Baja Mexico - Black Brant

[Scott Chapman]

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.

[todd allen]

One thing I've learned, is never underestimate the effectiveness of a Trojan.

[Mark Ray]

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!!!

[Scott Chapman]

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.

[Mark Ray]

Super cool! And much thanks for the detailed reply, am going to look into the trip!!

[Eric Eis]

That sounds like a great trip. Thanks for all of the details. Anymore pictures?

[Daniel G Rainey]

Thanks for the idea for another adventure.

[Todd Poer]

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.

[Reggie Bishop]

Those Mexican Browning guns must be different. All the BPS guns I have seen were slide-action guns? :)

[Todd Poer]

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.

[Todd Poer]

Scott,

Love reading about your trip. What an incredible sounding place. Reminded me too much of my great times in Mexico. Maybe some places the hunting is still pretty good and still safe to travel down there after all. Glad you felt safe and welcomed on your trip. Btw I have had just about every waterfowl as tablefare. Even ate a coot on a dare, but being on East coast have never eaten a Brant. So what similar duck do you think compares to a Brant. It sounds like it could be close to a Gadwall by what you described it consuming sea grass.

[davidboyles]

Many years ago like 25 or more 4 of us booked with a solo guy in Laredo that picked us up at the border in his Sububan drove us to Victoria Mex put us in a half decent hotel took us out to a pre spotted field and we started to shoot all the doves we wanted mostly white wings, I shot a 20 VHE Parker about 1904 and others shot their Rem 1100 which jammed constantly with Mex shells. if I shot 10 doves I think I lost count at 500 total. Parker never missed a beat. next thing we know bird boys gathered mesquite built a fire and proceeded to cook doves along with guacamole and beans plus cold beer. they hooked hammocks in the trees and we took siesta til afternoon hunt. Whole trip with shells and all including hotel cost me for 3 days about $500 bucks. Will never see that again!! Wish I still had the VHE 20. Bought a 20 and a 28 from a lady in Houston for $3000, The 28 was stolen in San Antonio in a late nite motel break in never found but insurance money helped buy my first flats Tx scooter boat which I caught a ton of redfish out of! Now that's a story.

[Todd Poer]

David that is some shooting. That is one of many reasons I chose the pump. That was same time frame we went. Most people that I interacted with were fair, honest,hard working and genuinely appreciative. Being a guide there was highly respected and they all desperately wanted to learn English and speak it. A lot of the guides sons were the bird boys that worked at the lodge and I got to talk to them a good bit and you could tell they loved and cared about their country and its prosperity. Corruption though was just rampant though and it started with the drug cartels about then best I can tell.

Thing is I bet the game is still there but you don't hear to much about tour operations like you used to and that all seemingly stopped in the 90's. Will put it this way, I have only had a pistol waved in my face one time in my life and I never thought it would have been while in a boat fishing, holding out my license, getting gear confiscated and being threatened with jail all because the Federali wanted was lunch at the lodge we were staying.

I really hope that is changing down there and my one bad experience is not the norm, but I keep hearing that its gotten even worse in some parts. Unfortunately real victims are the hard working people in the country that are proud of their country but get overshadowed. Glad Scott's trip was a great adventure and safe. Even when we went we could have taken our guns but we were told not to since it was expensive and if the Federalis really liked your gun then there is a chance it could be confiscated and would basically have to buy it back. Maybe that is changed as well.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Sounds like a fine trip. I'm off in September to hunt them on Cold Bay in Alaska.

Destry

[Stephen Hodges]

Please do not take this wrong, but as a former long time Sheriff and at one time friends with the Sheriff of San Diego, i would never travel to Mexico, especially with firearms. Just not safe. Most Law Enforcement officials there are on the take and very sketchy. Sorry for my negative post.

[Todd Poer]

Opinions do vary according to experience and info from trusted sources. Mexico is extremely complex and for most part can be a great experience for sportsmen but if something does happen the only law there is might is right and not a good place to be whether you break the laws or not, and sometimes laws get made up as needed down there. As for due process, lets just say you have better odds of winning on a roulet table in Vegas. I would like to think US is different but we have our bad apples as well, but hopefully our system is not absolutely and completely corrupt, and FBI is even taking it the chin right now. Will stop there with respect out of decorum of site policy since this is not a forum for political discourse and dialogue other than passing comments.

Scott graciously shared a wonderful trip description and I am glad he had a safe and wonderful trip experience. Its a risk/reward gamble though for sure down there, always has and will probably be that way for another 100 years. There are some wonderful people down there that are victims of circumstance and I don't blame the some of the honest hard working people that I have met for wanting something better. Scary part there now is that if someone steps up to say enough is enough they just get executed or disappear.

[todd allen]

I've only been to Mexico with a gun one time, for a pigeon shoot. A letter from a general will get you in and out, without much problemos. Best advice is don't break any laws while down there.
I know a guy who fractured a minor rule, while on a dove hunt. Something like removing the wrong wing, for proof, or some such. The matter was settled in the field with the forfeiture of one Rolex wrist watch.
If you're going to Mexico, leave the Rolex at home, and don't break any laws.

[Todd Poer]

I've only been to Mexico with a gun one time, for a pigeon shoot. A letter from a general will get you in and out, without much problemos. Best advice is don't break any laws while down there.
I know a guy who fractured a minor rule, while on a dove hunt. Something like removing the wrong wing, for proof, or some such. The matter was settled in the field with the forfeiture of one Rolex wrist watch.
If you're going to Mexico, leave the Rolex at home, and don't break any laws.

Ha, I remember a line from one of my favorite comedians that got pulled over in one of the Dakotas. Seems you could pay the fine for speeding right there on the spot and fine was $20. He tells the cop here is a $50 call ahead and tell them I have already paid up and let me cruise on by. You do that down there and its like 100% chance of the sun rising that Rolex was just the beginning. If they see Gringos that is just a Federalis pay day. I think the word I learned there was tribute. They get pissed if you call it what it actually is.

[todd allen]

My Dad spoke fluent Spanish, was married to a Mexican woman, owned land in Mexico, etc.
He referred to the crooked cops in Mexico as "La Mordidita", or translated, "The Bite".
He explained that many of the cops in Mexico, at least back then, were not paid by the government, and lived off of the "fines" they could assess off of mostly tourists.
I've spent a lot of time in Mexico, and never had any problems, because we never broke the rules, always showed respect, and didn't go places we didn't belong.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Down Yonder Way you write like "a Fox" we once had on here. Know him?

[Todd Poer]

Makes sense about the system, and not surprised to hear that. I think recall hearing it that way as you said it but it was a long time ago for me. Hard part is thinking your in the right place away from everything and it finds you. That was what happened in my last experience and you confirmed basically how they lived off fines they could assess. Understand now when they make up the rules even if you are following the rules. Sometimes they figure their needs are just more important and who will complain. Again there are always many victims of circumstance, starting to sound like Curly Howard.

[Todd Poer]

Down Yonder Way you write like "a Fox" we once had on here. Know him?

Edit: Thinking about it now perplexed by the question, tell me more.

No sir. "A Fox" was his handle? Or, (insert poetic pause) are you saying I write like a fox? What did or does the fox say. :rotf:

Seriously no, have not heard of that reference, hope you didn't have any run ins with him. :shock: