Shooting deer from choppers may be a game changer but everyone is learning from scratch. Working in such dangerous terrain, an accident is always on the cards. As shooter Jeff Carter puts it, “there were no margins for error.”
Photo: Supplied by Paul Roy
Follow Deer Wars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.
Pioneering pilot Tim Wallis crashes his first chopper within ten days of getting it. A series of accidents and fatalities follow, rocking the industry.
Each man reacts differently but almost everyone smokes. Veteran shooter Pete Campbell recalls the stress of flying "in one of those damn machines."
Photo: Supplied by Paul Roy
"I'd probably go through about two pack of cigarettes. I dunno, it was just the height that scared you and this was the safest time in the whole lot."
Many shooters drink every night after work, probably to calm the nerves and avoid dealing with the stress of this dangerous work. But families suffer as a result and alcohol becomes a major factor in fractured marriages.
The consolation (and the lure) is big bucks. The men are earning huge money for the time and spending it on new cars, land and or fancy furniture for the missus. A few wise ones save their money.
But the money doesn’t compensate wives and families for the long periods when they’re left alone wondering, as the accidents mount, if they'll see their husbands again.
Follow Deer Wars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can hear it on Sunday mornings after 7am on RNZ National from Sunday 22 October.
Written and presented by Paul Roy.
Sound engineer - Alex Harmer.
Additional sound engineering - Jeremy Ansell and William Saunders.
Executive producers - Katy Gosset, Justin Gregory and Tim Watkin.
Deer Wars is made with the support of a Ngā Kōrero Tuku Iho, Piki Ake! Kake Ake! New Zealand Oral History Grant from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage to Iguana Productions.
