Reed: I`ll gladly answer any questions you may have regarding Argentina.
Wellcome to AR

nainital, thanks much. I'll probably be sending a PM or email at a later date when I've had a chance to collect my thoughts in as concise a fashion as possible.

DB Bill, I just flew to Salvador, Brazil through Sao Paulo for $1200 and I've actually seen flights from Miami, through Varig, into Sao Paulo for as little as $462 round trip. I'm just guessing but going into Argentina should be in this same ballpark. My work trips were booked through American Express and ran about $1400 to $1500 over three trips in the last two years.

Thanks for the replies.

Reed

What is the "typical" round-trip airfare between Miami and various hunting locations in South America?

What other "in-country" costs do you normally get hit with? Not including ammunition, tips, etc.

I am looking to go on a ( cheap ) dove hunt in Argentina. I am not looking for fancy lodging. So far I have same across two good prospects. They are offering very affordable dove hunts. Has anyone used any of these outfitters?
Argentina bird hunts or San uberto

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Hi John,

John Airala has the best hunts for the money of anyone that I have found. His web-page is www.sportingdestinations.com.
I'm returning there to hunt in March.

Hawkeye47

Robert ... I sent you an e mail...

Robert: PM for you.

Nainital
Thanks When I have time I would like to talk to you and go over the hunting in the area
Thanks.

Pm sent

4 FULL DAYS! MORNING AND AFTERNOON SHOOTS. 2500 shells included. $1777

There is no limit on dove. They are considered vermin and destroy 50 % of the crops in areas where we hunt. The season is never closed.

If you bring a group of 7 you will go for free. You will only have to pay for your shells and you get those at $4/box. This shoot is in Cordoba, in the best dove area in the World. Not in Buenos Aires, not in Entre Rios, and definitely not in Santiago del Estero, ..... CORDOBA.

John
www.sportingd.com

Hi,
I was wondering what happens to the doves? Are they really fed to pigs like I read somewhere?
Also, is this new hunting pressure changing the way the doves fly/act? I doubt there was such sustained hunting pressure before a few years ago was there?
Lastly, do locals bother with doves or is it merely a pest that the gringos enjoy ?

Sometimes they are fed to pigs. Dove have been hunted by foreigners for over 20 years. Below is a short explanation of impact of large scale dove hunting in Argentina that I wrote for a misinformed individual who inquired:

I can understand that you would feel bad that birds are being shot because that is your nature and your instinct. I hunt for the same reasons. Let me however, put the impact on dove as a species into perspective. In Argentina there is no season on dove and no limit to how much you can shoot. There is a reason for this. The number of dove and the rate at which they reproduce is such that when they descend on a grain crop they will destroy around 50% of that crop. This understandably upsets the farmers who before the dove shooting industry would poison the roosts where the doves live to reduce their numbers. The goal of the farmers was complete eradication of the dove. The poisoning of a large roost resulted in the killing of several million birds and the poison runoff would affect a great many other species. Since the dove shooting industry flourished in Cordoba, mass poisoning has stopped. The farmers recognize in the dove a viable source of income. A lease on a good dove roost costs what an average argentine worker makes in a year, and that is just for the shooting rights. An entire year of dove shooting by the estimated 4000 shooters who come here will kill less birds than the poisoning of just 4 roosts. In addition many major dove roosts are being saved from destruction by the dove lodge operators themselves, who purchase them, thus avoiding the cutting down of the trees and clearing of the land for agricultural use. When the dove lose their habitat they will be no more. There are easily over 300,000,000 dove in Cordoba. They nest 2 to 3 times a year and lay 3-4 eggs each time. The only real danger to them is the destruction of their habitat and poisoning. It is impossible to endanger them as a species by means of recreational hunting. As has happened many times before with many other species, recreational hunting has in fact saved the dove of Argentina.

Bobhossian:

You won'tmany doves there are until you've been there and seen them.

I can testify to the poisoning prior to hunting. I was one of the first "furreners", which means one of the first ever to hunt in a new area for doves since the Argentines rarely stoop to shooting doves, preferring perdiz, about 20 years ago. I speak rudimentary Spanish and enjoy talking to other people so I was asking the segundo, who was riding with us, if there were a lot of doves there. He laughed, and said, "Si senor, we just poisoned the roost the other day and think we killed about 2 million." "Dos milliones!!!" I exclaimed in distress, "there won't be any doves left." He laughed heartily and said, "not to worry, senor, hay muchas palomas (there are plenty of doves)." He was right, we got into position (just 2 of us, my buddy and I) and as it got lighter, I fired a shot and the field litterally got up. I can't imagine how many there were in that maize field, but millions. The sky was literally black.

The good operators make every effort to recover the doves, not necessarily for the eating, but to keep their hunting areas from smelling like a slaughterhouse.

One other thing, unlike many other Central and South American countries, Argentina is a beef raiser and the people are normally not protein starved, like in Mexico, for instance. Many of the locals look on people eating doves in the same manner as you and I would think of eating rats which are a delicacy in parts of China. Chac un a son gout...

I agree with John Air in everything except in the numbers of eggs of each nest, not three or four, just two.

He is right, if we don't shoot them, farmers will poisoned them. One way or another we have to control them and foreign hunters helps to keep numbers low and create jobs.

LG

The cost of shells have been always high for our peasants. Thus they don�t hunt doves, not even with their 22�s which are now in every truck or horse. You see, commercial hunting of the European hare is a very wellcome source of extra income in the winter and about 3.5 million of them are exported each year, mainly to France, Italy and Germany. Some of these commercial hunters are fantastic shooters due to costs, much in the way of the earlier meat hunters in Africa. Thus doves are hunted only by foreigners or some casual sports who spend a few shells during the hunt of other species.
I think that an estimation of 300 million doves is on the low side in C�rdoba Province, should be more than that.

OK I was just curious as to what happened. I was sure that hunters would never shoot that many unless there were good reasons! It is good to know there are places where "excess" is allowed and encouraged! It is a European tradition to eat absolutely everything shot and I know that it makes no difference to the animal what happens to it once it is dead.
Are those hares sold for meat? I know that chasing them with hounds is extremely popular here, a pack of beagles especially...

Boghossian: the hare�s loins are freezed and packed in plastic boxes order to be exported.Simply put, our peasants don�t eat them. The gaucho is very special, he mainly eats beef and mutton and nothing else, not even poultry. With the fantastic populations of doves and ducks here, no one hunts them in the pampas, there is some duck hunting in the Parana River area.

Wow, you have a way of describing it that makes me want to take the next plane there...unfortunately won't happen for awhile, but I am looking forward to a roar stag hunt in Slovakia:different continent/month/weather/habitat=same deer/same great hunt!
By the way, did the crash in the economy affect hunt prices down there, or is it like South Africa where the prices go up but don't come back down when things go the other way.

Boghossian: prices are the same as I see it, always have been calculated in USD or EURO. Trouble is for us locals, who can�t afford hunting in private ranches anymore. All the suitable red stag hunting locations for the incoming rut are already booked by foreigners, for instance.
Doves are another cup of tea of course, there are so many of them and so many places to go...

Hello all,

I ran across this thread after a brief search. If you read my last reply in the following thread you'll see why I'm here...basically wanting to know more about opportunities for hunting in Argentina. I guess I'll go back to my forum search on "Argentina" and continue to wade through the Argentina Mauser threads.

http://www.accuratereloading.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB2&Number=586776&Forum=All_Forums&Words=argentina&Searchpage=0&Limit=50&Main=584147&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=1&newerval=2&newertype=y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post586776

For those of you in Argentina, get ready, I may have some questions for you in the future.

Thanks in advance,

Reed