The weekend after opening weekend (delayed this year due to the pandemic) was scheduled to be my duck hunt for the season, as working night shifts doesn’t really work too well with the early starts required for the official opening weekend plans. Additionally, this year there was an extra dog in the maimai, and let’s face it, Teeva would have eaten him.
Our drive-by check of the local spot had us feeling excited and we raced home to eat a hasty lunch, pack some supplies and give Paul a hurry up due to the change in plans. I threw a few pregnancy necessities into the pack: antacids, pain relief and a back support belt; in addition to the head torch, extra layer of clothing and snacks. I noted that my fairly new hunting pants were not able to be done up and went for the second, more elasticated option. We bid farewell to Suzie, who was very kindly babysitting for us, grabbed a rather excited Teeva and headed off to set up.
Our first plan was to jump shoot a little backwater in a drain. Trying to stop the dog from losing her mind so the guys could get in close to get a shot was nearly impossible, and several times she got underfoot and yelped loudly. However, as soon as the shots were fired, I released her and she took off towards the action. Her first retrieve was a duck through the fence, and she knew to swim beneath the wires before finding it in the long grass and weeds and gently returning it to us.
With two in the bag already we proceeded to make a start on setting up a hide. With the site chosen, the decoys were placed and the hide constructed. James went to return the ute home and so Paul thought he would jump shoot the willows along from us. That netted us a nice mallard and a pukeko. Once back at the maimai it wasn’t long before a couple of mallards came in and were added to the bag. It also wasn’t long before our makeshift seat (a rubbish bin) was tested out by Paul, who promptly went right through it.
The block next door is one I have hunted quite a lot, and the farmer had often lamented the pukeko population as they destroyed the young crops. I went next door and saw them all perched in the willow trees. The numbers were astounding! The guys reported not being able to pull the trigger fast enough as the birds flew in, and said it was like being on a driven pheasant shoot. One fell fairly close to me so I walked over with the intention of bringing it back – however it was still alive. After failing to reach it I called Teeva over. She swam towards me, and after some initial excitement, followed the instructions to go underneath the netting fence and around, which flushed it to me for capture and humane dispatch.
She and I were walking up the road to get back to our spot when some shots rang out – off she went, back through the netting, drains and blackberry to go and be part of the action. No loyalty, that dog.
There was a bit of a quiet patch towards the middle of the afternoon, so we headed back down the paddock to the backwater, noting with amusement a paradise duck pair running towards our decoys as we left. I held Teeva back while James and Paul sneaked in close, then up came the barrels and down came a couple more mallards. We couldn’t find either bird. One went down out in the barley crop and one under the willows. Teeva searched hard for the bird under the willows, but to no avail. I had James call her over to where he was standing by the crop, and she honed in on the scent of the duck very quickly. It was wounded and had been hiding in the long grass in the fenceline, but flushed through to the other side when Teeva found it. She quickly went through the fence and caught it, gently returning it to James for finishing off. The second duck was found as well, stone dead and floating in the water. The initial search had been in the wrong area and we were pleased to have found it.
Back at the maimai a few more mallards decoyed in and were taken. Two mallards came in beautifully and were both dropped quickly next to each other. Teeva tried to pick up both birds at once but couldn’t quite manage! A water rat was spotted traversing the water in the fading light and was gifted some pellets from Paul’s shotgun. We initially couldn’t work out what he was shooting at, just noticed him slyly lift his barrel. We laughed when he said what it was.
We headed on home, weary and muddy, to find the most delicious smells wafting from the kitchen door. After dinner James and I went to another couple of blocks we had permission to hunt, but this time he had the 7mm Rem Mag and I had the .17HMR. You know, just in case. We spotted a sambar on the first block but it was already on the move, and further searching was disappointingly fruitless.
A bit discouraged, we headed off to the next block and the spotlight suddenly illuminated pairs of green eyes amongst the trees. James took the prone position and had a look through the scope. There were three animals there but the spotlight was just letting us down, and he couldn’t say with certainty that they were deer. It was frustrating.
“Arghhh, I could shoot them a hundred times over….!!!”
We turned off the lights for a bit and waited. We could hear snapping twigs and I was sure the sound of antler hitting wood.
Looking at the clear starlit sky I whispered: “This could almost be romantic. If we weren’t lying in a muddy paddock.”
When we put the light back on, a pair of green eyes stared at us.
We had confirmation from the owners that the blocks were all empty, but weren’t going to break the golden rule, so no shots were fired. We made a plan to return with a stronger spotlight next time we had a babysitter.
I spotted a consolation rabbit in the crop and the .17 didn’t have the spotlight mount, so I handed the light to James and lined up on it. I promptly lost visibility due to the bright light reflecting in the scope.
“You need to be next to me with that light!!”
“Turn your headtorch off ya dick!”
Rookie.
The rabbit was running around and so was the beam of light, and my shot was a failure.
As we headed back towards home I wanted to look at another usual spot for rabbits but James had the light and I just couldn’t see well enough with all the shadows being cast. So three more rabbits got away which really annoyed me. Eventually I snatched the light him, found a rabbit and shot it through the shoulder, dropping it instantly. It was nice to have a little victory to cap off a fantastic day’s hunting and the first of what is planned to be a little annual tradition for us.
Shoot the moon 