SHOOTING SEASON OPENING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 87, 29 April 1937, Page 4

SHOOTING SEASON OPENING

Demand for Licences Con* tinues to be Good PREPARATIONS IN HAND To many people next Saturday will merely mean the end of another wsek, or the beginning of another month, but to one seetion of the community it is an all-impdrtant date; it is the first of May and the opening of tho shooting season. Guns will bang and ducks will fall from the skies, early on. Saturday morning, and provided there are ducks to fall the banging of guns will contiimeu all day. It may truthfully be said that the -hooting fraternity comprises the op'mrnists. As in past seasons they are already confident that there are plenty of ducks for all. .Most experienced shoorters have had their eyes on a favourite lagoon for some time ant! have zeaiously gtiarded their interests to ensure that there will be mucR quacking and many casualties i® duckdom with the first streakB Of dawn on May 1. To the normal citieen the shooter is a peculiar fellow, "Fine" weathetr on May 1 to him means that the skies have to be mournful, the weather wretched and conditions, in the opinion of the unenthusiastie, miserable. It is in euch weather that the light, or rather what there is of at in those early hours, is fairly constant and free from drizzle, and birds thus fiy low, coming within more certain reach of those banging guns, Licences for shooting game are now being issued and have been issued in good numbers for some weeks past. There has been a rush of inquiries for sportuig guns and equipment, according to dealers in Hastings, and tlie indiccations are that there will be more sportsmen in the field this coming Saturday than has been the case on the ^opening day for a number of years past. Sports dealers reporfc that in addition to a number of "old hands," who have been out of tlie sport for a few years for one reason or another, coming back into the fold again, there are a number of men who will be making their first venture in the sport this season. Prospects are said to be very good this season, so far as game are concerned, though some anxiety. is felt that there will not be sufficient water places owing to the unusually dry summer and lack of autumn rains. The birds, however, are expected to be ia good numbers and in the best of coadition.