"I would encourage people to get their licence early in store or online because there's no real excuse for not being able to purchase one."
Juniors (aged 12-17) should also take heed of this advice and have an extra incentive because Hawke's Bay Fish & Game is running a Junior Pheasant Hunt on September 2 and to go in the draw for this juniors must have purchased their game bird licence before May 4, he said.
Hunting & Fishing Napier owner Paul "Wooly" Woolhouse said people had been a bit more prepared this year and there had been a steady stream of people purchasing licences from his store for the last few weeks.
However, he still expected Thursday and Friday to be extremely busy.
"I would encourage people to get their ammo and licences early, come in from Monday to Wednesday when it's not so busy."
Fish & Game New Zealand policy manager Robert Sowman said most licence sales occurred the day before opening weekend each year.
"Hunters are notorious for leaving their licence purchase to the last minute.
"More game licences get sold in the last days before opening morning than any other time of the year.
"Unfortunately, that can mean long queues of hunters at sports shops waiting to buy their licence."
He advised people to avoid the queues by buying a licence online from the Fish & Game website.
Hunters are also being encouraged to make sure they familiarise themselves with the hunting rules for the region they are planning to hunt in.
"The rules are different depending on which region you are hunting in, so you need to read the regulation book you get when buying a licence.
"A couple of minutes familiarising yourself with the rules is time well spent as breaking them could well land you in court."
The 2018 game bird season opens on Saturday, May 5, and runs until Sunday, August 26.
For information on the rules, regulations and where to hunt, visit www.fishandgame.org.nz.
Pekapeka Regional Park will be closed to the public next weekend for the start to the season.
