Category: Both Barrels

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Both Barrels March 2023

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Welcome to our first Both Barrels of the 2023 hunting season.

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Both Barrels July 2022

TBB1July2022. Curly McEwen and willow with a well grown Taranaki pheasant.

Well, the duck hunting season is over for another year.

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Both Barrels June 2022

TBB1June2022. Tia in action

The seemingly relentless wind and wet weather in recent weeks have seen ducks holding on ponds and river bends with good levels of cover, but feeding opportunities provided by worms...

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Both Barrels May 2022

TBBMay2022. A good opening day bag of mallards from Lake Ratapiko

The opening weekend dawned fine and clear in most parts of the region, although early fog hampered hunters in some inland areas.

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Both Barrels April 2022

TBB1April2022. Jakson Stewart and Ranger with their 2021 opeing day harvest photo Glenn Stewart

Mallard duck numbers are looking good this season, following an extended spring breeding season that produced a strong population going into summer.

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Both Barrels March 2022

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Both Barrels will start in earnest in April, giving all hunters access to some of the best minds in game bird hunting in New Zealand.

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Both Barrels July 2021

TBBJuly2021. Hunters all set for a productive paradise summer season. Photo Curly McEwen.

Hopefully, you’ve had a productive 2021 game season and have a few fat mallards tucked away in the freezer.

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Both Barrels June 2021

TBB1June2021. Mallard duck have provided some good hunting opportunities during the 2021 game season.

While the Taranaki Region’s season for waterfowl other than pukeko ends at 6.15 pm on Sunday 27th June, there’s still time to get out for that last hunt or two.

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Both Barrels May 2021

TBB1May2021. A successful opening day pheasant hunt photo Craig Munro

Following the delayed and constrained opening last year following lockdown, it was great to see friends and family groups coming together to enjoy their opening weekend hunting.

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Both Barrels April 2021

TBB1April2021. The January 2021 moult counts indicate there will be plenty of paradise for hunters on the Taranaki ringplain this season.

Unlike eastern areas of the country, Taranaki has been blessed with good autumn rains and most ponds and wetlands will be well topped up for the coming game season.

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Both Barrels March 2021

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With less than six weeks to go until the game bird season, we welcome our readers of Both Barrels for 2021, the place where we keep you up to date...

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Both Barrels July 2020

TBB1July2020. 6 month old Tia with a well conditioned mallard from this season photo Murray Dobbin.

With Sunday July 12 marking the end of the hunting season for ducks in Taranaki, our hunter survey telephone interviewers report that most hunters have been happy with how the...

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Both Barrels June 2020

TBB1June2020. Hunters enjoy their opening morning at Lake Herengawe in the Waverley area.

Opening day dawned with low cloud cover in many parts of the region and this provided a good hour or two of hunting before it cleared to a fine calm morning.

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Both Barrels May 2020

TBB1May2020. Record numbers of paradise shelduck were counted on the Taranaki ringplain during the January 2020 moult

With NZ now in Alert Level 2, hunters can look forward with anticipation to the duck and pheasant hunting season kicking off at 6.30am on Saturday 23rd May and to...

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Special Lockdown Edition Both Barrels April 2020

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Over the first two weeks of the lockdown, Fish & Game have been scenario planning around what form the game bird season might take.

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Taranaki Both Barrels July 2019

TBB1 Aug19 Mallards enjoy the morning sun on a wetland east of Stratford.

Following the end of the hunting season for ducks we’ve seen good numbers of mallards during recent wetland visits, indicating that there is a strong base population of birds going...

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Taranaki Both Barrels May 2019

TBB1May19. The fine and calm conditions meant pond shooting was fairly slow on opening weekend

The generally fine and calm conditions that greeted hunters on opening day undoubtedly favoured the ducks.

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North Island Roundup - Both Barrels 2018

Claire Heyns, NorthTec Practicum student, helping with shoveler counts.

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Both Barrels August 2018

SS 1 Phil gamebird fest

As the 2018 game bird season draws to a close, many hunters are reflecting on their success, saying it has been the best season they have experienced for a long time.

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Taranaki Both Barrels June 2018

TBB1Jun18. Troy Grigg with Charlie photo Sophie Grigg

Overall, it’s been an average season for ducks, with hunters reporting more mallards than in recent years but fewer paradise shelduck.

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Taranaki Both Barrels May 2018

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Sorry, but there is no report for the Taranaki region this month.

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Taranaki Both Barrels April 2018

TBBApril19. A good breeding season means many ponds are currently holding good numbers of ducks

There will be lots of good hunting to be had in the Taranaki region this season, although the weather will as usual have a major influence on the availability of...

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Both Barrels August 2017

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The game bird season has ended... or has it?

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Both Barrels South Island Roundup

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The waterfowl 2017 season has been and gone. We hope you managed to get out on a few hunting adventures this year and filled the freezer with enough duck to...

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Both Barrels North Island Roundup

N BB 1 Heath worsfolds truck pheasant with happy pup sneak2

Heath Worsfold’s truck with a nice pheasant and a happy pup named Sneak.

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Taranaki Both Barrels July 2017

TBBJul2019. Coastal sand country can provide some good hunting opportunities for pheasant

While the season for ducks and swan ended on Sunday 2nd July, pukeko can still be hunted in Taranaki until Sunday August 27, with a daily bag limit of 10...

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Taranaki Both Barrels June 2017

TBBJul2017. Coastal sand country can provide some good hunting opportunities for pheasant

While the season for ducks and swan ended on Sunday 2nd July, pukeko can still be hunted in Taranaki until Sunday August 27, with a daily bag limit of 10...

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Taranaki Both Barrels May 2017

TBB12017. Jakson Stewart with his opening day bag of 10 birds at Lake Ratapiko

While some hunters have had very good success, overall it has been quieter than expected given the high numbers of ducks seen before the season.

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Taranaki Both Barrels April 2017

TBB1April 2017. A good breeding season means there will be plenty of ducks for hunters this year

The damp grey spring last year and a wet summer has been a boon for mallard and grey duck breeding.

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Both Barrels Mar 2017

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Get set to hunt some game birds

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Southland Both Barrels May 2016

Opening day is probably the only day of the year when I wake up and I’m upset by a lack of wind!

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Auckland Waikato Both Barrels May 2016

The mallard, grey and shoveler seasons are now but a memory, and even parries and black swan are off limits with their seasons over.

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Otago Both BarrelsMay 2016

For what must be the 10th year in a row, Otago hunters woke to clear calm conditions for the Opening Day.

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Central South Island Both Barrels May 2016

Opening Weekend heralded fine and pleasant weather.

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North Canterbury Both Barrels May 2016

With the game bird season well underway and the hype of opening day now past, it's time to reflect on hunting successes firstly, then focus on the great game bird...

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West Coast Both Barrels May 2016

Large numbers of hunters turned out in the West Coast Region for Opening Weekend this year, both local hunters and many from other regions.

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Nelson Marlborough Both Barrels May 2016

Fish & Game had three ranging teams out in the field on Opening Day this year, concentrating on private land around Blenheim and Murchison.

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Wellington Both Barrels May 2016

The weather was largely to blame for what can only be described as a patchy Opening Weekend, with very calm conditions in the Wairarapa and resultingly few birds moving around.

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Taranaki Both Barrels May 2016

While the hunter phone survey results are yet to be analysed, initial indications are that hunters were happy with their opening weekend bags – in many areas more mallards were...

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Northland Both Barrels May 2016

Opening Weekend game bird hunting produced a “great variety” of results for hunters around the Northland Peninsula.

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Hawke's Bay Both Barrrels May 2016

Fish & Game rangers along with police officers checked 57 waterfowl hunters over Opening Weekend.

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Eastern Both Barrels May 2016

Hunters can now take advantage of being able to hunt the 20-odd Crown-owned wetlands around the region administered by Fish & Game.

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