{"id":381810,"date":"2026-04-16T03:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381810\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:13:08","slug":"hunter-fatally-shot-near-dannevirke-gregory-brown-named-as-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381810\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter fatally shot near Dannevirke: Gregory Brown named as victim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police confirmed an investigation into the circumstances of the death was underway. <\/p>\n

They told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today this week that the shooting was accidental.<\/p>\n

Dannevirke Senior Constable Wayne Churchouse said Brown was hunting alone when he was shot by another hunter, who the police said was in a party of two during the roar in the Ruahine Range on April 10.<\/p>\n

Churchouse said the roar, or rut – typically from mid-March to the end of April – was prime time for people hunting stags.<\/p>\n

\"AA man hunting in the Ruahine Ranges near the Traverse Hut was shot dead by another hunting party of two people. Photo \/ Department of Conservation<\/p>\n

There were numerous cars of hunters at the carpark below the Traverse (A-Frame) Hut when the shooting took place nearby, Churchouse said.<\/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 the Palmerston North helicopter lowered a paramedic on to the track. <\/p>\n

But 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 members of the search and rescue team had also hunted the area before and were wary of their safety during the extraction because of the number of cars in the carpark, Churchouse said.<\/p>\n

He said hunters needed to be conscious of \u201cbuck fever\u201d \u2013 the desire to shoot a stag that could lead to fatal mistakes \u2013 especially around the roar.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a lot more inexperienced people going.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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.<\/p>\n

He asked everyone to keep seven key rules at the forefront of all hunting.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police confirmed an investigation into the circumstances of the death was underway. They told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9526,806,1558,6256,16651,37251,9828,33445,71,41399,20214,32655,10136,3180,111,43,139,69,4762,10117,1337],"class_list":{"0":"post-381810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-another","9":"tag-as","10":"tag-been","11":"tag-brown","12":"tag-bush","13":"tag-dannevirke","14":"tag-different","15":"tag-fatally","16":"tag-from","17":"tag-gregory","18":"tag-hunter","19":"tag-hunting","20":"tag-named","21":"tag-near","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-party","27":"tag-shot","28":"tag-victim"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381810","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=381810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381810\/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=381810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}