shit i wish 3 was all id missed but yes i get the point you can overthink this shotgunning game:thumbsup:
you leave my COCKer out of this:DQuote:
sounds like a cocker owner.
nuff said:yaeh am not durnk:Quote:
Well I am married Ha ha
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From an article in the magazine produced by the Brittany Club, Victoria, Australia, dated May 1988, the editor ran an article written by Durwood Hollis on the Western Quail of the USA...of the Cali he writes...'these birds are very gregarious, often mixing several family groups together in a 'super-covey' of immense proportions. California quail will hold for the hunter if they are well scattered at the initial flush. Preferring to run or flush well out of range, California quail can be difficult to hunt if conditions are not favourable'.
Hollis states 'Even though these spunky birds would just as soon run as fly, I still find hunting them a consummate challenge'. And so say all of us:D
Mallard hen with 15 ducklings spotted crossing a paddock this morning. Sadly the neighbour feeds the hawks and feral cats so she will probably settle down somewhere tonight with ten ...or less
Attachment 28106not long left
Till season ends
Since I've started posting summaries I'll do one for today even though I wasn't into it 100%. Not sure why really, just woke up on the wrong side of the bed... Screw it, I decided to go anyway.
Conditions weren't great to start off with, fog everywhere, sun was about to come out and boil the living shit out of us, there was no wind whatsoever, so I just went with it. Let the dog do its thing I'll just follow...
First 40 minutes or so, we worked some thick young pines with heavy cover underneath... Aki was pulling away from me more than usual and a bell may have been useful but it was still manageable...we worked the side of the hill up to the ridgeline and I saw 2 hens burst out from my left (nothing to do with the dog). Aki moves in and stops on point where the hens were. Not a big deal i thought, just some cold scent, but where there are hens there are cocks. Nah, not really, a 3rd hen bursts out...
Aki fairly steady gets a pat and we take a 10mins break.
Attachment 28213
A nice breeze developed in the mean time, so upwards and onwards. Well in this case it was downwards and onwards. 20 or so minutes in the game I see a hen fly out far in the distance, eventually we get there and Aki stops. I take a photo and we roaded in for a while but no birds (definitely cold scent of the hen). Damn, I needed another break. :sick::sick::sick:
I had enough of tripping over and bruising my legs so we hunted some open cover for the next hour... Towards the very end Aki stops on point on top of a log, I had to menuver through the rubble to take a proper shot and that didn't even work, 4 quail up while my legs were spread wide open climbing through this shit, 2 shots nothing down. I saw the 5th bird running on the ground so I gave Aki the "go ahead", he does few loops and the bird is up in the air, by that time I had reloaded only 1 barrel, took a shot and missed again. F*CK!!!!!!!:fire::fire::fire:
Attachment 28215
Not much to do afterwards really, it was scorching hot. I decided to walk the beaten track and let the dog work the outskirts, if he picks up any scent we'll investigate further, if not we'll just go for a walk around areas where I haven't been before just to see what I can hunt next time I'm there.
A solid 1 hour walk and Aki stops on point of the 3rd time, much like the photo above, he was standing on a log. By the time I got to him I can't believe how much noise I made. There were 2 roosters on the other end of the logs hiding in ink-weed, they didn't move at all. Aki moves in for the flush, both take off in opposite directions. Dog wasn't quite steady here, things got a bit too much for him but 2 shots - no kills....:yuush::yuush::yuush: Seriously - if I had an e-collar I'd be better off putting it around my neck and giving the remote to the dog, the number of birds missed is ridiculous...
Did my walk back to the truck and off home.... I've got a whole week off work so there will be few hunting missions to come in the next few days....
lets hope we see some summery s from you of the dog trials this year
Attachment 28223im sure they will have grown by then
If you go down to the woods today....
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/...psa49d1ae8.jpg
Got off to a late start this afternoon, but finally Harry, his brother and I were able to get down the river. Dionee team leader again.
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/...psd8f37e0c.jpg
Dionee worked like a demon, her work in the huge blackberry bushes was courageous...bell stopped and up the covey went...Harry did a fine shot...
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/...pse5d55897.jpg
Coming back up from the river, she indicated a rabbit, which was also shot and taken home...
Here we go again:)
No, we do not have the birds such as other regions...more is the pity...if we want birds in numbers it is a travel matter...what did a avid gun tell me last season...that there are probably 15 guns to every rooster in this area!! No far from the truth from my observations.
that is a shame with such pretty grounds
mind you eesbees i tend to remember a post where i talked of shooting to many pheasants and you phiifffed it more or less -- the result is what you get to shoot today !!the short sightedness of people . an emphasis on quality work over quantity of birds shot and we would all have more birds
There are many factors at play in the maintenance of gamebird populations...none of which can be adequately or theoretically assumed the greater ...look at the mallard bags some decades ago in the Waikato...50 birds...not wishing to regurgitate your previous thread on this matter, I will say that my response to the thread was that most will attest to the fact and it is a fact that gamebird/waterfowl shooters are the conservationists of the species however if the bag and specie as stipulated by the governance then that is what most shooters will aim for (pun intended)...last year in this region they upped the bag from two to three as pretty much a last minute reprieve...this year back to two cock ringneck pheasants...the Californian quail has been listed with a bag of 10 per day for quite a number of years now...good luck and bravo to anyone who could fill that bag on a daily basis in these parts.
yes , ive always thought the evidence was in the day out and the results gained -well over some days , it appears where you are the blanket legal amount allowed to be shot may be being managed poorly . i do hope you back might mutterings next time due to your most unfortunate game numbers
i wonder how many would back a single bird a day policy ????to keep number up that others might enjoy the day out with at least one to bring home of the pheasant variety
Are you familiar with the relationship between daily bag limits and hunter harvest and their impact on gamebird populations?
You're clearly not familiar with the area and the many decades of work various acclimatisation societies put into it, to no avail. It has nothing to do with shooting pressure clearly as back in the Hawkes Bay societies' day there were ten times the shooters out there.
People have a hard time justifying a game licence as it is, who would buy one for a few weeks of duck shooting and one pheasant a day? Maybe not in the Hawkes Bay as above, where a pheasant is hard work, but in BOP? Theres a pheasant under every second shrub here
only in the real time evidence and the lack of game in many areas due to over hunting with daily limits which are pretty senseless, but of course this is just my very humble opinion -you carry on and wack as many as you can until they're thin enough on the ground that others just give up . of course we do have land being cleared so habitat leaving , harder to get onto land doesn't help either. ive never considered the game fee license a great expense in comparison to other sports and i am not at all a wealthy man .
Iam sure I am not alone in this observation and thought which really is for the betterment and enjoyment of our sport
[QUOTE=Pointer;284109]You're clearly not familiar with the area and the many decades of work various acclimatisation societies put into it, to no avail. It has nothing to do with shooting pressure clearly as back in the Hawkes Bay societies' day there were ten times the shooters out there.
what do you think is causing a lack of game being found in many areas ?it doesnt really matter what it is ,it just means rather than bang 3-4 birds on a block you shoot one and let another hunter have a go also . share the love , doesn t mean you cant work your dog for a time to enjoy the day!maybe they could even extend the season if less birds were shot daily ??
Be lucky to see a pheasant once a year down here.:( Pleanty of peasants thou:)
i was chatting with a chap in the Whanganui about his areas . He has purchased one of my very fine puppys so he can cover more land than his spaniels can due to the obvious problem in his area of thin bird numbers . A shame when you have great public ground for dogs but few feathered game to shoot.
Just curious, what does F&G do with the funds from the licences? How are they reinvested back in the wild?
Do they release birds or aid the population growth somehow????
be interesting to see what they do for upland game versus ducks and their habitat in how much money and time is spent
for those that run pointing breeds I reckon a day of finding birds and taking the odd few birds is what it's all about.
petro's stories of late are testament of that, the dog finds far out weigh the shooting success....{I would say the gun don't fit him regardless}
run spaniels over the same ground and you end up blasting everything put out.... I know I do lol.
yes id agree for a true pointing breeds connoisseur a day hunting is far more about good work with the hope of a result than blasting all in sundry . in saying that if the game aint there doesn't matter what one has to run .i think petros is a right hand shooter but has a strong eye left... thank goodness for those hunters following behind lol
i have no doubt a spaniel man appreciates the finer points like a good pointer and setter man
if you havent private land to shoot in many regions your going to have a hard hunt , managed and stocked differently this could change .. maybe