Okay Cholly.....here ya' go, and before you start bitchin' about pictures Photobucket is giving me fits right at the moment, I'll get there. Yes, before you die of old age!



Argentina 2012 With Dr. Juan Pozzi
Dates Hunted September 7th. through 13th.
Rifles: mine Ruger RSM in .458 Lott, Kev . Win Model 70 in .416 Rem.
Travel Agent: Gracy Travel ( Doug )
Species Hunted: Mediterranean Water Buffalo, Capybara, Ducks, Doves and Pigeons

It begins
The adventure begins, Kev and I leave the office and head for the Airport for our flight at 1:30 P.M., work is over for the duration. We arrive at the American check in desk prepared to begin our adventure and begin the process of checking in for our flight to find that it is all done by computer (no human interaction ). Oh boy! Technology always screws me and this time is no exception. I proceeded to enter every number on my e-ticket, scanned my passport and drivers license…….nada, nothing, zip! Finally a human being (sorta) deigns to provide assistance. After typing furiously for several minutes and making a bunch of grunting noises, this human, I use the term loosely here, summons a supervisor, the supervisor appears vaguely human. The supervisor takes over typing and grunting, and wa-la we have boarding passes and luggage tags. Then I make mention that one of the pieces of luggage is a gun case, grunting begins again in unison and earnest, this time there is even some lip popping and clucking sounds. Ominous! With a little bit of instruction from me they determine that they can, in fact, receive firearms as luggage.

I ask where I need to take the firearms for TSA inspection, more grunting…… I look around and notice a few TSA agents vigilantly guarding a column in the ticketing area and ask them. I am told that the firearm check in is “over there, go ask that fella”. I do and he responds that firearms are no longer checked here and he is not sure where this takes place…..our tax dollars are really working here, most likely stimulus funds. At least he didn’t grunt. Finally just before my head explodes an airport employee approaches and tells me that the firearms inspection area is down stairs and he will have to take my gun case downstairs for TSA to inspect it. He asks for the key (to my understanding against TSA regs) but I give him the key and he takes the case down stairs for inspection. I don’t have the best of vibes. This young man promptly returns, about 20 minutes later with the key and tells me “all is good”, imagine my lack of relief. Oh well. We are off.

The flight to Miami takes off about 30 minutes late and when we arrive in Miami there is a thunderstorm, the jet is not allowed to the gate until the lightning abates. This is a new one for me. So we wait for about 15 minutes until the lightning slacks a bit and then de-plane and proceed to the LAN ticket counter to get the boarding passes for the rest of the trip. We are about 45 minutes behind schedule at this time and we wait in line at the LAN ticket counter for almost an hour before we get to a ticket agent. We hand over our passports and e-tickets to be informed that the flight has been called. I inform this beast, I mean Lady, that there is one hour and forty minutes until the flight is scheduled to leave. She informs me right back that you must check in, in person, three hours before flight time to make the flight. My head is starting its pre explosion checklist again. Kevin to the rescue. He starts chatting this creature up a bit thinking he will get us on the flight. My head is about halfway to burst pressure. Anyway he keeps chatting, thinking it’s gonna get us on the plane. It doesn’t. He does find out that our two pieces of luggage made the flight and are headed for Lima and on to Cordoba. He also finds that there is no record of our gun case…….joy. After much back and forth with the “ticket beast” he manages to get us “comp’ed” a hotel room and meal vouchers. We spend the night at the hotel.

Day Two
Kevin and I arrive at the airport early Thursday, when we should be arriving in Cordoba, to begin the search for our rifles. First United, we find that our gun case did arrive in Miami but United handed it off to LAN. We proceed to LAN and discuss the situation with them and finally convince one of them to physically check the baggage area and see if it is there. This gentleman disappears somewhere for about 40 minutes and returns with the gun case in tow. Hot damn!

Things are looking up. We decide to go ahead and check the rifle case and get our boarding passes so we don’t have to lug the rifles around the airport all day while awaiting our flight that evening. So we get back in line to the LAN counter. After about an hour wait we get to another “ticket beast” only to be informed that we can’t check in this early. Head explosion imminent! LAN airlines is the Goldilocks of airlines, not too early, not too late, it must be just right! Oh well…. we hit the Chili’s and proceed to rapidly consume their stock of Crown Royale and Tequila. My head is back to its normal P.S.I. Kev and I get to studying the situation a bit and decide that the line at the ticket counter is normally a one hour wait and we must check in at least three hours early to make the flight so we decide four and a half hours should be about right. This is a mighty bit of ciphering to do after that much bar time, but we get it done.

Rifles checked, boarding passes in hand we proceed through security and head for the gate three hours before boarding………….. Oh look, another bar. Disaster, no Crown only Makers Mark. Anyway….we finally crawl onto the plane and head for Lima, Peru. We wake approaching Lima, land, de-plane and head for the gate of our connecting flight, pile up and go back to sleep. We are awakened not to board our flight but to be informed that our flight is delayed one hour due to bad weather in Cordoba. It just keeps on. One hour goes by and we are told it’s gonna be yet another hour, just keeps getting better and better don’t it? I notice my head explosion warning is not kicking in, wonder why? Crown Royale, I bet. Anyway, we finally board for Cordoba, pile up and go to sleep.

Day Three
Cordoba, finally, a day late and travel fatigued, but we are here. We are met at the airport by Dr. Juan and Julio, they help us through the fire arm importation. Fire arm importation is a simple task $300.00 Argentinian dollars per gun, about $65.00 U.S. The ammo check, unfortunately, doesn’t go as well, it appears that hollow point ammo is not allowed to be imported to Argentina, both of us had loaded with Barnes X bullets, hollow points, damn. Dr. Juan talked to them a bit and he did manage to get us outta there with our ammo. I think I’m finally beyond head explosion, what relief, my head isn’t much to look at but I have enjoyed it for forty seven years and am not quite ready to have it explode.

We are done with airports and “ticket beasts” and work. Now for seven days of fun. We embark on a three hour drive to Juan’s lodge in San Francisco. The drive is uneventful. Juan is a bit “under the weather” from some sort of stomach upset so the driving is delegated to Julio. We arrive at the lodge in the early afternoon to lunch prepared by Ms. Maria, the elderly Argentine Lady that lives at the lodge and manages the “lodge” business for Juan. Maria, a sweet lady without a word of English but, friendly beyond belief. She took care of meals and laundry at the lodge and while verbal communication was just not happening, we never lacked in anything we needed and she made the best Empanadas I have ever eaten, bar none.

We ate and settled in then Juan, Julio and Icky, Juan’s son, came back and picked us up to go check the zero on our rifles. We went to the gun club in San Francisco, a neat place. Juan told that the building and club is over 100 years old, he is the current President of the club. We checked our rifles, Kev’s model 70 was right on but I had to do a bit of adjusting on my Ruger, we were good.

Icky wanted to shoot Kev’s 70 and he went a bit loose trying to make a good shot and got scope bit, he bled a bit but was very proud of his “battle scar”.


Juan and Icky broke out their pistols and did some shooting and let Kev and I shoot a bit, we didn’t embarrass ourselves too badly. Burning powder is just fun. Back to the lodge for our first Argentine Asado, Beef ribs and Sausage, it was very good stuff. After supper we visited a bit and got better acquainted after which we went to bed anticipating our first day of hunting.

Day Four
We rise at the crack of 7:00 A.M., awakened by Ms. Maria for a lite breakfast of rolls, jam and juice. Juan and Julio arrive and we head off to one of his families’ farms for dove and pigeon shooting. The bird shooting was very good. We tried a couple of spots without many birds and quickly relocated to a dairy feed lot covered up with birds and proceeded to go to work. Birds were plentiful and we had a great time. Patagonian pigeons, Picazaru Pigeons, Feral Pigeons and Golden Doves not to mention the Parakeets. Big fun.


Dinner was prepared by Juan’s charming and beautiful wife, Flavia, at the lodge. She made us Ravioli Alfredo and it was just outstanding. This is the first time that I paid attention to Dr. Pozzi’s skill at the dinner table, that dude can eat. I consider myself a trencherman but compared to Juan I appear anorexic. We finished with a dessert of some of the finest ice cream I have ever eaten (Texans please forgive me, Bluebell is good but this stuff was incredible). I waddle off to bed and sleep the sleep of the blessed.

Another day of bird shooting……….We try the same feed lot again with good results in the morning. After the morning flight cools off we try another location and pick up some more birds. Julio, a man of many talents….bar keep, shot shell deliverer and mosquito dope applier (don’t ask….what happens in Argentina stays in Argentina…) fixes us another batch of fabulous empanadas for lunch. By know my bird shooting is mostly satisfied. I just don’t need to kill that many of anything anymore. We head back to the lodge for another great Asado and an evening by the fire place. It was a very nice evening. I think Ms. Maria has the “hots” for Kev. He is a bit troubled by this situation, I enjoy it greatly.

Today we pack up for the Corrientes province. This is really a neat aspect of the excursion, traveling across country, seeing the sights, surviving Juan’s driving, I only screamed three of four times, really. Evening time we arrive at the lodge on the Parana River, a very nice place to stay. Yet another nice meal, drinks on the patio, then bed. This morning it’s fishing, fishing on the Parana river for Golden Dorado, who’d a thought it. We meet our guide at the boat launch at the lodge, a very nice 20’ fiberglass boat with a new Yamaha engine. We make introductions, load up and head up river for four or five miles to his honey hole, once there we begin to troll. He has good serviceable tackle, kind of heavy for my taste and after about ten minutes we have a double hookup! Neat.


These Golden Dorado are not extremely hard fighters compared to our Gulf coast Redfish but they do pretty well, plus they jump. We land both of them, about six or seven pounds I would guess and troll some more. I believe all in all we caught five. Wavi is adamant that we need to catch some Catfish so we reluctantly abandon the Dorado and head for his Catfish hotspot. Here we use live bait, Carolina rigged on the bottom. Fifteen minutes into our wait we both double up again. Two of the oddest looking Catfish, about thirty inches long are boated, high fives all around. Time for lunch! I like lunch, I’m good at it too! Not as good as Juan, but pretty good.

Wavi, the guide, motors us over to the bank on a jungle island and ties up the boat. He directs us up on the bank while he unpacks. He unpacks folding chairs, a table, a cook pot, the whole mess. Where all this gear has been stowed on the boat is beyond me, but this man is prepared.


While we have a beer or three the guys build a fire, set up the cook pot and begin lunch. These fresh fried Dorado are amazing. Kinda different how they cook ‘em though. They just gut the fish then cut off chunks and throw them in the hot oil, no batter, no cornmeal and they leave the scales on.


Very different from what Kev and I are used to but damn good. The scales wrinkle up and crisp and really add a fine texture to the fish. After we eat and drink all the beer we head back to the lodge, a great day in the outdoors with good guys. Drinks on the patio then bed, Juan tries to set Kev up with some local “Ladies” but he politely declines and makes haste for his berth.

Buffalo day

This is what I came for!!!!
Breakfast can’t be over soon enough, and we head for Buffalo country. Not far from the lodge we hit dirt road, I prefer dirt roads. Once we pass the main gate for the ranch we are in a kind of paradise of playa lakes and South Texas looking brush country, I like it. It just looks like hunting country. Driving for several miles into the ranch we see some amazing country, playas full of waterfowl, Ostriches (Rheas really) and Crocodiles in the rivers. We arrive at the Guachos’ headquarters to enlist some South American Cowboy help. We are introduced to Kendola, a very serious looking Guacho, maybe mid fifties, no six gun or Winchester but a big serious looking knife in his belt. Not quite a machete but more than a butcher knife, looks well used. Heck, Kendola looks well used, but far from used up. Dr. Juan, Julio and Kendola negotiate a bit then Kendola mounts up on his horse and heads out. Juan tells Kevin and I to gear up and grab the rifles. Kendola has a herd located and is going to check that they are still where he had ‘em earlier. Now it’s getting exciting.

When our Guacho, Kendola, headed out a few dogs went with him. We walked quite a ways in the direction Kendola went and we hear the dogs barking in the distance. Pulses quicken and so do we. We can hear the dogs coming our way and animals crashing in the brush, large animals. It’s not quite like the jesse in Zim but it’s pretty thick. Kendola and his dogs are pushing the herd towards us in this thick mess. Every once in a while we get a glimpse of buffalo through the gaps in the brush but they are still quite a way off. We move in en masse, four of us Juan, Julio Kevin and I. Finally the herd, maybe fifteen animals breakout of cover about seventy yards on our right I am closest to Juan, Kevin and Julio are back a bit, they where to our left in the brush. Juan and I are trying to pick out a bull. A good bull finally edges out of the group a bit in front but off to the side and facing us. I slam him with 450 grains of Barnes X right where his throat meets his chest. Man! His hind legs never move he buckles and goes down in a pile.



That .458Lott hits hard! The rest of the herd mills for a moment and we try to pick a bull for Kev but they just won’t settle and finally take off the way they came. We settle down to give them some time to settle down. About this time Kendola rides up and we wait a bit. Kendola and Juan discuss our options on Kevin’s buffalo and Kendola rides off with the dogs again and we follow in his direction, he is gonna try and push them to us again! We push on for another four or five hundred yards and hear the dogs and the crashing again. Kendola is working them hard right at us but he is having a harder time this go around as they are spooked up pretty good. We get a couple of looks at the herd and the other two bulls have split out and left, only cows left.

Kendola rides up to us and tells Juan that one old cow in this herd he knows, and she has killed two of the Guacho horses in the past and she has repeatedly charged him today and asks if Kevin will please shoot her. Kevin is only too happy to oblige, she is an old matriarch with curled horns, her headgear will make a very unusual trophy. Kendola rides off and we push in. Kevin puts a 400 grain X right in her shoulder as she passes by at about sixty yards, she hunches and keeps going, he throws the bolt and gives her another. This old cow is taking some punishment, but know she is wobbling and soon tips over. As we walk up he gives her another between the shoulders and she is done. Kev's first two shots are within an inch of each other, good shooting Pard.







What a neat few hours. This is some kind of fun hunting, close, crashing and noisy, it really gets your adrenaline flowing. I am not sure what I really expected but this exceeds it. I have taken two Cape Buffalo in Africa and this is totally different, not better, not worse. I will do it again! After the bulffalo are down a bunch of Guachos start to arrive, all horseback to help get the buffalo back to the main camp and butchered. We have Buffalo tenderloin for lunch. Tender it ain’t! Julio does a masterfull job of cooking us lunch over an open fire complete with Guacho bread and beer.




The buffalo tastes wonderful but its damn chewey! The Guacho bread cooked over an open fire is like a heavy pizza crust, it definantly sticks to your ribs and makes good “pocket” food. A very good day. Back to the lodge for a good night sleep. Buffalo hunting wears you out.

Today we are after Capibara a huge water rat. I never really thought I would be hunting rats, well there was this one time when I was much younger…..I digress. We drive back to another ranch close to the buffalo area and check playas for these large rodents. We find a bunch at a large play and begin to make a plan. We drop Kevin off at one side while we drive around to provide a distraction. Not a good plan it turns out, but on the way around we see another playa in the distance that Juan wants to check out. We park and start walking toward this other playa and we can see from a distance that there are Capibarra there, but there is no cover at all so we will have to crawl. I hate crawling. A lot. But crawl we do, about four hundred yards, I really didn’t know I wanted to shoot a Capibarra that bad, it turns out I did so do. We crawl to within about 125 yards. Juan tells me to pick out a big one and shoot it. I am on my belly and rest the rifle on a clump of grass and pick out a big one. Did I mention I am shooting a 458 Lott prone? Well I am. I shoot, my Capibarra just goes limp, the other thirty or so jump up and look around, not seeing anything to alarm them they just go back to whatever it is Capibarra do when they are unalarmed. We back out and go get Kevin, he and Juan crawl back in and he gets his. Mission Capibarra accomplished!


Juan and Julio go get the truck to collect the Capibarra and us. Man these are big rats, probably close to a hundred pounds. Julio gets back and field dresses the rats so we can have rat for lunch. Heck I’ll try most anything but big Kev is looking a little green. He’s kind of a picky eater, I really don’t think he is looking forward to eating grilled rat. Well Julio did his magic while we siestad in the shade and we had broiled rat for lunch. The texture was a lot like pork and the flavor was very good but tough. I finally quit using the “R” word and Kev even managed to eat some. Another siesta and back to the lodge. This Siesta stuff is working out quite well.


This morning we head back to San Francisco with a stop at neat old bar and Pizza joint in Santa Fe. We get back about 4:00 in the evening and Juan decides we need to shoot some ducks, Juan is a pretty busy fella.

We jump a flat with some ducks on it and get a few then sit and wait for them to come back and we get a couple more. Back to Casa Pozzi for another Asado and more of that incredible ice cream. I ate way too much, mostly Mrs. Flavia’s fault. Again Juan proved to be the “Champion” of the dinner table, just watching him eat is tireing. We say our goodbyes to Juan’s wonderful family and head back to the lodge for our last night in Argentina.

Wouldn’t you know it we have the same luck on the way home……….plane malfunction two hours late departing Lima, miss our connection again in Miami. Yes we have to spend the night in Miami AGAIN.

Miami, know that is a third world country, I think I heard more English spoken in Argentina than Miami.

I won’t connect through there again, EVER.
LAN airline sucks, but United and American weren’t much better.

The trip other than the travelling was great.

I will do this again and I have several friends in Argentina now. Ms. Maria was wonderful. Julio, what can you say about Julio? A harder working, nicer fella, you are not gonna find. And Juan……..what can I say….he IS the champion. Mrs. Falvia was a charming hostess and made us feel at home from the beginning.

All the people we met in Argentina treated us like family from the officials to the hunting folks a very friendly country.

Thank you all for having us. We will be back.

Signed,

Ernest ( just for you Gato )

DAAAAYAAAM! That was fast......

Now I understand why it took your Ernest side SOOOOO loooong to get this report out. You are soooooo patient.

Sounds like you two had a great time. I'm ready to go back now and drink some more Quilmes and I wanna shoot a duck or twenty. Unfortunately my running buddy is learning something, not sure what, at UT Austin. It could be worst tho, it could be A&M.

Besides the driving, all I can say is......Great people, great time.

We did have a good time Gato, and like you I am ready to go back.

Your running buddy made a great impression on the guys down there. Sounds like a great young man you have there.


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JTEX - Sounds like your travels were a real nightmare. Glad all ended well with no lost luggage, even though it sounds like you may have lost some hair by pulling it out? I know you had a great time while in Argentina as you were surrounded by some of the nicest people I have ever met. Good hunting, good food and good people, what more could one ask for?

Juans' driving never bothered me as I simply closed my eyes evertime it looked like an impending disaster.

Very nice report, after hoooooow many months? Waiting for pics now when you get that part figured out. Let's see today is Feb 1, so should have them by late Spring I presume? I am looking to return to Argentina again when time allows. Have a great day and thanks again for the report.

Larry Sellers

Give him hell, Larry!

Great report Jim, I thoroughly enjoyed readingit. I can sympathize with you on the travel, having traveled quite a bit internationally for work, airlines, globally, somehow operate under different customer service standards....

I'm definitely going to get down to hunt with Dr Juan once I get this pesky medical situation out of the way. Thenk you for our report, I really enjoyed reading it.

Best regards

John

Great report but there is something details that they arent here ,WE WANT PHOTOS ,i dont remember but there was a historie about cuban girls ...........and the report aftet i drunk ornage juige 3 liters some details that you have forgiven ....... ill continue reading

Larry- I don't think you or Cholly would be happy if both of ya' was hung with new ropes!

Carolinasman- Thank you very much. I am sure WHEN you go you will have a great time. It is good toknow that there is one person here that appreciates all my huge effort in describing my half literate hunting report unlike a couple of guys that will remain un-named......( Larry and Gato ).....

Juan- there are some things best left in Argentina, or maybe just for stories around the campfire.......I had forgotten about the Orange Juice......yes you are the champion of "that" also.

Your friend in Texas.

quote:

my half literate hunting report

I think I know which half is literate........

Okay! Pictures! Are you happy?

Man going through the pictures makes me want to go back even more.

Gato- I was trying to go easy on ya' man....your hunt report was, well, uh..........kinda......concise.

Juan I intentionally left a couple of pictures out, you said "no evidence", I remember.

I was looking for Gatogordo's report but I didn't find it????????????

An outstanding report. I suffered with your flights....by the way, never, ever again write "guacho" instead of "gaucho". Here in Argentina you may end with a knife up your ribs...

quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
Okay! Pictures! Are you happy?

Man going through the pictures makes me want to go back even more.

Gato- I was trying to go easy on ya' man....your hunt report was, well, uh..........kinda......concise.

Juan I intentionally left a couple of pictures out, you said "no evidence", I remember.

Considering that my report was considerably more detailed and considerably LONGER than yours, NOT TO MENTION posted in a TIMELY fashion, your use of the word "concise" does serve to illustrate that your literacy problems are spreading upwards.........

quote:

con.cise
/kənˈsīs/
Adjective
Giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive.

However, in spite of it all, I did enjoy it.

Jtex,
I nominate you for the Hunting Report Hall of Fame for one of the more entertaining hunting reports on AR.
Sorry about your airline snafus but at least there was always an open bar nearby. Sounds like you had a great time in spite of the travel probs.

Congratulations to all, excellent report, seem to have had an unforgettable adventure, .. but I'm still intrigued about the "Cuban girls" ... ah, ah,

Iki, my next visit I will teach you how to hold a Dangerous Game Rifle lol ....
My .416 Rigby "Magnumnized" to 416 Weatherby levels with Reloader 22, do not forgive ...

Juan; let me know in advance and I'll go the next buffalo hunt with You, but only with rifles, no bow & arrows .. please

Kind Regards

Guille

quote:

Originally posted by Blacktailer:
Jtex,
I nominate you for the Hunting Report Hall of Fame for one of the more entertaining hunting reports on AR.
Sorry about your airline snafus but at least there was always an open bar nearby. Sounds like you had a great time in spite of the travel probs.

Thank you very much Blacktailer..........unlike Ol' Gato you appreciate classic literature when you see it He is just jealous of my Charles Atlas physique.

The open "barS" did infact save the dayS.

Guille- some how Juan got the "Cuban Girls" thing all messed up........I fear something was lost in translation....but if you ever see him getting on a plane to Cuba....grab him....he is the Champion of enough already.

nainital- Thanks for the heads up and correction......I would never want Mr. Kendola after me with that "Pig Sticker" he carried, that was a serious DUDE.

JTEX - I will go easy on you as it seems others have touched on the truth of it all. It was good that you finally added pics to a very nice report. It really put the icing on the cake. Can't believe I am being sooooo nice. Between the three of us, myself, Gato and you we really did have some great adventures with Juan and Company. Looking forward to getting back that way again soon.

Larry Sellers

Hello Guille, glad to see you are still up and around!! Beware, Billinthewild has told me he is coming to harrass you again in May.

Hi Larry, good to hear from you.... at any time Bill will buy a piece of Argentina lol, Hunter friends are always welcome to Cordoba, Argentina
Cheers.
Guille

quote:

Between the three of us, myself, Gato and you we really did have some great adventures with Juan and Company

Yessir we sure did. I expect I'll see them again before too long myself.

I won't expect the niceness to continue Carry on.

i hope next time hunt with you Jim ,i love big bore rifles ,i alwasys carry in the field a cz375hyh open sigthed,and in town my Colt Anaconda 44magnum

Well done! Great hunt. Wonderful report too and great pics. Hunting with Juan in Argentina is an experience and it seems as if you guys made the most of it.

Marcos- I would like that too. When you shoot something MAKE A BIG HOLE!

Willem- We surely did. It was a bunch of fun with good people and I really enjoyed the Country. South Africa is also one of my favorite places. I have hunted in your beautifull country three times and am planning a fourth.


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JTEX, thank you for that, look me up when you are here next. Any friend of Juan is a friend of mine.

Willem- That would be great. I have been in the East Cape around Somerset East, the Britts area in the Northwest and Phalaborwa most recently for an Elephant Hunt. I have met many South Africans and they have all become friends. Texans, Argintineans and South Africans have quite a bit in common I have found.

Very nice photos Jim than you .
JULIO.

Julio,

You are most welcome. You are not in very many because you where always too busy.

Julio must be one of the hardest working men in Argentina. A damn fine man.

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