Thread: Hunting Aotearoa Thursday 9:30

Originally Posted by Ruff

Because a trillion rabbits in an area holding five pheasants is not equivalent to a few hedgehogs and possums. The spaniel guys do well down there because rabbits are the primary quarry of a spaniel. The bird dogs do not hunt fur at all.

Having said that, i agree there is plenty of ground to hold trials on quail etc that is not over run with rabbits. It seems many modern day triallers who were not around in the formation days of live game trialling are unaware of how well we did on wild populations pre preserves and syndicates, there is another argument that could be made that high game areas are detrimental to producing better dogs for the average hunter...

Kawhia is correct, the only missing ingredient is people with the drive to make something happen. that's what started it up here. If we possessed the drive our dogs do the world would be our oyster.

...Fish and game have made an effort to bring pheasant numbers up in Canterbury . Some will argue not enough , but we now have two days hunting as opposed to the one we had for years . At a glance it may appear a lot of country to hold birds , but our braided river fringes are in decline because of the dairy conversions . What seems to be left is tiger country . I doubt you could trail in that , yes you can or will put out a bird but its not pretty. On the rabbits I've been told there is a parallel , high numbers rabbits = good numbers of quail .

I did more than glance at the country, and that tiger country you mention is ideal pheasant habitat, and it's not even that tight compared to the blackberry we have up here. the highland country was awesome, didn't really get into any decent rabbits however, only shot one and that was while spotlighting a crop for deer.
just a shame I got rained off but did partake in some excellent duck shooting.

Originally Posted by kawhia

I did more than glance at the country, and that tiger country you mention is ideal pheasant habitat, and it's not even that tight compared to the blackberry we have up here. the highland country was awesome, didn't really get into any decent rabbits however, only shot one and that was while spotlighting a crop for deer.
just a shame I got rained off but did partake in some excellent duck shooting.

What sort of hunter are YOU spot lighting deer - thought that was illegal??? What happened to identifing your target and landing zone of the bullet - pretty hard when there's no background!!!!!

Dont tell them. well its a bit late for that now I guess

Can someone enlighten me on what is required to set up a syndicate shoot ?
I believe that some preserves offer a shoot where you can shoot over your own dog (last price I heard quoted was $500.00 a gun with a limit of 10 birds shot).
Would 10 birds shot provide enough opportunities for 5 braces of dogs to get a result in a live game trial? If that number of birds shot would work, then how many of you would want to pay an entry fee of $50.00 per dog just to cover the cost of the birds?

There are a few pheasants in the Selwyn River/Darfield area but who wants to run a dog though a herd of 1000 dairy cows, cowshit up to your knees and an electric fence every 100 metres. Because other than the gorse and willow choked edges of the Selwyn the dairy farms are where you will come across the Canterbury pheasants.

Originally Posted by Smallfry

Can someone enlighten me on what is required to set up a syndicate shoot ?
I believe that some preserves offer a shoot where you can shoot over your own dog (last price I heard quoted was $500.00 a gun with a limit of 10 birds shot).
Would 10 birds shot provide enough opportunities for 5 braces of dogs to get a result in a live game trial? If that number of birds shot would work, then how many of you would want to pay an entry fee of $50.00 per dog just to cover the cost of the birds?

There are a few pheasants in the Selwyn River/Darfield area but who wants to run a dog though a herd of 1000 dairy cows, cowshit up to your knees and an electric fence every 100 metres. Because other than the gorse and willow choked edges of the Selwyn the dairy farms are where you will come across the Canterbury pheasants.

permits to release pheasant are obtained from doc, depending on your fish and game region the amount released can be as low as 400 and up to 1000 min, bag limits for pheasants around timaru was 4 per day to reflect the work put in by syndicates and a few shoots with unlimited and hens to be shot permits.
most trials held on preserves are free or min charge as most preserves like to encourage the gundog clubs, some shoots do provide the guns on the day, and numbers of birds shot is very low, the spaniel guys are just as happy to shoot a bunny on a preserve.
the Selwyn darfield dairy country is similar to most parts of the Waikato, cows and electric fences included.

If I was fishing I would rather catch a "Kawhai" than a "Smallfry"

Originally Posted by Dundee

If I was fishing I would rather catch a "Kawhai" than a "Smallfry"

Dundee you would rather catch a big arsed mother fucker of a trout

Oooooo, Rushy...Sunday morning and all!!!

and if i were you petros i would be getting that irish out more

Originally Posted by upnorth uplander

and if i were you petros i would be getting that irish out more

From what I hear, from the "Queen of the Irish", he's doing pretty bloody well with it.....

would you expect less from the queen on her subject

Originally Posted by el borracho

would you expect less from the queen on her subject

are you asking me?

She didn't have to spend a week up north with it Sorry pete winding ya up

Originally Posted by Pointer

She didn't have to spend a week up north with it Sorry pete winding ya up

As if you didn't enjoy shooting Aki's pheasant... You were doing my quail dance as much as I was