Shooting at swans

[MichelD]

Went for a brief hunt along the Brunswick foreshore this morning.

There were a few flights of snows, but too high to shoot at.

There were only about five other people hunting in the marsh this morning and one party of two on one side and a single guy on the other side of us shot at a flight of swans that flew directly over everybody.

If you have some friends who are new to waterfowling and hear of them planning to hunt at Brunswick (or anywhere else for that matter) could you please remind them that there are swans in the area and that they should be careful to properly identify birds before shooting.

If this keeps up it'll get closed to hunting there.

[Gunner]

Years ago I turned a guy in to the CO's for shooting a swan at the Brunswick.Once he picked it up and saw what it was,he tried to bury it.When we got back to the launch the CO was checking licences so I took him down to the guy,and showed him where the swan was buried.At least the guy then admitted what he'd done,so I didn't have to testify in court,although I would have.Some people don't seem to absorb much from their CORE courses do they? Gunner

[Glenny]

1 word...RAPP

[sparkes3]

i also warned a guy about shooting at swans out there he didnt really care about what i had to say.told me to hunt somewhere else if i didnt want to shoot them because i was screwing up his hunt.told him again it was illegal to shoot swans he said they were something else and that they were good eating so he has probally shot them before .so i told him i was calling the co and took out my phone to do so i also had the co direct number.then he got the point that i wasnt fooling aroud so he left and i havent seen him back there since.didnt know which vehicle was his so i could get the liscence plate. but totally expected something to be done to mine when i returned but as there was 5-6 other vehicles there at the time i guess he didnt know which was mine either.he knew what he wanted to shoot and he didnt care if it was illegal or not even after i told him its not allowed so i said f#@$ em hope he gets what he deserves. i was also down there thursday evening till dark when we were walking in to the dike after legal shooting light was long gone some guy is standing right on the dike when some snow's fly over he fires two shots there was a family walking on the dike when we got back in and they were talking about buddy shooting from the dike and they were pissed so we had a litle chat with them and agreed that that type of behavior is what is going to get areas closed to hunting.so if you read this you know who you are i hope you think twice about where you are shooting because if this area gets shut down because of this type of behavior your not only screwing up your hunting area your screwing it up for everybody else as well.rant over. see you all out there tomorrow.ps the family i was talking to didnt seem as pissed when they left after we explained that its not all hunters that behave in this manner just a few bad apples in ever bunch

[MichelD]

If I had evidence I might have called the C.O. office, but both parties missed those birds, even though they were low enough to club with the butt end of a shotgun.

[sneg]

MichelD,

Seems like we have seen same folks (hope there are no more like that). Actually I started screaming at two of them that they must not shoot and than made move in their way .They quickly walked away from march . I met CO recently and he told that there are numerous complains from public that hunters shoot swans and carcasses laying in the marsh. I we do not stop this non-sense poaching than some day we will see marsh closed for hunting.

[Steeleco]

I don't hunt birds, but it might just be time for a dude with a blue pick up to pretend he is hunting birds. Alla robo deer

[Gateholio]

Should we have a swan season? Or is there not a huntable population?

[rishu_pepper]

FWIW, the only place in N.America that has a swan season is North Carolina, IIRC.

RAPP is the way to go if it happens again. We don't need others to ruin it for the rest of us...

[MichelD]

Maybe the place needs a 4-foot by 8-foot plywood sign at the start of the dike walk with huge depictions of the what a snow goose and a swan look like and the differences between them.