For landowners: hunters who are worth having back

What we can honestly offer you today: a start.

33 hunters have put their name and a written introduction on a profile so far. That is not a roster waiting for your call, and we are not going to pretend we can send somebody tomorrow — you would find out, and you would tell your neighbours. What it is: people willing to be identifiable before they ask. If you register now you are early, and we will be straight with you about what is and is not happening.

What this is actually for

Access to private land is closing in New Zealand, and it is not closing because farmers turned against hunting. It closes one gate at a time, and almost always for the same reasons: somebody shot near stock, left a gate open, drove a paddock in the wet, took a beast that was not theirs to take, or simply turned up unannounced once too often. One of those costs a farmer a morning and the district a hunting block, permanently.

So the thing we are trying to build is not a booking service. It is a way for the people who do it properly to be identifiable — a hunter with a name, a licence and a record of landowners who had them back, who files a plan saying where they are and when they are out, and who knows you will read all of it before you decide. Anonymity is what makes bad behaviour cheap. Taking it away is most of the job.

The other half is that the animals are your problem and largely nobody else’s. Goats, deer, wallabies and pigs do real damage to pasture, fences and regenerating bush, and outside a council programme or a 1080 operation there is no one coming to deal with them on private land. A hunter who turns up four times a year and takes what you asked them to take is worth having, and worth keeping.

What we are not.

We take no fee and no commission from you, and there is no version of this where the person who owns the land is the one paying. We do not lease land, we do not sell hunting rights, we are not an outfitter and we do not take a cut of anything that happens at your gate. If somebody contacts you asking for money on the strength of this site, it is not us.

Can you charge for it?

Yes, and it is nobody’s business but yours. Some landowners charge for access, there are platforms built entirely around that, and it is a perfectly ordinary arrangement — a day on good country has a value and there is nothing grubby about saying so.

We take none of it. No commission, no booking fee, no percentage, no “service charge” on top. If you ask a hunter for fifty dollars or five hundred, all of it is yours and none of it comes near us.
We are not in the middle of it. We do not set it, quote it, hold it, process it or enforce it. It is an arrangement between you and the person standing at your gate, and it stays there.
“Free” is just as good an answer. Plenty of farmers want the animals gone and the last thing they want is to feel like they are running a business on the side. Saying so costs you nothing here, and we will never treat a paid block as worth more of our attention than a free one.

Say it early if you are going to say it. A hunter who finds out about a fee after writing a letter and driving two hours feels caught out, and that is the opposite of the arrangement this is trying to build. The conditions box below is the place for it — or keep it for the conversation, which is also fine.

Who would turn up

Somebody who has put their name, their firearms licence, their insurance and their references on a page before they ask — and who knows you will see all of it before you decide. Nobody gets your name by turning up unannounced.

We do not check firearms licences ourselves and we will never say we have. Police do not verify a licence to a third party, so what you see is what the hunter states, marked as stated. What we can show you is more useful anyway: whether they file a plan saying where they are and when they are out, and whether other landowners have had them back.

If poachers are the problem

Most places that stopped letting hunters on did not stop because of the ones who asked. Nothing here makes poaching go away, but it does make the difference visible: everyone who writes to you through this site gives a name, states their licence, and leaves a plan saying which block they are on and when they will be out. A ute at the gate on a night nobody mentioned is not one of them.

The useful part is that somebody is out there looking. A hunter on your place a few times a year sees the tracks, the lights and the carcasses you would never know about, and we tell them plainly that anything they notice comes straight to you — not to Police, not to us, and not to a conversation with whoever is at the gate. It is your land and your call. What follows is what we suggest you do with it.

Do not approach anybody. They are armed, it is dark, and a registration number is worth more to Police than a confrontation is.
Write down what you can. Time, vehicle and registration, direction they went, how many people, dogs, and whether you heard shots. A photograph from a distance beats a description.
Ring 111 while it is happening — people spotlighting with firearms is exactly what the number is for. Afterwards, ring 105 and get an event number, because a pattern across several places is what gets acted on.
Tell your neighbours the same night. Poachers work a district, not a paddock, and the vehicle you saw is usually the one they saw last week.
The same goes for anything a hunter passes on to you. They are telling you what they saw and then staying out of it, which is right — they are a visitor, it is your property, and a report carries more weight from the person who owns the place.

What happens to your details

We never publish your name. Not on a map, not in a list, not anywhere on this site.
We never give a hunter your details unless you tell us to, on the day, about that person.
Hunters cannot browse landowners. There is no directory of names or addresses and there never will be. If you tick the box on the form, the single thing a hunter in your region could ever see is that somebody near them wants goats taken off — no name, no address, no phone, no email. They ask us, we ask you, you decide. Leave it unticked and even that does not happen.
One email takes you off. No reason needed, no conversation.

That is not a new promise for this page. It is already how the letters work: when a hunter writes to a property, our map resolves the postal address without ever showing them who owns it.

What about health and safety?

The most common reason we hear for saying no, and the fear is largely misplaced. The short version: ACC means an injured hunter cannot sue you, WorkSafe’s policy says a landowner is “not responsible for the risks associated with the recreational activities”, and the High Court said much the same in the Whakaari decision. From 1 April 2027 an amendment puts it in the Act itself.

The one duty that stays with you is warning people about work hazards they would not expect — topping, spraying, machinery, a control operation. Which is precisely why a hunter here files a plan telling you where they will be and when.

The sources, quoted and linked

Can you say no?

Yes, and without a conversation. Nothing here obliges you to have anybody on your place — you are telling us you would consider it, not agreeing to anything. If we write to you about somebody and the answer is no, that is the end of it and it does not affect whether we get in touch next time.

And to be plain about where we stand: we introduce people. We are not a guarantor, we do not supervise anybody, and whatever you agree at your gate is between you and them.

Two other things worth knowing

You can already be written to. Hunters use our map to find a property and send a printed letter with a code you scan — you see who is asking, and you can say yes, no, or ask a question in about a minute. You do not need to register for that to work.

If you are a council or a catchment group, we would rather talk to you than to farmers one at a time. Get in touch — you know where the pest pressure is and we would rather follow you than guess.

Too many goats, and nobody you trust to ring