Argentina Doves

[fatbacks]

Anyone been down there on a dove shoot? Any advice? Me and my buddies just bought a dove hunt near Cordoba at the AK WSF banquet last night. Curious as to what we got ourselves into.

TIA
Brian




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[GotDraw?]

A guy I know and some his buddies all piled into a jet and flew down to Argentina and did one of those hunts a few years back. If I recall properly, he and his buddies probably shot a thousand or more birds.

I've been hunting my whole life and truly love to hunt, but I distinctly remember feeling completely disgusted by the sheer number of birds they slaughtered.

All that fuel, all those birds, all that lead...

I wish I could tell you what you've gotten yourself into, maybe it will be clear after there are hundreds or thousands of doves on the ground, dozens of pounds of lead in the soil and you've killed far more than you can eat.

This is not what you expected to hear, but maybe there's a lesson in it.

 

[WRO]

A guy I know and some his buddies all piled into a jet and flew down to Argentina and did one of those hunts a few years back. If I recall properly, he and his buddies probably shot a thousand or more birds.

I've been hunting my whole life and truly love to hunt, but I distinctly remember feeling completely disgusted by the sheer number of birds they slaughtered.

All that fuel, all those birds, all that lead...

I wish I could tell you what you've gotten yourself into, maybe it will be clear after there are hundreds or thousands of doves on the ground, dozens of pounds of lead in the soil and you've killed far more than you can eat.

This is not what you expected to hear, but maybe there's a lesson in it.

No different than shooting prairie dogs, they are a pest to the local farmers..

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[GotDraw?]

You are actually 100% correct.

We should get rid of every animal by the thousands that is a pest in its own habitat and add dozens of pounds of lead per hunter, per trip to the soil. At some point, that will inevitably fix it.

JL

No different than shooting prairie dogs, they are a pest to the local farmers..

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[WRO]

Let's all go hunt barefoot naked and tell other countries and sportsman how our ethics are best.

They'll poison them if they serve no value..

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[MallardSX2]

Let's all go hunt barefoot naked and tell other countries and sportsman how our ethics are best.

They'll poison them if they serve no value..

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That paints a scary picture. lol

 

[KJH]

I've been down there multiple times. I'm happy to fill you in on some tips and details... as well as what to expect.

PM me if you're interested.

 

[KJH]

The the other post above, they do poison them to keep the populations in check. The hunting doesn't even make a noticeable dent in the populations.

 

[GotDraw?]

I still have a hard time getting my head around killing hundreds or thousands of birds on one hunt; however, I found the following research paper which speaks to the massive occasional explosions of dove populations in Argentina and elsewhere in South America. Clearly, dove populations are not in danger. My greatest concern is all the lead that gets dumped by countless hunters, at about 1oz lead per shot X hundreds of shots/day.

Lead issues aside, this research paper speaks to volume of doves and their pattern of population explosions:
http://www.ib.usp.br/~lfsilveira/pdf/zenaida.pdf.pdf


Best,

JL

 

[KJH]

At the end of each hunt session, there are vans of people who come to each hunting stand location with burlap bags and they pick up doves. They are breasted out and the meat is used. I witnessed it myself during my first trip down there.

It is not hard to shoot 2,000 + shells in a day (serious), so yes, there is a fair amount of lead that is expelled, but its fractional in comparison to the trap range where I shoot in the USA.

 

[GotDraw?]

Good to hear that the birds get breasted/eaten.

It is what it is, but 2,000 shells per day is over 125lbs of lead per day, per hunter. In six days, that's 725 lbs of lead per man... 4 hunters in six days could put almost 3,000 lbs of lead on the ground. And that's just for one hunting group in one week, that is crazy math.

Bismuth shot could be an alternate to lead shot, but it wouldn't be cheap.

No doubt trap ranges get way more lead on them per day. The difference between a commercial trap range and hunting in a field is that the lead is concentrated in one area on the trap range and that trap range can be scraped every couple years to harvest the lead and recycle it. In a field it just sits, forever...

Given the report I found/read on Argentine dove population explosion, I can see where some farmers would consider poison but that comes with far reaching and unintended consequences.

Wow. I simply wish there was a better solution to so much lead on the ground.

JL

At the end of each hunt session, there are vans of people who come to each hunting stand location with burlap bags and they pick up doves. They are breasted out and the meat is used. I witnessed it myself during my first trip down there.

It is not hard to shoot 2,000 + shells in a day (serious), so yes, there is a fair amount of lead that is expelled, but its fractional in comparison to the trap range where I shoot in the USA.

 

[boom]

the shotgun shells..you have to buy them from the outfitter right?

i would have to hand over thousand$ after i went..haha.

 

[boom]

that would be the place to try to kill a dove with a fluflu arrow.

 

[MallardSX2]

the shotgun shells..you have to buy them from the outfitter right?

i would have to hand over thousand$ after i went..haha.

It is the biggest expense of the trip. They are anywhere from 10-25$/box

 

[KJH]

the shotgun shells..you have to buy them from the outfitter right?

i would have to hand over thousand$ after i went..haha.

The shells is where they will get you... It can get painful quick at $13 a box. Your shell bill is by FAR the biggest expense on that trip. I recommend shooting a O/U rental gun there instead of a autoloader. Although its tough not to want to break the 1,000 or 1,500 bird per day mark once while you're there. By Argentina law, you have to buy them there. You cannot import shotshells, and they tax them about $8 USD per box... or so I'm told. (You can import rifle cartridges.)

You get dropped off at your hunting spot twice a day and there is a cooler there, a chair, a pallet with 5-10 CASES of shells (unless you say otherwise), two shotguns, and a loader/counter "bird boy". I'm not sure if you ever have birds out of range for more than 20 seconds at a time. I alternate shooting right and left handed each day so my shoulder doesn't get too beat up.

Have a shell budget per day and stick to it is my recommendation. Tell them the day before to only bring that many to your spot, and they will respect your budget. For a first time visitor, I would not plan on less than $2,500 in shells for your trip.

You'll shoot more shells at birds in one day than most people do in years of bird hunting. You'll be a great shot when you leave, so think of it as an investment in your shooting skills...

 

[GrantMan]

Some where I heard about a study estimating house cats in the world kill more birds than all the hunters combined. Maybe we should change our focus on hunting house cats instead! Just joking but I am not concerned with lead in the fields. Lead is heavy and will sink down to clay or bed rock layers. In 10,000 years if man is still around will mine the bird shot out of the earth.

 

[Doc Holliday]

My brother and uncle have been more than once. From what they say, the birds are a complete nuisance and blacken the sky for long periods of time. No one ate any of their dove it doesn't sound like. They would shoot ducks in the morning and dove in the afternoons. The ducks did get eaten by the villagers. Every night at the lodge you are eating some kind of great beef, etc. They will cook some of the game if you want them to, but it is not common.

I really value the dove and ducks I kill.....it would be as unnatural for me personally to not pick up and clean those birds as it would be for me to not gut my own deer, etc......but things are different down there. I'm sure if I went on such a trip, I'm sure I would have a great time. "When in Rome...."

 

[WRO]

Some where I heard about a study estimating house cats in the world kill more birds than all the hunters combined. Maybe we should change our focus on hunting house cats instead! Just joking but I am not concerned with lead in the fields. Lead is heavy and will sink down to clay or bed rock layers. In 10,000 years if man is still around will mine the bird shot out of the earth.

I used to kill every cat that was dropped on our duck lease, the number was up past 50 after 3 years. We went from no quail to several coveys in less than 5 years.

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