We just returned from our 6th annual duck and dove hunt in Argentina.

We hunted with Argentina Outfitters in the southern part of the Buenos Aires province near Necochea for ducks. As we flew in on the charter, I said to my boys that it sure looked a hell of a lot wetter than I had ever seen it. Unfortunately, I was right. There had been record amounts of rain. Some roads that were normally used by cars were passable by small 4WD vehicles only. In anything else you would be stuck. In short, everything was a quagmire. Needless to say, this worried me as there were far more places for the ducks to be. There were large flooded fields of corn or soy beans. These options were not available to the ducks in the past.

We hunted for 6 days for ducks. It was great, yet different from prior years. I attributed this to the water levels.

Argentina Outfitters limits you to shooting 5 boxes of shells in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. You are allowed to take as many ducks as you can with these shells.

My best morning, I shot 78 ducks. My best afternoon, I shot 48 ducks (only shooting 60 shells). My worst morning I shot 28 ducks (although I saw more ducks that day than any other, they just moved off not to return). My worst afternoon, I shot 18 ducks. All other morning shoots, I shot over 50, with 3 over 60.

I took the following species of ducks:

White cheeked pintail
Yellow billed pintail
Speckled teal
Cinnamon teal
Silver teal
Red shoveler
Black headed duck
White faced whistling duck
Black bellied whistling duck
Chilean Widgeon

We bagged 2 afternoon shoots for alternatives. One afternoon, I shot 60 pigeons (pass shooting). Let me tell you this was a humbling experience. On another afternoon we shot perdiz and rabbits in spite of horrible conditions. I think the bag was 11 perdiz and 3 rabbits.

This is a great company. Nice people, good lodge, good food, hard working, etc. I am going back for certain.

After 6 days of duck hunting, we took a charter to Cordoba to hunt at Los Chanares for 3 days for doves. This is a magnificent place with unimaginable quantities of birds. Except for the first and last shoot, I quit when I had shot 1,000 rounds or 2,000 rounds a day. I shot approximately 4,000 doves. I don't think I could take much more shooting than that.

They shoot very close to the lodge. None of this busing you 2 hours one way. We were often 5 minutes away from the lodge. The lodge is well organized and very nice. Fantastic food. I am definitely going back.

I will post pictures later.

I will tell you what sucks about it. One day I was breaking ice to get to the duck blind. Five days later, I step off a plane to oppressive heat and humidity. Now that sucks.

One more thing. I had a cameraman film 3 days of the duck hunting. He is editing it right now. ON the last day of dove hunting, we got a guy to film 1 afternoon. He has already edited it. When I get copies, I will be happy to share them with any one who might want to go on this trip.

Larry:

Any idea how many shells you and the boys shot?

And, bring on the pics!

Will:

We shot about 5,500 rounds each on the doves. Between 3 people that was 16,500 shots in 3 days. We cut off the first and last shoots a little early.

The ducks are more difficult to calculate. I think I fired around 750 including the day of pigeon shooting.

A lot of shooting. That is certain.