A Belated Report from Argentina

Don Kaas · 10-08-2011, 04:07 PM

Russ Bickel and I were down in Argentina for the last week of the duck season. Russ brought his 32" 20g DHE and his 32" flat rib 12g DHE. I was Parkerless with a 30" 20g Magnum M21 and a 32" M21 Duck. We shot ducks in the morning and doves in the afternoon with one morning devoted to a goose hunt on a farmer's depredation permit. We were in two locations in southern BA Province about a 7 hour drive from the BA airport. We shot the doves in adjacent La Pampa Province. We were the only hunters there (Destry couldn't get away after our earlier volcanic activity aborted attempt in early July) We took 10 species of ducks, one Magellan goose, a few pigeons and about 3500 doves (in 4 afternoon shoots) The photo shows my Model 21 Duck and Russ' 12g DHE and a rosy billed pochard, a Chiloe widgeon and a cinnamon teal from the last days shoot sitting on the marble steps of the magnificent 19th century estancia we were staying in. We convinced our local hosts that for the 12 gauge guns, 1 oz of #7s was more than adequate for decoyed ducks rather than the 1 oz of #5s they prefer and we proved it a few hundred times. We used 25 gram loads of 7 1/2s in 20 gauge for the doves and shot the 20s on ducks one morning. A beautiful country and the world's premier place for duck shooting IMHO

Dean Romig · 10-08-2011, 05:30 PM

Your trip to Argentina sounds like great fun! Lots of shooting to heat those old barrels up... probably a lot like the "old days" those guns most likely had seen way back when.

Please say "Hi" to Russ for us - his rare talents are missed.

John Truitt · 10-08-2011, 06:54 PM

Very cool. Thank you for posting.
I love to hear these stories.

John

Bill Murphy · 10-09-2011, 11:01 AM

Don, did you use the one ounce #5 for the geese? How well did they come in, on what kind of setup?

charlie cleveland · 10-09-2011, 03:28 PM

thanks for the hunt..... charlie

Steve McCarty · 10-09-2011, 08:08 PM

How did you get your guns down there? I've hunted dove in Mexico and have never found out a way to get my guns south of the border. A fine shotgun I'm sure would end up as the chief of police's go to gun.

Now, today, with what is going on in Mexico, I won't go. We got some fine dove hunting however. We had to rent their Benellis which had seen a lot of hard use. Autos. Everytime I ran out of shells the birdboy would drop a box into my shell case. I ended up paying $650 for shells in a 2.5 day hunt.

I'd much rather hunt in the USA. I'd also love to use my own guns.

Don Kaas · 10-10-2011, 08:04 AM

Bill- We used 32 gram loads of #2s for geese. We were set up on the side of a hill in a winter wheat field in hand dug individual pits. We heard geese all over in the dark. As the sun finally began to poke out of the clouds in front of us there was a huge rush of wings an then the chatter of geese behind us. We then heard a faint, "Oh no!" in English from our guide. The flock had landed a 100 yards behind us. I shot one on the pass a half hour later and that was that...Goose hunting has been closed down in many provinces in Argentina in the past few years ostensibly due to declines in the population of some of the rarer species. While the excesses of the past are over for the most part, the farmers still despise them. They resemble and feed like our snows. Unlike Canadas, there is not much left of a winter wheat field when a big flock of caucan comun or real are done with it...

Steve- getting your guns to Argentina is very easy. Everything is handled for you by the outfitter. Upon collecting one's luggage at the airport, you are ushered into a small office, the clerk and a police officer check the gun's serial numbers against the forms the outfitter has already submitted, you pay circa $75 a gun and you go. All smiles and no hassles. I have done it many times. As for costs, my shell bill was about $1000 with the doves. (5X what it would have been just for ducks. You are down there to shoot afterall). The total trip cost is about $7000 with airfare and tips. I have hunted on 5 continents over the past 30 years and have enjoyed every trip. I have never had a real problem related to guns. It is MUCH harder for a law abiding Canadian or British hunter to get his guns into the US than it is for us to bring our guns to most countries where sport hunting is permitted. I guess as in most things, if you don't want to spend the $, it is best you don't..