The “rut” begins in April and continues through to July in our area with the brama, also called the roar, echoing in the early morning and late afternoon as the stags form their harems of hinds. We are able to offer the unique experience of hunting trophy Red Stag and outstanding wing-shooting from our Santiago del Estero lodge. This makes for a great trip on any hunter’s list of must do experiences. Hunters often begin with the search for their perfect stag and end the week with several days of bringing down ducks and are always amazed at the abundance of both. 

For a complete list of our big game and wing-shooting opportunities please visit us at Argoshunts.com and use the contact form to let us know what your perfect experience would be and we will create it for you.

The impact on hunters from the United States and around the world trying to get to their ultimate destinations in Argentina escalated within hours resulting in delayed and canceled flights. Many hunters lost days while trying to re-arrange flights and some lost their entire hunt. The groups that managed to finally arrive in Argentina and were unfortunate enough to be hunting in regions that were remotely near the path of the ash plume found that, while to the naked eye there appeared to be no trace of the floating debris, they were about to have the rudest of awakenings…no birds.  While I have made my rounds of the hunting expos and exhibits we attend each year I have heard horror story after horror story from last summer and we got countless emails from our groups coming in asking the same question – if we had birds.

The answer – we did and we do.  Fortunately both our lodges were located far enough north of the eruption so that it had no impact on our normal enormous amounts of dove, duck, pigeon and perdiz. We also didn’t lose a single hunter or experience one lost day of hunting. We got everyone in. We were able to do this because from the instant we are contacted about booking our hunts we work closely on every detail with our hunters, this includes their flight reservations and we are aware from the time they begin their trip from their home country until they are standing in front of us of exactly what is going on with their routes and flights. We were able to be in contact with our groups during this time and worked on our end to establish new flights and bookings through our ground support in Argentina. It was a frantic and exhausting couple of weeks but we didn’t have anything but great results for our hunters.

This is what Argos Hunts is all about, attention to detail, custom experiences and no task to great to insure that our hunters have the amazing experience they are expecting the first trip and every trip after that. To book for this year or next please visit our site at argoshunts.com and go to the contact page.

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.

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.

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

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.

As the sun got higher the guns got hotter and the birds continued to come in huge passing flights, I could identify widgeon and some white cheeked pintail as they lifted off the river in front of the boat. The best part of what we offer is not only the abundance and variety of birds but the incredible beauty of the habitats and the fact that we are the only ones that hunt these areas. This was just one of the three amazing waterways that track through our hunting areas.

Finally the shooting slowed down as it got close to noon and we started the rounds picking up pairs of hunters at a time. We couldn’t get more than two at a time as there were two many ducks to load up! Once everyone got back to our starting point we headed for the lodge, took a brief stop for a nandu photo op, and the conversation all the way back centered around who had taken the most duck, and what the dinner menu would feature. A sure bet was duck.

Back at the lodge the photos started as there has to be documentation of pretty much any type of hunting down our way so that folks back home will get an inkling of what it is like, and of course to back up the stories that follow hunters home which seem like made up nonsense to those that have never hunted in Argentina.

Then it was time for lunch, a short siesta and out mid-afternoon to try once more to thin out our dove population. Never going to happen.

All and all a pretty spectacular day.