Left – Left –Left, swerving down, suddenly straight up 10 feet as I pull the trigger. Amazing – never seen the like, these wild pigeons are the trickiest shooting I’ve done. Sitting in an olive grove, deep in the heart of Argentina reflecting on an amazing hunt and an exciting adventure. La Montaraz was nothing if not exciting, it’s an old Spanish estancia nestled in a working vineyard. The buildings from the 1640’s – beautifully decorated in the Spanish colonial style, because that’s exactly what it was, a Spanish colony. Pigeons, pigeons everywhere… hundreds – nay, thousands a day – actually in the ten thousands… flying spinning, bouncing in flight. Challenging shooting, yet fun… always something different. Not the sheer volume of doves, but the pigeons are substantially larger and far more challenging shooting. The guides at La Montaraz were sterling, they started early, 4:30 in the morning spying on ten fields at a time, finding the best one for us to hunt. Pigeons are wary birds, and we set up state of the art spinning decoys imported from England to lure the pigeons in. The blinds were well hidden, heavily camouflaged and most of all convenient. One morning we would be in tree lines, other mornings hunting the olive groves. Olive groves were particularly interesting because they were beautifully nestled in the century old trees. The birds would come blasting down the lanes like miniature fighter jets, as you stood to shoot, they would jink up sometimes 10 feet or more, frequently you were shooting were hey had been – not where they were now.

32 olives a day – that’s the number of olives counted in the craw of one pigeon from one feeding: hunters play highly important role in the area. Think about it, 32 times two to 4 feedings per day, times hundreds of thousands of pigeons – again a day, their destruction of the olive groves are devastating to the small farmer with the average 50 to 250 acres. The American hunters offer an important source of income to the small farmer, as well as keep these agricultural pest balanced. The pigeon hunter has replaced mass poisoning of past years. It’s an incredible partnership that works to balance agriculture needs with wildlife. The poisoning wiped out all bird species and other wildlife, not just the pigeons. Hunters are controlling the serious avian threat to farm products whilst providing a source of much needed foreign currency.
Unlike dove there is a 250 pigeon limit per hunter per day. We never failed to get our limit – not one time, and we always finished early. Back to the scenic lodge for sunset, hor d’oeuvres and some of their private vintage wine. Tremendous times – dinner was always created for us. The chef was on site, and we dined on magnificent steaks, superb gourmet dinners, and choices of incredible Argentine wines, we particularly loved the Malbecs. The desserts were masterful, typically involving their wonderful dulce de leche, a caramel sweet cream. Argentina is the beef capital of the world – Argentineans eat more beef per capita than anywhere in the world, it is typically cooked over an open flame, with all the taste of our own great steaks. The Argentineans love the rump roast, as well as the tenderloin. One day for lunch they served a “light meal”, two pound tenderloin along with all the trappings. If I had eaten it, I wouldn’t have gotten my limit that day. The country side is just beautiful, as well as the lodge – very scenic, very modern and exceptionally comfortable rooms.
The Shooting

Pigeons offer fascinating diversity of shots. They can be exceptionally challenging, full choke high, low and jinking, skeet barrel shot, or mid range, (modified choke). As a right hand shooter, my most comfortable shot was mid high, curving to the right. I could swing left to right, get a good lead and drop these birds with probably 98% accuracy. Worst shot, was mid-low, curving down right to left, I hit these probably less than 10%. A favorite shot I perfected was straight overhead, or overhead angling left to right. I could hit them amazingly high, probably 50 – 60 yards. I developed a trick shot, pick the bird up a foot or so (measured with reference to the gun barrel), follow from behind, passing over the bird; gun almost or straight up on shoulder. As the barrel blocked out the view of the bird, firing, but pausing the barrel – in other words minimal follow through. Repeatedly, I knocked them out of the sky, it tickled bird boy immensely, and he repeatedly cackled “muy lejos, muy lejos”. With that said, I could not get the hang of the low curving away shot, especially to the left side. Post game analysis: I think I was shooting over them, we are use to leading a bird to allow for their ascent. These low curving descending shots needs to be lead down more and ahead, closer to the ground than the pigeon. With the speed of the pigeon’s flight, straight head-on shots got to be challenging till you hit the groove. You actually need to shoot higher than the bird, because of their incredible speed, thus creating a lead; sometimes you can’t see the bird for the barrel if it is a head up rising shot. Few times in pigeon hunting are you presented with the traditional away shot, no need to practice, they are traveling so fast, it is a low percentage shot.

Pigeon hunting is about finding your groove and letting those birds that are outside your good skill set shot pass. There are always more birds, no use shooting the 50 yards passing shots unless that’s your specialty. One trick I found is paying careful attention to the bird’s flight. If the bird is flying directly perpendicular to your shooting lane, it is far easier to hit, than if it is angling away, climbing AND perpendicular at distance. Adding three axis of movement to the lead really complicates the shot for the average shooter. Because the pigeons are so much larger than dove, and they have a relatively slow wing stroke, they create an optical illusion that they are traveling slow – nothing could be further from reality. Coasting they’re traveling 32 to 45 miles per hour, and when they turn on the afterburners, you might well be talking over 55 miles per hour. As you get up over 50 mph, you’re really beginning to depend on luck for a strike, rather than exemplary shooting skills.

Everyone always wonders how best to prepare for some of this great hunting. 5 stand is the best preparation, more so than skeet, trap and a sporting clays course. You’re stationary in pigeon hunting as well as 5 stand. Don’t practice all the shots, for instance, you don’t have many if any ‘crazy teals”. The shots I think particularly useful to practice in order: the weak to strong mid high angle pass shot; a high coming at you shot; a high overhead or close to it shot (not the straight up crazy teal though); a strong to weak descending shot; straight at you any height; and finally a low crossing shot. If you get where you hit these with regularity your ready for Argentina. Most writers advise against taking your guns; I’m just the reverse, and advise, very strongly, taking your best shooter. I personally liked using my own12 gauge, most advise twenty gauge ; however pigeons are harder to bring down. The gun permitting process at the airport I found to be a breeze. Take 100 one dollar bills for tips, spread them around liberally, keep a twenty top tip the gun permit processer. There is a hundred dollar tax per gun, however all lodges charge around $50 a day to use their gun – your still ahead. Most importantly you don’t have to rely on some over shot gun, with questionable maintenance. Don’t take a new “just out of the box” gun you never shot with, and most especially don’t take a $20,000 collectors gun either. Take over and under with various chokes, I found a cylinder, skeet, improved, modified and light full a fairly good compliment. Most times my furthest shot was my first barrel and the closer shot the second barrel, just the opposite of most of our hunting.

Argentina – what a beautiful country and people. The hunting is something you imagine the lords and earls from the 19th century enjoying at country manors. It’s a luxury on an affordable budget. For a great wing shooting adventure contact David Bodai of Detail Company Adventures. David has been a great friend of Central Texas Safari Club, and arranged many trips at discounts for their members. La Montaraz is nestled in the foothills of the Andes, between the Sierra Chicas and Sierre Grande mountains; roughly 2 hours northwest of Cordoba City. Repeatedly David has provided fantastic trips and never ending adventures to the lands of the pampas.

Contact Info:
David Bodai – Detail Company Adventures
3220 Audley
Houston, TX 77098
800-292-2213 (office)
832-473-1096 (direct / cell)
713-524-7244 (fax)
www.detailcompany.com