Best state for hunters

Game hunting and large prey. Deer stalking, hunting with hounds. Boar, pigs etc., large prey, culling, hunting large feral animals.

Best state for hunters

Post by bucks_unlimited » 01 Feb 2023, 9:43 pm

This seemed like a simple question to me but the more I thought about the more difficult it got. Which Aussie state or territory is the best for hunters? Some have more variety of game, others have better public land access. Every state has its issues and threatened longevity of the sport we love but each has a passionate group of hunters and conservationists keeping things alive. In my research, I found that places that seem to be full of opportunity are equally full of weird legislation that you have to navigate to take advantage of these opportunities. Every time I think about it I come up with a different answer, though my answer usually includes those states with duck and quail seasons. So what do you guys think?
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by bladeracer » 02 Feb 2023, 2:06 am

bucks_unlimited wrote:This seemed like a simple question to me but the more I thought about the more difficult it got. Which Aussie state or territory is the best for hunters? Some have more variety of game, others have better public land access. Every state has its issues and threatened longevity of the sport we love but each has a passionate group of hunters and conservationists keeping things alive. In my research, I found that places that seem to be full of opportunity are equally full of weird legislation that you have to navigate to take advantage of these opportunities. Every time I think about it I come up with a different answer, though my answer usually includes those states with duck and quail seasons. So what do you guys think?


Will depend on your own definition of hunting to some degree. For some people it's about spending thousands of dollars to mount a head on a wall. For others it's about walking a creek on a quiet morning bagging a few rabbits or foxes. For some it's sitting in a vehicle all night looking through a thermal scope. For some it's wading around all day in water to bag a handful of birds. For some it's a few days on foot, on your own sneaking around difficult terrain, living off what you're carrying, and hoping to bring home a few kg of meat at the end of it. If you have specific interests, like buffalo, then you have to go to NT. If your interest is deer, then head for Victoria. If you love busting pigs try the top end of Qld.

Victoria by far. Hundreds of thousands of acres of public land open to hunting and requiring no permissions from anybody. You can hunt here without ever having to negotiate your way onto private property. For most people there is public land within an hour or two travelling time. If you want to hunt deer there's a $66 annual fee but you can hunt them whenever you want to all year round with no limit on numbers - on private land you don't need a deer licence. Same fee for ducks but they have a season of just a few weeks every year with very tight limit on numbers taken. All pest species (cats are not pest species) are free to hunt on public and private land, or you can simply find a quiet spot and practice.

WA is the worst - no public land, ridiculous firearm legislation, private land hunting is a long way off for most people, and difficult to get access to. It would make most sense for a Western Australian to catch a flight to Melbourne or Sydney and hunt public land here than spend days travelling to hunt somewhere in WA.

Queensland is also private land only but I think it's not too onerous getting access.

NT is a bit weird I reckon, private land again but I don't think you can go and lay in a paddock shooting rabbits and foxes for a few hours in most places, you have to travel a fair way and I don't know that there's all that much small to medium game around, but you might be able to find some pigs.

SA used to be good but I think nowadays it's private land only.

NSW has private land still, but you have to get an additional licence, and get permission every single time you go out there. And it's not automatic, you can get knocked back if they think there are too many people enjoying a piece of public land. And you can't confirm your zero on public land once you've travelled to get there, so you better baby your rifles during the trip. It's relatively easy for property owners to cull kangaroos in NSW now, if you're into that.

ACT has no hunting at all. Best you can get is to find somebody that will give you permission to cull pest animals on private land.

TAS I know very little about, it may be a haven for hunters but I think we'd know about it by now if it was. They can hunt wallaby down there on cull permits and I think they can hunt some animals considered native on the mainland, like possums? The whole of Tasmania is only about 250km high and wide.
Last edited by bladeracer on 02 Feb 2023, 4:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 02 Feb 2023, 3:32 am

Depends on how much money you want to spend to go hunting.
Probably won’t find buffalo in vic, but otherwise comparitvely cheap and local and a lot of public land. A real lot. And we’ve had a real lot of rain too.
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Because ducks will be the thin edge of the wedge. They’ll go after deer next because bambi. then fishing because nemo.
Fingers crossed but for now victoria is a clear winner. You look at other states with ferals thriving in public land spreading disease and destruction of native flora and fauna.
and scratch your head as to why they would want that.

Legislation in victoria for gun owners is comparatively reasonable compared to other states. But Qld is probably best and fairest overall.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 02 Feb 2023, 4:10 am

Nemo is a sentinent being. Fishing makes nemo sad :thumbsdown:
We can all help save nemo and his friends. By eating lentils and tofu with paper spoons :)

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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 02 Feb 2023, 4:32 am

We can all eat yummy celery and lettuce like bambi and thumper do :) yum.
Don’t forget to bring your recycled spoon made from used newspaper.
Hey kids did you know you can eat grass and leaves from your own sustainable back yard, but be mindful you don’t hurt the worms. They have feelings too.

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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by bigpete » 02 Feb 2023, 4:29 pm

bladeracer wrote:
bucks_unlimited wrote:This seemed like a simple question to me but the more I thought about the more difficult it got. Which Aussie state or territory is the best for hunters? Some have more variety of game, others have better public land access. Every state has its issues and threatened longevity of the sport we love but each has a passionate group of hunters and conservationists keeping things alive. In my research, I found that places that seem to be full of opportunity are equally full of weird legislation that you have to navigate to take advantage of these opportunities. Every time I think about it I come up with a different answer, though my answer usually includes those states with duck and quail seasons. So what do you guys think?


Will depend on your own definition of hunting to some degree. For some people it's about spending thousands of dollars to mount a head on a wall. For others it's about walking a creek on a quiet morning bagging a few rabbits or foxes. For some it's sitting in a vehicle all night looking through a thermal scope. For some it's wading around all day in water to bag a handful of birds. For some it's a few days on foot, on your own sneaking around difficult terrain, living off what you're carrying, and hoping to bring home a few kg of meat at the end of it. If you have specific interests, like buffalo, then you have to go to NT. If your interest is deer, then head for Victoria. If you love busting pigs try the top end of Qld.

Victoria by far. Hundreds of thousands of acres of public land open to hunting and requiring no permissions from anybody. You can hunt here without ever having to negotiate your way onto private property. For most people there is public land within an hour or two travelling time. If you want to hunt deer there's a $66 annual fee but you can hunt them whenever you want to all year round with no limit on numbers - on private land you don't need a deer licence. Same fee for ducks but they have a season of just a few weeks every year with very tight limit on numbers taken. All pest species (cats are not pest species) are free to hunt on public and private land, or you can simply find a quiet spot and practice.

WA is the worst - no public land, ridiculous firearm legislation, private land hunting is a long way off for most people, and difficult to get access to. It would make most sense for a Western Australian to catch a flight to Melbourne or Sydney and hunt public land here than spend days travelling to hunt somewhere in WA.

Queensland is also private land only but I think it's not too onerous getting access.

NT is a bit weird I reckon, private land again but I don't think you can go and lay in a paddock shooting rabbits and foxes for a few hours in most places, you have to travel a fair way and I don't know that there's all that much small to medium game around, but you might be able to find some pigs.

SA used to be good but I think nowadays it's private land only.

NSW has private land still, but you have to get an additional licence, and get permission every single time you go out there. And it's not automatic, you can get knocked back if they think there are too many people enjoying a piece of public land. And you can't confirm your zero on public land once you've travelled to get there, so you better baby your rifles during the trip. It's relatively easy for property owners to cull kangaroos in NSW now, if you're into that.

ACT has no hunting at all. Best you can get is to find somebody that will give you permission to cull pest animals on private land.

TAS I know very little about, it may be a haven for hunters but I think we'd know about it by now if it was. They can hunt wallaby down there on cull permits and I think they can hunt some animals considered native on the mainland, like possums? The whole of Tasmania is only about 250km high and wide.


SA technically has public land access in the form of game reserves for duck hunting only.
NT has some public land access too.

I'd still pick Victoria though
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Blr243 » 02 Feb 2023, 6:24 pm

Keep it simple. Q. Or NT for me
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 25 Feb 2023, 2:37 am

VIC just scraped in a short duck season thanks Dan.
A lot of pressure to ban it, moreso than ever. Hard to appease fanatics. Hard working fanatics too. Not very well informed though. There’s more to know than ducks are cute and fluffy.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Billo » 25 Feb 2023, 10:57 am

NT and NSW are the best 2 states, variety of game and access is pretty good.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Border_Bloke » 27 Feb 2023, 10:29 am

Unless you have a property or access to private land, then the easiest place is VIC followed by NSW.

But it also depends on what you want to hunt.
Both VIC & NSW have Sambar, Fallow, Red & various other deer species plus goats, pigs, rabbits, foxes, hares.
Vic has ducks in season, in NSW you have to register interest to shoot water birds over rice crops.

You won't find buffalo or camels in either though.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Lazarus » 27 Feb 2023, 3:04 pm

Any state that doesn't start with W
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Oldbloke » 27 Feb 2023, 4:09 pm

Border_Bloke wrote:Unless you have a property or access to private land, then the easiest place is VIC followed by NSW.

But it also depends on what you want to hunt.
Both VIC & NSW have Sambar, Fallow, Red & various other deer species plus goats, pigs, rabbits, foxes, hares.
Vic has ducks in season, in NSW you have to register interest to shoot water birds over rice crops.

You won't find buffalo or camels in either though.


Yeh, but in about 8 years most of the SF in western Vic becomes NP.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by pagun » 27 Feb 2023, 4:36 pm

Oldbloke wrote:
Border_Bloke wrote:Unless you have a property or access to private land, then the easiest place is VIC followed by NSW.

But it also depends on what you want to hunt.
Both VIC & NSW have Sambar, Fallow, Red & various other deer species plus goats, pigs, rabbits, foxes, hares.
Vic has ducks in season, in NSW you have to register interest to shoot water birds over rice crops.

You won't find buffalo or camels in either though.


Yeh, but in about 8 years most of the SF in western Vic becomes NP.


really?
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 27 Feb 2023, 5:19 pm

Yep. Exotic frogs or something.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Oldbloke » 27 Feb 2023, 6:24 pm

pagun wrote:
Oldbloke wrote:
Border_Bloke wrote:Unless you have a property or access to private land, then the easiest place is VIC followed by NSW.

But it also depends on what you want to hunt.
Both VIC & NSW have Sambar, Fallow, Red & various other deer species plus goats, pigs, rabbits, foxes, hares.
Vic has ducks in season, in NSW you have to register interest to shoot water birds over rice crops.

You won't find buffalo or camels in either though.


Yeh, but in about 8 years most of the SF in western Vic becomes NP.


really?


Yep going to lose heaps to NP

https://www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov. ... estigation

2030

https://vnpa.org.au/new-national-parks- ... %20Bendigo.

AND some SF will become other types reserves, no hunting in them. And I visited the area recently and large areas are badly infested with scotch thistle. Work that out.
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by phill55phill » 28 Feb 2023, 8:51 am

South Australia is worst private property only
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by womble » 28 Feb 2023, 5:15 pm

All states starting with V
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Re: Best state for hunters

Post by Border_Bloke » 01 Mar 2023, 8:54 am

Yep going to lose heaps to NP

https://www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov. ... estigation

2030

https://vnpa.org.au/new-national-parks- ... %20Bendigo.

AND some SF will become other types reserves, no hunting in them. And I visited the area recently and large areas are badly infested with scotch thistle. Work that out.


Bloody hell, I didn't know that. Mt Cole / Pyrenees still have some red deer from the original release there in the 1800's.

I'm glad I live on the eastern border. At least they're opening up some Alpine state forests to deer hunting in the off season.
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