So, we’re here in stunningly beautiful Argentina, with Ian Coley Sporting and Fronteirs travel,
and we’re shooting doves.
Now, dove shooting in Argentina has always had kind of legendary status with most of
the people I speak to and so you’ve only ever heard the stories and all I can say is
they’re totally true.
It’s not just the landscape, it’s not just the beautiful wilderness that’s out here.
There are more birds than i have ever seen on any continent of any species in my
life. The place is an absolute haven for wing shooters.
Now this morning started off pretty early, we got up around seven and had breakfast,
and ventured out into the feilds. Although it is winter here, you don’t expect Argentina to be that cold.
Now that has an effect on the birds, so to begin with there were a few birds coming in
in twos and threes and singles with would give you a good shot, maybe 30 or 40 yards,
but the majority of the birds going over were extremely high, maybe even a hundred yards
high in the sky.
Now they were flighting from where they stay and roost in the evenings, over to where they
feed during the day. So even though they were a little bit high for me, I know at some point during
the day I’d see them pass back again.
The morning started off with some pretty challenging shooting, and doves have got great eye sight
and they react very quickly to any movement they see on the ground. Even though you might
stand still and wait for them to come over, the minute you move that’s it, they break
left, they break right and you’ve got to make a decision quickly. It does hone your
skills, it makes you more reactive and more responsive, it’s not like you can track
the bird because it could change direction. You’ve got to make a decision and go with it.
But my highlight of the morning wasn’t the birds that i had shot, it was how they were used afterwards.
Around here is a haven not just for doves and pigeons and all manner
of game birds but also birds of prey. We saw umpteen species of eagle, of hawk, magnificent birds of prey.
A couple of times, I took a bird only for an eagle to swoop in, gather
the bird and then sit in a tree in front of me and eat my quarry. But it’s good to know
that even the birds we don’t pick don’t go to waste.
This mornings and this afternoons shooting were entirely different. A few singles coming in turned into absolute mayhem.
As the birds were flying back from the feeding fields,
they were just coming in, in droves, and I have never seen a population like it. 40,
50, 60, sometimes, even a hundred birds at a time in in a covey, which makes it almost impossible
to pick out an individual bird. You’d get on one, it would change direction and another
one would replace it, you’ve totally lost your sight picture and you have to readjust
and they’re flying so fast, you really do have to shoot instinctively.
Which although it’s not how i’m used to shooting, it’s a huge amount of fun. And
strewn around the ground around me were a lot more cartridges than there were birds. But
that’s what this is about, it’s not just about killing birds, it’s about honing your
skills and finding that target you find very difficult to hit normally. It’s great sport
and huge amount of fun and it really challenges your shooting ability.
So what can I say, it’s been a phenomenal day shooting here in Argentina, and my good
pal Mataco here. He’s been a phenomenal loader. Now, there are a lot of birds here,
but it’s the teamwork that really makes it happen. It’s the communication between
the loader and between myself and making sure that he just seems to know when I’m ready
to reload, the cartridges go in and then we get quickly onto the next bird.
But the scenery is breathtaking, the countryside is just phenomenal, and this for me has just
been a culmination of a lifetimes worth of shooting and it really has been a dream come
true. The great thing is we get to do it all again tomorrow.