NSW Police are using their guns more often than at any other time in the past decade, with magpies, kangaroos and other animals the unfortunate targets for most shots.

Police officers recorded 40 shooting incidents per week, on average in 2017/18, a 35 per cent rise in their use of firearms on the prior year, and a total of 2071 shooting events logged in data released to the Herald.

The majority of shots were fired to kill wild, injured or dangerous animals, with about eight in 10 gunshots logged in regional areas described as "land".

Residential locations were the second most common setting (222 occasions), a rise of 40 per cent in 2017/18 on the prior year. In total police used their guns 542 more times in 2017/18 than in 2016/17.