Hullo from New Zealand

Tori

Tori

New member
I have the Epagneul Breton (French Brittany) and I hunt feather and fur over them. We have six weeks left of our gamebird season to go. We have the Ringneck Pheasant, and Californian Quail in these parts. In the South Island good isolated populations of Chukor are found. Our waterfowl season closed over the last weekend of June.
Last year the Canada goose was rom taken from the gamebird schedule and is now deemed a pest.
Looking forward to reading more of how you all do things over there.
 
Welcome Tori, and hellooooooo New Zealand:)

By the sounds of it you have a nice variety of game birds! Any pictures? We love pictures over here! lol

How do you hunt your pheasants over there? Walk and flush like we do in the U.S., or drive style as they do in Europe?
 
Welcome Tori. Look forward to seeing and hearing how you all do things over there. My wife's uncle is currently over there and has sent some pics of an outing or two.

Matt D
 
Welcome. Sure hope you get to be a regular here at UPH.
We know you guys down there have lots of good introduced critters to hunt.
Canada Geese have become known as pests here in Minnesota also.
 
Welcome to uph. When is nesting season down there? What's your limit on quail and what's an average covey size? How is the hunting access down there, is there public hunting land or all privately held? Sorry for all the questions but I bet we're all a bit curious.:cheers:
 
Wow, thank you for the welcome!
In my area (East Coast, North Island) our daily bag here is three ringneck roosters and 10 Californians; hens are an absolute no no...there does not seem to be the same numbers of Calies as in past years and I think our wet nesting seasons have contributed to that...we had had our annual rainfall by the end of April this year! Further up country, they tell me they have seen coveys of in excess of 100 birds...these are mostly on the volcanic country in cut over pines. Of the waterfowl, we can take 10 mallards (both sexes) a day.
I roughshoot...like you guys do and it suits the French Brittany too...he likes it!! We do have a number of preserves which are great for dog work if you can get to be a beater or finder.
Our gamebird/waterfowl overseer, if you like is the Fish and Game Council. It is this group which has boundaries in each province and to whom we pay our licences. Fish and Game, in consultation with the councils etc, sees that we licence holders have access to public land (for angling and shooting)...in my area, much of the pheasant and quail hunting in done up the rivers. And for many of us, having private land access is a privilege we are very careful to take good care of as I am sure you would all agree!
Most duck shooting is done on private land. We have what I consider a quirky little system here...most of our hides (maimai my-my) are permanent structures even on public land. The Sunday before Opening Day, guys with maimais have to peg their maimai...put up their name and licence tag on the maimai...if for some terrible reason they cannot have their maimai tagged that morning, anyone can come along and tag it as theirs for the season. As you can imagine this has led to the odd rough moment or two!!! There shall be no sleeping in on tagging day!!!
As part of the Fish and Game system, we can also apply for ballot blocks in any one of the numerous forests in our area...you do not know which blocks you are going to get...I have not found these blocks any good re numbers of birds but they do provide new country to have the dogs on.

I will now read the FAQs department and see how to put up some photos.

Thank you again for your warm welcome...
 
mymaimai26001-1-1.jpg


this is what a maimai looks like on site by the dam...I had the pleasure of havig this little dam for a couple of days...I had never been duckshooting before so it was a big learning curve...I will stay with the pheasants I think:thumbsup:

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this is an example of land we got to work over through the ballot block system


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there is nothing that equals following your little dog...
 
Interesting stuff Tori, Thanks for posting.
Can you tell us what the pheasant habitat is like?
 
I just watched a video on youtube of some guys hunting peafowl in New Zeland. Pretty neat stuff but what struck me was they said it was summer time and during nesting season. They even showed the dogs disturbing several ground nests of a few different birds.:mad: I hope your fish and game council doesn't take you guys the way of the British with poor game management practices that end up relying solely on released birds instead of managing wild populations and habitat.
 
Yes, Quail Hound, I have recently seen that video too and I do not mind telling you I was not happy with it...I will not go anywhere with my dogs during the courtship and nesting periods...what with rats and cats, ferrets and stoats, etc our gamebirds have enough pressure without anymore, in my opinion...in all things, there must be commonsense to override any gungho behaviours...I get somewhat annoyed by people who you would naturally consider to be more sensible...eeeeeeee!!!!!
 
Welcome Tori, so far away from most of us. We do have a Canadian lady who posts here from time to time. Until your post I knew nothing of bird hunting in NZ. Sounds nice. I hunt pheasant and bobwhite quail on the high plains of northwestern Kansas mostly. I usually start the season early with a trip or two to Nebraska or Dakota whose seasons start in October. Unfortunately, our drought is making things very questionable for this year's season.

Looking forward to your posts and photos about your NZ hunts. Below are photos of my Brittany.
 
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Tori said:
Yes, Quail Hound, I have recently seen that video too and I do not mind telling you I was not happy with it...I will not go anywhere with my dogs during the courtship and nesting periods...what with rats and cats, ferrets and stoats, etc our gamebirds have enough pressure without anymore, in my opinion...in all things, there must be commonsense to override any gungho behaviours...I get somewhat annoyed by people who you would naturally consider to be more sensible...eeeeeeee!!!!!
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear that this practice is frowned upon by sensible outdoors men like yourself.:cheers:

That sure was some pretty country they were hunting.
 
BritChaser said:
Welcome Tori, so far away from most of us. We do have a Canadian lady who posts here from time to time. Until your post I knew nothing of bird hunting in NZ. Sounds nice. I hunt pheasant and bobwhite quail on the high plains of northwestern Kansas mostly. I usually start the season early with a trip or two to Nebraska or Dakota whose seasons start in October. Unfortunately, our drought is making things very questionable for this year's season.

Looking forward to your posts and photos about your NZ hunts. Below are photos of my Brittany.
Click to expand...

Thank you, BritChaser...a number of people I know have tried rearing the Bobwhites...but the success rate is never overly high...I think seriously that it is because our bloodlines are now so close throughout the population...and of course, we can no longer import new bloodlines...maybe one day!!! We have a had an awful lot of rain these last few days...I wish I could send some to you all...

It has been so neat joining this forum...I have been looking at maps where your states are!!! What a huge country!! Pretty overwhelming for someone from this country!!! 2,277 kms from the northern tip to the southern most town! not counting the three hour ferry crossing in the middle!!
Our total land mass is 268,021 sq km!


Thank you for sharing your photographs of Gus...
 
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quail hound said:
I'm glad to hear that this practice is frowned upon by sensible outdoors men like yourself.:cheers:

That sure was some pretty country they were hunting.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Quail Hound, me an outdoors girl!!! Once upon a time, I would not have joined a hunting forum but now that I have the French dogs and my Beretta, I am obsessed with being out there and sharing experiences with everyone!! I find it extraordinary almost that we hunters do so much for the quarry...there is no malicious intent in it, is there...it is simply through our respect we feel the need to look after our precious gamebirds. I believe we here and in Australia could learn so much from you in your country about habitat etc.
Grew up in the high country, where we hunted and grew everthing we ate, so it all was pretty natural to the family to go hunting. We were taught to have the utmost respect for our quarry and never to waste anything. My father never shot gamebirds or waterfowl (although he shot thousands of deer (in the deer culling days in the early 1950's), but he was always pleased with my interest as long as I put something back.
 
Tori said:
I have been looking at maps where your states are!!! What a huge country!!
Click to expand...

Hunting the big open country on the high plains is a beautiful experience. You should come see for yourself.
 
My apologies Tori, hind sight being 20/20 I probably should've drawn that conclusion. Yes there is definitely something about upland/ waterfowl hunters especially I believe that makes us want to do something to make sure our sport (lifestyle) never dies and our love for the game we hunt demands respect.
 
BritChaser said:
Hunting the big open country on the high plains is a beautiful experience. You should come see for yourself.
Click to expand...

Britchaser, I was leant a video of Ben O Williams and said to myself I am going to go to that country, one day...not sure when, but I intend to!!!
 
Tori,

Welcome!! New Zealand is on my list of destinations-never knew there was upland hunting available. Hope to get there some day.

Ed
 
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