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

June hunt in Argentina for Ducks, Doves, and Perdiz

Duck Slaughter Royale

Holy Crap. I have never seen ducks in these concentrations anywhere. The ground shook when they got up. I could not hear my buddy Claude speak next to me in the blind. It was the perfect storm of duck hunting.

This is Alan, Claude and I after our first morning duck hunting. These are the birds that the 3 of us shot, 174 if I count right. That is 58 each. At home I would have worked my ass off to shoot 58 ducks in a season, and spent far more than this day of hunting cost, and this was an easy walk in.

Our guide Daniel at Rancho Salvaje has a great Duck area. We stayed at the dove lodge as there were no great houses closer, but it was worth the hour drive. They had flooded soy bean fields. With the situation this year with the Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner imposing an export tax on Soy Beans, it was more expensive to harvest the crop than to let it sit in the field. We had beyond world class duck hunting. We shot our daily limit of 50 ducks (or so) each and went in. A shooter could do that in minutes. I slowed down and picked drakes.

This was the first time I shot a truck bed full of ducks. I have never seen this before, not even in East Texas, and those guys are outlaws with no conscience, they catch them on trotlines baited with corn and hunt them with rifles. Sure there is video of me hunting Pigeon with a rifle below, but that is completely different.

Mostly I shot Chiloe Widgeon, Rosy Billed Pochard, Silver Teal (aka Cappuccino Teal), and a mess of Cinnamon Teal. There were also a lot of Red Shoveler, White Cheeked (Bahama) Pintail, Yellow Billed Pintail, Speckled Teal, and Brazilian Teal. I could have shot limits of drakes of any of those species alone. But I believe if fairness, so I killed them equally. Claude and I hunted together and we sort of took turns, unless one did something dumb like hover over the blind quacking, then we just whacked his feathered butt without mercy.

Dove Killin' with Claude

The dove hunting was off the charts as well. We shot piles of them, I averaged about 400 birds per hunt, but I was not on a mission to put up a 1000 bird hunt this trip. I spent a lot of time working with Claude on his shooting. Other than shooting a few ducks last season in Texas, he had not shot birds before. This was wingshooting boot camp, and he came out a killer. His first hunt he shot 8 birds, the next 49, the next 124, and it was on after that. He was killing 200+ birds a hunt from then on. I like to think it was the teacher, but the guy is a natural.

Once Claude got to killing them with ease, I developed a game as we are both insanely competitive. We called it "Dove in the Box". Basically you draw a big, say 50 x50, box on the ground in front of two hunters and if the bird falls dead in the box, it counts. This lends itself to some friendly wagering, too. A buck a bird is about right, bird boys keep count. That changes things entirely, and the smack talking and working on someone's mental game gets intense. I had more fun with this than I have words to write.

Perdiz Hunting

Man these things taste good. I would spit out a quail to lick the pot one of these was cooked in. They look kind of like a grouse, they run like a blue quail and hold until you almost step on them. The dogs really help on this, as you can walk over them. There are several species, little ones, big ones, and a red one that is protected. They mentioned the protected part about two seconds after I double tapped the trigger on my Benelli. Protected Red Perdiz tastes just like the other ones.

The brace of smaller birds Alan and I shot in the field. The three birds I am holding are the forest perdiz, and they are larger than the ones you see in the field but there is another one that is big as a chicken, and I missed. Just ask Alan he reminded me of it all day.

The whole group went out and shot Perdiz one afternoon. It was a blast to watch Daniel's dogs work, and we ended up with about 30 of them, and had fried Perdiz, sauteed Perdiz and the normal 4 other courses to the meal. Man those women can cook.

Pigeon Hunt

Now this is my favorite. I like shooting pigeon. They decoy like ducks, and are a lot of fun to shoot. The first video is Alan and I shooting some pigeons in the normal way most folks would imagine, well not really, I guess as normal as we are able. There are a lot of birds laying under the mojos, not that the mojo is necessary but they work better on pigeon than any other bird. Once you get a few of them on the ground they will keep piling in.

Now this is what happens when immigration is remiss in exercising their duties with care. Someone lets in a couple psycho-billy country boys with semiauto .22 rifles. I am not sure why I started listening to the voices, but they thought that shooting pigeons with a rifle might be fun. They were right. I cannot tell you what a kick this was.

I now hold the (disputed) world record for shooting pigeon with a .22 rifle, 300 yards. Alan and had one that was doing like the little yellow shooting gallery ducks you see in cartoons. Everytime one of us shot he turned around and started walking the other way. One of us finally drilled him, I know it was me because Alan can't shoot. Hear that hippie? I'm calling you out, I'm your Huckleberry!

The Weasel Attack

This was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. It was 11 in the morning and we were driving out of the Dove Hunting Field and a pair of weasels ran across the road.

We stopped to look, and as we walked into the brush near between the truck and the fence, a Lynx jumped out of the brush and yowled and ran off down the road. This scared the hell out of all of us, cause we were looking for weasels and found a 40 pound cat. Daniel, our guide found 2 lynx kittens in the bushes. All of the sudden in comes weasel #1, trying to eat him some kitty for lunch. This blue eyed sweet tea cup sized furball showed why size matters least. It turned into pure weasel hating fury and tore that thing up, and weasel #1 retreated down a hole.

As I tromped around in the bushes looking for weasel #2, and I have this on video but it is too large to post, Alan sneaks up behind me and gooses me. I thought a weasel was having my butt for supper. As much as I hate Alan, that was really funny.

Argentina, best dove hunting in the world.

There are a lot of reasons I have returned to Argentina so many times to hunt doves, ducks geese, and perdiz (short list):

Very favorable exchange rate, 3:1 or better, which is important these days.
They like Americans, or are really good at hiding what everyone else says aloud.
Stable political environment.
Buenos Aires is a lot of fun, great food, nice hotels, restaurants, lots of history.
It is safe: I take my family, the shopping is great.

Mostly it is because you can shoot vast numbers of doves, until the ground looks like it has snowed feathers and little grey birds. A day without blood is like a day without sunshine.

Argentina is a grand frontier that is now what the American west was. It is a wild, free place that is Valhalla for hunters. Limitless game. Few limits. Fewer rules, No other Hunters. I have never encountered another hunting party other than at the airport. This is different if you go with other outfitters, it is unique to Daniel's outfit. Cordoba is a circle jerk. If you have never been party to a circle jerk, trust me, you are not missing much.

Stunning, and I mean stunning good food. I am not a skinny granola eating hippie. I know good food. All the cooks we have had are trained in classic French and Italian techniques. The beef is some of the best in the world. Want good food, ask a fat man. Did I mention the food? It is good.

In Buenos Aires there are a lot of great restaurants, a lot of Spanish and Italian influence, cafes that remind you of Madrid. If you don't like a really good steak, it is the wrong place for you. I like La Chacra. It is traditional and has a wood fired grill. You do not notice the smoke until you leave, but do not plan on going anywhere until you change or be happy smelling like a nice steak. It is mostly locals, but they have an English menu if you need it. Save a little room for dessert.

I attribute my great experience there to my guide, Daniel Zanuso that owns Safaris Rancho Salvaje. Daniel is a hell of a good guy, and he minds the details. He runs all of dove hunting, duck hunting as well as big game. His second in command, Luis, handles the goose hunting. Daniel caters to American, Italians, French, and all sort of other like minded murderer types. He and his staff are attentive, and determined to make the trip relaxing and enjoyable. The link above is to Daniel's site, which gives a different perspective on all the different types of hunting than Roger's site. It is easier to contact Roger, as Daniel travels a lot.

There is a variety of experience to be had with different outfitters. Some are more in the $1000 a day range. We spend around $550 a day plus shells. The shells are $12 a box. This is not a high profit margin item in Argetina, as all the components are imported. In Mexico, they make lots of money on the shells, and the bird boys are bad about stealing them. I have never had that problem here. I say the average dove hunting trip to Argentina will cost:

$1250 airfare
$2200 guide fees
$400 licneses & gun import duty(or rental)
$300 tips
$1500 shells ($2500 for me, but I am not average on this)
$500 for walking around money, gifts.

So about $6150 for 4 days. It can be done for less, by about $1000 if you hunt in the off season, March and April.

Yes, it is a lot of money. Consider that going dove hunting in Texas costs $250 a day by the time you buy gas, eat out, pay for hotel in south Texas, pay the day hunt fee. Then you might shoot your 12 birds twice a day, and hope the game warden does not check the cooler for having more than 2 times the limit. These birds cost $10.50 each.

This last trip I shot a total of 2937 birds in 3.5 days. Even considering we charter a Turboprop to avoid the van ride ($2500 but if you have 10 guys, it is worth it) my birds only cost $2.38 each. It is like they are free!

Argentina Dove & Pidgeon Hunt

Pidgeon Hunt in Argentina

Argentina Duck Hunt

The Estancia we stayed in on this Duck hunting trip belonged to the Prince of Austria. Most of the accomodations are very nice. They don't know we is from the country.

For those who were not raised in East Texas, you can skip this paragraph. Daniel is also a first class spotlighter. I mean he runs a light like a machine. If you want to go run around all night with him and shoot rabbits and fox and bonus critters, he will take you. Some areas allow rabbit hunting at night, others do not. But should you be so lucky there is a giant rabbit there. No kidding, 2 feet tall, 25 lbs. It looks like a horse. You could saddle the damn thing and ride it. I mean I prefer to shoot them, but whatever you are into.

That is a big rabbit. They call it a Mara, and they tell me it is not a rabbit. It hops, eats grass, poops little rabbit turds, and tastes good fried. It's a rabbit. Sure it has short ears, but I don't eat the ears. They also have smaller ones with long ears they call Livre, that they say is a rabbit. It tastes just like the first one. It is a Rabbit, I tell ya.

These are the Livre. They are less than half the size of the other one, but it is still at least as big as Bugs Bunny, only not so lucky. There are also a few Perdiz, and a couple Parrots in this photo. It was an interesting morning.

How it Started

The Poacher's Journal was originally the name of the photo scrapbook that my friend J.P. kept of the hunting adventures of the Wells Creek Boys: Alex(that's me), J.P., Alan, Allen, David. More on them later. The book was more evidence than memories.

In the early days we killed without much thought to the legalities and no concern for conservation. After many years great strides of maturity we have all become conservationist hunters.

Conservationist Hunter means we can all afford to pay to hunt, and the game warden runs folks like me off my place now. I have had to quit hunting deer at night, but it is worth it. Now I travel to foreign lands, to see animals in their most natural environments, kill them and eat them.

The cast changes as finances and wives opinions change. But we have a great group of friends to share the outdoors, and all the hilarious bullshit that comes along with it.

What I hope to do here is offer a bit of my experience to folks who are interested in hunting and fishing as I do when I travel to Argentina, Mexico, and Canada. I still hunt ducks and geese here, but I hope I never have to hunt doves here again. I have a great bias to hunting in Argentina. By hunting I mean birds, as I quit deer hunting years ago. I have killed enough of them. I grew up hunting in East Texas, 'nuff said.

I travel to Agentina a couple times a year now to hunt doves, ducks, geese, Perdiz and different stuff, or just to shop and eat in Buenos Aires.

I love Canada for fishing in the northern tier for Walleye and Pike. Mostly I have done fly in, and stay in a cabin (no running water, electricity, plenty of bears) for a week. Great fun, unspoiled wilderness.

I will not return to Mexico to hunt, it is far to dangerous. I will cover each of these later.