Police believe a man shot multiple times at Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, on the weekend is a member of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang.
Emergency services attended a house at Corlette on Saturday night and found a 31-year-old man with gunshot wounds to both his thighs.
He remains in Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital with a fractured left femur and a gunshot wound to the right femur.
Detectives have been trying to piece together the series of events that led to the shooting.
Police say the victim is not assisting them with their inquiries.
Detective Superintendent Chris Craner said officers and sniffer dogs were this afternoon searching an area on the Big Rocky Track at One Mile.
"What we are doing this afternoon is looking for more evidence," he said.
"We believe this is the area that the male was shot.
"We are looking for any evidence that might tie us to it.
"It might be anything that identifies something in regards to this offence, it may be a bullet casing."
Detective Superintendent Craner said police were searching the area after receiving information from the public.
"It's from decent people that are sick of the behaviour of outlaw motorcycle gangs," he said.
Over the last two days officers from Strike Force Raptor, a group that targets outlaw motorcycle gangs, the Public Order Riot Squad and State Crime Squad Gang Squad have helped local police with the investigation.
Detective Superintendent Craner said during that time four properties have been searched in Newcastle, Singleton, Maitland and Port Stephens in the last 48 hours.
"Each of those people that we searched their house we believe they are members of the Nomads," he said.
"Yesterday in one of those searches we've uncovered a loaded automatic pistol and up to a kilo of a substance we believe is either restricted or prohibited.
"We've also located an amount of cash," he said.
"The premises that we searched in Newcastle was actually the Nomads clubhouse.
"The occupants of those premises were served with firearms prohibition orders, weapons prohibition orders and consorting legislation."
