One happy swede goes duckhunting
It was a long time since I wrote this and I should have posted it months ago but that didn’t happen for a couple of reasons so here is finally my report from when Username took me hunting and showed the best New Zealand has to offer both regarding the hunting but also the hospitality.
It’s quite a long text and I’m sure there are some misspelling and weird sentences but I’ll hope you will enjoy reading about it anyway. Here we go:
Now when I'm back in Sweden I think all the incredible memories I got during my 7 months in New Zealand and all the new things that I got the opportunity to learn and experience. One of these things that I'm sure I will remember for the rest of my life is when I got to join Username on the 2014 duck hunting opening weekend down in Southland.
Before this I hadn't done any bird hunting at all so everything about it was completely new for me. Last year I spent a lot of hours at the claybird-range so I was eager to see if I could use some of the skills and techniques that i learned and apply them to a real hunting situation like this. Although, I understood it is a lot of difference between shooting an completely unpredictable live bird compared to a claybird I hoped that me being used to handling a shotgun and shooting moving targets would have me reasonably prepared for what I was about to do.
It wasn't much time to think about it when I late on the Thursday afternoon got the message that there was one space left in the maimai but it didn't take many seconds for me to decide that I wasn't going to let this chance slip by to go on my first bird hunt so I rushed straight to the hunting shop, got a license and then I was ready!
The following day Username picked me up from Dunedin at 7 a clock and we went down towards the hunting spot in the hearth of southland. A couple of hours later we arrived at something that looked like a luxurious hotel compared to what I expected! A big and nice hut with bunks, a fireplace and a surprisingly comfortable sofa which was my bed for the weekend. The Maimai was like no place that I've ever been hunting in with sofas and armchairs for relaxing while waiting to the ducks. If this wasn't enough the hut and maimai was joined together by a BBQ.. Maybe this is standard for NZ duckhunters but I was impressed!
But it doesn't matter how flash the huts are if there aren't any good water but it seemed like they had that sorted out to because just in front of the maimai there where a nice size pond with a big river behind it. We soon filled the pond with a heap of decoys and when we did that something happened that at least in my eyes was quite remarkable. We were standing out in the open when suddenly we had about 50 ducks circling around us and that gave me huge expectations for the next day. With all the decoys set up and everything in order we went back to maimai where Username served a damn good casserole. After that I got introduced to another important tradition of the opening weekend and that was the Port which I learned to really like during these days.
I'm not going to able to go hunting without a bottle of port now :D
Sometime around 5 a clock one of the guys woke up and really keen on hunting he woke up the rest of us who soon realized that it was a long time before we could even begin to think about start shooting. So after we had slept for another hour or so we got out to the maimai just before dusk with camo-painted faces, loaded guns and a small cup of port and we were ready.
The first light appeared with the first shots echoing over the valley and it didn't take many minutes before we called in and shot our first birds and the opening weekend was on! It was an incredible feeling to be on my first birdhunt ever and that it turned out to be an opening weekend in NZ felt unbelievable. It was definitely not something I imagined me doing when I arrived to the airport a couple of months earlier.
But I really enjoyed it! To see the ducks in the sky got the pulse racing straight away and to watch them turn after a well performed call by Username was simply amazing. I really liked the excitement while waiting if the ducks where to fold there wings and go in for landing or just fly past never to be seen again. As a complete beginner I thought it would be a piece of cake as long as you got the ducks to turn but I soon learned that wasn't the case.
We had a good morning and a got a reasonable bag so around 10 a clock we had some egg and bacon for breakfast. Pure luxury for a backpacker who spent the last months eating nothing but porridge to start the day. According to what I heard there were supposed to be a lot less activity during mid-day but that was definitely not true this time because we had ducks coming in pretty much all day, even though the horrible hunting weather, blue sky without a single cloud and not much wind at all.
During the Saturday and Sunday morning we got a total tally of 40 ducks and although it wasn't close to being a record I was more than happy with shooting my first birds and participating in a bird hunt. I am also very grateful that I got to experience the company of Username and his friends who showed me that it's not so much the hunting itself that makes the hunters spend the weekend in a sweaty hut. It's being out with the mates and just having a good time.
After the weekend in the maimai we had 2 shootings at a smaller scale at Usename’s cousin’s farm where we managed to get a couple of ducks without much effort at all. It was really enjoyable to just put a few decoys in a small stream and lay in the grass while waiting for the light to fade and the ducks to start searching for a good resting place for the night. It was also this night I got handed a duck caller and spent the rest of night trying to make some kind of noise that probably scared more ducks than it attracted but I did realize that calling them by yourself is half the joy of the hunt and that I need to learn how it's done.
The next day we left southland and headed back up north to Username's farm where we were supposed to do some more hunting. On the big dairy farm there were some really nice ponds which we shoot almost every night and morning for another 3 days and managed to shoot another 15-20 birds including a couple of swans. We had one night which was just incredible with swans just kept flying in until we had filled our bag limit and had to let the next birds pass as they kept coming in again and again.
After these couple of days Username gave me the opportunity to come and work on his farm for a while and I gladly accepted the offer. The following week I learned a lot about milking and how life is on a big farm and to finish of the stay we headed up to the hills to try to get some rabbits and hopefully a wallaby.
Hunting from a motorbike was something completely new to me but with a gun rest in the front and armed with a 22 and a 308 I understood why this is the way to get them. After we had gotten a couple of rabbits we soon spotted the first wallaby and username took it down with one good shot. When we spotted the next wallaby it was my turn to have a go and I pulled the trigger but to my surprise the animal didn´t react at all. It’s always a really strange felling when you feel comfortable that you´re going to hit but some days it just doesn’t work. After missing the first bullet the animal ran a couple of meters before stopping again and I shot once more, without success... I honestly felt like shit but tried to get myself together and be ready for the next one.
Apparently that didn’t work because a little bit later I missed another wallaby, this time it was close range and I just couldn’t figure out what was going on with my shooting that night, it was not OK at all. By this time I’m sure I had given Username some prejudices about swedish shooting skills but he was kind enough to give me on last chance as we spotted two wallabies on our way back. I took aim on the smaller one and squeezed the trigger.
The relief when it dropped and rolled down the hill was indescribable and I was really excited to shoot my first wallaby. This was probably also the most “exotic” species I’ve ever had the opportunity to hunt and that made it even more special. To summarize the night we got 2 wallabies, a lot of rabbits and one stout? Username has to correct if I am wrong but It was one of those long hairy ferret-like things.
That was it! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my experience as much as I did being there. Username, all his friends and lovely family all made this to by far the best part of my trip to New Zealand. He didn’t just take me hunting but he also made me realize how important it is for a beginner to able to go out hunting with someone more experienced to learn how it’s done. Although I have done a lot of hunting here in Sweden It was a completely different thing coming to a new country with its own special hunting culture and I can’t describe the value of having people as Username and Vietnamcam giving me the introduction to the Kiwi way of hunting. This gave me an idea to do something similar for people in my town which hasn’t got the chance to go hunting because they don’t own land or is a part of hunting club so this Saturday I’m organizing a driven hunt for people who hasn’t really tried this kind of hunting before I hope it will be a success.
In the near future (not 6 months, i promise..) I plan to start a thread on here where I write about my hunting and everything regarding it that might be of interest. It is mainly for me to try to keep practicing writing in English but I hope some of you guys will find it interesting too.
Best regards,
Martin Wallin
