Anyone on here shoot the firth of Thames this year?
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Anyone on here shoot the firth of Thames this year?
nice 1 bro, colour and breed of your dog is bang on @Pointer
Had one of my best opening in HB. Great morning with one of my good mates.
Attachment 196568
Attachment 196569
Ended up with 15 between us after shooting the main pond then jump shooting a few others around. Will do a few evening shoots over the next few weeks.
We had thick fog until 9.30am opening morning, but still managed 3 limits on Parries and 2 of 3 limits on Mallards by 11am, so we were pretty happy with that.
Was a different shoot this year with pine block that surrounds the pond having been felled over summer making for different approach angles by ducks than previous 20 years.
My youngest boy came down to pond for a morning tea visit too, which was great. Meant we had 3 generations of family down at maimai. Both my boys are showing interest in the outdoors, so hoping to nurture that to its full extent. [emoji106]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9196aee21a.jpg
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Most of you shot more birds than I saw. Thick fog could not see the 40m decoys lifted around 11 oclock. 1 parra came out of the fog around 9ish. Dont know who was more surprised him or me, grabbed the gun and gave a spray and prey complete miss. As the fog started to clear a lonesome mallard came over high and 1 shot gave me my tally for the day. A few birds came over the pond later high in the stratosphere. Opposite end of the pond 2 guys got into the geese that had swam over to there spot. then spent the next hour chasing wounded geese. said they had 5 ducks and 6 geese which I doubt by the number of shots fired. Sunday fog again but not so bad and a flock of geese around 8 came over the top from behind 3 taken 2 needing a quick follow up to finish them off. ! other opportunity gave me my 1 duck for the day. Going down to the clay club has certainly improved my shotgun skills.
FFN in the mangroves. dont know why really but decided to only shoot green heads. 6 of them and a hen that got in the way by about mid day.
Still had birds flying while I was picking up the decoys-could have shot more I suppose but its shallow where I shoot and I cant be arsed plucking too many ducks.
When I get a plucker things will change!!
The shooters on the eastern side of the harbour have seemed to do better the last few years from the shooting I have heard-but romours of shag shooters hahaha.
Mates tried to hide a 6.1m alloy boat-dont think it worked out for them-0 for 2 days, about 1km away from me.
still had a ball-love working the ducks more than shooting them to be honest, but they do taste good!
Spoke to a local farmer and even he commented that the days of seeing ducklings in the drains and culverts are a few years back, there are a couple of other lakes around where we shoot and even they fell a bit quiet early, but again it was great seeing 2-3 new shooters joining in on the lake, and its always good to get out and enjoy the challenge :)
Best opening for us so far. Managed to get our limit of 50 mallards and 4 spoonies on Saturday with a bonus pair of parries that we never normally get and a ferret. Then another 34 mallards and 4 spoonies on Sunday. Just in a small un fed bit of water on the Clutha river.
Attachment 196640
This is pro works. It `s good to see it.
Sorry been busy running around trying to fit it all in before I fly out on Monday.
So opening morning saw 3 generations shooting from 14 to 92. I’m not the 92!! He is my mentor and showed me how it’s one back when I first picked up a shotgun. So very special to have another opening weekend with him.
I also started training up a young black lab that got his first two retrieves.
Ducks flew fine 23 opening day and 15 Sunday 4 on Monday morning was looking up at some incoming when a sitter of a pheasant went across the middle of the pond.
Not sure what’s up but can post any pics sorry.
We had one of the quietest opening weekends ever. Very few birds flying, blue skies and not even a breeze.
I think it was about 10:30 before i claimed my 1st duck, a full speed crosser at 45 to 50 m, very dead.
Everyone had a great time though.
And we all agreed that the 10 minutes spent duck plucking was pretty awesome to be honest :)
Shooting the swamp this morning. Mangaged 5 ducks for 7 shots on bismuth thru the old sxs. Such a hoot hitting them with the old gun.
A quick semi-related question..
Is bismuth okay to use in older shotguns that can't shoot steel shot?
Yes. I used bismuth in my 81 year old beretta s2 without issue. Was falcon #4 bismuth. Steel barrels. NOT DAMASCUS.
Here you go @Cigar Attachment 196728
Have a read through this. https://basc.org.uk/lead/guide-to-using-non-lead-shot/
The blue bit at the bottom is what’s is best to pay attention to.
Also it should state on the side of the ammo box what types of steel is used in the shot.
Sure is fine for old guns. I'm using my 1956 Stevens 311a. Of note it is smashing the ducks up a bit..maybe due to the choking of the gun. Shooting reloads atm. Haven't opened the Falcon box yet.
Thanks for the replies :thumbsup:
My shotgun (actually my father's) is a 50ish year old Zoli. It says nitro proved on the barrel, which apparently means it's okay for steel shot but not the high performance stuff.
It does have a stamp of what looks like a fleur de lis, but different from that Sideshow posted, it is inside a upside-down heart shape.
I'm pretty sure the bottom barrel is full choke, so I think I'll go with bismuth, but at $100/box I would probably be better off to buy a new shotgun!
Nah its not 100 a box. The Falcon stuff I paid 55 a box for
Fish city Hamilton had some for $60 a box when a friend went there not long ago..
14 Mallards tonight here in the Stormy ,Windy , Wet Manawatu !!
use lighter loads of smaller shot and DONT use rem hypersonic .....
gamebore/kent/winchester/falcon all do a 30-32grm loading and they all kill well...#3 is biggest you should use in tight chokes
doing these two things allow the shot to zip through without bridgeing....think bottleneck traffic jam...less traffic= easier to flow.
10 mallards and 1 parry tonight between two of us shooting maize stubble Tepuke.
My first season on F&G administered land. Seems it all happens in the first few hours of opening season then not too much going on. Is that about right?
Sure, hunting is hunting. Anything can happen and it did this evening. Quick detour to the maimai on the way to work and got these two at last light. Stoked!
https://i.ibb.co/rbP17z3/Hunting-Grey-Duck1.jpg
Last night in nz. Got 9 so my brother has to finish the bag job all plucked and singed. So will get on the plane smelling like plucked duck…..shore the other punters won’t mind……it’s only a 48hour round trip;):XD:
So awesome that we can turn our harvest in to this in under 15 minutes!
https://i.ibb.co/9pGWNzr/IMG-4775-3.jpg
I have been slack with reporting on my waterfowl season here. Life is pretty busy and knocking photos up on other social media platforms is just faster and easier a lot of the time unfortunately.
Our opening this year was adhoc last minute in an old spot that I used to shoot as our new maimai on the lake was out of bounds due to a botulism outbreak. The new plan worked out a treat and we had a cracker weekend with plenty of mallards decoying up close and ending up in the freezer.
I have had my 1 year old pup out for two of his first exposures at an easy spot I have pegged and he is going well. A lot more to do yet on his training and building experience. Luckily this rough weather we have had in the past couple of weeks has provided some wicked shoots. Some of the best mid season hunts I have had.
Anyways, I apologies for my laziness. Here his the link to where you can see all photos and posts in relation to the above. Hot barrels everyone.
https://www.facebook.com/Wild-NZ-107116317472729
Went for a hunt this morning, not a duck to be seen. 2 swans and a few geese well out of range. Pulled the pin and went to lake Rerewhakaaitu for a jump shoot but the lake is so low theres 30m beach so they see you well before your in range, that and the spur winged plovers squawking over head to warn all. Went into someone's maimai which is a new build on the waters edge with the old maimai behind at the edge of the beach/ scrub. Loads of geese and swans well out of range. Then gracefully a swan appeared 10m away and I was just about to jump up and do the Haka to get it to fly when in tow was 4 cygnets. Kinda cute white and not very old. Not a shot fired but a enjoyable few hours. Tomorrow another day another lake which looks to have some ducks on my drive past