Both Barrels May 2024 - Eastern

Hunting has been tricky in Eastern - with clear skies and windless.

As much of the productive hunting areas are coastal, the flat seas have seen rafts of ducks hiding out there and not entering inland during legal hunting hours.

The “normal” post opening weekend patterns of birds moving early to mid-morning for food and resting spots – along with being moved on by farmers doing their rounds – also hasn’t really occurred. Many hunters are reporting varying times of movement with some flights being late morning – with multiple reports of limits obtained during the very late morning.

With the calmer weather, there have been good flights during that last half hour of daylight – but the ducks are wary of aggressive calling and often dropping into the smaller tighter water spots.

Good numbers of swans have been harvested, along with the occasional Canada geese. We haven’t as yet had much reported about upland game – but with the brisk calm mornings, it’s certainly worth a crack if your duck hunting possies aren’t firing.

Tips

Best tips for the last two weeks of the duck hunting season – minimal decoys, less calling and setting up on small water.

Of note, the hunting season doesn’t finish with the mallards (3^rd June) – parries carry on until the end of June (30^th), with swans, Pukeko and upland game going through until the end of August (25^th). Plenty of opportunity for a walk about and good meat for the pot, or salami.

Importantly to remember, the joy should be in the doing, not the getting.

Oh, and for those wanting to know, only 347 more days (20^th May) until 2025 opening day (3rd May)!