Head mount??????....no sweat!!!!!!!
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Closer look just a mongrel drake,be good eating:thumbsup:
Had a ripper of a hunt this morning in the ice up at Methven. Plenty of mallards shot. Report and photos tomorrow.
Right so as per yesterdays post it was all on Monday Morning. We had a ripper off a hunt. Im not purely talking Bird numbers but it was enjoyable for many different reasons. Having no mai mai and hiding in the tree's , Battling Ice in freezing conditions to get decoys out, Mallards coming hard and fast from many angles....
I digress , The two of us set of from Christchurch at 5:15am to a pond up in Methven. There was supposed to have been a third shooter but they got lame at the last minute. Unfortunate as we could have done with at least four guns. Man did we have birds dropping in and out. We couldnt cover the whole pond. Its an unusual shape and we shoot off an island in the middle underneath a Rhododenren tree. I have not shot it for over a year and the ducks know its a safe haven. There are massive irrigation ponds all up and down the road which get shot so they tend to pour in here during the season.
Anyway my mate and I got the standing decoys set down the far end then I waded out breaking ice with my shotgun butt to set a few floaters and a swimmer. As soon as first light came we were in business with customers landing straight on the ice.
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You can see the swimmer doing its thing in the hole i made with dead customers on the ice. I love hunts like this - Old school:cool:
I was having a constant battle with the ice retreiving ducks as my mate had conveniently forgotten his waders:oh noes:
Once the sun hit it helped with the ice and I was able to push sheets around the pond making bigger areas for decoys.
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The evidence of mass murder was becoming evident with feathers covering the ice on this cold windless Canterbury morning
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The best thing I love about duck hunting is getting them close. I mean real close. Ive got no problem with steel and get sick of people wanking on about lead. Improve your calling and decoy spread, Camo up and get em in. The mate had a drake hovering 5 m in front of him when he pulled the trigger. You can see it laying on the ice with its wing on the left. Remember all these pics were just taken off the iPhone.
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/...psa9d7b016.jpg
Who says steel dont kill???
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1ee91d3a.jpg
Still the action continued. At one point I was in the middle of the pond retreiving when a pair dropped in on top of me. Two shots later two more ducks. Unfortunately I didnt see the other 50 odd trying to get in behind them. I managed another double 30 seconds later when two bandits came over high. Awesome.
We pulled stumps at 11am with 50 ish mallards. We could have kept going but how many ducks do you need??
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Even as we were packing up they were still trying to get in.
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Will get this baby delivered in the next week or two then go back for another crack at the end of July when its properley cold:cool:
Sorry Nathan but I do not quite understand your rationale for shooting up close...isnt it a waste of a good bird?
Ummmmmmm I'm struggling to understand where you're coming from. The whole idea of our hunting is to get ducks in close. Real close.
If one in 50 gets blown up the issue is ? Like I said we pulled stumps after three hours. Could have stayed all day and nailed plenty more. 100 would have been our two person limit where we were. But we will go back in a month or so and have another crack :)
:cool:
Sorry, Nathan, I wasnt meaning to sound like an antagonist...as a newcomer to duck shooting I am not sure how close is close...
All good , no harm done. Unfortunately for want of a better phrase - shit happens.
When mallards are landing gear down fluttering in your face you have to shoot em:thumbsup:
Unfortunately that can sometimes be the result. Personally I would much rather have that happen than have wounded ducks fly away
Or run of into the scrub and die a slow death.
Just asking:D
One that inspired me from Nathans frozen pond. This is cool:cool:
http://youtu.be/am78lt6hAtY
That's exactly what they do lol. Incoming.
Don't get me fuckin started Bout eqc
Yes I'm sorry you fullas are still going thru that shit,this Key hasn't bloody helped down there for sure.
Finally getting out this Saturday. Amped. Have not been out since queens birthday weekend.
26 mallards 2 parries this morning. Some pics to follow.
Shit hot:thumbsup:
Went out on Saturday morning for my first shot since queens birthday weekend. Have been rather busy with the new arrival in the house. As it turned out on Friday night someone was screaming the house down so I gave up trying to sleep at 4 am and cooked some bacon and eggs. Was in the mai mai at 6 am having a cup of tea enjoying the peace and quiet. My two mates arrived at 6;40 am and we got a few decoys out.
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The gravel pit we shoot is about 140m long by 20 wide. We have three mai mais down the length of it.
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The shooting was good with mallards decoying in at all points of the compass. I shot til 9:00am and pulled pin. The other two boys gave it til lunchtime . I think the final tally was 32 mallards and two parries. Good for late in the season.
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/...psae4aab12.jpg
Great result again Nathan....youve got that 'down pat'........
Couldn't go this morning didn't get home from Auckland til late last night. Mate went out and got 23 but reckoned he was pretty piss crook. We are both heading out for one last bash tomorrow
All over down there tomorrow is it?
Aye just finishing brekky then out the door :cool:
Good skills on the last day Nathan
Well thats 2014 done and dusted.Mate and I shot til 11:30 am this morning and 46 mallards got a trip back to town. Most were drakes as
we were trying to be selective.
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/...ps027c0405.jpg
In summary a bloody good season. Certainly our best to date. Even with that soon to be unemployed share milker ruining one pond mid season
it all ended well.
According to my records we ( being my two main hunting buddies and I )Nailed 430 mallards between us and 14 Paradise ducks. It would be fair to say our hunting has been a lot more selective this year. A good example would be packing up and leaving once 50 birds was hit on quite a few occasions. We carefully managed our ponds ( apart from the dickhead incident ) and got good results .
Will be a long 9 months until 2015.
Cheers and thanks for reading.
Good on ya Nathan. Thanks for sharing.
Well Done.
Come up here Nathan and shoot 6 a day and a 4 week season. Cheap on ammo thats for sure. I sure hope that F&G get some answers soon, or it will be a closed season for us. I wouldn't even mind that- if it meant a sustainable population long term.
We also picked mostly drakes after opening. Got a bit anxious later on with fewer birds around, but maybe it helped the breeding population a little bit. Any idea why your region has such a good population of ducks? Do you think that your bag limit is sustainable?
It's all relative Nathan. Six birds a day each for two of us means lots of bullshit talked in the maimai, great big cooked breakfast/brunch, and plenty of time to use the video camera. You really appreciate each bird taken, and remember each bird. I think I'm getting soft in my old age, 'cos it doesn't worry me too much. In my younger years it was all about numbers. I just HAD to get my limit. Now I get more excited about getting it on film.
Don't get me wrong . Any day out buntings good. I used to hunt the Waikato when I lived in Auckland. Seriously I don't know why the duck numbers are in decline up there. Lack of food and a lot more people maybe?
50 per person a day in CSI is probably sustainable given the amount of cropping and food. In saying that we never limited out in csi once this year. Shot it three times and stopped at the 50 mark between two of us. Mainly because plucking ducks is repetitive hard work. We don't shoot them for the sake of it. Drakes are plucked and everything else breasted for sausage.
One shoot in Canterbury I limited out in forty minutes (25). They were still coming when packing up. There's certainly some great bird hunting to be had.