I am an experienced shooter looking for access to a property in the BOP area where I can hunt peacocks. Can anyone help me out?
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I am an experienced shooter looking for access to a property in the BOP area where I can hunt peacocks. Can anyone help me out?
With all due respect Trevor, first post asking for access doesn't normally go too well. Head on over to the introduction section and let us all know a bit about yourself, hunting/shooting interests etc.
All the best. I have heard they go well in salamis
Peacock salami's.....interesting might have to try that one out! Peacocks are great for fly tying supplies.
Taste like insects
Peacock Salami? Wow, never considered them a species to hunt but the few we see are on display.
I didn't know they were huntable here either until last year. Apparently they are very tricky to stalk.
They are another pest that seems to bred up in numbers because kobold keeps them in check.
I have been doing my bit!
They don't like the 22-250 much.
Cunning fuckers alright, just got to keep plugging away or they really settle in.
Shot heaps last year but haven't seen any for ages, now watching out for deer!
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thanks for the tip :)
Thanks for the suggestion
they are only hard to hunt if there are a few per property they have good eyesite and come from india where tigers hunt them so are pretty wary by nature in line with a cock pheasant sort of thing, maybe slightly smarter
I like them and so does the bosses wife so we have tons(hundreds) of them
like anything they get quiet if you dont harass them and we even have a few white ones coming thru which is cool
iv been shooting them for dog tucker lately but like anything with wings it will taste better when the month has no R's in it and right now its maRRRRRRch so best to wait till june/july for eaters
They can also live to be 20 + so can be an old chewy bird if you manage to get the big one with the long talons.
Only thing harder to hunt with a shotgun are those Guinea fowl up North around Ruawai.
haha I have those too
they looks like idiots that I could catch with my hands how could they be hard to shoot?
the hard part is stalking something else past them and trying to keep out of their sight
If you want to know how old the male peacocks are just base it on the tail, the stumpy little ones are babies and the awesome fan ones are the old boys
they get more tail the older the get
hens are a little harder to judge but if you stick with the teen age as in not fully grown ones you will have the best eating
the nabour has loads of kids and likes to cut the breast meat into nuggets and use "coat and cook" on them
quick fry in the pan and they disappear like chicken nuggets only healthier
If you can get them to flush there good sport! Both the peas and the G fowl!
I used to get a lot more tail as I got older too, but then that stopped as i became decrepit.
Yeah Mate of my old man had a small dairy farm on the flats up there with a run-of up in the hills. Spent a fair amount of time chasing both up there. Those G-fowl are a real challenge and very under rated as a sport bird IMO.
The previous owner of the property I am on had a couple of peacocks and during an easterly blow they ended up down on the flat land below us, that was over 30 years ago and I have been led to believe there is quite a mob of them now, me being deaf I cant hear them but others attest to them being around. In all those years they have not ventured far from where they started out from but it has only been in the last couple of years that I have actually seen them back on what was their home ground. The occasional shot I have heard from the neighbors direction could well be peacock harvesting.
Never harvested them, but shot plenty out of tall native trees, they are big birds and make a hell of a thud when they hit ground.
Sometimes you don’t need to even spot them in trees, you hear them shitting and it sounds like apples hitting the ground..aim up but stand back..
Wow,
I've learned so much about these animals.
When we see them we tend to like them as they are only there on display. One property I visited regularly as a kid had one Peacock. I'm not sure if it was maybe there to keep an eye out for snakes.
Peacock Nuggets, Peacock Salamis, wow.
And all this talk of Peacock shit.
I tried an Alpaca Salami but even then that's only because a hobbyist had excess so went through the right channels to produce and retail some.
I have between one and two dozen here
they have never come across as smart
worst mothers ever, lay eggs in terrible spots and if they sit on them its a miracle
mine would be deemed as feral as they were released here like a pheasant but honestly Id say my dog would be able to catch them they are so stupid
iv had to call her off many times and shes a decrepit old springer spaniel
they often sit and squark when disturbed and run only short distances. before she went deaf the g-foul squark was like sirens calling her like sailors to the rocks
peacocks are pretty impressive with their lookout ability and the communication between them once one spots you
at one stage we got down from a dozen to two and then finally they had a nest that hatched, 15 survived initially
they then just get whittled down by cats and hawks
if they do nest the numbers can explode
then they can go years with no success breeding
I reckon the old Bunji would be the expert we need here, he’s probably got a private spot and shoots them from a chopper on sundays?
I’ve seen pictures of Peacocks being herded/ driven into fishing nets, there were 100s of them, many years ago, down Kawerau way.
I have tried the odd day time stalk on them with no success, they keep a bird on watch that will call out to keep the rest of the flock in the next valley over so each time you come up a ridge they will already be over the next one. At night is a different story, they roost hard and will not leave, eyes will return torch light, or use a thermal.
I've hunted peafowl in pine blocks and they are a hell of a lot of fun, especially if you already have your bag limit of pheasant! The dog used to go crazy for them, always putting them up instead of pheasant. But on a quiet day for pheasant, I could just about always come home with some meat.
I've only ever breasted them out, and used the breast exactly like chicken. one of my favorites is Schnitzel with cranberry sauce.
Thanks for the info about them having the same taste issues as turkeys during the R months when they are on crickets. I had made the assumption it was an issue but it is good to have it confirmed.
Peacocks……..
As you already know I do like hunting a wily old peacock... The ones here are intelligent and very wary birds, extremely cautious and far more inclined to bolt for cover at distant human movement than any of the other bigger birds we have here - turkeys, pheasants, etc. The mob in the valley here is now much diminished due to my efforts, but I do admit to a bit of a sneaky population management in that I am very reluctant to get rid of the whole lot because they do provide exceptional sport in early summer. Trying to get close enough for a rimfire shot is a genuine hunting challenge with these birds.
Last season there was a big cock bird that needed to go whilst he still had his train, after several failed attempts to get him from close up I had to resort to the .223 Rem.
@Bill999 I think the intelligence of a particular flock comes from years of wild experience versus introduced birds that come from domesticated stock. The ones we have here are seriously onto it, cunning as fuck. When we moved here something I was unaware of was how a hen can pass down trade secrets and educate a flock, specifically I’m thinking of how they learn to scratch open haylage bales in search of grubs. This was almost certainly an evolved, learned behaviour from farmers leaving old open bales in the back paddocks and the birds realising that they were a rich source of food; at some point they made the leap between foraging around in open bales, to opening sealed bales. That is not good. So anyway they are public enemy number one here as they have caused quite a lot of damage in the past.
Wow, interesting to learn they are quite the pest.
@Flyblown iv told my staff to not spook or chase them when they are on quads, and over the years (the last 6-8) they have quieten down quite a bit
They come as close as my lawn these days but still duck and run the moment they see a person,
I’m thinking I’ll try win them over with a bit of grain, or hand raise a chick to start a “tame” population
Iv resisted shooting them unless someone wanted them for meat to allow them to get to a decent number so the population would allow a bit of light harvesting
They can and have been really damaging on the nabours palm nursery in the past but in all honesty the worst thing they do here is spread ink weed seeds around the orchard and make my dogs farts stink really bad
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@Bill999, You’re going to have to explain the stinky dog farts?
Used to thin them out for a couple of farmers, found early in the piece they make gun dogs hard mouthed, winged birds don't give in easy to a dog, so dog has a chew which carried on to next year game bird season.
Not quite right. Those are the months when there are stuff all crickets as hopefully the rain has drowned them all. The whole point of havesting them in May, June, July is that it's after the crickets have gone but before the breeding season.
ie if it is a very dry year with a long indian summer it might be best to wait until June to grab a turkey or peafowl.
I shot a peacock for each of my dogs for dog tucker last week
they eat the easy bits then leave the rest to ferment, which when they revisit for a nibble from then on and it makes for some biological warfare
I often have them with me and if they fart and you are inside any form of shelter they will drive you out within seconds of letting rip
doesn't help that they are both as old as dogs get but the peacock is definitely good fuel
they are both more energetic than on typical store food
Peahen is delicious. As others have said, best shot in winter, months with no Rs in the name. Tons of them around. Go for a drive and doorknock when you see some. Lower kaimai, whakamarama anywhere with a mix grazing, water and cover like Manuka
A good suggestion thanks.