Thread: Who's getting ready for the duck shooting season?

Limited out three guns home by 1:30 pm

Hard work in the Manawatu ended up with a good mixed bag though. 4 Greys, 1 mallard, 2 parries, 2 pukeko an a Turkey Bring on tomorrow.

How are you guys finding the number of Mallards taken this year has compared to previous years?

Not as many as I thought, only got 3 ducks today and 1 parrie.
Parrie at dusk is fun.
Put my boy behind 12g today for the first time no duck, but lots of fun and good father son memories.

Definately more Mallards in my area than previous couple of years. Light fog for opening. I missed a lot but still shot my limit of eight before dark, plus a parrie. Set up an accessble spot for my parra mate and he got a few shots when I put my dog through some heavy cover towards him. Giving Sunday morning a miss to give birds a break but will do an evening shoot today. Sunburn weather in May! Some good dog work and even my vrry old dog had a couple of nice retrieves. The young dog just coming into full form and did bulk of the dog work. Big cookup at midday. Good times

Three ducks, two turkeys, and a hare. Days total.
The neighbour was having fert flown on all day and the pond is a half k from the strip. Fletchers evidently arent listed on the licence but the bugger was always out of range.

Sounds like everyone had a great time, well done to all those that participated

we had a good weekend all packed up now ducks plucked & breasted , didn't get bugger all today but picked up 43 yesterday from our main pond & another 12 from a bit of a jump shoot , a dog would have been good to find a few that went down in the gorse & tussock , will be cooking up a feed tonight .

just to add ot some obs on GSPF report .ellesmere is mellesmmere -its a lake whixch to me is either a feast or a famine.as he said it was a famine though friday night when we did eyeball mk1 -their were morse birds is port thanships in amsterdam harbour.

speaking to a mutual friend of ours afte hed departed she (and family whove lived in this area for decades,ahve noticed changes.
she is usedto cats bringing home mallard egges or even ducklings -which in the past she raised and released back to the wild.this last year she states it was almost zero of either
my beoloved "fat arthurs"the feral geese of which there were healthy pops oher grandkids st toahve provided gran with a very large supply og goose eggs this year for baking. from the granddaughter goosegg pav -thats yummy-also apparently another cocky in that region of ellesmere declared war on em so poulation is not what it was .
however and inspite of GSPFs strident insistence it was spoonbill herons schooled up south of us and their family maimai-its was in fact a mob of ferals.!
highlight of my day -to see in total silence a mob of canadas sail towrs us in silence-i was like a young pointer on the point with GSPF quielty commanding .
it was not to be -they peeled away -good on em -another 10m and the escort would have spoken-bvut as he says since weve shot without the dogs weve lost too many hard earned ducks and geese.
Ifired two shots out of the wee russian in the PM session -Smiffy&i arrived at the maimai -whooooooa -hold up -birds galore- exit wagon load crouch watch and shoot .
bugger me murphy struck again -In like flynn whistled two parries-we were just a tad slow stopping& dropping -they peeld off afterburners in full roa.
fornt of maimai chokka with 2-300 teal&swans just doin what ya do outhere on our lake - just in case a couple of mallards were hoochies up -ilet a couple of rounds go well clear of them- some got off the awater -faltter than newly ironed sheets -the rest "carry on carrying on!are humans stupid!"

we did get a report from another shooter on the entityGSPF mentioned -not good- seems he may also be a candidate for specsavers in order to tell whats legal and whats not judging by two teal found floating in the lake in vicinity of his maimai. he did pass through where we camped but my strong gut feeling was he was a knowall and wouldnt listen so didnt engage.

yup in summary frustrating but onthe other hand I did enjoy it.knowing that my time will come as the season progresses and we willget ducks -its a patience game.other shooters at boggy seemsd of similar mind -what birds were taken required a lot of bloody effortand honining of skills.
spoke to my cousin on the coast .In the family area of lake brunner they took 65 all up but again it was no easy feat ,those ducks qwerent hanging round for seconds.

great to see some limit bags take n,but more imortantly everyone enjoyed the day after our recnt boot in the guts!

just to add ot some obs on GSPF report .ellesmere is mellesmmere -its a lake whixch to me is either a feast or a famine.as he said it was a famine though friday night when we did eyeball mk1 -their were morse birds is port thanships in amsterdam harbour.

speaking to a mutual friend of ours afte hed departed she (and family whove lived in this area for decades,ahve noticed changes.
she is usedto cats bringing home mallard egges or even ducklings -which in the past she raised and released back to the wild.this last year she states it was almost zero of either
my beoloved "fat arthurs"the feral geese of which there were healthy pops oher grandkids st toahve provided gran with a very large supply og goose eggs this year for baking. from the granddaughter goosegg pav -thats yummy-also apparently another cocky in that region of ellesmere declared war on em so poulation is not what it was .
however and inspite of GSPFs strident insistence it was spoonbill herons schooled up south of us and their family maimai-its was in fact a mob of ferals.!
highlight of my day -to see in total silence a mob of canadas sail towrs us in silence-i was like a young pointer on the point with GSPF quielty commanding .
it was not to be -they peeled away -good on em -another 10m and the escort would have spoken-bvut as he says since weve shot without the dogs weve lost too many hard earned ducks and geese.
Ifired two shots out of the wee russian in the PM session -Smiffy&i arrived at the maimai -whooooooa -hold up -birds galore- exit wagon load crouch watch and shoot .
bugger me murphy struck again -In like flynn whistled two parries-we were just a tad slow stopping& dropping -they peeld off afterburners in full roa.
fornt of maimai chokka with 2-300 teal&swans just doin what ya do outhere on our lake - just in case a couple of mallards were hoochies up -ilet a couple of rounds go well clear of them- some got off the awater -faltter than newly ironed sheets -the rest "carry on carrying on!are humans stupid!"

we did get a report from another shooter on the entityGSPF mentioned -not good- seems he may also be a candidate for specsavers in order to tell whats legal and whats not judging by two teal found floating in the lake in vicinity of his maimai. he did pass through where we camped but my strong gut feeling was he was a knowall and wouldnt listen so didnt engage.

yup in summary frustrating but onthe other hand I did enjoy it.knowing that my time will come as the season progresses and we willget ducks -its a patience game.other shooters at boggy seemsd of similar mind -what birds were taken required a lot of bloody effortand honining of skills.
spoke to my cousin on the coast .In the family area of lake brunner they took 65 all up but again it was no easy feat ,those ducks qwerent hanging round for seconds.

great to see some limit bags take n,but more imortantly everyone enjoyed the day after our recent boot in the guts!my rescort will only take 2x3"'with pin in mag.
commiserations go rto c404 also being called away to a traing course at the last minute .also big ups to Gadgetman who txted us wishing us all the best .no bloody wonder that man is a gem in my eyes!

23 mallards,5 parries and 2 spoonies....3 camp possums..... so it was a typical season for us.
we all had plenty of chances and had a great weekend. my daughter spent weekend with me which was awesome,she turned 21 the other week and its the first time she has wanted to come along...already talking about "next opening"

Well as promised some pics from our weekend 225 birds in total including 1 spoon can't wait to tuck into some great tucker all birds processed and in the freezer.

Originally Posted by dannyb

Well as promised some pics from our weekend 225 birds in total including 1 spoon can't wait to tuck into some great tucker all birds processed and in the freezer.
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damn is that a spooonard??

Originally Posted by gsp follower

damn is that a spooonard??

No she was a little spoon hen

Some young fellas downstream of me were skybusting tonight and stuffed up my decying ducks; however just on dark I heard geese and managed to call in a small group of five. Dropped one bird as they came in and watched my young dog do a beaut retrieve on his first goose Old dog stood in shallow water and supervised while the young dog did the hard yards in the stream. Very happy.