I had a hard time hunting a nice Black Swan in South Island of New Zealand....these birds are very clever and sit way out in the open water most of the time. After three days of hard hunting finally got a nice mature bird.


A huge reserve in South Island, New Zealand......with areas set aside for hunting. Black Swans would come and sit out in the open water.




Bunch of New Zealand Scaup with 2 nice Black Swans.




The white-tips on the wings are spectacular in flight !!!



Swans are huge and are a bitch to skin (especially the long neck), I spent couple of hours skinning him in a cold freezing garage the day I got him...still reminds me of grey, cold, wet, numb, New Zealand days

Wow. Dream fodder. Amazing. As usual.

Couple questions, please: are they as big as they look? Approximate weight? Shot size?

Are you a taxidermist? Do you know how to properly skin/prep fowl? Reason I ask is because a couple of buds I know brought back birds that were not properly handled in warm weather, and were ruined. Taxidermy guy said that if he knew how to skin and salt the bird o site, even if there wasn't any proper refrigeration, duck skins could have been very much mountable. I've skinned plenty of critters big and small, and while I'm sure some are MUCH better than others, I'm pretty confident that with some knowledge, a scalpel and a little time I could get it done. I dunno. Thoughts appreciated.

In 2008, we went to NZ. After I killed my stag and 2 tahr, I had a day to kill. I spotted a flooded paddock full of waterfowl including many black swans and Canada geese. I inquired and went to the farmer's house that owned the property . He was shooting at them with a rifle from about 500 yards. He was happy to have me shoot them.

I took a small length of fence wire and wove some bushes into it. I put it up with a 5 gallon bucket in the middle to sit in. I got my gear and waited.

This day proved to be amazing. First, the paradise ducks came. If i recall correctly, I shot 11. The ducks slowed. I was cold when I noticed the first swans returning. They came in 1's and 2's. I got every one that I shot at with one exception and I hit it. I think I took 21 of these swans.

Words cannot describe how big they are. My guess is 22-25 pounds each. Definitely larger than our gobblers here. When one is falling your way, you get out of the way.

I was pretty pumped, it was getting late and the swans had stopped. I started to pick up. I looked up and couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a major flock of Canadian geese. Flock after flock poured in. I started hammering them. If i remember correctly, I took 19 geese.

What an afternoon. I will never forget it.

As an FYI, there are so many in places that the government kills them. The week after I left, 1600 geese were culled in that single valley.

Good post!

@Kamo Gari
I believe I used #2, worked fine. They are about 4 ft long head to tail, weight about 16 pounds. Taxidermy....No, I am not a taxidermist. But I have learned to skin birds in the field. The scenario that you described could have been avoided if one of the guys knew how to skin and prep the birds in the field. I can't tell you how many butchered birds from NZ I have seen because they were not prepped right. Stay tuned for a new comprehensive post about birds of NZ.

@larryshores
Thanks for sharing your awesome experience. You must have hit the jackpot for them. When I went to NZ everyone told me... you won't have any problems getting a swan. Well, I wanted the perfect swan, the dagga boys of all swans...and that took a bit of time.

Nice photos thanks ,i doubt if there is another bird hunter in the world with your experience .