Spring Creek Publishing, 2002 first edition, 175 pages. As new copy

This book is split into five distinct parts of equal weighing:

Legendary Deerstalkers Contemporary Hunts and Hunters Deer in the Mountains About Hunting After the Shot The parts are fairly self-explanatory by their titles except for ‘Deer in the Mountains’.

In that section Tony tackles the fallacies surrounding the Government’s and others’ policies of exterminating introduced big game animals. He argues that the scientific basis for their removal were, and remain, not sound because natural environmental influences (climate, earthquakes, rainfall, etc) are the overall cause of erosion and changes to ecosystems, not deer, chamois or tahr.

In reasonable depth Tony notes that New Zealand’s landscape was browsed by numerous plant-eating native bird and insect species, particularly the extinct moa, and that deer merely replaced its niche thereby returning New Zealand’s forests and mountains to their natural pre-extinction state. These arguments were supported by scientific research and papers from experts.

Tony is both ‘book smart’ and ‘bush smart’ and it was really only upon re-reading this book for the second time, after initially purchasing it to read in 2002, that I understood what he was trying to impart: New Zealand’s proud hunting heritage, responsible hunting ethics, the future of deer-stalking and hunters, and respect for the game animals which are hunted

The book finishes with venison recipes, Tony encouraging hunters to put pen to paper to advocate for hunting and New Zealand’s big game animals, and the perennial argument that deer in New Zealand should be treated as a cultural resource and not a noxious pest as they have been for the past 80 years.

As with all Tony’s books, it is written by someone with a deep knowledge and understanding of deer and New Zealand’s deer-stalking heritage.