you all when the new season of NZ Hunter Adventures starts in February next year!

Greg

In this issue:

• The huge Dark River Wapiti bull from Will Hoskin
• A huge Main Divide Red by Lachlan McIntosh and Co.
• Summer tahr in the Landsborough with Luke Care
• A Father/Daughter 14 Point Red with Pat Barrett
• Andy Lyver heads to Stewart Island
• School’s Out – Matt and the Cleaver Clan
• Backridge Butcher: Ngaruroro Rafting
• Can you tell bucks from does? Points South tells you how
• Johnny Bissell runs through Indicator dogs, Part Three
• What’s in your First Aid Kit? Greig Caigou shares his
• Capturing Wildlife Movement - Matt Winter
• Cody Weller continues his series on Bowhunting
• A Kalahari Adventure by Bill Calver
• Corey Carston’s Safe to Eat series continues, as well as ‘how to flock decoys’
• ‘The core’ – conditioning for hunters by Michael McCormack
• The Smyth Hut, the latest from Permolat

Test Fires: We Evaluate...

• The Ruger Precision Rifle – in 338 Lapua
• Big Agnes’ Tiger Platinum 2p tent
• 10x50mm Rangefinding Binoculars by German Precision Optics