Hawke's Bay> Hunting News October 08

Junior pheasant days highly successful
Text and photos by Brad Parkes, HB Councillor

During the extended season in September for junior hunters on pheasant preserves, the Hawke’s Bay Fish & Game council organised two consecutive Sundays on the 1000ha Glencoe Game Preserve.

The invitation to host junior hunters had come much earlier through Colin Lindsay (land owner) and Simon Dickie of Simon Dickie Adventures when the HB Council hosted the NZ Council and visited Glencoe in May 2007.  At that stage, the bare bones of a hunter training programme had begun!

The hunter training programme, such as it was, determined that it would be easier and simpler if the participants had access to a shotgun, parental support (supervision and transport), and preferably some shooting experience – and what better candidates than the secondary schools shooting teams at Hastings, Karamu, Lindisfarne, Napier and Wairoa colleges.

Juniors learning to leave the hen pheasant.

Initially we had hoped to put a shoot on each Sunday in September but the sheer logistics were overwhelming.  Minders, beaters, drivers of 4WD transport around the preserve, dog handlers:  they were all volunteers.  We just couldn’t ask them to be available every weekend.  A rough calculation put three support personal to every one shooter. So we reduced the shoots to two days.

This caused a problem in that with the support personal that was available, we could accommodate only 12 to 14 shooters, split into two ‘teams’ of 6 or 7, each shoot day.  We were seriously over-subscribed as shooting team members numbered over 60.  We had no choice than to hold a ballot, asking the schools to nominate members and then drawing names from a hat.

Local retailers were approached for sponsorship, primarily ammunition, and we were delighted with the response from Cameron Sports (Winchester and Ridgeline), Crafty’s Rods & Guns,  Dave Hern Fishing and Shooting Outfitters, Hamils and Hunting & Fishing.

 
A successful drive. Guns, helpers and dog handlers

We couldn’t have asked for better weather on both shoot days.  Glorious.  Hastings, Karamu and Lindisfarne representatives were first up, Napier and Wairoa the following Sunday, split into the two ‘teams’ and given different coloured vests.  Each team would get to shoot three drives, turn about, until the six drives were complete.  When the boys were not on the mark, they were beating. A catered lunch awaited all after the third drive.

A convoy of 4WD’s took the boys, beaters, minders, dog handlers, mums and dads out onto the property to each drive where Colin Lindsay set the boys and their minder on the mark and we awaited developments through the approaching line of beaters.  ‘Blue sky only’ was the over-riding safety call.

 
Plenty of blue sky behind the bird…. Now its Bird vs Boy!!

While the regular season had seen some memorable bags taken, there were still plenty of birds put up for the boys to shoot at.  For our shoot, it was a cocks only affair, this having some advantage to the preserve shoot in reducing the number of cocks that might otherwise lead hens off the property.

It would be fair to say that having your target fly towards you, rather than away, shooting ‘gun down’ and the pheasant travelling two to three times quicker than a clay target, caught all the boys out initially, but during the second drive for both teams, on both days, it was noticeable that more birds were being bagged. For many of the boys, this was their first exposure to gamebird hunting.

If the hollering and yelling was anything to go by the beating was almost as much fun as the shooting, and it certainly gave the boys the full perspective of preserve shooting.

 
The line of beaters pushing through to the end of the drive.

At each days end, all the boys had at least a pheasant to take home and memories to last a lifetime.

From Fish and Game’s perspective, as an introduction to hunter training, the days were a resounding success.  Other preserves have shown an interest in hosting similar shoots and should they come on board, will take a lot of pressure off Glencoe and their particular set of support staff, as well as enabling us the introduce a larger number of juniors to gamebird hunting.

 
Napier and Wairoa boys show their success!!

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