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A duck shooter near a mai mai - Source: ONE News -
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The North Island was not the place to be for ducks at the start of the hunting season on Saturday as gloomy weather favoured the shooters, while clear skies in the south were on the birds' side.
But despite a three degree frost the chilly day was still a special day out for many.
Wayne and Mitchell Hyslop prefer it to be raining because clear skies mean high flying ducks.
Like nearly 40,000 other licensed duck shooters, Mitchell, 14, and his dad Wayne eagerly anticipate the first Saturday in May.
"Pretty busy so to get away on a weekend like this is great and the kids love it," Wayne says.
And Mitchell has been honing his prize winning duck calling skills all year.
"Just around the house at home. I think mum was tempted to throw it in the fire but she didn't," says Mitchell.
Their Taieri Tiver mai mai is just a few hundred metres from home.
Saturday's pickings are meagre but the small bag isn't down to Mitchell's shooting.
"He's a pretty good claybird shooter too which is sometimes pretty annoying," says Wayne.
And Mitchell is bucking a trend as over the past two decades fewer young people have been taking up duckshooting. The 14-year-old reckons it beats sitting in front of a computer screen and he and his dad will be back out on Sunday.
Meanwhile, police are calling for people to take extreme care with firearms during the duck shooting season after 47-year-old Michael Leslie Meehan was killed during a family hunting expedition on the outskirts of Napier on Saturday morning.
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