Thread: has 10 years steel use been benificial for waterfowl numbers

Originally Posted by JoshC

Sorry mate but that's bollocks. One shot kills with steel are easy. A couple of guys I shoot with use U/O all season and achieve double kills regularly. Pattern your gun, choose ammo that suits it and the choke your using.

josh is dead right.ive run a semiauto for 5 or more years now and unless youve got bloody good self discipline you;ll go through ammo like shit through a goose.In my case the f..n goose had permanent diarroheoa............ ask any of my mates.
his season ive taken the extension off the mag ,gone back to 2 3/4 shells and strictly rationed my serlf to a max of two shots per bird(2nd if reqd) its hard going but im determined to get there. two birds under my belt but two birds well earned and numbers aint my forte.
bear in mind also these birds are adapting to a lot of new factors in our environments -decreasing habitats SEISMIC ACTIVITY (3+yrs in canterbury), and frequently changing farming scenarios /often a primary food source for our main gamebirds.
certainly here in canterbury ,and despite the last 3yrs disruptions .mallards are plentiful, but they aint gonna sit round and let you get the shot away for free.you gonna earn the shot or its goooodbye from a rapidly departing set of bum feathers.

Originally Posted by misfire

Over population /more shooters

Really?

I understand that there are fewer licences being issued...maybe I heard that wrong??

Originally Posted by JoshC

I haven't seen any reports stating that banning lead shot was done so to increase the duck population.

There was a link between lead ingestion and infertility.

I do not believe that lead led to disaster as much as the proponents attest. However, the one gamebird who has more than adequately adjusted his habits to and is capitalising on pastoral and horticultural practices is the Paradise Duck...the use of irrigation ponds on the Canterbury Plains, for example has to be a big draw card for the likes of the Mallard...our country is small enough that migrations of the species to occur...

Gadget, do you know the quantity of lead ingested to bring about infertility, say for a mallie hen?

[QUOTE] Quote Originally Posted by JoshC View Post
I haven't seen any reports stating that banning lead shot was done so to increase the duck population.[/QUOTE]

they never outrightly said that joshc but implied it, by giveing numbers of ducks they thought could be dieing from lead poisoning the surmising by changing to steel that figure/figures of ducks would therefore be saved and available to hunt.

[QUOTE=gsp follower;247532]

Quote Originally Posted by JoshC View Post
I haven't seen any reports stating that banning lead shot was done so to increase the duck population.[/QUOTE]

they never outrightly said that joshc but implied it, by giveing numbers of ducks they thought could be dieing from lead poisoning the surmising by changing to steel that figure/figures of ducks would therefore be saved and available to hunt.

http://hunting.fishandgame.org.nz/si...me%20birds.pdf

Has it really been 10 years since steel shot was introduced ? My time flies !

If it is I cant beleive people are still moaning ten years down the track. Get a life people.

The steel I use patterns well in my gun and kills exceptionally well. The ONLY complaint I have with steel
is the mess it makes of my birds in close!! See BIG holes

Theres way less hunters. that doesnt help cause the birds just sit in one spot.

Originally Posted by prattpoint

few hunters using semis are getting more because they have more shots, I don't think steel skybusters are even penetrating the skin I have killed ducks with steel from pellets hitting the head and neck and then noticed other pellets falling out of the feathers, no person in there right mind would choose steel over lead. There is not more ducks in my area and i have cut open over 100 gizards and still haven't found a single pellet, If farmers have been poisoning canadas and they have then how have they controlled poisoning other birds , They havent

I definitely get more ducks because I have a semi, the best I have done is 4 ducks from 5 shots when jumping a pond. I often get ducks with the 3rd or 4th shot.

Might get more ducks with a semi but its still 6 at the end of the day (or whatever your limts are)

Originally Posted by Toby

Might get more ducks with a semi but its still 6 at the end of the day (or whatever your limts are)

True Toby, I reckon I have shot a more ducks in a day because I used a semi rather than a double. The day I got 4 from 5 I would only have got 2 (for the day) if using a double.

Theres way less hunters. that doesnt help cause the birds just sit in one spot.

true ran into a mate hile out quailing .he,d just comeback from scouting a duckcamp on the river with about 6 to 700 ducks in it

Theres way less hunters. that doesnt help cause the birds just sit in one spot.

true ran into a mate hile out quailing .he,d just comeback from scouting a duckcamp on the river with about 6 to 700 ducks in it

Has it really been 10 years since steel shot was introduced ? My time flies !

last voluntary year was 2005 mandatory in 2006 so not 10 years yet

I have been using Mossberg pumps since I was eleven so 21 years have shot a few clean 5s lots of 4s and heaps of threes but still the average guy is not slamming out more numbers with more shots, My point was if you cant shoot ducks with 2 shots you wont get more with 5. I use steel and also have a 20gauge and a s/s 16 with tight chokes, Who would choose to use steel if they had free choice?