Good start to the season in Southland!

By all accounts most people have seen more ducks than the last couple of years although I reckon we saw less in our wee patch than last year. Having said that I've had four hunts so far and limited each time except one so I'm loving it.

Our mai-mai for opening. It simply takes advantage of some natural vegetation which we add a camo net to and a minimal amount of broom. Sitting on a camo chair inside it we've got great 360 degree vision for spotting ducks to call to before they've gone past and we can stand up to be able to shoot in every direction. So much better than being in some of the large mai-mais that so many shoot from down here IMO. Openings always fine anyway so who needs a roof?

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This was our haul by lunchtime on opening. 30 mallards, 2 parries and two hares which my dog flushed while retrieving a downed duck.

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The second day dawned what most would consider perfect duck hunting weather, low cloud, light rain and moderate to strong wind. Personally in our open mai-mai I'm happy with fine weather but it certainly makes for easier hunting when its rough. We limited again but this time decided to go for green only as the ducks were decoying well in the conditions.

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My third hunt yesterday was more of a recon trip but I couldn't resist jumping a roadside pond which I had access to which had 30 ducks on it. Six ducks from 5 shots and I was a happy hunter. While on this trip I found some paddock ducks. Permission gained it was to be hunted this afternoon once the cows were moved off. Hopefully the ducks would show up soon after.

This was going to be an interesting hunt as Stu and myself only had limited experience in paddock hunting and with the stuff we'd done we couldn't get the ducks as close as we'd liked. This year however Stu had invested in some of these flocked decoys.

Sure enough the ducks came.

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It took longer to set up the decoys and grass up our blinds than it did to shoot two limit bags! One thing we couldn't get over was just how much closer we seemed to be able to get the ducks to come in with the flocked decoys.

Apologies for the graphic photo but I'm talking this close, modified choke at 5 metres!

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We had to either start firing earlier or else spring out of the blinds and wait for them to get out a bit. The upshot of this was that for 20 ducks shot we fired only 24 rounds and had only one fly more than 50 metres from us before hitting the dirt and we were using steel shot due to there being a pond 150 metres behind us.

Stus dog wasn't happy as he only had the one retrieve over 25 metres.

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Mandatory hero shots of me and Stu.

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Brilliant thanks Mike:thumbsup:

Good times Mike. well done.

Well done, that close shot was a bit messy!

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Well done, that close shot was a bit messy!

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Bloody steel !!!

Thanks Mike H, very productive. I've seen the damage a steel load can do at that sort of distance.

What sort of decoys are those Mike? They look good.

GHG full bodies with a home done flocking job.

Thats a great start to the season Mike! Plenty of drakes too. Good to see with an abundance of ducks that you can choose to be selective.

Those flocked decoys look bloody awsome. While I suspect you are helping create a need for production flocked duck decoys there are other things you might like to consider as you suggest you are having trouble finishing ducks in a place where there is an abundance of them by all accounts. Could I suggest joining the NZGBHA and partaking in one of their calling classes? Or perhaps spending a little more time getting hidden? Or something I need to start doing (having given up smoking- creating clothing shrinkage) a few situps to help train the body for the speed that is required for mallards out of a layout blind. My personal favourite is to accept that not every day is a limit day nor needs to be. Get in the right spot on the right day and anyone can be amongst the ducks as you proved with your drake day. Go where there is no ducks and no amount of gear will help.

The shots per kill is impresive and to be commended, with the mag extension you would only need to fill up once! :cool:

That hen you blasted reminds me of a goose I shot earlier this year, with lead over mortal decoys- clean hole straight through. I've missed the odd one at close range too!! Neither bird would make a good roast aye!

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damn and i thought my wad shot drake last year was hammered :wtfsmilie: