Dad got 4 ducks on Saturday morning, being as calm as a millpond it wasn't exactly the best duck weather. Sunday (yesterday) he got another limit. I picked Tim and Quinn up and we headed down to the first Sunday syndicate shoot at Lakelands. It was well done, really well done, beaters and pickers were superb, the birds were well presented and I started with a nice double, then another, and from the first drive ended with 5 birds from 7 shots. Then it all got a bit more challenging (understatement). Tahi's Woods was epic. The birds came thick and fast. So many that recalling was hard... I remember getting a high double, but i also pricked quite a few birds. Rex Murray was on an elevated spot behind me and later told me that the difference between the birds I was killing, and the ones I was pricking was about 10 feet in elevation, not that I could tell. I looked down at one stage and saw a carpet of empties, I fired 57 shots for maybe 15 birds down. Including a white pheasant, one of Johnno's "marker birds". Ehem. A bottle of bubbly rested on that bird, but it was one of 5 shot on the day.
On partridge. Now this is a fun game bird. They fly low and fast, come in on set wings at epic pace and are my new favourite game bird. Having never shot at them before. At Lusitanicus I suddenly had 4 coming my way. All I really remember was these 4 small missiles with stub wings Rocketing over the rise and screaming at me all jinking and weaving. Seeing the shooting line they put on afterburners. I swung on one that suddenly peeled perpindicular to the line and fired, feathers puffed and I had my first partrdge! Soon after, another came wizzing past and I got him with the second shot. To give an idea of the speed of these things, the second bird fell 25m behind me. Admitidly I was on a slight rise and the land fell away behind me, but hell! these things have rockets in their bums. After the drive I went out to pick up my first bird. The gun beside me asked what i was looking for and when I told him, he pointed out my dead bird 3 m from where he was standing! Some 15 m from where I was looking.
It was a great day, nice to meet some new people, Brad Gwynn in particular is a nice guy, and good to have a contact inside the Big B. Lunch was superb, organisation was superb, in fact it was all superb.
347 Pheasants & 6 partridge. And a feral cat.
On ducks. We all knew that the forecast for Monday (today) is NE Gales and "Extreme Gales" (forgive me for not knowing how to differentiate between gales and extreme gales) and Rick was already talking about this on Friday when we spoke. He was trying his best to get a crew together to go in to the ponds; AJ had already used his get out of jail card and needed to work today; Jason couldn't go; The Big V seemed to be wavering but must have fallen through; and in Tim we thought we had a shining ray of light. But nup, he couldn't do it either. As I write I expect Rick is blamming away at mallards. Hope its going well.
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