Get out there, duck hunters

Rotorua's Adam King will be trying out a new spot this game bird season, which opens this weekend.

Mr King and other Rotorua hunters are gearing up for the opening day of the season tomorrow. Mr King has been shooting ducks since he was five and said he was all set up for opening day.

The 31-year-old said he and a few mates would be trying out a new spot this year, a maimai on Lake Rerewhakaitu. He was also "embracing technology" and had bought some new camouflage gear. This however, didn't extend to buying the new roboduck motorised decoys but he said he had a good set of normal decoys.

Mr King hasn't done much practice shooting to get his eye in and said he would be "going in cold turkey".

"You can't eat a clay target."

He was optimistic about the number of birds around this season.

"It looks pretty promising and there's a good amount of water on the lake."

He said he enjoyed duck shooting with the whole build-up, anticipation and getting out on the day. "There's the usual talking bull with your mates."

Hamills Rotorua manager Wayne Mackie will also be out shooting at Reporoa and he says getting together with his mates is what it is all about.

He had heard from hunters there were good numbers of birds around especially paradise shelducks and mallards. Hunters had been slow in making their hunting purchases but he said it had picked up in the last week. He was expecting a very busy couple of days leading up to opening day. Mr Mackie said there was however one problem - the supply of steel ammunition was in short supply.

Popular items were the range of roboduck mechanised decoys. "Roboducks with the revolving wings have always been a good seller." Weather was another important factor and Mr Mackie was hoping for good weather and wanted to see windy conditions to get the birds down.

Both he and Mr King said the only tip they could give hunters was "safety first and don't mix firearms and alcohol".

The Metservice weather forecast for opening day isn't too promising. Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty can expect morning fog or low cloud then fine conditions. Fish and Game Eastern Region said it was too tough to predict how well the game bird season was shaping up - with some species thriving but question marks over others. They are also appealing to the more than 40,000 bird hunters to focus on "safety first" ahead of the 2012 season. Fish and Game chief executive Bryce Johnson said recent deer hunting fatalities were a tragic reminder of the importance of firearms safety. "I encourage all those hunters heading out on Saturday morning to take a few minutes to refresh themselves with the seven golden rules of firearms safety in the Arms Code."

These can be found on: www.fishandgame.org.nz/newsitem/safety-first-game-season.

See tomorrow's The Daily Post for a special report on duck shooting.