Plan the best time for Argentina Dove hunting

January 22nd, 2012 by admin

I get this question more than any other about our hunts, “when is the best time to come to Argentina to hunt dove”? The simple answer is anytime, however, that does not really satisfy most people so lets talk about the details of why anytime is a great time. Here are the facts:
1. There are millions of dove in Argentina. Depending on who is trying to sell you their dove package this number fluctuates for effect from 30 million to 50 million and above. There is truth in this statement, according to the most recent agricultural studies there are approximately 30 million Golden Eared dove with the largest concentration in the central provinces of Argentina, particularly Cordoba and Santiago del Estero. There are major roosts found in these areas for good reason. Cordoba is known as the “bread basket” of Argentina as a large portion of the nation’s crops of sunflower, soy, wheat and corn are produced in this province. This steady and abundant food supply supports the enormous amount of birds. In most of the high volume areas there is also a fairly stable water supply.
2. The birds are non-migratory. The dove do not leave their habitat. They do move from feeding locations depending on the crop harvest in some locations, in others they are constant year round. If you see outfitters offering special pricing or only specific months for hunting, they are based in an area that sees this pattern, generally when sunflower harvests pull the birds away from the flight path on their property. The dove will also move during particularly dry periods in search of water, this is rare.
3. The Golden Eared dove will hatch between 3 to 5 times in a year. Our experience is that 3 hatching periods a year is a given and this adds to the equation that keeps the number of birds elevated. The importance of this is that the mix of mature and very young birds does have an effect on the shooting, obviously the older more mature birds can be more challenging.
4. Habitat plays a large part in contributing to the number of dove. The roost consist of a dense, often heavily thorned grouping of trees that offers extreme protection from natural predators. Argentina goes to great lengths to protect these natural areas. There is little danger of encroachment for industrial or commercial development.
5. There is no season for these birds, they are considered a pest by the government and certainly by the planters and small farmers.
6. There is no bag limit. The limit comes from your physical ability and dollar budget as the real expense of an Argentina dove hunt is in the shell cost. Unless you are a marksman supreme you will miss a bird you are aiming at and take more then one shot to bring it down, when it is possible to kill over a 1000 birds per day you can see how the shell total adds up.
7. Weather plays a part in how you hunt dove. The seasons in Argentina are opposite of the United States so when the sun is beating down on my friends in Mississippi we are enjoying the crisp clear days of winter and when we are heading for the pool after a hunt they are sitting by a good fire. The importance of our weather and when you choose to hunt is how the hunting varies. The number of birds is amazing any time of year, however, in the cooler months we go out early as the birds come from the roost and will shoot until mid to late morning, then return to the lodge for lunch and rest and go out again around 2 pm as they return. The days are shorter during this time of year so if you are looking to set some kind of record it is better to come in the warm months. When the heat comes up the birds are moving all day and at least 2 of the hatching periods fall in the warm to hot months.

In summary, there is no season, there is no bag limit, there is no bad time, so plan your trip based on your desires. We are fortunate at Argos that our flight paths never vary, the birds are not affected by specific harvests so we hunt year round with great success. Summer months offer the longest hunting periods due to long days. Winter months still see great hunting with the option to try other species like duck or perdiz. Spring and Fall provides comfortable days and very active hunts.

Truly, anytime is a great time for a dove hunt in Argentina.

Posted in Dove, Wing Shooting | Comments (0)

Argentina’s dove hunting and dorado fishing even more amazing

January 11th, 2012 by admin

We saw a record amount of rainfall last year in Argentina and while it poured and the rivers near our lodge in Santiago del Estero eased over their banks to fill the nearby cotton fields I thought what a great duck season we were in for and we were. Now we are getting a continued bonus from all that rain it seems. The dove hunting, while always fast and furious here, has been simply amazing. The local experts are attributing the record number of doves to an elevated hatch rate brought on by the abundance of food and water that came about early and stayed late in 2011. Summer always sees an increase in the daily flights of doves as their feeding patterns alter to adapt to the high heat. Our routine stays basically the same but becomes a bit more leisurely due to the fact that the days are much longer and that the birds are not only coming out of the roost each morning but continue to come and go in large flights until the sun goes down and we just can’t see to shoot. This allows for sleeping in a bit and lingering over breakfast and coffee if our parties care too then heading out to shoot until they just can’t anymore. We spend a good deal of time around the pool this time of year during the heat of the day sometimes just to get that second wind before heading out again after lunch, but some of our diehard hunters are out all day and this year they are being rewarded with more birds than normal to hammer at. Our dove can be relied on to breed and hatch several times a year, but in 2011 we have seen an above average hatch level, this has brought on the phenomenal about of birds we are seeing. It is hard for a first timer to realize that this is a special year when you have never see the likes of the number of doves that abound normally in Argentina, trust me when I say it is even more jaw dropping this year.

In addition to this fantastic dove and pigeon hunting we are enjoying we are also having a ball with our Golden Dorado fishing. This fighting tiger of Argentina is showing up in greater numbers and at record setting weights this summer. We fish year round for these great golden beauties, but the warmer months offer the best size options of course! We are pulling 13 to 16 pounders pretty much every trip and are seeing success using every method and from just about any spot – fly or reel, bank, stream, boat or shallow riverbank. If you have never experienced this great sporting fish you need too. They are the acrobats of our local waters and an unusual and exciting species for fresh water fishing. They have been compared to Tarpon for their leaping ability and strength and when the sun hits them they truly shine like molten gold. They are finding their way to our grill pretty frequently this summer.

As we make our way toward fall in the next months I believe we will continue to see an increase in the bird and fish activity over our normal great hunting. I am constantly amazed at the twists and turns of nature, what can seem catastrophic one moment later results in abundance and joy in other areas. For us here at Argos it is a daily wonder.

I head to Nashville next month for the National Wild Turkey Federation show February 10 through the 12 in booth 851 so drop by an see me if you are in town.

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Why there is no season for Argentina dove hunting

October 18th, 2011 by admin

I follow the hunting and conservation news in my home state of Mississippi. It is important to me that hunters at home have great experiences close to their neighborhoods because that is just good for everybody’s business. So when the articles start hitting my local paper and friends start lauding or moaning their success in the dove fields over a good cup of coffee at my favorite local spot I can’t help but ponder the miraculous alignment of the stars and moon that makes our Argentina dove hunting what it is. Terms like daily limits, seasons and total possession don’t enter into my thoughts. I pulled up the 2010 – 2011 seasons and regulations for all species in the state and was particularly interested in Dove, Duck and Quail.

Once I figured out the imaginary line that separates the state into the two regulated zones and found out where I fell, I could move on to find the dates that were legal to find a dove field this fall and go at it until or if my daily allowance of 15 birds was attained. It is a good thing I have figured out how to use my smart phone and that I still cling to the use of a good paper organizer. The electronic device would allow me to set alerts and notifications so that I would know that I have approximately 26 days in this current season, or session and can look forward to about the same give or take a few days starting in the middle of December and carrying on into mid January of 2012. I guess I could pretty easily keep count of 15 birds taken without the help of a clicker.

I use my PDA and my calendar in Argentina to know when groups are arriving and departing, not to track the dove season. Why? Because there is no season, they fly year round, all day, every day, hot, cold, wet, dry. They fly during harvest, they fly when nothing is planted and everything is fallow on the ground, they fly in drought, they just fly. Now, the question I get all the time is why? Answer, a perfect world for doves or any bird.

The central provinces of Argentina – Cordoba and Santiago del Estero and several more produce the majority of the grain products for the country and export. Rotating crops are sunflowers, corn, bearded wheat, cotton and soy beans for the most part. Where we are located there is rarely drought, that is not to say that it does not get dry and hot, but the birds seem to always find enough water. We are close to rivers at both of our lodges. Our golden eared dove, unlike our north American white wing, is non-migratory. They will nest several times a year and produce an average of 2 eggs each time. Their habitat is found in a thorny, mesquite like tree and natural predators have a hard time getting to them, besides, most of the birds of prey would rather wait for us to knock them down and can be seen sitting patiently on fence posts waiting for a tasty meal. They are officially considered a pest, plague, pestilence by the government and farmers alike. Do the math, the official number varies, but the last report I saw had us at approximately 30 million doves in the region.

Here’s hoping that all avid wing shooters have the opportunity to experience a sky filled with hundreds of birds and the only limitation is how many times their shoulder can stand to lift and fire, that is Argentina dove hunting.

To learn more or get more information please visit Argos Hunts website here. Thanks

Tags: Argentina, Cordoba, Dove hunts, No Limit
Posted in Dove, Wing Shooting | Comments (0)

Argentine pigeon hunt – the simple things

October 6th, 2011 by admin

I try to stay on top of the world of hunting and read as many articles that are specific to that subject that I can squeeze in on a day that normally starts very early and can end very late. With that said I recently went browsing for articles to enhance and enlighten my understanding of the best possible way to hunt pigeon. I believe that everything we do at our Argos lodges we do well, but there is always room for improvement, so if there was something new I was open to absorbing at the foot of that expert. I was not disappointed with the pages and pages that my searches pulled up, I was rather amazed at the amount of detailed minutia that could be found.

I was particularly interested in opinions on decoying for these high flying, wary birds and found that the universally accepted formation for decoying was the horseshoe or u-shape. The more adventurous or experienced pigeon hunter was encouraged to try other formations, a left facing 90 degree angle was suggested, but this could only be trusted after some time had been spent parked on the side of the field in which the birds had been spotted with some abundance to determine the flightlines – a road in the air from home to food and back again if you will – once this and the direction of the wind had been determined and the appropriate spot located for the particular type of hide that would be constructed, once all these pieces aligned in the perfect space and time continuum, then the advanced decoying pattern might be tried.

Once the decoying pattern discussion was exhausted I moved on to the particular type of decoys that experts felt best encouraged a successful pigeon hunt. The opinions varied broadly on when to use a rotary machine versus flappers and bouncers or no bouncers, tree set or ground set, pecking birds and the number to set out. I mentioned before that these are wary birds, so a good deal of detail was to be found on how many feet the decoys should be set from the hide, that should be built with the wind at your back as the birds will, like any good aircraft, want to come into the wind to land, if the hide cannot be placed with the wind at your back then it was allowed that a side prevailing wind could be made to work, but then as we say way to much – that was a whole “nuther” story and I have to keep some fodder for future blogging.

I found a great deal of concern running through all the articles about the flaring off of the birds out of range of the shot if the rotary machines were, well, too rotary and that decoy adjustment should surely be addressed on a windy day, speed adjustments to the rotary would have to be made and many suggestions on the exact adjustments that needed to take place all the way down to diagrams of the speed dial. The experts moved through pages of good information with statements and research of pigeons all over the world, there was a great deal of discussion on load and guns, quiet swing to position, expectation of success based on absorbing and executing all the knowledge correctly.

Leaving flightlines, decoys and hides I pushed on and was rewarded with a 12 month outline for cereals and feeding habits. My mind was ablaze with knowledge. I concurred with everyone that pigeons fly high, are erratic, evasive, acrobatic and wary. That is what makes them such fantastic fun and the most challenging birds we have.

Late that afternoon I loaded up our hunting group and headed off to a particular spot we love. Placed them in the natural habitat that acts as our hides in this area and waited. Within 5 minutes the pigeons began returning along their road in the air, hundreds of them, in almost perfect formation until the shooting started and even then they doggedly kept to the path in the sky and began falling almost on top of the group as they whooped and yelled to each other and still they came.

There were no rotary machines, flappers or pecking birds. There was only the natural habitat, and abundance of birds and elated hunters. The simple things are often the best of things.

Tags: Argentina Pigeon Wing Shooting
Posted in Pigeon, Wing Shooting | Comments (0)

Another great day of Argentina Duck hunting

October 2nd, 2011 by admin

I got back recently from another great duck hunting season at our Santiago del Estero lodge in Argentina and have had to endure some blazing Mississippi heat while I hoped for some cool weather to be able to enjoy an early morning cup of coffee on the back porch. I finally got it this morning and found myself reflecting on what a great time we had in our Argentina winter and how fantastic it is to be able to go duck hunting in the middle of the withering southern summer! A time of year when there is pretty much nothing to shoot in the states, and everything to shoot in Argentina.
Our last duck hunt of the season had us giving the usual 5 am wake up call and putting away a good batch of cooked to order eggs, local bacon and fresh juice before loading up for a quick trip to the Rio Dulce and heading up river to the duck blinds. Darkness was giving up and the morning mists were blowing off the water as we stopped along the way and unloaded each hunter and field assistant to find their way to the natural blinds in cotton fields that had been flooded as the Dulce had eased over its banks and formed a perfect mecca for ducks and hunters alike. The sun began to rise behind the tree lines at their backs and the first flights passed. Then it was another glorious day.
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