Guided Hunting in New Zealand

For more information e-mail   Steuart   of NZ Hunting Info Ltd

free range on public land      free range on private land      safari park/game estate      fees

Introduction

Thirty years ago nearly all big game hunting in New Zealand was free range and New Zealand hunting guides were as rare as the New Zealand moose. These days however, hunting guides are available for anything from wilderness hunting to safari park hunting. Fees vary according to the service provided although the daily guiding fee will usually lie between $200 & $400 per day. At one end of the spectrum of professional guided hunting is the low cost wilderness hunt on public land where clients may be required to sleep in tents or small mountain hunts. Game is free range and open to hunting by anyone with a DOC hunting permit. This is pretty much the original New Zealand hunting experience. Hunters may have to wait out bad weather in cramped accommodation and work hard to obtain a trophy tahr or chamois. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the higher cost packages in safari parks which often come with luxury accommodation and gourmet meals. Access to and from the hunting area may be via four wheel drive vehicle. High scoring trophies of a variety of species are guaranteed.

New Zealand still has a core of traditional hunters who have little knowledge about the guided hunting industry. The question sometimes arises as to what constitutes fair hunting. Some of the well known American hunting organizations have attempted to define the meaning of "fair chase".

According to the Boone and Crocket Club: 'Fair chase is the ethical, sportsmanlike and lawful pursuit and taking of free ranging wild game animals in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper or unfair advantage over such animals.'

A Safari Club International definition is: 'Fair chase is defined as pursuit of a free roaming animal or enclosed roaming animal possessed of the natural behavioral inclination to escape from the hunter and be fully free to do so.'


Free range on public land.

The majority of free range hunting trips undertaken by New Zealand hunting guides on public land are in pursuit of chamois or tahr. Both of these species are hunted on the main mountain ranges of the South Island where they can usually be found above timberline. One approach is to use four wheel drive vehicles for accessing wilderness tahr hunts on the Eastern side of the main divide. However guided hunting for chamois in this manner on the Eastern side of the main divide cannot produce consistent results. Consequently most wilderness hunts for chamois on public land are conducted on the West Coast. And this requires the assistance of helicopters.
On public land the hunting guides are in direct competition for trophies with other hunters. There is no system in place for advertising hunting intentions and no exclusivity of permits. The hunting of chamois and tahr using helicopters is legal as long as the client does not shoot while the helicopter is airborne and provided the helicopter company has the appropriate licences.
The typical approach is to firstly find a trophy animal with the helicopter and then land the hunter in a position from where he can undertake a stalk. Free range trophy hunting for deer species is unusual because these animals are less commonly found above timberline and when disturbed escape into the cover of the forest. In addition stalks for red deer cannot normally be planned from riverbeds in the same way as for tahr or even chamois.


Free range on private title.

Free range hunting on private title is for animals that are unfenced and therefore able to move across the boundaries of these private properties. Some private titles are large enough to hold reasonable numbers of game animals even though these animals are not fenced. In the past when wild venison prices were high private properties were vulnerable to and adversely affected by poaching. But this problem has lessened with a fall in wild venison prices and with the introduction of stricter regulations on wild game recovery practices.


Safari Park/ Game Estate

(Hunting within enclosure on private title.)

In these game preserves hunting occurs within fenced areas. The size of the fenced areas varies enormously from hundreds to thousands of acres. Game of high value, such as trophy stags are released into the preserves where they are hunted by paying clients. Most of the big game species found in the wild can be hunted in safari and game parks. There is however a law that restricts the release of wild animals into fenced areas if these fenced areas are outside the natural range of that animal. For example sika, sambar and rusa deer cannot be hunted in the South Island because they are not naturally found in the wild in the South Island. Similarly tahr and chamois cannot be hunted in the North Island safari parks.

SCI Trophy Medals

Within the guided hunting industry the Safari Club International rating systems for trophy heads are used. Many guides are qualified SCI Measurers. The following table shows the SCI scores and their medal categouries for Red Deer heads.

Red Stag 280 to 310 Silver Medal I
Red Stag 311 to 330 Silver Medal II
Red Stag 331 to 350 Gold Medal
Red Stag 351 to 365 Super Gold Medal
Red Stag 366 to 380 Super Gold Medal II
Red Stag 381 to 400 Super Gold Medal III
Red Stag 401 to 410 Platinum Medal
Red Stag 411 to 420 Platinum Medal II
Red Stag 421 to 430 Platinum Medal III
Red Stag 431 to 440 Platinum Medal IV

Fees

Red Deer
Fees for red deer trophies advertised on the internet vary both by operator and size of the trophy. Some examples of fees as advertised are given below. There are also a variety of packages advertised.

MedalSCI ScoreFee
Silver 280 - 310 US $3500-US $4500
High Silver 311 - 330 US $4500-US $5500
Gold 331 - 350 US $6500-US $7500
High Gold 351 - 370 US $8500-US $9500

Representative US $2500

Chamois
Fee for a chamois trophy is usually around US $2000. The industry standard minimum is SCI 22 which for a buck is usually about nine inches although bucks with a large horn cirumference could score SCI 22 at between eight and nine inches.

Tahr
The industry standard minimum is 12 inches which nearly always means the bull will be of at least four years of age.

One-on-one guiding fees range between $300 & $600 per day.

Top USA Fees

The following is a quote from the
Boone and Crockett Club Fair Chase magazine Fall 1999
by James M. Peek

and gives an idea of the demand for, and prices that are paid in USA, for top elk trophies

"A while back I was provided with a site on the internet where a group of hunters were discussing their elk hunting. It all had to do with 380+ point bulls-- Boone & Crockett scores-- and where to find them. This is just one bit of evidence of how high the demand can be for trophy elk. The prices that are charged on the San Carlos Apache Reservation for an elk hunt are $12,000 per hunt, with a trophy fee of up to $40,000, depending upon the size of the bull. On the White Mountain Apache Reservation, the wait list is 3 to 4 years, and sealed bids for three elk hunts went for $26,000. The competition for big white-tail bucks is at least as great, if not more so. Rates in south Texas run from $2000 to $10,000 per gun."

For more information e-mail   Steuart   of NZ Hunting Info Ltd

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