I'm considering another Argentina dove hunt for 2023, but am hearing reports that the bird population has significantly dropped in the Cordoba area due to roost burnings and general migration changes. Does anyone have any current information regarding this and input about the Salta province hunting & in particular Tuku Lodge?

I know nothing of Salta. However, I am, told they have the highest dove population in the country. It is also a more difficult location to get to.

From what I am told, the populations in the Cordoba area may or may not be like they used to be depending on location and time. Some areas in certain times are no different than they have been in the past. However, they depart sooner forcing the outfitters to move the hunters.

I am told a change in agricultural practices has caused this. A well-known PH from Zim goes to Cordoba often. He believes a proliferation of outfitters in the province has had a major impact.

While I have been about 25 times. I have not been since the pandemic. I have no first-hand knowledge.

I have spent about three months in Cordoba this year and a few trips to Salta, as we collaborate with Tuku. For clarification, pretty much all of May and early August to October. I made one trip to Salta each time. Why so long? I work with Miles & Miles Outfitters and wanted to give them assistance while catching up after COVID.

The roosts do move, as do the shooting areas. In Cordoba, we had great days and mediocre days, but a lot had to do with the desires of the shooters. For example, we had a shooter with consecutive 4K days, while others in the same group would shoot only 1k or so, but that was about desire.

Another group arrived in the afternoon and went straight to the field. Five of the six all got 1k in just that one session and the sixth guy got 750 the first time he ever shot a shotgun at a bird. We were hosting four hunters of another outfitter at our lodge to help with space issues. They were all amazed, maybe pissed, about the success of our guys at dinner.

Regarding the number of outfitters, yes, there are quite a few and I do fear the impact. We started hunting this area east of Jesus Maria off the river in 2015 or so. A major flood washed out the road across the river. Since the road was repaired sometime during the pandemic, outfitters snapped up new leases. One day, I counted six different companies hunting the same general area.

We also have scouts out every day, and avoid shooting the same field too much, but can’t control what others do.

Salta is very interesting. I flew there from Cordoba, which is about an hour, and drove from Cordoba and that was about a 8-9 hour drive. Our clients fly to BsAs and then it’s about a two hour flight to Salta. Tuku is about two hours from the airport.

The birds are definitely in Salta, but I would not say it’s drastically different than Cordoba. I did see some of the dove clouds I recall from Cordoba around Macha 10-15 years ago. However, they were not in the hunting lease area. There is an option to fly fish for golden dorado in the same area.

It’s a nice options for our clients that want to try something different. We do use all their staff, but one of us is there to take care of our clients.

As an interesting side, the birds almost disappeared during the pandemic. We turned our lodge into something like a hotel while closed to all foreign tourists. Although many dates were proposed, but were retracted. Accordingly, the decision was made to wait a few months after the official open date just to cover contingencies should there be another shutdown. Still, the birds weren’t flying that much when others were hunting. Finally, once more hunters were in the field, the birds really started flying. It was the same with cara caras and Águilas.

I have been 11 or 12 times so far, spread between the Cordoba and Entre Rios regions. I did not hunt during the pandemic. This year, in Entre Rios, we had great shooting.

I've seen some really great days and some not so great. My view is that "decline" is probably a relative term. As Marcus points out in his post, you have guys who want 3 /5 thousand birds a day, some who want 1k, and others, like me, who are content with +/- 750.

I respect everyone's goals and expectations, but for me, even a slow day of Argentine dove shooting is a pretty darn good day compared to most other venues.

I, too, have heard Salta can be pretty amazing

I'll be at DSC looking for another hunt.

Thanks to you all for the input. I’ve also bird hunted in Argentina several times in the past and had heard conflicting reports about the bird concentrations. It’s great to have a forum like AR to get as much up-to-date information as possible.

When I see hunters in Argentina surrounded by piles of dead birds it reminds me of similar photos of Passenger Pigeons in their time. Beware.