BE AN AMBASSADOR FOR THE FUTURE

OPINION David McNabb

Picture this….it was late afternoon, heading into the evening of the opening day of the last duck opening. My hunting partner and I were on a shallow, open wetland with one other hunter. We had a gun dog, as did the other hunter. We had set up to take advantage of the natural cover, the last of the light as the sun dipped below the timber at the far edge of the wetland, and we spaced out to cover the expected duck flight path. As a flight of ducks passed without a shot, the other hunter called out to my mate, asking why he left the teal pass. His answer: “I don’t want to shoot the young birds”. You see, my hunting partner had seen some teal pitch in earlier; he’s a pretty experienced bird hunter and had picked up they were birds of the year, fully feathered and flew, but not much size to them. They were not good eating birds, and restraint by the hunter left those young birds to grow and contribute to the breeding.

Recently, we wrote about being ambassadors in the context of the recently announced game bird seasons - Victoria and now South Australia. I was talking with some people about what that means in practice. This article comes from those discussions, and the purpose of the article is to share some ideas. There’s no definitive do or don’t list, aside from the obvious, which is to follow the law and our code of conduct. And ‘do the right thing’…whatever does that mean? It usually comes wrapped in a dose of restraint.

There are steps we can take in our duck and quail hunting that help us slow things down when it all starts to happen, and the birds are pouring into your decoys, or the dog is onto quail, and you’re getting a wild flush of birds in the paddock.

Let’s start with the problems that can arise in the field; pretty much all can be addressed with simple tactics. That’s not to say it’s easy. Any keen hunter has a passion for the game they are hunting, and that often means reacting to a scenario that unfolds in seconds.

Wounding, lost birds, shooting before legal time, shooting protected species, the list becomes long. There are a lot of words typed that relate wounding to legal start times. Wounding happens when someone pulls the trigger with the barrels swinging through the bird in flight. It’s as simple as that, and the hunter is responsible for making the call to pull the trigger. No one else is involved in that decision to pull the trigger.

I’ve heard a lot over the years about shooting early. That’s the polite way of describing the act of shooting before legal time. And it’s a reminder that shooting early, before legal time, on opening morning is the same as shooting outside the season. This point is made to keep the concept of being a good ambassador simple and clear.

Shooting before legal time requires the hunter to make a string of discrete decisions; every decision is a set that could invoke the illegal action of shooting before time. The hunter has cartridges in their gun, they choose to close the gun, they spot a bird and choose to take the shot, they then choose to put the gun into their shoulder, and finally, we’re at something like the fifth decision now, they take the shot.

There are numerous opportunities to let the bird pass as the clock approaches opening time.

“But the other hunter shot early…”

So what? There is nothing better than the hunter who shoots early getting an earful from everyone else on that wetland. It's not a great hunting experience for anyone; the premature shooter gets the message.

Here’s another scenario; I was in a duck hunting blind on the third day of an interstate hunting trip. It was Sunday, a bit quieter than the opening day the day before. My hunting partner had to head home the previous afternoon. We had arranged this hunt, both of us with young, inexperienced gun dogs. The plan we put into place was for one of us to hunt, the other to work their dog, and then we would swap. That way, we had good hunting and would work on that critical transition for our dogs from training to the excitement of the real thing. And we could put it all together so that we would enjoy the experience, the dogs too.

This quiet spell was one of those times when you get a good chance to look around and think about our hunt. Two days previously, we had set out decoys, and my hunting partner asked if I minded that he put a bamboo stake in the spread. It marked 25 metres, and he said, “I shoot all my birds inside that marker.” And we did, and we had a great hunt, missed a few, had some great retrieves from our young, excitable dogs, and gradually built a bag. Taking turns to hunt slowed things down, and we could both enjoy the hunting, the dog work, the wetland, and our company.

It was simply a case of putting principles from the Shotgunning Education Program into practice. Except my hunting partner hadn’t attended the program; for him it was simply the effective hunting practices he had developed over many years. It meant a better hunt, and he brought home the birds he had shot. It was a fantastic weekend of hunting on an amazing wetland with old friends and many people we met for the first time in camps.

Every jurisdiction brings specific obligations, different times, species that can be hunted, and bag limits. Part of the enjoyment or skill of hunting is adapting to different conditions. The blanket statements made frequently enough that wounding rates go up because we can’t hunt the half hour before sunrise suits some people, but not all hunters. Some hunters love that after-work hunt that rolls into the evening when their scouting reveals that a little flooded timber patch has birds pouring in on dusk and makes for a fabulous hunt.

Again, wounding is the result of the hunter making the decision to shoot at the bird. Making the call to take a good shot, one that is within your capability and where your tested combination of gun, ammo and choke performs in the optimum range, and the flight path means the bird will fall where you can recover the bird quickly and efficiently. Or showing restraint and not shooting. Those are the types of behaviours that make us good ambassadors for hunting.

We’ve had significant challenges to game bird hunting and will continue to face these. Thanks to a very few committed people game bird hunting continues, albeit with modifications to the season settings in Victoria and South Australia.

This year, like every game bird season but even more so than ever before, somehow, we need to slow things down so that we all make the right calls in the field. That’s not to say we can’t or shouldn’t enjoy our hunting, far from it. I believe the more we hunt, the better we get, the more things start to slow down, and the better we get at taking things in, the more we enjoy it.

For the dedicated hunter, the privilege of being able to hunt means the preparation for the season is an exciting time of year. Today, we make our plans for camps and hunts all come together, gear is checked and repaired. The season will unfold and bring whatever our hard work and nature gifts us.

All the best for the season, hunt often, and remember, your decisions translate into the ambassador you are for hunting and its future.