Thread: Game bird diary for all

Originally Posted by The bomb

More birds seen this year than in the past but wind wrong direction for my end of the lake,ended up with 7 mallards and 3 sky panda for the Saturday morning,pulled the pin before dark as boat retrieve was going to be too hard in the dark,slippery paddock launch with steep hill as well makes things interesting in good weather much less wet and dark,took boy for a drain walk and got a nice fat green head that the pup did a good retrieve on so good weekend all up ,pup wasn’t too keen on the wounded Canada retrieve though the look on his face was priceless as he motored back to the boat birdless!!

I'm sure you took him back and assisted retrieve??? A sure way to prevent future issues is guarantee a successful retrieve,eg set up up to win.my old bitch failed on swan when young and refused to try for ten years...my fault entirely

Headed to southland with the family to shoot with the old man. Great weekend, bit down on previous years but some good shooting and dogwork made up for that.
Saturday 13 mallards, 2 parries, 2 swans
Sunday 1 Mallard, 1 canada, 1 swan

First time back into duck shooting in 6 or 7 years. Shot out of a work mates unused maimai on a Waikato public lake with another mate on his very first opening. Heaps of fun, even managed to call a few geese in from a long way out. Some good shooting, and plenty of not so good haha.
Saturday 4 Mallards, 1 Parrie and 3 Canada's
Sunday 6 Mallards and home by lunch
Only disappointment - some mongrel had visited the lake earlier in the week, bust the doors in on a few stands and pinched the gas stoves(incl ours) plates etc... Young guys opposite us arrived Friday to find their tin boat and decoys gone.

Limit only 6 for mallards/graylards here in Eastern. Son & I had ours done by 7:30 on Saturday, ended up cooking a big feed, son training new pup and hanging out for parries or spoonies and talking crap, then up to the forest to chase roosters. Sunday and Monday got limits but took all morning. Today was tough. Wind was strong in our face, and it was tough trying to call them off the sheltered side of the lagoon. Got 3 by lunchtime, then pulled the pin before the heavy rain arrived. Going back in the morning, and might sneak into an unmanned maimai on the sheltered side.

So happy to be back out there on opening morning after missing last year with the Rona. Did not see many mallards/greys but plenty of parries in the air, mostly passing us by to a field of recently cut maize nearby.
Managed 26 parries between 3 shooters and a single mallard on day one (10/1 myself). I went on a run around 5:15 pm to push the birds off the field and ran back to the blind all sweaty to get the birds coming in as the light died. On Sunday, we split up, and I shot the field in a liedown blind. Managed to call two greys into range and spent the day missing plenty of parries right in front of me. I was in LaLa land, and a flock of about 20 parries silently swung from behind me, just about landing on me and the decoy spread. I fumbled for the gun and burst out of the blind, only to leave my safety on. Argh! Decided to pack up with 8 parries, 2 greys and a plover in the bag.

Overall a great weekend. My young brown lab Bruce was hesitant at first, still hesitant of gunfire, but quickly realised bangs meant ducks (some of the time at least) and started working well. Best retrieve of the weekend, he cleared a creek to chase a wounded parrie that had hidden in some long grass. He landed directly on top of it, letting out a "honk" under his weight. He then pulled it out of the grass by the head like a bird pulling a worm and trotted it back over, quite happy with himself. Such a good feeling seeing him put it together and have all the work throughout the year training pay off. Hopefully just the start of a good season ahead. I would love to get the pup on some pheasants at some point.

Shot a nice fat mallard drake up at the top pond tonight.Bo gets a retrieve.

Tuesday 3 mallards and 2 swans, my son managed to shoot both swans with one shot!

This evening 4 mallards.

A tad cold out there tonight with fresh snow on the Ruahine Range.

Bugger all shots heard in the district.

We got a few though.


Mum would spit tacks using her car as a hunting wagon.lol

I did put a towel on the passenger seat for Bo.

7 last night shooting down swamp whangamarino. 8 today .so packing up after a snooze and head home

1 last night and 3 this morning. Frost and fog till 10am made it pretty tpugh to see birds before they land. Give it another go Sun morning but will be cold and foggy again I think. Gave my gun a dunking too so dismantled and cleaned it this afternoon.

Originally Posted by Woody

1 last night and 3 this morning. Frost and fog till 10am made it pretty tpugh to see birds before they land. Give it another go Sun morning but will be cold and foggy again I think. Gave my gun a dunking too so dismantled and cleaned it this afternoon.

not your sxs you had for sale a while ago I hope

Has anyone else shot Rio Bluesteel 36gr #2s ??? I bought a box and have been using them for ducks and swans but can't hit anything. I'm not a very practiced shooter but I could swear at least 1/3 of my shots were good enough to take one down... Remington 870 with a full choke (because some of the shooting on the lake is as things fly over me in their flight path)

I've called in two groups of mallards and haven't dropped a single one, shot at two swans 35m out and not a shred of evidence of my shots. Thoughts??

Originally Posted by slk12

Has anyone else shot Rio Bluesteel 36gr #2s ??? I bought a box and have been using them for ducks and swans but can't hit anything. I'm not a very practiced shooter but I could swear at least 1/3 of my shots were good enough to take one down... Remington 870 with a full choke (because some of the shooting on the lake is as things fly over me in their flight path)

I've called in two groups of mallards and haven't dropped a single one, shot at two swans 35m out and not a shred of evidence of my shots. Thoughts??

how does it pattern???? WHERE does it pattern??? not hard to put up cardboard box at 40 yards and see whats happening..... full choke is either clean kill or a miss... you could easily be a yard high or low.... some guns like head hard down on stock,others different,pattern it and find out.

Originally Posted by slk12

Has anyone else shot Rio Bluesteel 36gr #2s ??? I bought a box and have been using them for ducks and swans but can't hit anything. I'm not a very practiced shooter but I could swear at least 1/3 of my shots were good enough to take one down... Remington 870 with a full choke (because some of the shooting on the lake is as things fly over me in their flight path)

I've called in two groups of mallards and haven't dropped a single one, shot at two swans 35m out and not a shred of evidence of my shots. Thoughts??

Mate you're way overchoked, especially with steel. Likely the cause of your misses, I'd be going no tighter than modified. I've had no issues with Rio steel, as always different guns/chokes pattern differently so it pays to check.

Originally Posted by slk12

Has anyone else shot Rio Bluesteel 36gr #2s ??? I bought a box and have been using them for ducks and swans but can't hit anything. I'm not a very practiced shooter but I could swear at least 1/3 of my shots were good enough to take one down... Remington 870 with a full choke (because some of the shooting on the lake is as things fly over me in their flight path)

I've called in two groups of mallards and haven't dropped a single one, shot at two swans 35m out and not a shred of evidence of my shots. Thoughts??

your chokes to tight halfs the limit with steel