New South Wales Shooters MP Robert Borsak says there has been a culture war over gun control in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre, but people are starting to "get over it".

Mr Borsak believes some semi-automatic weapons, which were banned in the wake of the 1996 massacre, should be put back in the hands of hunters and recreational shooters.

Thirty-five people were killed when gunman Martin Bryant opened fire in the Tasmanian tourist site.

The tragedy prompted then prime minister John Howard to introduce legislation banning assault-style semi-automatic rifles and pump action shot guns.

But Mr Borsak has told the ABC's Four Corners program that perceptions about gun ownership are changing.

"Look I've got nothing in common with Port Arthur," he said.

"I've got nothing in common with the madman that did it. I think people, shooters, are now looking at themselves as being an ordinary cross-section of people.

"I think we, certainly as a state, and perhaps as a nation, are starting to get over it."

The Shooters and Fishers Party in NSW has pushed through a number of amendments to firearms legislation that cuts red tape and makes it easier to own guns.

Mr Borsak says he has used a number of semi-automatic weapons for hunting.

"I think in certain context semi-automatics are useful. In the right hands in the right way they are not a danger to anybody," he said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 25 minutes 25 m Extended interview with Robert Borsak

"Really what we should be doing is coming to grips with the people that have them rather than just the various categories by themselves."

The Shooters MP says his party supports background checks for people who apply for firearms and hunting licences.

"I think that's perfectly rational and normal," he said.

"If you can't get a firearm's licence, you can't get a game licence, certainly not for hunting with a firearm.

"If people are of the wrong character they should be and are excluded from the programs."

Debate over hunting in national parks

Mr Borsak shares the balance of power in the Upper House of the New South Wales Parliament.

He wants the Shooters and Fishers Party to have a senator from each state elected to federal parliament this September.

Shooters Party legislation to allow amateur hunters in the state's national parks was passed last year, after the Shooters supported the O'Farrell Government's sale of electricity assets.

The hunting is due to be rolled out in the second half of this year after a review into the Game Council, which will oversee the program, is completed.

But a group of residents who live near a state forest where amateur hunting is already allowed have told Four Corners they sent the NSW Primary Industries Minister a list of at least 30 incidents where hunters have broken the law.

The residents, whose properties border the Maragle State Forest, say they have had their houses hit by bullets and the deer they farm killed and decapitated on their properties.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 46 minutes 40 seconds 46 m Watch the full Four Corners report

Resident Dick Gill, an experienced hunter, says the behaviour he has seen from amateur hunters has been increasingly disturbing.

"The hunters that we're seeing here now, their hunting skills are rudimentary, they're fairly basic," he said.

"They mainly use high calibre firearms. I don't think they understand the nuances of hunting such an animal in this environment - the wind, the light, the lay of the land, the cover that sort of thing, they just do anything to get a kill."

Ian Boots Eggleton is a professional trapper and shooter who is contracted by National Parks to cull feral animals.

He says he will not go into the state forests where amateur hunters are allowed because it is too dangerous.

"I've been shot at, bullets whistle past my head when I was setting traps," he said.

"I've found dead animals, like native species non-targeted that they're not even supposed to be shooting."

The program showed footage of a landholder living near the Jenolan Reserve, confronting two men allegedly illegally hunting.

The Chairman of the state's Game Council John Mumford says vigilante-like behaviour when dealing with illegal hunters is not acceptable.

He says local landholders should report illegal hunting activity, not take matters into their own hands.

"You know, ring the police, ring the Game Council. Make a report and we will come out and do the best we can to find out what is going on," he said.

"Keep in mind these forests are huge areas and if somebody is driving through a forest and we can get there quick enough we will catch them and if we catch them we'll deal with them. Exactly the same way as the police or forestry corporation will do."