"The great bulk of hunters must be congratulated for doing the right thing - buying their licences and hunting to the letter of the regulations, which, it must be remembered are there to ensure we have game bird populations to hunt in future," he said.
Mr van Dorp said it was particularly pleasing to see little alcohol in evidence among hunters.
"We have seen a huge improvement where drinking is concerned over recent years. It appears that the majority of hunters had taken on board the message that combining firearms and alcohol is a risk simply not worth taking."
He also reminded hunters not to leave spare firearms and ammunition in vehicles.
The fine dry weather made conditions hard for hunters and results were mixed. In some areas there were healthy numbers of mallards and hunters did well.
In the Gisborne region there were reasonable mallard bags, while further up the coast in the Tolaga Bay area mostly paradise shelduck were taken and some hunters achieved bag limits.
"Rather like fishing some do well game bird hunting and others don't," said Mr van Dorp.
