Week 1: Part II

Having got home on Tuesday afternoon for a family visit and a quick clean up, I had most of Wednesday to sort out gear and food for the second half of the week. I loaded the boat and truck and got on the road mid-morning to avoid traffic. Arriving at the swamp at 12.30 I found dad and Larry pottering around and setting up. We had a quick beer and welcomed Larry into the party (replacing Tim) before I hauled a set of decoys out and got set up in The Park. After that I nipped over to hunt with the old guys in the Puru pond.

Old buggas

Larry had his lab pup Tonga along and before too long we had a retrieve for him.

From memory we hung 3 birds up that evening. Then back to the hut for a meal, beers and I had a wee kip prior to firing up the boat and going to pick up Mitch at 9.30. He had Brutus and Ruby in tow and soon we were heading downriver to the hut. We sat around having a few drinks and a catch up before hitting the hay.

Dad's stupid alarm clock went off at 4.30 on Thursday morning, but no one stirred so I hung around in my warm sleeping bag until just before 5 then got up, brewed some good coffee and got the breakfast stuff laid out. Mitch and I hit the pond early and sat around waiting for legal shooting time. In the minutes leading up, ducks buzzed us so we were quite confident of a reasonable shoot. The first bird was taken just after 06.30 and then we had steady shooting all morning.

Brutus with a Shoveler hen

 

Ducks came in small numbers at reasonable intervals, and after a break in the early afternoon to build a rat trap we returned to the pond and collected a few more birds in the late afternoon to round out an excellent day with a dozen. That evening Larry had to return to Tauranga to take care of some farm business, so Mitch and I pulled the decoys from The Park - we'd shoot with dad in the morning.

At sparrow's fart, Mitch, dad and I were ready and waiting in The Puru pond maimai, with a solid spread of good decoys in front of us. We had a couple of good flurries and when we picked up at 9 am there were 5 ducks added to the tally.

Final tally from the ponds for week 1 was just over 200 birds, a very pleasing return.

We pulled out of the swamp and headed our separate ways - Mitch and I would catch up later that night at Craig's, but not before I returned to the smoke, ditched my duck gear, loaded my pheasant gear and then set off across town to pick up Hendrik. We then had to detour out to AJ's place to grab some prizes that he and Beretta NZ had donated. The weather was pretty shitty for driving and of course we got stuck behind a truck that didn't want to pull over and let the stream of traffic pass. We hit Craig's in the early evening and met up with Jim, a visitor from Canada along with Craig and another bloke whose name I can't remember. Hendrik whipped us up some steak and sausages and then we settled back to await Mick and Mitch who arrived to complete the shooting party. I'd nabbed a bed so slept well, and was up at 7am. It was Hendrik who spotted the group of fallow deer first; so we quickly arranged ourselves for a hunt. I was on back up gun to Hendrik. The deer moved nicely over a brow from where we saw them and gave us a chance to high tail it up to them and finally to arrive at the lip of a bowl where they were feeding. At Hendrik's shot the deer bolted, but he was certain of a hit on the buck he'd been going for. I headed up the ridge to check for a blood trail while he headed down and then... wrench... as I swung my leg over a gate, the knee I'd aggravated in the swamp clicked out. I didn't quite hit the ground, but I knew that I had a long limp back to the house where I self medicated and strapped the knee. That SOB knee has had repaired cartilage but is prone to going out of alignment - not that that had happened for a few years.

We couldn't locate a blood trail so Craig decided that we'd hunt pheasants until late afternoon, and then go looking for the deer. The day was almost perfect, with a slight but chilly breeze, sun in the sky and within m of leaving the car a cock bird went up. I missed, twice. I ad a bit of a giggle but that really set the tone of the morning as far as my shooting was concerned... behind and over. Not getting my cheek down. We worked the swamp area and I limped my way though hoping that the knee would improve (it did). Craig and Hendrik were on fire, while Mick worked over Heidi and got his birds nice and close. Mitch and I had chances but didn't connect. Back home for lunch of soup, smoked marlin and toast and then reinvigorated, we got back out there. The first drive was through a gorse ridden gulley where we'd seen no less than 6 cocks and a hen run into. We pincer moved it and birds flushed in all directions. I took a nice cock bird at doistance, Mitch dropped a beauty and with the others chimed in also, so only 1 bird escaped. Later we worked over cover crops where I promptly missed a sitter, then came right on a bird that ditched out the back and got a screamer that came downhill on set wings before making the fatal mistake of flaring up where my #6's found him. The next couple of hours were spent working through kale and I managed a final bird. Hendrik captured a nice video of one bird that none of us could pull on due to an unsafe line of fire.

The last bird of the day went to Mitch, who had worked Brutus patiently all day and was rewarded with an utter screamer - a very pleasing result. We lined the birds up for a photo session.

Yup, that's a turkey. There was a special prize for her...

Brilliant end to the first week of the hunting season, and with weather on the way it could be greatr hunting conditions by friday.....