Both Barrels July 2026 - North Canterbury

With the region having some wet/windy weather earlier in the month this has created more dabbling areas for waterfowl, this provides not only more habitat for birds to feed/roost on but a great opportunity for hunters and being the last week of the gamebird season for a lot of our species you can hunt (26^th July is the last day), get out for one last hunt as who knows, it might be your best hunt of the season!

Image above: Matthew Garrick takes a picture of dog Whio and the mallard collection after a great days hunting on Lake Ellesmere.

There are still some great opportunities out there for hunters to pursuit. Here are some options below:

• Californian quail may be harvested at up to 10 per day until 30^th August. The scrub margins of all our riverbeds are good options for this.

• Pukeko may be harvested at up to 5 per day until 30^th August. Although not targeting by most hunters, can make some great sport especially with a few hunters spread out.

• Cock Pheasant may be harvested at up to 1 bird per day over the first weekend of August (1^st-2^nd).
• Chukar may be harvested at up to 2 birds per day until 30^th August.

Don’t forget about the summer season for mallards and paradise shelducks, the mallard season is only the first two weekends of February 2027 (6^th-7^th) in Area B only and the paradise shelduck season starts February 6^th and ends March 14^th, 2027, in Area A and B.

Chris Brankin with a collection of mallards harvested just off the beaten track.

Do your bit to help the farmers

While Canada Geese aren’t on the game bird list, these are a great bird to hunt in the off-season.

It's very rewarding when everything comes together, as they can be quite challenging to hunt.

Not only do they provide some great shooting but good training for your dog, so when the 2027 season rolls around, your dog is going to perform well for you.

This will also keep farmers happy as Canada Geese are very destructive on grass/crops so you will also be doing them a favour as we don’t want goose numbers to get out of control.

We hope you all had a great hunting season and made some great memories.