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Baja Mexico - Black Brant
Unread 02-06-2018, 08:36 PM   #1
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Scott Chapman
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Default Baja Mexico - Black Brant

I recently traveled with my father and brother to hunt for Pacific Black Brant in San Quintin Bay, Baja California.

I obtained a gun permit for my Trojan 12 gauge, 30" choked modified and full and was able to take along 4 boxes of RST 2 3/4", 1 1/4 oz. #4 lead.

Yes they let you shoot LEAD for waterfowl in Mexico!

The stars must have been aligned because the first bird on the first hunt (which happened to be my first ever Brant) had a blue plastic tarsus band and was taken with my Trojan.

We had a great hunting with limits of 5 a piece taken daily. The birds feed on eelgrass and they are wonderful eating.

There was a great quail crop this year and one afternoon we were able to hunt quail in the hilly, rough, dry, cactus covered country surrounding the bay.

While the 30" tightly choked Frame 2 Trojan wasn't exactly the ideal gun for running up and down (literally) those thorn infested canyons, it did the job in a pinch and proved to be very effective if I did my part.

I highly recommend this trip for something different especially if you come from cold weather country, as the low was mid 50s and the high in the low 70s.
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Unread 02-06-2018, 11:28 PM   #2
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One thing I've learned, is never underestimate the effectiveness of a Trojan.
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Unread 02-06-2018, 11:29 PM   #3
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I thinks the peanut gallery (really just me) would love a macro description of logistics, and maybe even an idea about the economics....looks fun!!!
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Unread 02-07-2018, 12:41 AM   #4
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Hunt was booked through Ramsey Russell's Get Ducks outfitting business.

Pacific Black Brant spend the Summer on their breeding grounds in Alaska and migrate pretty much en mass to Baja California and other areas Mexico in and around the Gulf of California. Hunting is fairly tightly controlled and total hunting days and bag limits vary depending upon the annual census of total birds. Total population is thought to be 120,000.

They only hunt on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Quit at noon. Limit this year was 5 birds per day.

Logistics: Fly into San Diego on Wednesday evening, overnight in hotel. Get picked up by outfitter on Thursday am in big van.

Cross border in Tijuana (gun permits included in cost: can bring 2 shotguns and 100 rounds per guns/gun rentals are included if you don't want to bring yours) and get visa and gun permits signed off. Took 1.5 hours for this to get done for 16 hunters Wasn't big deal.

Rode 5.5 hours south through Ensenada and through the mountains to little Pacific coast town of San Quintin. Stayed at a little hotel on the water 3 miles down a dirt road.

We ate meals of fresh seafood right out of the bay at one or two of the very nice restaurants right there at the hotel. Never had to drive anywhere. Guides picked us up each morning and had coffee and breakfast tacos on the boat on the way to the blind.

We took limits of birds daily. Our local guides took most of the birds home to feed their families, but on Saturday, they hosted a big outdoor brant and seafood feast at a house that was within walking distance from the hotel.

The outfitter provided all of the needed information for us to tag and preserve our trophies to bring back across the US border. There is a bit of paperwork but not much worse than bringing birds back from Canada.

I will have to say that I had some reservation initially about traveling to Mexico (especially travelling through Tijuana) but I can truthfully say that there was not a time when I felt unsafe or even worried. I was amazed at the friendliness of the people we met and the whole trip went off without a hitch.

The trip cost $2600 if I remember right, plus RT airfare to San Diego and shells ($20 per box) and tips for guides and bird boys. Alcoholic beverages were not included but you could bring your own (the van stopped at a store in Ensenada) or they had bars at the restaurants.

We met some very neat people from all over the US who were hunting including a Ducks Unlimited Biologist.
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Unread 02-07-2018, 12:48 AM   #5
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Super cool! And much thanks for the detailed reply, am going to look into the trip!!
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Unread 02-07-2018, 06:47 AM   #6
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That sounds like a great trip. Thanks for all of the details. Anymore pictures?
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Unread 02-07-2018, 08:05 AM   #7
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Thanks for the idea for another adventure.
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Unread 02-07-2018, 11:10 AM   #8
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Mexico if you go to some parts of it years ago was and still maybe a great sportsmen paradise. Its just the corruption and drug cartels and justice system is so scary down there. In early 90s when I went I thought was bad, but now. This story gives me hope though.

A good family friend of in laws owned a lodge down there on Lake Guerrero which is near Gulf of Mexico side. Went there a few times on hunting and fishing trips. Lets just say after those trips it took me years before I could even smell tequila without feeling nauseous.

Bass fishing was out of this world and the dove and duck hunting were incredible. Only place where I have been hunting out of the US. My duck hunting experiences were so-so there since when I was there they had some bad droughts, but dove hunting was a whole different level and still have nothing to compare it to stateside.

I felt like the ugly American on my first dove hunt there. They gave me a case of shells, a case of 10 oz Carta Blanca beers in a big cooer to sit on with three bird boys and dropped me off on a side road about 5 miles from the main road from what appeared to be middle of nowhere and I was the last hunter they dropped off in our group. I figured I was a mile away from everyone else. The road I was on was leading to sorghum millet field that was essentially in the middle of a mesquite forest, if there is such a thing. I don't condone drinking and shooting at all, but at the time was just out of college so alcohol tolerance was about as high as it could have been and that was all put in the dang cooler except a few Cokes that I saved for the boys.

Just sat there in the hot sun for an hour drinking about 8 of those beers trying to communicate with the boys since I did not speak Spanish. They were a bit standoffish though as we just sat there, don't blame them. I thought man this is a bust so after the tenth beer one of the boys that supposedly could only speak Spanish, clearly said you better load the gun and get ready in broken English and gesturing. I have been on plenty of dove hunts in my time before this and know they come in flights, but this was not a flight it was an invasion and I was the first line of defense for the field. The amount of doves that I think I saw coming out of the mesquite was overwhelming it had to of been in the thousands.

I was using a lodge gun that was a 12 gauge Browning BPS, which is my favorite semi-automatic gun in the world. Once it started it was continuous shooting for 3 straight hours. Gun got so hot I had tear bottom of t shirt off and wrap around my hand working the pump so not to burn fingers on the barrel. I hardly ever saw the bird boys after than until one came up and tapped me on the back to please shoot the 4 foot rattlesnake boogieing its way straight at me from across the road.

All I know is that I was on fire temperature wise and shooting wise. At the end it looked like a redneck truck accident. There were empty beer bottles, hulls, shell boxes and pile of doves all over the road. Final count 240 doves, 1 snake, 24 beers so ten birds a beer, over a 3 hour time frame so averaged a dove every 45 seconds. Shot 10 boxes of shells so averaged 96% of shots to game retrieved (all time high for me shooting wise), I know those boys missed a few though and did not know how to score the snake. Was shooting a modified choke and I don't think most shots were further than 30 yards since I did not need to shoot at anything farther away.

Scary part is that I felt as sober a church mouse after all that, guess I just sweat it all out.

Also found out what the word pendajo meant when I got back to the lodge, I thought it meant bird down, at least that is what those boys were saying to me as I would point in which direction a bird fell in that mesquite that they would go after.

Last edited by Todd Poer; 02-07-2018 at 11:26 AM..
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Unread 02-07-2018, 11:30 AM   #9
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Those Mexican Browning guns must be different. All the BPS guns I have seen were slide-action guns?
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Unread 02-07-2018, 01:18 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Reggie Bishop View Post
Those Mexican Browning guns must be different. All the BPS guns I have seen were slide-action guns?
HA! That would be correct. BPS is same in Mexico as it is here in US. I have several SXS and O/U's but don't consider them semi autos but, technically speaking a double barrel with SST is semi automatic, I guess.

Last edited by Todd Poer; 02-07-2018 at 07:47 PM..
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