Game bird diary for all

We had three of us in one Mai Mai and 30CalTerry in another plus on the neighbours pond where they were not shooting a couple of 09ers who
are mates of the bro in law.
Wicked weekend we started working at 1.30 on Friday went to the pond at 5.30 Sat and basically shot ducks til last night on these and other ponds we have access to.
Sat Sund total between the six of us 100 or something mallards and 10 or so parries...
Retrieve of the weekend to the my brown lab Murph who sniffed his way across three paddocks to bring back a winger who had walked off. He wnt probably 3 to 400
mtrs to find it and didnt pause much on the way.
So wicked good company , wicked shooting , food, giving the 09ers shit and awesome weekend.. Worst thing was when the 09ers beat us in the darts but there you go ...

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Oh and patterning the shot guns worked a treat with not many wingers at all out of all our birds...
Bout as intellegent as a spud today tir red as ...

Happy as

Mint result Happy,got a few oak trees there too.:cool:

Well done Happy. Spend more time polishing up the dart skills next year.

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I have a taste for duck wings now need to shoot some really bad now.

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the rest of the birds alright to toby:thumbsup:

aye toby an all organic duck&pigeon diet does a man a world of good!

about to go bop some quail if ive got their flying time right
hopefuly something to report and post a pic of later:yaeh am not durnk:
cos the odd duck ive been getting aint keeping the wolf from the door:drool:

Good skills

Back to reality now. Opening weekend we shot 74 mallards and 2 parries. We shot a couple mallards monday morning before my cousin and i headed up to my place. Our first shoot was mon evening at my small pond on the beach that i had been feeding. weather was rough so our hopes were high. Turned out to be a great shoot 25 mallards. Tuesday the weather had cleared and the one hundred plus birds that had been bunkered down on the neighbours pond never came back we shot 10 mallards and a spoonie. That evening we set up at the main pond. We weren't expecting much traffic because of the fine weather but went down at 2pm and relaxed in the blinds in the sun. We had only shot one mallard one spoonie but then 5 geese came in we cleaned up 2 of them then it started raining swans 6 in total. Finally wed morn we were set up in the same place as the night before 3 mallards 2 spoonies and a parrie. Good times.http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/08/peqymuqy.jpg

Awsome set up username and great results

Is that bit of plastic feeling nervous? Good results.

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We had a fail tonight this bloody thing was heading past the two ponds that were optional tonight.

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So we went to the river,I took rod and gun cuppla shots one downed mallard landed in the bush covererd in stinging nettle so I kept the dog at heel.

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Originally Posted by gadgetman

Is that bit of plastic feeling nervous? Good results.

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If you are talking about the goose in front i think i got the heads mixed up i think it needed to swap with the one on the left

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Originally Posted by username

If you are talking about the goose in front i think i got the heads mixed up i think it needed to swap with the one on the left

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No, the rectangular bit that took a hammering when you bought all that new kit.

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Originally Posted by Dundee

We had a fail tonight this bloody thing was heading past the two ponds that were optional tonight.

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Sue the heli operator Dundee. How much value would you put on a lost duck opportunity?

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Originally Posted by Rushy

Sue the heli operator Dundee. How much value would you put on a lost duck opportunity?

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Thats easy. Count the total amount of money you have spent on waterfowling equipment over your life and divide it by the number of duck dinners you have had and you will come up with your average cost per duck. Most people would be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars per duck.

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Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

Thats easy. Count the total amount of money you have spent on waterfowling equipment over your life and divide it by the number of duck dinners you have had and you will come up with your average cost per duck. Most people would be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars per duck.

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That is a good place to start

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Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

Thats easy. Count the total amount of money you have spent on waterfowling equipment over your life and divide it by the number of duck dinners you have had and you will come up with your average cost per duck. Most people would be in the hundreds if not thousands of dollars per duck.

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Just don't let the Mrs find out the final figure. ;)

Shooting in the Waikato this year was a real treat, limit bags by lunchtime on both days on mallards ... B52's don't do it for me, either in the sights or in the pot. Planning a quick evening shoot tomorrow as weather looks okay and will take the young fella.

Lindsay Barnett how did you and the lads get on? I may have missed your report in another thread?

Few pics from tonight but never saw a bird
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There are birds on the pond Dundee or are those decoys of yours fooling me?

Pt, and a mate and myself shot on the green pond tonight
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A few visable fresh tracks were spotted across the weed

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Dog keen as usual but I wish the history lesson between these two would halt.

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They finally shut up and dog got back into position.

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1750hrs they were still yakking when two came in between the big gum trees.

I dropped one PT fired a shot other fella never got a shot off.

First drake for the season

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Good on ya Dundee. You need to throw some clays up for PPT to practise on

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pardon the quality but the first quail of the season
id thought the area buggered cos cattle were grazing it but they still thier and yes i missed the next 2 after dropping this one first shot.:yaeh am not durnk:
just goes to show you should quit while your ahead:pissed off:

Southerly blew in but didn't deliver the rain.

The resident dab chick showed its appearance:D

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Then a cuppla b52's made the mistake of visiting the pond:D

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Nice work on those swans, be a bit of a load for the retriever.

Went out to the lake late this arvo. Virtually no wind and just the occasional whiff of high cloud. Only shot a wounded Canada we saw on the walk in to end it's misery; there was almost nothing of it. Did get four mallards to commit but due to lack of light couldn't shoot them. Managed to talk a dose of Canada's over as well with the same result, but I was only playing with the caller at that stage.

b52's dundee??the bloody one i shot looked like an antunov heavy lift aircraft coming at me ,and it made a thump like one when it finally hit the deck! mrs didnt think much of me either when sons mate walked it into the lounge only to have a "deadcrap"on the carpet right in front of her!!

"Hey Mrs Kotuku look what we got ..... Oh shit sorry, I'll clean that up but neat bird eh"?

Dundee you're holding this thread up all by yourself, good work mate! i will have a look after milking see what i can get in my sights.

No luck tonight username. Took the mrs the kids and two labs too a pond cold frosty looking night.
Bolt the hunterway lab x took 30 minutes too settle hes worse than the kids. Never saw a bird.

Thats a laugh Kotuku about the deadcrap:D

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We did well for opening morning, shooting water I had never seen until we got there. Managed 24 out of there for the morning. Dog went really well.

Far from ideal when we turned up at 5:50am and had 40m to drag the decoys to the creek, finally got there at 6:40am!!!!! Absolute jungle bush. Then the willows hung out over the creek to far to shoot from under so we had to wade out and sit on stumps all morning. Had plenty of birds see us and flare off. The otherside of the creek is nice looking though haha

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Originally Posted by Tahr-Bound

142_zps721801c0.mp4 Video by Nosler7mm08 | Photobucket

We did well for opening morning, shooting water I had never seen until we got there. Managed 24 out of there for the morning. Dog went really well.

Far from ideal when we turned up at 5:50am and had 40m to drag the decoys to the creek, finally got there at 6:40am!!!!! Absolute jungle bush. Then the willows hung out over the creek to far to shoot from under so we had to wade out and sit on stumps all morning. Had plenty of birds see us and flare off. The otherside of the creek is nice looking though haha

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My bogan mate you met near my brother in laws place a couple seasons ago shot the sat only and got his limit. So there must have been hundreds come in ha ha. You shoot local to home TB or head south?

Yeah I saw his headlamp early in the morning when I dropped off a 410 to the boy on the that side of the river. We shot over the other side. The weather turned perfect on the Monday! Lots of wind.
Just buggering about with the dog in the evenings now getting her steadier till I find a decent riverbed camp to hunt... Then I have to go get a chamois and get my 280 onto some tahr and then....and then...

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Originally Posted by Tahr-Bound

Yeah I saw his headlamp early in the morning when I dropped off a 410 to the boy on the that side of the river. We shot over the other side. The weather turned perfect on the Monday! Lots of wind.
Just buggering about with the dog in the evenings now getting her steadier till I find a decent riverbed camp to hunt... Then I have to go get a chamois and get my 280 onto some tahr and then....and then...

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I'm still keen to shoot some river beds when I am back out of our block. I will do a scout round on the drive back to hoki as well.

Just a quick report from the Manwatu. Opening weekend was fine warm and no wind. The ducks were real suspicious of the loud calling and spooked by shots from several kilometers away.
however the team worked hard called well and some of them shot well too, as we ended up with a 5 man limit by 11am on the saturday and same conditions on sunday resulted in a 4 man limit by 1130am.
this saturday we ventured out to the pond not knowing how it would go as the treetrimmer has been in cutting down the willows overhanging the fence arround the pond ready for a new fence to be put up.
Same conditions for most of the morning with shots going off all over the place wind did get up a bit for a while. The ducks decoyed a bit better than last weekend with the young guns running hot i mostly sat and watched as they decked a lot of ducks with clean kills a ranges that I wouldn't have attemped. yep those A400 guns sure can shoot ducks dead.
By 1030 we ran out of ducks and were stranded at 2 short of a 4 man limit of mallards plus a couple of spoonies as well.
We spent the next couple of hours cleaning up willow branches for the farmer as a thankyou for the acess to a great spot

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Originally Posted by R93

I'm still keen to shoot some river beds when I am back out of our block. I will do a scout round on the drive back to hoki as well.

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Yep I'm keen whenever. There was a big camp on the wanganui that I saw from the top of the hill before you head round to lake ianthe. Look back downstream they might still be there.
When are you guys going in for tahr? Can borrow spotting scope if you need it.

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Originally Posted by Tahr-Bound

Yep I'm keen whenever. There was a big camp on the wanganui that I saw from the top of the hill before you head round to lake ianthe. Look back downstream they might still be there.
When are you guys going in for tahr? Can borrow spotting scope if you need it.

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That's bloody good of you mate, but when you see how I treat my own gear you wouldn't be so keen....lol. Thanks a lot but I bought Leica 20-60 second hand but mint. It will do the trick but I would like to have a squizz thru your scope one day.
I will have a scout round. I scout a few other spot as well.
We go in on the 25th may. Should be out by the following Thursday.

Good vid TB and thanks for the update Goose

Friday night nothing cept a wet arse...
Sat morning sat on the pond for hours. Four parries landed over the hill so me and Midget put dogs on leads and go walkies..
Bummed out by the time we walked up the hill they had wolked way over saw us and buggered off while out of range.
Sat night at pond at home no ducks.

Sunday, day duck shooters penance cutting huge hunks of barberry out of the boundary hedge with chainsaw then to the dump
then mowing lawns Sheeesh when can I go duck shooting please !!! he he .. Haven t been for nearly 22 hours ....

Sunday night I got these ... Big fat buggers ..

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From a pond that is hideous for the dog he hates it weed and blackberry and shite everywhere
but still reasonable retrieves and these are going into Phillipino Curry Duck for us at work this week .... Mmmmm

So a win right at the end ... :thumbsup: