Duck hunters will be out in force, on boats, in maimais, on rivers or beside ponds next month as the crack of shotguns signals the start of game bird season.
Neil Pratt – prepared for game bird season
Among those intent to bag their share of birds will be Te Kūiti Cambridge Trap Shooters Club president, Neil Pratt.
“On opening day we’ll probably shoot our limit because there’s good duck numbers and there will be plenty of shooting which will keep them moving around,” he said.
“As the season goes on and the ducks start to come in at dusk, you’ll see these flying silhouettes screeching, turning and twisting in the sky as they come to land on the swamps. Night shooting is probably the most exciting for me because a duck can be right on top of you before you even see it.”
During the season, Neil, 62, is often at his usual post on the Waipā River.
“It should be a good season. There’s been a really good breeding season and, with some recent rain, there’s a lot of ducks on the rivers. As maize crops are being cut, ducks are getting out to pasture too. Mallard ducks have had a prolific breeding season, there’s a lot of paradise shelducks around and we’re also seeing quite a few droves of Canada geese.”
Neil Pratt – multi award-winning clay pigeon shooter
It may not seem easy being green when dressed to kill, but without duck hunters, pests would make short work of our native wildlife and wetlands. In addition, Fish and Game licence fees are primarily put towards managing fish, birds and the habitat on which they depend.
“Hunters want to make sure they have the best environment for their sport so there’s a lot of investment by them into conservation. We invest in tree planting and help with pest eradication around ponds to get rid of ferrets, stoats and rats, for example.
“Fish and Game is constantly developing ponds and wetlands. They have enormous financial resources so people can rehabilitate wetlands and other environments.”
Although now living in Pirongia, Neil was born and raised in Ōtorohanga. He says hunting is in his blood.
Hunting’s a family tradition. His grandfather, Murray Pratt Senior, came to the King Country in the early 1900s and was a keen hunter.
“It followed through to my father, to me and right down to my grandchildren. Duck shooters become enormously passionate about the sport so it does tend to run in families.”
The club is based at committee member Jim Tarrant’s farm on Lees Block Rd north of Te Kūiti. In 2009 the Cambridge Gun Club became incorporated with it
While the game bird season will lure shooters away from the traps, Te Kūiti Cambridge Trap Shooters Club will first provide the perfect opportunity for members to perfect their aim when it hosts the annual Duckshooter Shoot on Anzac Day.
“We set up clay targets simulating live birds, so they’re flying out of bushes and trees and swamps coming in overhead and doing all sorts of things you see from live birds in the field.”
Held since the seventies, the event has hunters flock home to the range before heading out into the field.
“We’ve had more than 300 shooters at the event. We have large numbers turn up because hunters want to get their eye in prior to the duck shooting season.”
Success when on the hunt can be measured by the bag, but clay target shooting delivers rich rewards too. A list of Neil’s own accolades could fill a ‘magazine’, but he rattles off the names of ‘just a few’ of his club mates at a machinegun rate.
“I replicated my grandfather’s [Murray Pratt Senior] feats, becoming a New Zealand champion and being inducted into the NZ Clay Target Association Hall of Fame,” he said.
The club produces a high level of representative shooters including Tarrant, who won a NZ national championship aged 70, Dennis Colson, Gary Pooley and Trevor Ewens, and Neil’s son Michael.
Clay target shooting includes a number of disciplines; Neil shoots DTL, or down the line, which is the most common form.
Neil Pratt – prepared for game bird season
