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Central South Island > Hunting News May 2007
Opening day duck harvest down on last year.
After a promising wet week with the best rainfall for at least two months, duck hunters were hoping for a continuation for the 5th but it was not to be. Scattered high cloud and mild still conditions prevailed. By mid morning the sun was shining and while there were some wonderful photograph opportunities, autumn colours reflected on glassy ponds and lakes, conditions for duck hunting were far from ideal. In the still conditions the ducks were not fooled by stationary plastic replicas set to lure them in range.
Hunters’ tallies were less then half for those who had shot in the same locations the previous year. All hunters spoken to talked of the large numbers of birds seen prior to opening day and were patiently waiting for at least a few more of these to show.
Similar stories were heard on the coast and mid district. Sunday was a better day assisted by a wind which appeared but only enough to ripple the surface of duck ponds and lakes. The wind velocity was no where near strong enough to shift birds from places of refuge to seek shelter elsewhere. As was the case on Saturday the sun shone and the temperature climbed up into the mid twenties in places.
In one area several good ponds were not shot and these soon filled with ducks. This was blamed for some low tallies in the general locality and if the hunters don’t do anything about it for next weekend then they can expect the same. Some ponds had been fed with impressive weights of grain, one as much as an 1500 kilograms of barley. Prior to the season, each evening the pond filled with ducks but when it mattered most less than 25% of the well fed birds arrived. This makes the ducks harvested rather expensive and this hunter will not feed next season to see what difference there will be. As he said if “I don’t get any ducks then at least I know feeding is required, this way I have a gauge”. If his duck harvest is similar without feeding he will be saving himself a lot of money and a lot of work carting and spreading feed every day.
Compliance
Law enforcement officers were out on opening day, most reported good compliance. However there is always someone breaking the law. 4 firearms were seized. One hunter had failed to purchase a licence and the other three were using lead shot over a water body. 5 notices were issued for failing to produce a current licence on demand. Time will tell if these hunters in fact have left their licences at home on the mantel or whether they in fact “forgot” to purchase one.
Hunters need to brush up their techniques.
Rangers are in a good position to observe hunters in the field. Unfortunately many hunters don’t do as well as they should and for some it is purely poor hunting techniques. The most obvious is their inability to use a duck call. There would be few rangers who could not tell the difference between a duck caller and a real duck. There are many instruction tapes available which provide the basics. Some duck calls are packaged with an instruction tape, these are invaluable if you’re not sure what you should be doing.
The use of decoys is an important part of duck hunting. The most obvious fault with decoys are those which are in need of some maintenance, mostly a new paint job. Setting decoys in such a way to entice birds into gun range does not happen by accident. It is important to have them positioned in such a way that they fly within range of the hunter. Certain patterns work better than scattering decoys all over the pond. “U” or “V” formations are simple and effective. Having the bulk of the decoys at the point of the “V” or closed end of the “U” will usually lure your target to fly into the open end and land at the closed end. This ploy works well as long as the landing place is well within gun range and the formations point into the wind.
Despite good “camo” clothing being available there are hunters who believe either they can’t be seen or that ducks aren’t that clever. Waterfowl have excellent vision and unlike mammals can distinguish colours. Hands and face cover are most often forgotten and reflected light from skin is visible long distances. Law enforcement staff will agree when out ranging that when looking for hunters, although the hide may be well disguised and blend with surrounding vegetation, uncovered faces and hands immediately indicate their position, to the rangers and of course the ducks.
Steel shot.
It was pleasing to hear hunters actually saying how good non toxic ammunition (steel) is. They have mostly agreed that to be successful economy steel loads won’t do the job well. Paying a little more for high velocity shot shells pays obvious dividends. However there is one problem which is becoming evident. Ducks shot but able to swim away have caused problems due to large shot with sparse patterns not being good at hitting the small target, the ducks head, as it makes its escape. In the USA “swatter loads” are recommended for this job. “Swatter loads” are smaller diameter non toxic shot loads which provides the density required. #6 shot should do the trick however the availability of #6 steel is not good with most retailers stocking #4 shot and larger, up to BB.
Shoot the season not just opening day.
With a slow opening there are still a lot of uneducated ducks out there and opportunities for hunting in better conditions will arise. Fish and Game officers hope that hunters will be keen enough to shoot throughout the season and not just the opening weekend. More hunters in the field mean more ducks moving providing more opportunities.
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