DISGRUNTLED SHOOTERS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28269, 6 May 1957, Page 6

DISGRUNTLED SHOOTERS

.G * E- J X Plenty Of Game, But No Wind Some very disgruntled duck shooters arrived home last evening. On Saturday it rained, yesterday it was clear; but throughout the week-end the water was so glassy that two swans looked like four—four ducks looked like eight. Almost everywhere the birds flew high. The shooters were hoping for a rough southerly, but, as one man said last evening: “You needed ack-ack guns to bring them down this week-end.” A North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society officer who spent all day yesterday around Lake Ellesmere heard of only two limit bags—both on Saturday. There were some quite good bags of swans, but ducks in twos, threes, and a few fours.

The shooting was patchy. Those who stayed right through until Saturday evening—and again last evening—got some good bags in the fading light. In most places this was the best shooting of the week-end. At Blind creek, near Halswell, four men shot 30 ducks between them, and at Bowis’s flat, Lake Ellesmere, another shooter took four ducks and two swans. However, there was plenty of water after the recent heavy rains, and an observer said last evening that if the weather broke there would be some good shooting. “The game’s there—there’s no doubt about that,” he added.