Churchouse said he received a call at 5.27pm that a hunter had been shot off Tamaki West Rd, on the track up to the hut.<\/p>\n
The Traverse Hut, near where a man hunting in the Ruahine Ranges was shot dead. Photo \/ Department of Conservation<\/p>\n
While police have confirmed an investigation into the circumstances of the death is underway, they told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today the shooting was accidental.<\/p>\n
Churchouse, who is also the co-ordinator for Police Search and Rescue, said the Palmerston North and Hawke\u2019s Bay rescue helicopters were notified. <\/p>\n
He said both rescue services were launched, with the Palmerston North helicopter lowering a paramedic on to the track.<\/p>\n
He said clouds moved in and the helicopter was unable to airlift anyone out, including the paramedic on the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe sent a hasty team from Tararua Land Search and Rescue up there to extract the paramedic, the two hunters and the paramedic\u2019s gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further members from Tararua Land Search and Rescue, Palmerston North Search and Rescue, and Police Search and Rescue were sent to retrieve the man\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
Churchouse said the walking track was a \u201cgradual climb up\u201d but it was a challenging extraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was difficult for our initial teams, because they had the deceased and the other traumatised party, and they had to walk out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the search and rescue team had also hunted the area before and were wary of their safety during the extraction because of how many cars were in the car park, Churchouse said.<\/p>\n
He said hunters needed to be conscious of \u201cbuck fever\u201d \u2013 the desire to shoot a stag that can lead to fatal mistakes \u2013 especially around the roar.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get a lot more inexperienced people going.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get buck fever and they want to see animals, want to believe they are stalking something, and then the mind will play games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a life-changing decision; you squeeze that trigger, you can\u2019t get that bullet back.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just need to follow the basic firearms rules, and in this case, clearly identify your target and what\u2019s beyond it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to have lifelong consequences for both the victim and his family and the shooter and his friend and their friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunting and Fishing Minister James Meager said the death was \u201cdeeply tragic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thoughts are with his loved ones and all impacted by this heartbreaking event.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said while the investigation was ongoing, it was a timely reminder for everyone to remember key firearm safety rules, particularly as the roar period continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ask everyone to keep these rules at the forefront of all hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A karakia was being held at the site on Monday morning and a r\u0101hui was being put in place, with the length of time to be confirmed. <\/p>\n
Seven key firearm safety rules:<\/p>\n
Treat every firearm as loadedAlways point firearms in a safe directionChamber a cartridge only when ready to fireIdentify your target beyond all doubtCheck your firing zoneStore and transport firearms and ammunition safelyAvoid alcohol or drugs when handling firearms<\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Churchouse said he received a call at 5.27pm that a hunter had been shot off Tamaki West Rd,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7800,16651,37251,690,20214,29155,23500,78,2205,6187,5829,3180,111,43,139,69,66894,10932,384,675,29544,28029,90208,196377,312,10117,2069,223,165,6923,1533,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-376970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-body","9":"tag-bush","10":"tag-dannevirke","11":"tag-dead","12":"tag-hunter","13":"tag-hunters","14":"tag-impact","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-involved","17":"tag-lives","18":"tag-many","19":"tag-near","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-occurred","25":"tag-officer","26":"tag-people","27":"tag-police","28":"tag-range","29":"tag-rest","30":"tag-retrieval","31":"tag-ruahine","32":"tag-says","33":"tag-shot","34":"tag-stay","35":"tag-the","36":"tag-their","37":"tag-what","38":"tag-will","39":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}