NZDA Patearoa Goose Cull 2024

Hunting and Wildlife Magazine - Issue 226 - Spring 2024

Words By: Selwyn Smith 

Readers may recall the NZDA Māniototo goose cull in February 2023, which was showcased in Hunting & Wildlife Winter Issue #221. An incredible 1,100 geese were shot over Waitangi weekend by just 24 shooters. The cull was fast-paced and a heap of fun for everyone involved. 

Murray Burns of the Upper Clutha Branch also summarised the 2023 shoot and called on all interested shooters to prepare for the 2024 shoot in the Spring Edition #222. A few weeks after this issue went to press, my Tasmanian mate Blair (a Marlborough branch member) was on the phone to make sure I’d filled in the application form for the ’24 shoot. I jumped straight off the phone and onto the excellent Southern Lakes website to register my interest and pay the $45 admin fee. I didn’t hear anything back for a few weeks, so I contacted Murray to determine if I’d missed out. A few spots were still available, and I’d managed to scrape in. After learning some key things from last year’s shoot, my thoughts turned to planning for the event. 

Shortly after, an email summary arrived outlining key parts of the event and a list of attendees so everyone could coordinate sharing vehicles, etc. The Upper Clutha Branch does most of the heavy lifting, with Murray Burns, Corry Walker, and President Murray Elliotte driving the bulk of the organisation. Murray E ran a pre-brief Zoom meeting a week before the event to ensure new shooters had a solid grasp of what gear to bring, what to expect and opportunities to ask questions. There was some excellent commentary on footwear, clothing, and shot size (#00 right through to #3s recommended), as well as reminding everyone that only feral geese (both Greylag and Canada) were to be targeted – game birds were out of season and absolutely off limits. Murray encouraged everyone to bring as much ammo as they could afford – and so began the hoping for very hot barrels. 

Late Friday afternoon, I scrambled to get away from work, pack the gear into the Triton and get on the road to meet the 7pm prebrief cut-off time. At 6:55pm (cutting it just a bit fine) I pulled up to the entrance to our campsite. Tent city was an understatement, with 4WD vehicles everywhere and tents, swags, caravans and gazebos covering most of the flat, designated camping area that would be home for the next three days.  

I grabbed my deck chair from the ute and parked up beside the group that had gathered around Corry’s vehicle. Who was I sitting beside but NZDA Operations and Marketing Manager and COLFO Spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack - all the way from Wellington. It was great to meet the man himself. Hugh does some incredibly tireless work to protect our sport and our right to own firearms. He had driven down with his Dad Dave from Blenheim - quite some roadie! 

Corry handles most of the event management and on-site coordination. He organises property access and liaises with farmers, DOC/Fish & Game, and the local environmental trust to ensure everyone is committed to achieving a collective result. His efforts ensure shooters and landowners are on the same page while setting the all-important standard of expectation across the group. Having just returned from hunting/guiding in the USA, jet lag combined with the last-minute rush to get everything sorted meant he was looking somewhat buggered. Ably supported by Murray B and Murray E, they set the scene for the weekend. 

Corry collaborated with the landowners, Fish & Game and Tiaki Māniototo - the 26 farms/DOC/Water Catchment Group area that manages the land we would be shooting over. With two property owners declining to participate, we had access to an incredible 24 properties spread over about 20km of the rambling upper reaches of the famous Taieri River. Corry had pulled out all the stops this year – we had 24 shooters over half a dozen properties last year and didn’t get anywhere near covering all the ground. My immediate thoughts were that 44 shooters were nowhere near enough. 

There was a solid reminder to ensure that everyone identified their target and that no game birds were to be shot – the reputational damage to the event was far too high to contemplate anyone making a mistake, so the point was rammed home. Fish & Game gave us an exemption to use lead shot as this was an organised pest control/culling operation.  

Greylag – a cockies perspective 

The social interaction across the group that night was a significant opportunity to share hunting stories, meet new, like-minded shooters and to catch up with a few characters from previous years’ events. It was great to see Mid and North Canterbury members making the big trek south, and by the looks of their laden-down 4wds, they’d packed appropriately. A handful of the neighbouring farm owners joined us that night to give us further insight into the pasture and water quality degradation caused by the Greylag Goose. For those less familiar with the Greylag, they are highly territorial, so they can cause much greater pasture damage than the free-ranging Canada Goose. With each Greylag having half a dozen eggs, the population and pressure on surrounding pasture becomes exponentially more problematic each year. While the catchment group has engaged the services of chopper cullers each year (and has accounted for thousands of birds), the overgrown river fringes are surrounded by thick, long grass and almost head-high reeds. This provides a safe haven of cover - particularly against choppers - so these birds must be driven out of this challenging terrain. Foot hunting is the only solution to hunting in the thick stuff to target more educated birds who have learnt to evade choppers for many years. 

I flung my pop-up tent out and quickly secured the guy ropes. With the mattress inflated, I suddenly realised that my ultralight summer-weight sleeping bag and ‘hot weather’ clothes were not quite up to the quietly-forming frost. Sure enough, I was ‘quite cold’ during the night as I donned every item of clothing I could find to ward off the sub-zero conditions. 

6am, and the alarm sounded. We were up, gear sorted, and a quick caffeine hit/bacon sandwich devoured as we gathered around the central gazebo. Wielding the whiteboard marker, Corry had divided the 44 shooters into six teams of six, with two teams of four. Shooters from last year’s cull volunteered as team leaders and were allocated a UHF radio for group comms.  

Tiaki Māniototo generously provided 20 slabs of #3 shot ammo – enough for two packets per shooter per day, which we gratefully received before donning our blaze orange gear and loading the vehicles. Our 4-shooter group comprised fellow club member Brett (Otago Branch) and Scott and Mark from Upper Clutha. We’d drawn the uppermost block below the main bridge; most of the geese shot last year were within a 2km range of the bridge, so I primed my team for plenty of fast-shooting action. 

Pulling up at the bridge, I grabbed my Benelli shotgun from the bag and gave Brett a quick rundown of its operation. His loan gun had fallen through, and he’d primed me to bring a spare. I grabbed my gun bag and slid the Winchester SX2 out of its sleeve. My jaw almost hit the ground, and some terse language erupted as I noticed the cocking lever was missing! I searched the gun bag and the surrounding ground. It had fallen out somewhere between my gun room and the bridge and was gone. Corry had pulled up alongside us to see what was going on. “Looks like my shout tonight, Corry -I’ve given myself a bit of a handicap...”.I grabbed my keys and jammed them into the bolt recess. I could lever enough force with the keys to cock the bolt. As the Winchester has a bolt hold-open function when empty, the SX2 was still useable, albeit with an added focus on safety. 

Action! 

Through the first gate, we were primed for action. I’d done a lot of driven rabbit shooting over dogs – the key is to ensure everyone stays in line, watches their swing, and loudly signals that they are lifting their gun if they need to shoot behind them (not encouraged). The bottom-line rule was to never shoot to your direct left or right and to watch your swing at every move. Blaze orange makes a difference here and helps to remind shooters of the danger area in their periphery.  

Walking 30-odd metres apart would mean very few birds would pass us. I took the outer right flank with Brett and Mark within easy communication distance to my left. Scott was on the river edge. The action kicked off nicely with everyone starting to pick up a few birds in the grass - the grins of excitement on Brett and Marks's faces said it all as they had some great hot-barrelled action early on. Unfortunately, after 500-odd metres, Scott’s riverbank jaunt saw him well away from the rest of us as the river meandered well off our intended line. The gap was too wide for many passing birds to ignore, and they sailed through unscathed.  

The neighbouring hunting group started shifting some sizeable mobs, with many birds flaring across to us. We had some great pass shooting with these birds picking up quite some steam with the wind behind them. Barrel swing needed to be pretty fast here - a 5kg goose with a stiff wind up its tail feathers quickly passed the shooter and was out of range in a flash if they didn’t get a bead in front to that beak pronto. I was slow on the first couple of passing birds as they screamed past me. Brett and Mark did a great job of mopping up many of these birds. Scott was using an under and over and wasn’t handicapped at all. We saw him down plenty of birds with his first shot and a few exciting doubles to boot, and he was getting a lot of fantastic pass-shooting action on the riverbank.  

The hunting group above and to the left of us had spied a large mob in the thick cover and launched a stalk. We could see the wary birds getting twitchy - the group got a few shots away before the birds lifted and headed our way. “Get ready,” I yelled, as the birds looked set to pass over us. A few flared off with a heap, deciding they would try to use the wind to accelerate past us. Magazines were emptied, and cartridges hurriedly jammed back in as we tried to get as much lead in the air as we could. Two birds screamed over the riverbank in front of me. I swung up and had a fantastic double near-point-blank range – excitement! Brett was equally impressed and was quietly amused as the two birds nearly collected me as they smacked into the ground just metres away.  

Three kilometres from the vehicle, communications from Corry over the UHF reminded us we needed to be back at camp to debrief and hatch the post-lunch strategy. Lunch saw tallies recorded on a whiteboard, with our team holding our own pretty well amongst the other seven groups. 

Conditions in 2023 saw the mercury hit 38 degrees in the afternoon - far too hot for hunting. This was in stark contrast to 2024 with our first day recording a high of around 7C. While the temperature was fresh, hunting in the cooler weather was far easier - last year’s temperatures were unbearable. I wore a 1L camelback under my shooting vest to stay hydrated, and there was no chance of running it dry on this trip. 

Afternoon hunt 

Saturday afternoon saw us swapping places with the neighbouring group – we were now below the river. Despite the geese getting a fair rev-up in the morning, we managed quite a few birds in the afternoon. The highlight was stalking a large pond with 50-odd on the water. We surmised that they would take off into the wind, and as we were pushing downwind towards them, we’d be right amongst it. Sure enough, as we edged within the danger zone, they all lifted off, forced to climb into the very stiff breeze, which meant they were slow to gain elevation, almost stalling mid-air. We let rip and managed quite a few birds before they swung around and were gone with the blustery tailwind. Brett and Mark had other commitments and had to leave after this hunt. Despite their limited time, they had an incredibly rewarding day.  

Back at camp late afternoon and Scott and I studied the leaderboard. Our 4-shooter team had punched well above its weight. Corry had wheeled in his custom spit roast and set about sizzling one of his finest Otago lambs. Ably assisted by Murray, the team feasted on bread rolls, coleslaw and beautifully-cooked lamb - quite the bonus compared to the snags I was going to cook for tea. That night, temperatures again dropped below zero, and once more I was underprepared for frigid-tent conditions. 

Sunday 

6am - another early start, and breakfast was downed as we gathered around the whiteboard. A few others had departed the previous night, so Scott and I joined Ben Perkins' deep-south crew, who had also lost a couple of sidekicks. I decided to give the Benelli a run this morning as I’d had enough of jamming the keys into the Winchester bolt at each stop the previous day.  

We gathered above the bridge on the other side of the road with teams spread out across the first 3km of river flat. Corry had taken a few of the less experienced shooters on the other side of the river to catch the birds that would flee to the head-high grass bordering the willows. Our team spread out as usual and quietly pushed forward into the wall of tangled willows.  

Suddenly, I could see a mob of around 80 birds on alert ahead behind some thick, low-leaning willows. I snuck forward and lined up Greylag heads. With birds milling nearby, emptying my five rounds saw 18 odd birds down. I ran towards the fast-departing group and hurriedly jammed more cartridges into the magazine. More fast shooting as I cornered a few more birds and managed some great ground-shooting action as a half dozen tried to dart behind me. Catching up with Simon, who had been watching the action, he reminded me that a mob of 30 odd birds had slipped to my left and departed between us - unscathed! Such is the nature of too many birds and not enough magazine capacity. 

I spent the next half hour downstream of a bend in the river. Birds would swing around the bend, following the water as other shooters spooked them. Every 30 seconds, another 1-2 birds would round the bend and meet a stiff load of #3 shot. This was outstanding pass shooting; another 20-odd birds were down before the action subsided. 

Conclusion 

At the end of the third day, 44 shooters had accounted for a massive 2,320 Greylag Geese - an incredible result given the challenging terrain and significant real estate we had to cover. 

Special thanks go to the key organisers, Murray, Corey and Mark for their leadership and tireless efforts to ensure this shoot is a huge success. DOC, Fish & Game and Tiaki Māniototo for their efforts to help with comms and liaising across the 26 landowners, and the wider members of Upper Clutha Branch and Southern Lakes Branch for carrying much of the admin and website grunt. The hard work has been done, and this shoot can easily continue for the next 20 years with the proper support from passionate NZDA members keen to make a difference for conservation, while enjoying some fantastic, fast-paced shot gunning. 

Planning has already started for the 2025 event. With an ever-growing interest in this event, and 50-odd shooters being a manageable number, expect some balloting to occur. Waitangi Day 2025 is on a Thursday. The expectation is to convene at 7pm on Friday and shoot on Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning. Watch this space for the next signal that the application process is going live. See you all in February 2025. 

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