Thread: Wellington region hunter survey

Originally Posted by prattpoint

I kayak the Rangitikei river from vinegar hill (directly opposite to a game preserve) to bulls every season and the preserve birds have only made it directly across the river and are a huge pest to the organic chicken farmer directly opposite eating out of his feed troughs in droves he lets anyone shoot them who is interested, Even on a pest license, They are so obviously not a wild pheasant and I don't shoot them.

Interesting as its quite the opposite here. By the end of the season the estate birds have been driven many times, and dogged back in multiple times also. They are so wild that they won't lie for a pointing dog. Also, I remember a F&G write-up a while back reported wing tagged birds released at Equine being shot at Matata in the same year. That's quite a hike

The rest of the river still holds the same moderate numbers of wild birds that were always there (I have checked every piece of riverbed available)

And that's the difference I suspect. The Rangatikei prior to Rathmoy never was lousy with them, as opposed to the country up here which can happily support more birds. It interesting that so many people blame low bird numbers on over shooting, pests etc. when I firmly believe that many of these spots are actually at carrying capacity. I think Rangatikei is one of those spots. Good on you for inspecting the whole riverbed though! Never can be sure

F&G is trying to promote getting birds in close to be killed cleanly and humanely and preserves openly advertise high flying shooting and I understand it takes 7-8 shots per bird on a drive , Why don't people put a 1000 deer in a small paddock and drive them with dogs towards awaiting guns that might be popular too

Driven deer is great fun, don't knock it until you try it

Who are we to judge another mans sport? Shall we attack the inhumane elements of pig hunting and fishing too? While driven shooting its not my cup of tea I would never speak out against it. As hunters and shooters, solidarity is important, the antis would have us if we all started fighting amongst ourselves. I don't like the AR15 craze going on at the moment and I'll never own one, but I would never try and stop someone owning one if they chose to. There are too many other factions out there who would happily take it all away, it would be terrible if we were our own undoing!

you make some good points there pointer I always wonder why matt Watson cant stick a pig on tv to kill it but can weave a hook through a live fish and throw it back in the sea to catch a larger fish. Or why the driven swan culls attract such negative publicity when its the same as a pheasant drive with a different bird. The pheasants on the Rangitikei that hold for point more often are the ones on the untouched slabs of riverbed that can only really be accessed by kayak the areas with easy vehicle access are totally different some will flush 100m in front of me just from the sound of a dog working the cover even without a bell and minimal whistle use.