August 2010 6 Day Kill Fest

Another successful hunt with Rancho Salvaje and Roger Goldberg the Argentina Bird Man of ranchosalvajeusa.com .

We shot doves, ducks, pigeons and parrots as normal. This was about 2 hours on the last day before the plane.

And here is a video clip of doves getting up off the roost when my hunting buddy Alan fires the first shot of the evening hunt. Really stunning in person. iPhone hardly does the roar of the wings justice.

I also checked two species off the list. Actually one of them was not even on the list to start, but it should have been.

Other than the normal mountain of Ducks, Doves, Pigeons, Parrots, and 'others' I shot a Black Buck and a Rhea, an Argentina native member of the Ostrich family.

The Black Buck I shot was a nice one. The one I missed (cause I was nervous as a little boy the first time he has to zip his own pants) was "El Macho Grande". There were 5 twists on his horns. He was a beast. Good news it was a clean miss and he is still there. Someone please shoot him for me.

The one I got was good, 3 twists and 16 inches tall, but made great by the effort required after I started popping caps at them. They can really see well, so unless you are a sneaky bastard you will be taking a 400 yard shot. I shot this one from 1oo yards. I am a sneaky bastard.

We had snuck up on Macho Grande again, and the guide literally stepped on a Perdiz Monte (the big forest Perdiz species) and when that thing took off it scared the hell out of us. It was all I could do to suppress my quail hunting instinct to swing and fire. That would have been interesting with the .308. Every Black Buck (8?) in that herd looked right at the tiny Acacia tree we were trying to hide behind, trying to not laugh our asses off over the Perdiz. I had to choose to shoot then or try again the next day, as it was getting dark. Tough luck Junior.

The real zen moment was the back of the truck 60 mile an hour Rhea hunt. This is not the normal approach, and I am sure that the average hunter would fall out of the truck and shoot everyone there in the process. Some say I have little faith in my fellow man. Not true. I have complete faith in my fellow man, I know exactly what to expect out of him, and that ain't much. So don't expect this. We are different. We are country boys and grew up doing this. We have been to Argentina with Rancho Salvaje 9 times. They know us, and trust us not to blow their heads off. Sorry for the quality but I was in the back of a truck going 60 taking video and shooting a shotgun. Once I inadvertantly turn the camera on it's side the action is done.

And we shot Ducks . This is 51 of them. Expect 25 per person per day, as that is what the Police expect.

Keep your Powder Dry!

Alex