Please if you are interested see our bird hunting photos at another part of the world hunt reports ,we are in the partrige and duck season you can see nice photos willy 1953 is my partner .JUAN

Juan, I just got back from Argentina. We were shooting some shells called Stopping Power by "Caza"?? Out of curiosity what do these shells run for a "local" to buy. I'm guessing that there is quite the markup on shells and I'm fine with that. Just curious how much per box. I'm guessing they sell locally for $3 US per box.

I had my doubts with the shells but they performed well except for one case I had that would not eject. These were very dirty and were spitting particles of something out of the chamber when fired. At first I figured unburned powder, but we cut a shell open and it was not powder, it looked more like saw dust LOL! Swapped out cases and was back in business. Other than the bad case the shells were very clean. Ended up putting around 10+ cases through the SBEII without cleaning and it performed well.

Just for arguments sake though was just wondering about the markup on shells down there.

There are several types of stopping power ,shell quality is from good to excellent the price for locals from 6 to 8 dolars to the local hunters ,tourists cannot buy shells at a local gunshop ,its a federal law,most of the hunting corps charge the shells from 9us to 12us a box ,its impossibly to find a box of shells at 3 us even reloads .Did you enjoy my country ,did you hunted in Cordoba .Juan

I enjoyed the trip and the people. The only things that didn't suit me were:

1) After duck hunting they'd load you up in the truck and take you back to the lodge while the bird boy picked up your birds. I would have preferred for pictures sake to have had the opportunity in the field to look my birds over and take pictures. The "kill" picture with everyone's birds laying out is alright, but I like more personal pictures in the field.

2) 1.5 hours of duck in the morning was not enough. Granted we typically shot a bunch of birds in that 1.5 hours, but I would value more time in the field. Same with pigeon, 2 hour hunts in the afternoon was not long enough. In contrast 4 hours of dove in the morning was longer than I liked.

The guy we went with usually hosts quite a few Italians, so there may be a big cultural difference than U.S. citizens I guess. He's trying to get more and more U.S. hunters to come so I'm sure he'll change to better suit the needs of U.S. hunters over time.

We hunted doves/pigeons around 1 hour outside of Santa Rosa. We hunted ducks around 4 hours out of Buenos Aires, then it was a couple hour drive to the dove lodge.

Spent one day in Buenos Aires on the back end. Had an "alright" time. Stayed at the Melia which was very nice and close to Florida street. Biggest turn off was the traffic and everything seemed dirty to me. Went on a bus tour and was suprised that the area we were staying was considered upper class. I guess everything is relative to what you are used to. Everyone we met was very nice and the food and wine were fantastic. I was really shocked how once you got a couple hours out of Buenos Aires how dramatically different the country was. Overall, it didn't capture me as much as Africa, but it was a good time and only an 8 hour flight.

I've been kicking the thought of an Argentina trip some day. Did you find that in the local economy that your dollars went far (restaurants/hotels/bars/food)? This more for the wife than me...

TIA for any response.

KG

Can't really say. We were not in Buenos Aires long so we ate 2 meals right at the hotel and they ran about what they would in the U.S. I would imagine though that if you went to an outside restaurant you would get a lot better pricing. At $300/night the Melia is catering mostly to foreigners so I'm sure their pricing is adjusted accordingly.

Shopping, I heard of all of these "great" deals, but to me the savings did not seem to be that hot. I bought a wallet for $20 U.S. that would have probably cost me $30-40 in the U.S. Wife bought a brief case for $200 U.S. that would have probably been $500 in the U.S. So to me the savings seemed to be in buying stuff that was produced there.

Didn't have opportunity in the field to spend much and there really was nothing to spend money on. When we would stop for gas, the exchange rate took effect, but you really don't notice spending $1 U.S. instead of $3.

I think where most of your savings comes in is if your outfitter is from Argentina and not the U.S. IMHO, the U.S. guys need to make more profit because of the exchange rate, where the local guys can get by on less. For 5 days of hunting I was in about 3.2k for everything including tips, shells, license, VAT, gun permit etc...,excluding airfare to Buenos Aires and back. For 3k IMHO is a heck of a bargain.

IMHO, Argentina is the Africa of 20 years ago as far as value for your $.

GMaxson ,i like that you enjoyed the country ,but next time you need a more relaxed hunt ,tthe photos are an important part of the game ,you must see the dogs working ,and you must ask to lodge near the hunting farm and not expend time driving ,thats why i only accept a limited number of hunters ,because i want to stay with each client in every detail ,my clients came tear after year to hunt partriges ,ducks doves and pidgeon in a family enviroment ,we see the work of the pointers or the labs ,we hunt boars with the dogos ,and visit local restaurants and wineries ,a lot of times i guided just for the pleasure of making friends ,see the reports in another part of the world.Juan

Didn't really have much of a drive from where we were staying. We were staying at the Prince of Austria's house for ducks and it was anywhere from 10 to 30 minute drive to hunt. Not bad having that short of a drive, especially since he didn't bait. Most of the driving was off the road and it just took time opening gates. For pigeon and dove we stayed at the lodge the outfitter had just built and for dove it was about a 5 minute drive and for pigeon, one spot was a 20 minute drive and one was 1 hour. I had no problem with the hour drive for the one pigeon spot, since when we arrived about 5,000 pigeons got up out of the field and left making for good action for the next couple hours.

The short hunts were the outfitters call. In all reality though, with the short days there really was not a ton of time to spend in the field anyway.