here are a few photos of our opening




my 2 1/2 year old weimaraner Quinn



dogs working out in front of the maimai



Jack bringing back another one



some more birds



Abby the 10 year old lab posing.this may be her last year which is a real bummer as she is a brilliant retriever



somebody forget on hold to the punt



all up we shot 155 birds with nearly an even split between parries and real ducks and also one goose that came in on saturday night.we only shot til about 10 am on sunday due to the lack of birds but all in all it was a good weekend with a few more mallards being shot compared to previous years

Looks like you had a good weekend,what are the bag limits like down your way?? many geese down there??

the bag limit for mallards was reduced from 12 to 10.parries is still 10.canada's limit is twenty with 24 hour shooting allowed.the geese didn't really stick there nose in this year.only the one was shot on dark.we usually have them there first thing in the morning or around 6:30 at night.last year we took out 10 which was a good effort considering we couldn't really see them

WOW

looks like there are a few birds down your way jimmy well done
a lot of guys really struggled to get amongst them from what i've heard

my mate Derryn dropped these photos off this afternoon of last years effort

Gidday Jimmy,

I only got one goose also on opening.



I had a great day on parries also and the old greenheads only accounted for 5 of the 13 ducks shot on saturday morning with 5 parries 2 spoonies and a grey. That is not my usual mix which is normally 90% mallards.

It was a funny old season opening alright as the weather on sunday we had a norwester blow, a noreast and a southerly in between but still good shooting all through.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

down here in the northern wairarapa, well where was
trying to shoot ducks on the old mans farm was a little tragic. went around all the dams looking for ducks in total we saw 5 parries, and got a pair. and 2 mallards. bit pathetic considering last year we would put 30 odd up off dams and when we were feeding them a few years back it was common to see 50+ together.

on the other hand up in hunterville where my brother works they were shooting parries on a crop, between 12 of them they got 70 in a hour and said there was atleast a thousand parries

we tend to get a lot of parries around our pond.we had the special season back in march that 6 of us went out on and bagged 70 for the day.we are not really that keen on the special season as it could wreck things for the main season but with 400+ parries and around 75 canadas during molting the cocky said that if something wasn't done then the pond would be filled in and then we all lose out

G'day boys,
I am flying over in a few days with a few of the boys, are there many birds on either Ellesmere or Forsyth? How does one get onto some private property to hunt birds? Are Parries and Shovelers harder to find, it sounds like most guys concerntrate on the Geese and Mallards? Any advice or hints would be appreciated as this will be my first time wingshooting in your beautiful country! Thanks, Dave.

Gidday Dave,

Give me a ring on 03 3392493 when you arrive as there are tons of shoveller parries mallards and canadas at Ellesmere and we have a number of good hides there.

The weather is the deciding factor for success out there and if we can get a good southerly blast through you will have a blast. Also a norwester works well.

Give us a ring

Happy Hunting

Hamish

Thanks a ton Hamish, will talk soon, I can hardly wait to have a crack at those birds mate.
I think I land in Christchurch about 2pm wednesday, so I'll call after all the customs stuff and that. Thanks again buddy. Dave

Waidmannsheil

G'day all,
Well I made it to the majestic sth island and back in one piece, what a great country. We all mananaged to bag a few ducks and had a ball. I'd just like to take this oppurtunity to thank Hamish. This bloke is an absolute gentleman, on the shorest of short notices, he happily came out before dawn, picked us up from the pub, take us out to his top spots where he hunts and showed us around. Thankyou so much Hamish, without your help we would have really struggled to get a shoot, the three days you spent with us showing us around was the best thing that we could have hoped for, and we will forever be grateful! We are now very much looking forward to coming to shoot opening with you guys next May!! If ever you decide to pop over to Melbourne, we will all be at your service buddy. Sorry we missed you on the way out, I will call you soon when I know you are back from the south. Thanks a million again mate, you really are a champ!!
Dave.

Are you at home yet Hamish?

Gidday Dave,

Yep I'm home now. Freezing but thawing out in front of the fire.

I will store your stuff here until it's needed next year. Glad you had a good time mate. There were plenty of deer and possums on the coast but they told me they knew I had arrived back because it started raining again as soon as I arrived.

Then it started snowing down to sea level so we bugged out. It still took a day and a half to do a trip that normally takes seven and a half hours. There was too much ice on the road.

All fun though.

Happy Hunting

Hamish