I have been hunting/culling this block for over 20 years. My first actual culling block was Hedley's on the other side of the road. I worked hard to clear the block with the old school technology (spotlights). That set my reputation going forward.
I met G through a hunting mate way back when I first moved her in 2001. Every year I go back and every year more birds move in from the surrounding blocks. For example, I used to cull Ngati Awa a decade or so ago. I had the entire area and surrounding blocks fully under control. At present, there is a no hunting policy so they are stocking the surrounding blocks with peafowl and turkeys. Take a hike or bike ride on Old Burma Road and you will see what I mean.
It is now December and we are usually finished for the season. All of our culling has been on the road this season with little attention to local blocks. When people call, we respond. This year is different as I have a 14-year-old who is mad keen to hunt more. So I have decided to take him and pick away at the peacocks on some of the local blocks until Xmas. Besides, Feathergirl needs more peacock pelts!
It had been a few weeks since the last cull for various reasons but off Jack and I went before dark to have a look and listen. The peacocks tell you exactly where they are roosting but you still have to find them. Oh stupid me; I forgot the new shooting stick. I had two already this season. One was left on top of the truck and the other had a peacock drop on it and bent the poles. It still worked fine; you just could not fold it back to a manageable size. I was thinking we would carry the old one fully extended since we were not going very far or taking the night seriously; it was going to be about fun and maybe a couple of big peacocks. I forget both shooting sticks and it annoyed me. I was becoming very used to the accuracy they offer over the last two seasons.
So Jack missed the first shot. There were four more birds and two calling around the big pine. After making a poor second shot, he announced my Pard was on the wrong setting so I changed it to B for him. I forgot that I had re-sighted A carefully when at Spider's last time because B was shooting high and right. Either way, Jack took out the next birds. We only recovered two of the four so it was not a great start. One of them was a blue head (two-year-old male) that was calling. I found the big peacock in the next tree and clean missed and it flew. The shot a stump to see where the shots were going. Sure enough, they were high and right. I put it back on A and it was dead perfect. Why did I listen to a 14-year-old.
We wandered over to another caller and I shot him dead. We looked at a group of 15 but no big peacocks could be seen so we left them for another night. I did not want too much work the next day. So we went to the lone tree that I thought had a big peacock in it. Turned out to be a hen and Jack shot it.
We wound up with two good peacock pelts so I was happy. Jack had fun, of course. We plan to pick away at this and Leeder's until Xmas then do some fly fishing...
