News spread quickly of a man with a rifle walking through parts of the sleepy beachside village of Bonny Hills, just south of Port Macquarie, and police "suiting up" to face off against him.

The gunman had been spotted near the Bonny Hills Beach Hotel carrying a "high powered rifle" and up to five shots had been heard, said the publican John.

The Bonny Hills General Store was also inundated with calls from locals concerned about another gunman in the district.

"We've got customers ringing and asking what's going on," a store worker said,.

"They've heard police have suited up and they were saying something about a man with a rifle."

Police could shed no light on the incident.

As it turned out, it was a deer hunter.

"It's all nothing," John said. "About 150 metres from the pub there's a bloke shooting deer.

"He's notified police, he's got a licence."

The incident ended quicker and more happily than last week's McDonald's incident, an eight-hour siege in which a number of shots were allegedly fired and which ended with a man's arrest.