Stephen Phillip Long wiped tears from his eyes yesterday as the Invercargill District Court heard how he mistook his son for a white-tailed deer and fatally shot him in the head.
At his first court appearance yesterday, Long (61), an engineer, pleaded guilty to careless use of a firearm causing the death of Samuel Phillip Long (24).
Father and son were in a party of five hunting on Stewart Island when Samuel Long died.
Appearing for Long, John Fraser told Judge Christina Cook he would apply for a discharge without conviction.
''This is an extraordinary matter. We seldom see one so sad.''
Prosecutor Sergeant Phil Berryman said the party arrived on Stewart Island on March 22 and that evening discussed where they would hunt the next day.
Samuel Long said he was heading for a rata tree stand about 550m from the hut where the group was staying.
The next morning, he left the hut about 9am dressed in camouflage gear.
Stephen Long left the hut about 9.45am.
The two men took a similar route for some time but Stephen Long was to veer off before he reached the tree stand.
Stephen Long saw movement in the bush, which he believed to be two white-tailed deer, Sgt Berryman said.
He took two to three minutes with his naked eye and his rifle scope to confirm it was deer, moving from left to right as he watched.
He saw what he thought was one deer move away, and the head of the remaining deer moving up and down as though it was feeding.
He believed he could see two [antler] prongs and believed the deer was a young buck.
He fired one shot but, on walking to the clearing about 20m away, found he had shot his son in the head, fatally injuring him.
Long told police his son should have been at the tree stand where he said he was going to be, Sgt Berryman said.
He told police he was ''convinced he was shooting a deer''.
Long was remanded at large for sentencing on August 4.
Judge Cook did not enter a conviction and said the sentencing judge would consider submissions on whether Long should be discharged without conviction.
She ordered a pre-sentence report ''to explore the options of home detention or community detention''.
