Packing for your Hunting Trip - Our best-suggested alternatives for common heavy and large items.
When you are travelling via helicopter for your hunting trip the two main restrictions that you have to factor in are weight and volume. There is only so much that we can fit in a helicopter and being smart about what you bring makes your help trip more successful and means you won’t be repacking or leaving important items behind.
In combination with NZ Hunter’s awesome video which you can find here, we’ve put together our suggestions for alternatives for some common heavy and large items that we often see trying to be loaded onto the helicopter, especially around the roar and when hunters are heading out on long hunting trips.
Packs
Make sure your pack is an internal frame pack and that all of the buckles are done up. Also, make sure you don’t have any loose items like boots or ammo hanging off it as this is a risk within the helicopter.
Rifle Bags and Covers
Often the hard plastic covers are heavy and take up too much space within the aircraft. Instead, put your rifle in a soft zip-up cover. These are far lighter and it means they often can be manipulated to fit within the helicopter easier too.
Large Chill Bins
These aren’t a good utilisation of space and if they are filled to the top they are often super heavy. We recommend bringing a couple of zip-up soft chilli bags. These are lighter and they can be more easily stowed.
Beer
If you are going to be taking beer on your trip, it’s best to bring cans rather than glass bottles. The glass is far heavier, more dangerous and takes up more space.
Big square or round plastic containers
Instead of large hard square or round containers to store your gear in, swap them out for large zip-up duffle bags instead. These bags can be easily compressed and they can be stacked more easily to fit in the aircraft too.
Loose items
Make sure there are no boxes with loose items or you don’t have your ammo pouch, binoculars or knife on you when you board the aircraft as this just makes it harder to fit the seat belts and manoeuvre if you need to.
Rubbish
When we pick you up please make sure you have all of your rubbish with you and that it is double bagged up to ensure that none of it spills within the aircraft.
Along with these suggested alternatives the CAA also limited the dangerous goods we can carry as below:
NO LPG bottles with passengers. No exceptions.
Ammunition: Max 5kg per person per load.
Butane gas cannisters: Max 1 kg per package (not bigger than 500 g each cannister).
White Spirits: Max 20 litres per load in approved containers (e.g. petrol/diesel jerries).
Petrol: Max 5 litres per load in approved containers (e.g. petrol/diesel jerries).
