DoC culls where deer have been released illegally or are damaging particularly fragile ecosystems. Sports hunters now account for most deer shot annually, well over 50,000.
Doc issues free permits to sports hunters and licences commercial operators to harvest export venison. But due to reduced profits the latter no longer make a major impact.
The newly appointed Game Animal Council will work with DoC to manage the sometimes conflicting needs of hunters and the environment.
But the sport of hunting has some big questions to answer. A recent tragedy, which involved the death of a young father, is still fresh in the minds of many people.
Gun-safety advocate Wayne Edgerton, 56, of Tuatapere was sentenced in Invercargill District Court last month after accidentally shooting Southland hunter Adam Hill, in Western Southland, on April 13.
Mr Hill, 25, was wearing an orange vest when Edgerton fired after mistaking him for a deer. Mr Hill died instantly.
After pleading guilty to a charge of carelessly using a firearm and causing death, Edgerton was sentenced to seven months home detention, ordered to complete 400 hours of community, had to forfeit his gun and pay $10,000 in emotional harm reparation to Mr Hill's partner, Christine Pink.
The verdict caused uproar, including among those who had shown support by wearing flouro vests to court.
Edgerton had failed to identify his target.
Such accidents are relatively rare. Most hunters do pause to identifying their target, and if this turns out to be not what they first assumed, they refrain from pulling the trigger. So what makes the difference?
Heartland
In my view one clue comes from looking at how hunting is done out in the Kiwi Heartland, where the whole attitude to hunting seems more measured than in town.
Unlike some hunters I've met, rural hunters don't seem to possess a hint of swagger or "attitude". I've met dozens of hunters in places such as Taumarunui, Taihape, Rotorua and Wellsford. In such communities hunting often begins at a young age. It is seen as a useful source of food and a chosen lifestyle.
Guns are owned and generally stored out of sight. The politics of gun ownership don't seem to be a big topic of conversation. It seems to me that, while some hunters wear the gun caps and T-shirts and generally talk-up their sport, those in rural communities quietly go out and get the deer.
Of course, not all rural hunters are well adjusted, but most seem to be.
Russell Turner, 58, has shot many hundreds of deer, both as a sports hunter and from helicopters.
Hunter Russell Turner. Pic / Supplied
"The key is to take your time. Young fellas who might only get out once a year are in a hurry but most of us learn that hunting is a slow sport - you just don't need to rush it," he told me in Taupo last weekend.
Old injuries now limit his hunting trips to a few a year, but he's profoundly grateful for the positive memories and friendships the sport has provided him. His network extends from the deep south to Northland. Turner points out that hunting is quite unlike tramping. Rather than carrying heavy equipment "to create a home away from home", hunters travel light. They sleep in huts if possible, or sometimes (as Turner does) under an overhang, in cave, or on longer hunts under a lean-to, using a piece of polythene.
"Forget the fancy equipment, all you must have is good clothing; boots, good hunting pants, a couple of shirts and a hunting jacket. You'll only spend a couple of hundred dollars if you shop around.
"If I take somebody out, I tell them not to worry so much about a gun. One gun is enough, they can use mine. I'll find the stag for them, stand with them and show them how to take the shot. I've seen the delight of so many people when they get their first deer. Hunting is wonderful - it's the birthright of every New Zealander."
But with ever increasing newcomers to hunting, and great mobility due to widespread car ownership among the young, he also sees problems.
These days he rarely hunts during "the roar", the period during March and April when stags become aggressive and roar to attract females.
Unless he is on private property and knows no other hunters will be around, he'd rather stay home.
Hunters mimic the stag's roar so effectively that even with 43 years experience, Turner admits that at times he finds it difficult to differentiate at times.
It's easy for things to go wrong during the roar. Once, while hunting near his old home in Taihape, he inadvertently "roared up" another hunter, thinking he was a stag.
"I could hear "the stag" coming up the ridge smashing through trees. These animals really do get wild and throw their antlers around (during the roar) because they know they're going to fight another stag.
"Then everything went quiet, which happens too. A stag often stops to take a look before coming out of the bush, checking how to see big the other stag is, who he is going to fight.
"I was sitting there, sort of behind a tree waiting, then I heard the bolt close on a rifle.
"I yelled out 'Oi' and (the other hunter) he yelled back, "hey it's me". It was another a guy from Taihape, somebody I'd previously hunted, a man still hunting today. We met and caught up. He'd shut his bolt thinking 'if it's a stag it's going to run, but if it's a hunter he's going to yell out'."
It's easy to conclude that, had they been standing in these men's shoes, more volatile types may have got themselves into a lot of trouble.
Values
Turner learned firearms safety and hunting ethics from a young age.
His own father was a trout fisherman, not a hunter. But from age 15, he began hunting regularly with a friend whose dad taught them both.
The values passed to him he has instilled into the next generation, mentoring many younger or less experienced hunters.
He never shoots more than he can carry out, "if you take a deer's life I think you should also eat the animal you have killed".
Turner is disgusted and disturbed when coming across remains of animals, where only the best cuts of meat have been taken.
He does not drop litter, or take alcohol on hunting expeditions.
When he comes across freshly discarded rubbish he usually takes it as a warning sign and leaves the area, "if they don't respect the bush, that's a bad sign".
He and a friend once knocked-off hunting and went home (with the two deer they had shot) after meeting a party of young men, one of whom was drinking beer as he walked through the bush.
"What if they got drunk and started firing? a bullet goes a long way."
He's passed his hunting values on to his son and daughters (one a bow hunter).
As a former rural postie and tourist operator, he has enjoyed a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, many of whom he introduced hunting.
They've included visitors from the city, overseas tourists, tourist bus drivers and even at-risk youth.
Most rural hunters are like Turner - who cherishes the relationships he has with owners of large properties and stations, many of whom allow hunting when approached by somebody they know and trust. The outcome of all this is that, with a growing population of deer, experienced hunters like him are extremely successful. Turner and his friends expect to take deer when they go out, "if we don't, we consider ourselves very unlucky".
Paul Charman was a guest of Wairakei Resort Taupo.
