Taking guns to Argentina

[Daniel G Rainey]

Headed to Argentina in June for doves, perdiz , and ducks. Needed to do this hunt before I am sitting in the rocking chair at the nursing home thinking I should have done that. Questions about taking one of my Parkers. I understand that It can be a real pain getting guns by customs. Would like any input from anyone who has done this. I would like to shoot one of my Parkers at lease part of the time. Am sure that Lodge guns would work fine, but they do not the soul of a Parker.

[Richard Dow]

Daniel: It’s been some years but we had no problems taking guns to Argentina. The outfitters down there usually only have semi auto’s. No fun. You’ll need to clean your guns at least once a day and maybe more. We had more confusion with the paperwork at LAX than in Argentina although they go through things very well. They want you down there so you just need to be respectful. Call a custom office here way ahead of time and give yourself a lot of time at the airport. Have a great trip. Enjoy the beef and caramel. Best

[TxHuntermn]

Ive been a few times. The ammo is generally pretty crummy, and dirty. I wouldnt shoot anything slightly delicate. Most lodges have o/u’s that are better to shoot than the auto’s. I had a friend that took a pair of Superposed guns, and ruined one of them by making the solder melt in the gun from the fast shooting.

Perdiz no problem, and ducks if you can shoot lead, should be no issue.

[Big D]

We went with Frontiers. They handled everything. It appeared that perhaps there had been some monetary considerations distributed prior to our arrival. If you're going thru an arranged tour, check with them. We went a number of years ago, and had no problem. The newer shells there are clean. We had no problem during the day. Guns were cleaned each evening. One possibility. Tell your outfitter that you want to bring home a bunch of dove breasts frozen. (we brought back 200 pairs). Best hor d'oeuvres ever. If you do that, remember to bring the USFWS form for importation of birds

[Mills]

Follow your outfitters instructions to the T. There are several stupid things you have to have. Do that and it is still a pain but not too bad. The long flight is the hard part.

All that being said, it is well worth it. Beautiful country and good people for the most part. Make sure you spend time in Buenos Aires and sample the great steaks and wine down there. I am not even a wine fan.

For guns, I would take something reliable that will withstand abuse. I shot an 870 20 gauge. Take 2 guns in case one breaks down which does happen.

If you are going with Frontiers and Robin is your guide, tell him Hugh Lane's nephew said hello

[GH-16]

I've been to Argentina many times including a trip late May last year. I've always taken my own guns until last year. Over the years things have gotten harder to take your own guns, both from the Argentina side of things & from the airline part of the travel.

Here's my take based on my experiences last year:

On the Argentina side of things: When you bring your own guns the outfitter now has to have a personal representative sign the RENAR paperwork for your guns at the airport, both for when you enter the country and when you depart. This makes things get pretty sticky if you want to spend time at another location than the outfitter operates from or if the lodge is in a remote location which makes it harder for them to have their representative present for these processes. The Lodge I've used over the years is several miles from Cordoba and just flat-out told us last year to rent a gun & not to bring our own because of the current regulations.

On the airline side of things: Be sure to book your flights by calling the reservation phone line, "Do Not Do Make Them On-Line" the reason for this is you need to make sure that all of your flight connections are on one airline travel/code number. In all likely hood you will probably need to make several connections & layovers including possibly in Santiago Chile or Lima Peru. If you don't have your travel on one code for the entire series of flights the airlines won't transfer your checked bags or guns to your next flight and you'll probably have to pick-up your checked items at each layover and re-check them for the next leg of your flight.

I ran into this on my trip last year. I flew from Denver to Dallas to Santiago to Cordoba & returned the same in reverse. Because I didn't have all these transfers on one airline booking code, I had to claim my bags at each layover and re-check them for the next flight. Santiago was a nightmare in that I had to go through customs to enter Chile, then claim my bags, then go through the processes for leaving the country and recheck my bags to Cordoba. I was lucky that I had a fairly large layover time line, but even with that I just barely made my flight to Cordoba. Thankfully I didn't have my guns with me on this trip, they would have made the airline transfers a hellish mess.

The best advice I can give you is to ask many questions of your outfitter about bringing personal guns & follow their instructions to a tee. Be sure to ask the airlines about the processes, policies & transfers, keeping in mind that when you change to a different airline their policies will be different and the airline your booking through probably wont be able to tell you the polices for the other carriers.

Traveling to Argentina with guns is very stressful on the best of days, my recommendation is to rent a gun if your outfitter supplies a type of gun you could be happy with. I don't like semi-auto's, but I can be happy shooting an O/U. We all love shooting our own guns, but based on my experiences from seven Argentina trips & my travel debacle of last year, I'll never take my own guns again. It's so much less stressful & easier to travel without them. Another item to consider is, why put all that wear on your gun from shooting thousands of rounds through it, put all that wear on a rental gun & walk away.

Argentina dove shoot's are a special experience, I've loved everyone of mine and hopefully I'll be able to do another one some day.

[TxHuntermn]

ditto all of that. When I go, I spend one day trying to set a personal best, and shoot two 12 auto's.
The rest of the time I shoot 28 or 410. the lodge we use keeps just o/u's for 28 and 410, and the ammo cost is the same as for 12 gauge.

[nid-28]

Since I just returned from Argentina yesterday, and have gone there many times, I think I’m qualified to respond. I took my own guns until about 6 years ago and have rented since then. Currently only break open guns should be considered. The rules on semi autos and pumps have changed. You must have them approved by an Argentine consulate. Don’t even bother. Over the years I encountered various degrees of difficulty while traveling with my own guns. Some minor annoyances and some serious situations. Many are precipitated by airline personnel who flat out don’t know the rules. It’s hard to argue with stupid! I took SxS’s numerous times, always Model 21’s, and they stood up to heavy shooting. On the last 3 trips where I took a gun, I used a single LH Browning Citori 20ga with 32 inch barrels and those guns are bulletproof and it’s still in service today for Sporting clays. Here’s some simple observations culled from experience.
1–Use a first class outfitter. I’ve generally used Trek and they are great in all aspects and understand the realities of the situation and know how to deal with them.

2-Make sure they have an experienced person meet you when you come through customs. They know who to see and how to navigate the system with or without guns. If you don’t speak fluent Spanish, you’ll undoubtedly encounter people who are weak on understanding and speaking English.

3-Allow plenty of time between flight transfers and as has been suggested, get the gun booked to the final destination. Avoid Santiago Chile if you’re going to Córdoba. American now flies directly to Córdoba from Miami.

4-be aware that upon returning to the states, you must have your U.S. customs declaration form which describes the shotgun with serial number. You can’t get the gun back in the country without it.

5-This should actually have been #1. You have to take your gun to your closest Customs office for inspection and issuance of a customs form detailing the gun. Since they are generally at airports, I always went very early on a Sunday morning with the gun broken down to avoid a panic. Always check to make sure the serial number is correct. They once transposed two numbers on one of my guns and only my insistence on seeing a supervisor kept my gun from being confiscated. I was always polite and common sense prevailed along with my promise to get it corrected.

Renting guns costs 50-65 a day. You can generally get Beretta Silver Pigeons O/U’s and they are quite serviceable. Gun permits run several hundred so costs are a wash.

I shot pigeons and doves with a little fishing thrown in. Shells were $12 a box in any gauge. I used a Benelli 20 Montefeltro with a slip on pad I brought along for some length. The birds were plentiful, the food, wine and accommodations were superb.

If anyone needs anything further, please let me know. BD

[Phil C]

Daniel no matter what you end up shooting I love your spirit. Go for it and have fun.

[Mills]

Trek is excellent