Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style – Part III: Estancia Los Chañares

In Part I of the series “Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style” we talked about our mission: To determine if a 12 gauge is overkill, compared with sub-gauge shotguns, for high-volume dove shooting in Argentina. In Part II, we reach our first hunting destination, the Sierra Brava Lodge. In Part III, we head to Estancia Los Chañares for the final part of our journey. Check out Shotgun Life for more articles like this.

The van drive from the Sierra Brava Lodge to Estancia Los Chañares lasted only thirty minutes, but our arrival was heralded by an explosion of brilliant flowers that clearly showed we had stepped up a notch in amenities.

Estancia Los Chañares enjoys a reputation as being among the most luxurious wingshooting destinations in Argentina. The front patio and lounge area accessible by large glass doors are floored with Spanish tile. Plush sofas invite conversations. Across the lawn was a swimming pool and outdoor grill. A long picnic table was set with crystal, white bone china, hefty flatware and bottles of Argentinian Malbec in preparation for a mixed-grill lunch under a picturesque shade tree.

My friend, Rick Cundiff, had accompanied me from Sierra Brava Lodge to Estancia Los Chañares, and we were impressed with our rooms. The accommodations featured opulent materials including tile and marble, which offered an upscale aesthetic that honored the Spanish heritage. At the same time, a timbered, dark wood ceiling complemented the harder surfaces with a warmer feel. There were two twin beds with plenty of space to move around and stow your gear. The private bath was elegant and spacious.

Rick Cundiff in a dove blind at Estancia Los Chañares.

The indulgence distinction between the Sierra Brava Lodge and Estancia Los Chañares is by design. Both are owned by Flyways Argentina whose principal is David Perez. In addition, Flyways Argentina operates two other lodges in Córdoba, Posta del Norte and the Paloma Brava Pigeon Lodge. The Sierra Brava Lodge and Estancia Los Chañares are the only destinations in the group recognized by the exclusive Beretta Trident Program.

Overall, the idea behind the Flyways portfolio of lodges is to satisfy the diverse criteria of wingshooters. The Sierra Brava Lodge is the most affordable, and as we noted in the first part of this series, it’s beautifully rustic, immensely comfortable, with exceptional food and avuncular bird boys. Next up is Estancia Los Chañares. Posta del Norte is just as sumptuous as Estancia Los Chañares, but more intimate with six double rooms that have private baths. Posta del Norte is ideal for shooting parties of up to 12 guns who want to lease an entire place for a private hunt.

Aerial view of Estancia Los Chañares.

Paloma Brava Pigeon Lodge is the newest addition to Flyways Argentina. While the wild dove hunting at the other three Flyways destinations is unlimited, there’s a maximum of 200 pigeons per day at Paloma Brava. It’s a one-to-two hour drive from the Flyways dove-hunting lodges to Paloma Brava. Flyways generally recommends a half-day dove hunt combined with a decoyed pigeon hunt at Paloma Brava Pigeon Lodge.

But the clock was ticking and we stayed put at Estancia Los Chañares. Now on the last leg of our six-day hunt to the two Beretta Trident Lodges, I was on a specific mission with precious little time left to fully prove my assumption: to determine whether or not a 12-gauge was overkill, compared with more traditional sub-gauge shotguns, for high-volume dove hunting in Argentina.

My shotguns of choice were two Berettas: an A400 Xplor Unico Light semi-auto with the Kick-Off recoil-reduction system and the Beretta SV10 Prevail also equipped with Kick-Off.

As Beretta explains it, the Kick-Off hydraulic dampening reduction system cuts recoil by some 44% more than its closest rival through the use of two hydraulic recoil dampers incorporated into the stock that compress after the shot – absorbing recoil that would otherwise pile-drive straight into your shoulder.

The lounge area at Estancia Los Chañares.

During my first stint with the guns at the Sierra Brava Lodge, I managed to bag slightly more than 1,000 doves in a single day, but by lunch time, with about 500 birds in the bag, I had started to feel the repercussions of the 12 gauge. Beretta’s claims regarding lower recoil to the shoulder proved true, but the Kick-Off system was less effective on my face. Here’s why: the half-inch compression of the recoil pad into the stock moves the comb back-and-forth along the cheek. Unexpectedly, it was the cheek friction from that travel which proved the bug-a-boo for high-volume wingshooting. Meanwhile, my shoulder was fine – certainly the exception among Córdoba dove hunters.

I had concluded that Kick-Off would be valuable even for grueling clays tournaments. If you were squaded up to shoot 500 clay targets in the course of a day, you’d really appreciate the Kick-Off technology. But if you’re firing 600 to 700 consecutive rounds of relentless, hot-barrel wingshooting during a single morning in Córdoba, you’ve reached the limits of Kick-Off on a 12 gauge.

Beretta’s A400 Xplor Unico Light semi-auto with the Kick-Off.

That said, however, I had opted to press my case and go for a 2,000-bird day at Estancia Los Chañares. Of the two Berettas, I believed the A400 Xplor Unico Light semi-auto would triumph as the shotgun for the job.

The shotgun sported an after-market Muller Featherlight Choke. Muller’s extended chokes are manufactured from aerospace-grade aluminum infused with ceramic Teflon. Jim Muller claims his chokes are lighter than titanium. Instead of conventional constrictions, Muller’s chokes are designated Ü1- Ü4. I used a Ü2 opened to .012 inch for a hybrid improved cylinder/light modified pellet dispersement.

Ready to go, the staff of Estancia Los Chañares would count birds and calculate averages, leaving my initial theory of 12-gauge overkill to play out both on the bottom line of a spread sheet as well as my Baby Boomer body.

If you’ve never dove hunted in Argentina, you may be shocked to see men walking around lodges that cost upwards of $1,000 per day wearing diapers taped to their shoulders, trigger fingers and auto-loading thumbs wrapped in duct tape, and cheeks protected by layers of gauze and Vaseline. Toss out any rational explanation. High-volume dove hunting is the crack cocaine of wingshooting. Waterfowlers and the tweedy set savor the traditions and rituals. The hard-core dove hunters of Córdoba are addicted to the hand-held counter that resembles a stop watch operated by the indigenous bird boys. How many? Cuántos? Click, click, click… Did I get that one? Sí. Click. Muy bien, good shot. Click. Flats of shells are stacked up. The walkie-talkie is ready if you need more.

Estancia Los Chañares was ripe for my challenge. The 9,000-acres of private property occupy the Macha Roost, the largest in Argentina, inhabited by more than 20 million doves considered pestilence by the country’s massive agricultural industry. Since Flyways purchased Estancia Los Chañares in 2005, Mr. Perez and his team have implemented a year-round, game-management program stimulated by cultivating fields of sunflowers, wheat and sorghum. In fact, on the long driveway to the estancia, a rich plot of land fringed with blinds bared sunflower sprouts – promising superlative dove hunting only a five-minute walk from your room.

The sunflower fields on the approach to Estancia Los Chañares. During the sunflower season, phenomenal dove hunting is a few steps from your room.

After unpacking, Rick and I immediately set out for our first hunt of the day. While Sierra Brava keeps visiting groups together for the shoots, Estancia Los Chañares upholds the exclusivity by allocating only one bird boy and shooter to a blind unless otherwise requested.

The truck drove us a few miles through thick foliage, leaving me at a brush blind set in a basin. The immediate area below the blind was recessed and further out was a modest rise. Trees and wild shrubs rose from the rear. The bird boy greeted me.

Hunters at Estancia Los Chañares are shuttled to nearby blinds in this truck that features safari-style seating.

At first, it was nearly impossible to recognize the immeasurable number of doves in the air. They were very close and swarming like mosquitos. It takes a few minutes for your eyes and brain to finally work in unison in order to comprehend the inexhaustible number of birds occupying that basin.

The bird boy stuffed the A400 Xplor Unico Light with 12-gauge shells. I started firing – registering one miss after another. I kept wondering: How is this possible? The answer soon became obvious. I was shooting into the crazy swarm instead of focusing on a single bird. I should have been picking a snowflake out of the blizzard. With that notion in mind, the birds started dropping as I spot-shot them.

Generally, when we hunt birds here in the U.S. there’s a particular symmetry to the shots: incoming or crossing waterfowl, a quartering pheasant – or worst-case scenario a flushed covey of quail that demands immediate target acquisition among, let’s say, five to 10 birds. Now imagine literally being immersed in a wild bird mob that flares when you shoulder the gun.

The A400 Xplor Unico Light handled quickly. Weighing about 6½ pounds, it swung with ease during some of my contortionist shots. By lunch, I had bagged some 650 doves – setting the stage for a 2,000-bird day.

The table setting is ready for a hearty, outdoor lunch at Estancia Los Chañares.

The truck circled around and returned us to the lodge. The chef was already at the outdoor grill packed with meat, a wonderful smoky fragrance wafting through the area on that temperate afternoon. We gathered at the picnic table for a feast of Argentina beef and chicken, abundant salads, wine and other beverages, delivered by the gracious servers. After lunch we retreated for a siesta. I opted for a poolside chaise lounge – a delightful breeze crossing the lawn.

At 2:00 PM, we were back in the truck, which took us to different blinds. The bird boys had moved our gear. The afternoon location stood in direct contrast to the morning blind. I now looked out from a mountain top – a deep ravine below. The view unfolded tree-laden plateaus and undulating ridges. A wind of about 20 mph acted as an afterburner on the doves, and I figured that if I couldn’t get the balance of the 2,000 under these conditions, at least 1,000 for the day seemed plausible.

The view from the mountaintop blind at Estancia Los Chañares.

Compared with the morning hunting spot, the birds here were driven by the wind and scattered over a wider distance. From the edge of the cliff, birds would pop up like a jack-in-the box and swerve past me on the wind – meaning that once you established a bird the shot involved spinning around in an attempt to get it rocketing away.

Incomers were easier, but the shots had to be established long before the birds got close enough to flare off on the wind whenever I shouldered the shotgun – for plenty of 30-40 yard shots. Doves crossing in the ravine also presented long, crossing shots.

Soon, I picked up the rhythm of the place. In particular, by focusing on long incomers I could mitigate the vagaries of the wind. I would line up the bird over the front bead and trigger the shot. Another shot I mastered involved spinning to the right, over my shoulder just as a dove emerged from the other side of a nearby shrub where it couldn’t see the gun. If I saw the bird disappear behind it, I figured out how long before I could come out the other side. The crossing shots in the ravine involved more practice using the swing-through technique, but the incredible volume of these shots let me master them fairly quickly while proving the that the Mulller choke patterned quite well at 30-40 yard range.

The Beretta’s A400 Xplor Unico Light reminded me of the acrobatics you would see on stunt planes. It’s low weight, ideal center of gravity, intuitive trigger and recoil absorbency at the shoulder fostered an aggressive tempo that the bird boy helped maintain with his rapid loading skills. Still, my cheek grew sore from the comb’s friction.

One key to achieving a high dove count in Argentina is the ability to determine a consistent rhythm and stay with it. Fast target acquisition is vital. You need to immediately identify the most viable shot among the thousands of birds and commit to it. Never sit down. Pause for water breaks only. Vary your shots to prevent monotony. You need to constantly be stimulated and dialed into the action.

Some people might call it a Zen state – a gorgeous day on the mountain top, birds everywhere, the instant gratification of seeing one fold, the hyper-vigilance, adrenaline rush – click, click, click.

I kept asking the bird boy How many? Cuántos? and I saw the number continuing from the morning hunt toward 2,000, until once when I asked he showed me the counter: 2,016.

I stopped. We shook hands.

The blind was strewn with empty hulls, shotgun shell boxes and few doves that had fallen nearby. Suddenly, the blind was quiet. The wind carried the muted blasts of fellow hunters at Estancia Los Chañares.

Dinner that night featured delicious steaks, salads, vegetables and Malbec wine. The irrepressible Alex Mitri, managing partner Estancia Los Chañares, served as the master of ceremonies by announcing the day’s scores and rewarding the hunters with hats and shirts of specific denominations. I received my Estancia Los Chañares 2,000 hat.

So what did I learn about using a 12-gauge shotgun for high-volume dove hunting in Argentina?

I would not use a telescoping recoil system. I believe the A400 Xplor Unico Light would have worked better without it. Moreover, the lack of felt recoil to my shoulder with the Kick-Off led me to believe that the overall design of the shotgun would have delivered softer felt recoil over most other semi-autos anyway. If I did it again, the standard A400 Xplor Unico Light would be my top choice.

The best 12 gauge to use for this type of hunting is a semi-auto with a custom-fitted stock. I believe a shotgun like that would be far more comfortable than any subgauge rented by the outfitter.

Upon checking out, Estancia Los Chañares gives you a spread sheet of everyone’s individual performance. Over two days, I harvested 3,197 birds using 153 boxes of shells – for an accuracy rate of 84%, which was the highest of the entire group. At this point, I want to emphasize again that I don’t consider myself an exceptional shot. The point of this exercise was not to rack up bragging rights, but to test a premise.

Rick, who I consider a far better shot than me, was the runner up with 2,723 birds from 136 boxes of shells for an 80% accuracy rate using both a 20 and 28 gauge. Third place registered 77% with 3,334 birds from 173 boxes of shells.

Strictly from the perspective of high-volume hunting in Argentina, I left convinced that 12 gauge was the bore of choice. Wingshooters could easily argue that the big shotgun was less sporting than the smaller gauges, and of course they are right.

Recently, Rick and I were driving north one morning for a day of sporting clays. Our plan called for about 250 targets at two different courses separated by only a few miles. We talked about upland shooting in England, when he said that for the money he would choose Argentina in a heartbeat. I said that they were two different experiences.

He replied, “I know, but I would go back to Argentina first.”

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Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style – Part II: The Sierra Brava Lodge

In Part I of the series “Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style” we talked about our mission: To determine if a 12 gauge is overkill, compared with sub-gauge shotguns, for high-volume dove shooting in Argentina. Now in Part II, we reach our first hunting destination, the Sierra Brava Lodge. Check out Shotgun Life for more articles like this.

I had landed at 6:20 PM at Córdoba airport on LAN Argentina flight 4214 from Buenos Aires. My luggage breezed through customs. Now it was time to claim the two Berettas on loan from the company: Beretta’s A400 Xplor Unico Light semi-auto with the Kick-Off recoil-reduction system and the Beretta SV10 Prevail also equipped with Kick-Off would provide the shotguns to stress-test my theory about shooter endurance with a 12-gauge instead of the lower impact subgauges for high-volume dove hunting.

Eduardo waited outside the airport with the Sierra Brava van. At twilight, the air felt fresh, the sky a pastel pallet of lavender, peach and powder blue. He loaded up my luggage, I jumped into the passenger seat and my adventure in Córdoba’s legendary dove hunting took to the road.

Just a sampling of the enormous number of doves at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

Eduardo’s English was excellent, so I was saved the embarrassment of dipping into my high-school Spanish. The last time I resorted to Spanish was in the early 1980s. I had been driving from Paris to San Sebastian, Spain. At the border crossing, the armed guards bombarded me with questions in Spanish. They kept laughing at me, as though they asked “Are you bringing drugs into Spain? Are your carrying automatic weapons, Are you a stupido Americano?” And I kept nodding yes and they kept laughing.

In the Sierra Brava van, we spent the next 70 minutes or so discussing our families and Argentina’s corrosive inflation. Night fell fast as we drove to Sierra Brava on a two-lane highway through the countryside, the landscape reminiscent of East Texas.

The estancia at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

Finally, we turned onto a gated dirt road that sliced through brush. The estancia appeared on my right, a single-story stucco building of coral pink with golden-hued lanterns on either side of the modest entrance. Stepping out of the van, a young woman greeted me with a hot towel served on a silver tray. Outside, the fragrances of a Córdoba summer evening were redolent of sweet meadows with a trace of tropical exotica.

A few farm animals grazed in the fenced pastures. In the distance, the Sierras de Córdoba Mountains appeared a distant purple beneath a moon-lit sky bejeweled with stars. Eduardo unpacked the van. On the front steps of the estancia, Manager J.J Sala had gathered the staff for a formal introduction that set the tone of the hospitality for my stay there. Apparently, hospitality has been a staple here for nearly 140 years.

The edifice dated back to 1874. Originally a Pony Express ranch, the Posta stood as one of many that populated El Camino Real, which connected Peru with Argentina. Travelers ate and rested while the horses were changed. Now, in the 20th century, after flying from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern, I was ready to continue the legacy with dinner, shower and bed.

Sierra Brava is an affiliate of the Beretta Trident Program, which is the first and only system to rate shooting sports venues. Not an endorsement for purchase, “Tridents” are awarded for excellence, like Michelin stars for restaurants. Only five percent of destinations worldwide merit even a single Trident. The Sierra Brava Lodge was the recipient of one of three possible Tridents for Upland Birds.

The swimming pool at the Sierra Brava Lodge, with the estancia in the background.

Over the past several years, a capital renovations plan at Sierra Brava included a swimming pool, cabana accommodations, several new outdoor cooking and entertaining areas and ongoing improvements throughout the entire property. The pool, a lake and a fire-pit area were clearly evident across the front lawn as I followed my bags inside.

With wrought-iron chandeliers and Spanish-tile floors the immediate impression of the place was of a well-appointed hacienda. There was a macho vibe from the half-timbered ceilings, over-stuffed leather chairs and sofas, dark furniture and trophy heads.

Plaques declared members of the high-volume fellowships that acknowledged takes of 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 and even 10,000 doves in a single day. The extraordinary numbers posted inspired me to think about the hunter’s adage “When there’s lead in the air, there’s hope.” I wanted to down at least 1,000 doves per day, as both a new personal best and to explore my theory about hunter resilience in high-volume bird scenarios with a big-bore 12-gauge.

My room, adjoining the small lobby, was accessible through a pair of stout rustic doors that evoked the original Posta. Two twin beds and a Spanish armoire dominated the ample interior. The wide-plank wood floors, beamed ceiling and wrought-iron chandelier continued the warm décor, accented with indigenous art over the headboard. There was a private bath, small desk and chair, and forged hooks on one wall that easily accommodated my bulky upland outer-wear and camo rain gear.

Even though I had arrived past the scheduled dinner serving, Mr. Sala made sure a hearty steak dinner was at the ready, accompanied by a bottle of Argentina’s celebrated Malbec red. The young waitress was gracious and the chef appeared from the kitchen to check on my meal. Seriously, no exaggeration, it was one of the best steaks I had ever eaten – tender, expertly seasoned and charred to my liking.

Rick Cundiff.

By now my friend Rick Cundiff, whose accommodations fronted the dining room, had joined me at the long table. Rick was absolutely buoyant. As the COO of the investment banking firm Townsend Capital in Hunt Valley, Maryland, he routinely logs 60 to 80 hour weeks putting together deals mostly on clean-energy companies. He had arrived earlier that day, just in time for an afternoon hunt where he bagged more than 400 doves. Away from the office, with a successful shoot already notched, he proved to be in great spirits. J.J had joined us and dinner proceeded with superb companionship. Rick told me that he had spent the afternoon with a bunch of guys from Texas and Arkansas who struck him as some of the funniest people he ever met, and gave me an advance on the anticipated height of hilarity.

Back in my room, satiated on Argentina beef, drunk on Malbec and thoroughly exhausted, I cleaned up then crashed until awakened the next morning by a knock on the door.

Anticipating breakfast and the hunt, fellow guests had gathered in the lobby, drinking coffee as the dining room table set with fruits, toast and cheese awaited the eggs and breakfast meats. Among other men at the lodge, the Texas/Arkansas contingent produced a conspicuous presence of natural-born hunting working men who relished their cigarettes. Randy Craig was there with sons Ryan and Clay, along with family friends Tommy Clafton and Glenn Gilpin.

Polite chit-chat occupied breakfast, but once we piled into the van, those stories from down Texas and Arkansas way started to fly. They usually involved some errant country uncle in overalls who suddenly had to do his business out in the field while hunting birds – and of course the teller of these tales swears up and down that every word of it is 100-percent true, exactly as it happened, completely unembellished. Come the well-timed punch line, we would burst out laughing with tears streaming down our cheeks, ribs aching, rocking back and forth. And the drinking hadn’t even started yet.

The author shooting a 12-gauge Beretta SV10 Prevail in a brush blind, accompanied by a bird boy, at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

The weather was clear and chilly that morning. The ride to the first blind lasted about 10 minutes. At Sierra Brava, the preference is to let parties shoot together. The guys from Texas and Arkansas were dropped off at one blind, a father and son at another, while Rick and I were assigned a brush blind under a sprawling mesquite tree that thrived amid a broad clearing. Straight ahead and to the right, rises covered by vegetation served as dove habitat. Behind us and to the left were crop fields. Each of us worked with our own bird boys – the local guys who speed load the shotguns from the stacked cases, cleaned up the hulls and birds, worked the thumb-operated counters and dispensed the iced beverages stored in a cooler topped by a swivel seat. With all the gear in place, our blind resembled a far-flung encampment.

Of the two Berettas, I opted to start with the A400 Xplor Unico Light semi-auto that had the Kick-Off recoil-reduction system. I had tried the shotgun for the first time in September 2010 at the Cheyenne Ridge Signature Lodge in Pierre, South Dakota. As a Beretta Trident Affiliate, the Cheyenne Ridge Signature Lodge previewed new Beretta shotguns, and fortunately had just taken delivery of the latest 12-gauge A400 Xplor Unico Light with Kick-Off.

Cut-away of a A400 Xplor Unico that reveals the Kick-Off recoil-reduction system in the stock.

On an afternoon pheasant hunt over dogs, the A400 Xplor Unico Light was extremely fast and accurate – perhaps the best semi-auto I had ever shot. It was the hunt at the Cheyenne Ridge Signature Lodge that originally sparked the idea of evaluating the 12 gauge version with Kick-Off for high-volume dove hunts in Argentina.

Just to recap, the A400 Light is the wingshooting version of the original clays model. Both feature an aluminum receiver. The 12-gauge A400 Light is about 6.8 pounds with a 28-inch barrel and Kick-Off – or approximately a half-pound less than an equivalent Beretta A400 Xcel Sporting with 29-inch barrels. The reduced weight comes mostly from a shorter receiver – tradeoff impacting shell sizes and capacity. The A400 Light uses Beretta’s Blink operating system, which can cycle shells ranging from 2¾ to 3½ inches. Factory capacity is 2+1.

The sleek design of the A400 was complemented with a Muller Featherlight choke. Muller’s gloss-black extended chokes are made of aerospace-grade aluminum infused with ceramic Teflon. Jim Muller claims his chokes are half the weight of titanium and one-third the weight of steel. Instead of using conventional constrictions, Muller’s chokes are designated Ü1- Ü4. I used a Ü2 opened to .012 inch. The Ü in white against the black finish of the choke accentuated the state-of-the-art veneer of the A400.

Doves swarming a field at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

At first, I simply stood there under the tree, A400 in hand. It took a moment to recognize the magnitude of the doves. The birds flew solo and erratic, contributing to the initial impression of a patchy quarry. But it was like looking at stars on a clear night. The brightest both catch your attention and overpower the more distant, and then the longer you focus the explosion of light gradually manifests. Soon, I realized that the doves were swarming all around us. I started shooting.

Dove hunting in Argentina is addictive and feverish. Once the birds drop, you want to shoot more and more. Rick and I had originally agreed to a gentlemanly line in the veritable sand: I took the birds on my side of the blind, and he took the ones on his side. Yeah, right. The Muller choke patterned so well that I was able to bring down the fast-flying acrobats 40, maybe 50 yards out, which meant that certain shots became irresistible regardless of our arbitrary boundary. And of course he reciprocated – our zeal fueled by the bird boys who instigated an exuberant competition as to which of us shooters was “numero uno.”

Rick Cundiff about to bag a dove at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

Having shot plenty of sporting clays with Rick, I knew he was the better shooter. That morning he hunted with a 20-gauge over/under (he also brought a 20/28 gauge combo). But the semi-auto and the Muller choke compensated for my deficiency. At the end of the trip, the true “numero uno” emerged after our averages were calculated – eventually proving that the brute force of a 12 gauge provided a critical edge over the subgauge shooters, although the physical toll of the bigger shotgun remained to be assessed by the end of our week together in Córdoba.

The brush blinds of Argentina provide a quick study in developing your own high-volume, dove-hunting strategy. The birds ensured their survival via erratic flight patterns. A raised shotgun barrel would prompt a flare-out, giving pause for a reset. It didn’t take long to realize that spot-shooting delivered the best results with the least effort.

Becoming overwhelmed by the fantastic number of swarming birds is akin to rapture of the deep: an intoxication takes grip and you lose the ability for decisive action. Instead, a cool head must prevail by quickly deciding which bird to shoot next. See it, shoot it, almost straight at it. Long crossers could involve tracking but otherwise if you insist on following the method of butt, belly, beak, bang the additional exertion of keeping the gun up that much longer will contribute to accelerated exhaustion. I found it much easier to hold the gun at the ready and spot shoot.

The author found that spot shooting doves from behind a brush blind worked best for him on the doves of Córdoba. Here he’s shooting a 12-gauge Beretta SV10 Prevail.

As lunch time approached, I had already downed more than 500 doves shooting virtually non-stop. I began to feel the physical repercussions, although completely different than originally expected. Talk to high-volume dove shooters in Argentina and it seems that the first bruises appear in the shoulder area where the butt meets the pocket. The Beretta A400 Light with Kick-Off started to hurt someplace else.

My shoulder was fine, but the constant one-half-inch compression and expansion of the hydraulic dampeners connected to the recoil pad caused the comb to move back and forth against my cheek, which started to swell. The cheek abrasion from the dampening hydraulics, not the direct impact, proved to be the system’s weakness for relentless high-volume shooting.

By now I had reached a few conclusions about the Beretta Kick-Off system. Beretta says Kick-Off can reduce total recoil by up to 70 percent compared with the nearest competitor. Apply that claim to my shoulder and I would support it. Even now, shooting his 20-gauge over/under, Rick’s shoulder was starting to smart after two hunts – forcing him to borrow an over-the-shirt recoil pad from Mr. Sala. By comparison, my shoulder was in great shape – pain-free – without any supplemental recoil gear. But the slight back-and-forth movement from the Kick-Off started to break down the skin on my cheek as I approached the 1,000-round mark of hot-barrel shooting during that morning session. The realization was that the Kick-Off system would be enjoyable for everyday shooters who might go through, at most, 10 boxes of 12-gauge shells in a single day.

A field lunch of grilled meats was served at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

Just as a footnote, the A400 Xplor Unico Light hardly jammed. There were about four instances of where a shell wouldn’t cycle during my hunt at the Sierra Brava Lodge using local CAZA ammunition.

For lunch, we were driven to a grove were the meal was served under a tent. A long table was set quite lavishly. After the assorted grilled meats and sides, time was allocated for a siesta in one of the cots under a tree or a hammock. At one point, the conversation turned to the A400 Xplor Unico Light. The guys from Texas and Arkansas really like it and I invited them to give it a try.

The Sierra Brava Lodge likes to move hunters to another location for the second hunt of the day. Rick and I were assigned a blind across a stretch of scrub and mesquite from the Texas contingent. We could hear them shooting and occasionally one of them would amble over to our blind for a few rounds with the A400 Xplor Unico Light. The gun was a big hit with them as, by that point, they appreciated a lighter, softer shooting shotgun than the ones they had been firing for the past day and a half.

A couple of guys from the Texas hunting party enjoy the hammocks hung near the lunch tent.

Day one of hunting ended with a tally of 1,019 doves using 60 boxes of shells for an accuracy rate of 68%.

Back at the lodge, a young woman gave us hot towels as we stepped off the van. Cocktails and appetizers awaited us at the outdoor bar around the lake-front fire pit. Then we cleaned up for a wonderful steak dinner with wine. After dessert, Mr. Sala handed out distinctive Sierra Brava Hats for hunters who downed at least 1,000 birds that day. Some of us wrapped up the day with a massage.

The second day of hunting began with skies that threatened rain. After breakfast, Rick and I were taken to a blind that seemed almost magical. Beneath a tree, we faced a long corridor of vegetation that ended in our immediate area near a stream and fenced-in grazing cattle. Low, ominous clouds cast a metallic green light across the landscape. Looking straight ahead, incoming birds were endless – waves of them evocative of black-and-white World War II documentaries that filmed squadrons of bombers in wide formation across enemy lines.

I started with the Beretta SV10 Prevail over/under. The shotgun, equipped with Beretta factory chokes and 32-inch barrels, shouldered smoothly – a more sumptuous shooting experience than the A400 Xplor Unico Light. Once again, as the morning hunt approached the lunch break, the cheek abrasion returned from the Kick-Off system, although my shoulder felt fine.

The friendly contest between Rick and I heated up as the bird boys instigated the competition for “numero uno.” From the four of us rose cries of “uno, doble” resounded with each bird taken. And after the over/unders were reloaded it would continue to “triple, cuatro” as we laughed and ribbed each other, our gringo Spanish running out at five or more consecutive kills. The birds tumbled or nose-dived to the ground all morning, some of the fast incomers landing in the blind with a meaty plop – the hot barrels capable of blistering your fingers if you accidentally touched them. Nothing stopped us. We shot unremitting like fiends until lunch.

Rick Cundiff in a brush blind under threatening skies.

For the afternoon hunt, Mr. Sala complied with our request to stay at the morning blind rather than switch to another place. By the time we returned, a warm drizzle infused the shooting with even greater exhilaration. Lightning streaked in the distance. Finally, the walkie-talkies crackled with instructions to the bird boys that we needed to come in from the impending storm. The bird boys decided to wait it out there while we climbed on the van – listening to more hilarious stories from the Texans.

Our luck held, though, as the storm cleared before reaching the lodge. The van turned around and soon we rejoined the bird boys. The day ended with 1,005 dead birds from 56 boxes of shells. I celebrated with a few scotches and a Cuban cigar at the fire pit. That night over dinner I was awarded my second Sierra Brava Lodge hat for 1,000 birds.

After a day of dove hunting, we enjoyed cocktails, appetizers and cigars at the fire pit on the lake at the Sierra Brava Lodge.

Veterans of Argentina dove hunting may scoff at celebrating 1,000 birds in a single day – given that 2,000 and 5,000 are within reach. In fact, a few hunters at the Sierra Brava Lodge, including Rick, racked up that many birds and more.

Did my 12-gauge experiment prove successful? The jury was still out until we visited the second lodge of our trip, Estancia Los Chañares, the next day. Beretta’s Kick-Off certainly prevented any shoulder injuries – at the expense of my cheek. I was eager to try Beretta’s 12-gauge A400 Xplor Unico Light without Kick-Off for my next Córdoba hunting trip. But I was getting ahead of myself.

Click here for Part III of the Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style series, wherein Rick Cundiff and Irwin Greenstein take on the doves at Estancia Los Chañares.

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Dove Hunting in Argentina Beretta Style – Part I: The Mission

Welcome to Shotgun Life’s three part series about high-volume dove hunting in Argentina. The series tries to debunk the myth that sub-gauge shotguns are the only way to go for big numbers in Argentina dove hunting. We head out to the famed Cordoba region with a pair of 12 gauge Berettas to prove our point. The venues are members of the Beretta Trident Program: Sierra Brava Lodge and Estancia Los Chanares.

Part I of the series, The Mission, talks about our objectives. In Part II, we visit the Sierra Brava where we manage to harvest 1,000 doves in a single day. Part III takes us to the luxurious Estancia Los Chanares where we up the ante to 2,000 doves in a single day.

Could we have done better with a 20 gauge or 28 gauge, as many hunters use in Argentina? You be the judge. Check out Part I below.

Rick Cundiff in the brush blind at Sierra Brava Lodge.

An important point you should understand about high-volume dove hunting in the Cordoba region of Argentina is that it ain’t for crybabies. Set out to shoot 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 doves per day or more and you will inevitably experience the pain. Cheeks swell, shoulders bruise, palms blister and related bumps and aches arise as a matter of course.

But on the flight home, you remember standing in the brush blind, the doves relentless and mind-blowing, the bird boy stuffing shells faster than you imagined possible, uno, dos, tres you shout, counting the birds that tumble from the sky as you empty the shotgun and you turn to him asking how many and he glances at the counter and says 417 and lunch is still hours away – the exhilaration is a new height of brilliance that you ultimately believe has changed your life forever.

And a sudden realization takes hold at 25,000 feet: you must return to Cordoba, really.

Experiencing high-volume doves in Argentina gives enters you into a brotherhood of hunters who have endured one of the last extreme forms of bird shooting on the planet. The exuberance and triumph you feel can only be shared with others who have been there. And almost to the man, each will reveal they’re itching to get back at the first possible opportunity.

I had spent about a week in Cordoba, Argentina with my friend, Rick Cundiff, shooting doves at two spectacular destinations. Our first stop was Sierra Brava Lodge, followed by a hunt at Estancia Los Chañares.

Both places are affiliates of the Beretta Trident Program. If you’re not familiar with the Beretta Trident Program, it’s the first and only system to rate shooting sports venues. Not an endorsement for purchase, “Tridents” are awarded for excellence, like Michelin stars for restaurants. Only five percent of destinations worldwide are considered good enough to merit even one Trident.

While the Beretta Trident Program recognizes the top hunting destinations in Argentina, there is one service universally offered regardless of where you stay: shotgun rentals. And the shotgun of choice at the lodges is a 20 gauge semiautomatic, with 28 gauge over/unders also usually available, and possibly even a .410.

The thinking goes, when it comes to high-volume dove hunting, the subgauge shotguns are softer on the hunter than a 12 gauge – without any perceptible difference in the results. And this tenet is largely true. At Sierra Brava Lodge and Estancia Los Chañares there are documented accounts of hunters bagging 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000 or more doves in a single day using 20 gauge semi-autos.

Put your mind to it and you can shoot 500 doves in Cordoba within several hours. Bird boys carry a counter to tally up your results each day and at the end of the trip.

A record was achieved at Sierra Brava in late January 2010. Since Argentina is in the Southern Hemisphere, January is Summer there – meaning that the days are longer for marathon dove hunting. This enabled one gentleman to down 11,301 doves after 14 hours as winds reached 30 to 40 miles per hour. Over 14,250 shells were expended – or a shotgun shell fired about every four seconds from four 20 gauge Beretta semi-autos in rotation. Approximately 5,000 shotgun exchanges took place between the gentleman and his bird boy. The first shot was fired at 6:32 AM, the last at 8:31 PM.

If you relish non-stop action, Argentina is a wingshooter’s paradise. There are no limits due to the mind-boggling number of Golden Eared Doves in the country. In Argentina, the dove population is pegged at around 55 million – with the largest roost in Cordoba. The birds are prolific and non-migratory. They nest several times per year, when they produce an average of two eggs each time. Their primary habitat is a thorny, mesquite-like tree that has successfully thwarted most natural predators.

For a close-up look at the dizzying rate of reproduction visit Estancia Los Chañares. Hunters are transported from the lodge to the fields via trucks with elevated seating reminiscent of a safari. Along the dirt trails, from that lofty vantage point, you can see the tree tops inundated with egg-laden nests.

I have read early reports of farmers poisoning the large dove roosts in Cordoba, before hunting evolved into a significant industry. Although the chemical extermination killed millions of birds, the runoff poisoned other animals, and polluted waterways and fields.

Because Argentina is one of the largest agricultural producers in the world, the doves have plenty of food and water amid a temperate climate. I’ve seen numbers varying from 20 percent to 40 percent of crops destroyed every year by the doves that gobble up the corn, wheat, soy, sorghum and sunflower. When you consider that Argentina exported some US$86 billion in unprocessed agriculture during 2011, the destruction wrought by the doves is staggering. And if a law is passed that will let the farmers of Argentina increase their output of genetically modified seeds from the current 35 percent of production to more than 80 percent, the dove population could grow far faster than today.

Argentina’s Golden Eared Doves roost in thorn trees that shelter them against natural predators.

In planning my trip to Argentina, I set two objectives. The first: shoot as many birds as possible. If that goal sounds prosaic, there are plenty of hunters who visit Cordoba simply to shoot a few hours in the morning and then after lunch – satisfied to bag 200 birds per day.

My other objective included testing common wisdom by evaluating the physical repercussions of a 12 gauge shotgun for high-volume dove hunting. If you’re going for a personal best, an open-choked 12 gauge will spread more pellets to hit multiple doves with a single shot than a 20 gauge. Add it up and the ? ounce uptick credited to the 12 gauge loads over the 20 gauge can be noteworthy over a full day of shooting.

In some of the brush blinds where we shot, the doves clustered in flight for possible multiple hits with a single 12 gauge shotgun equipped with open chokes – a consideration if you’re looking to achieve a personal best.

Toward that end, I selected two Berettas equipped with the company’s integrated Kick-Off recoil-reduction system. Kick-Off incorporates a pair of hydraulic dampeners, coupled with springs, in the stock of the shotgun. Upon firing, the system compresses, moving the stock along your cheek. Complemented by a new Micro-Core recoil-pad polymer, Beretta claims a total recoil loss of 70 percent compared with “the nearest competition.”

Beretta’s X400 Light with the Kick-Off recoil-reduction system in the stock.

The high-volume experiment would embrace both a semi-auto and an over/under in 12 gauge. I opted for Beretta’s A400 Xplor Unico Light gas-operated semi-auto. I had already shot that gun in South Dakota on pheasants and thought it was brilliant. For an over/under, I took Beretta’s SV10 Prevail clays gun. Both models represented the state-of-the-art in their respective configurations and price point.

The A400 Light is the wingshooting version of the original clays model. The 12 gauge A400 Light weighs about 6.8 pounds with a 28-inch barrel and Kick-Off – or approximately a half-pound less than an equivalent Beretta A400 Xcel Sporting with 29-inch barrels. The weight reduction is primarily attributed to a shorter receiver made of aluminum in both versions. The tradeoff impacts shell sizes and capacity.

As with the original A400 introduced in 2009, the A400 Light employs Beretta’s Blink operating system. The Blink operating system can cycle shells ranging from 2¾ to 3½ inches using a rotating bolt head that enables four shells to be shot in under a second (with the plug removed). From the factory, the A400 Light handles two shells in the magazine plus one in the chamber. Loads can be as small as 7/8 ounce without jamming. Beretta also claims that the rotating bolt head demands less maintenance than its predecessor, which established the Beretta 390 and 391 as among the most reliable gas semi-autos ever.

Beretta tapped its European DT 11 competition shotguns for the Steelium barrels on the A400. As Beretta explains it, Steelium is a manufacturing process that uses a tri-alloy steel billet, which is deep drilled, cold-hammer forged and undergoes a special vacuum distension. The payoff, according to Beretta, is a lower profile barrel with improved forcing-cone tapering, reduced muzzle flip and better handling for faster target acquisition.

The A400 Light that accompanied me to Argentina featured a weather-proof synthetic grain finish called Xtra-Wood on the wood stock and forend. The overall package with the aluminum receiver drew praises from fellow shooters at Sierra Brava. Personally, the Xtra-Wood would not have prevented me from buying the gun at the suggested price of $1,500.

Muller chokes.

The A400 Light was fitted with a Muller Featherlight choke. Relatively new to the market, Muller chokes have been distinguished by their light weight and controlled patterns. The gloss-black, extended chokes are manufactured from aerospace-grade aluminum infused with ceramic Teflon. Bottom line is that they are half the weight of titanium, one-third the weight of steel and don’t accumulate crud. Muller says that their chokes never loosen – an assertion I found to hold up under the intense shooting conditions of Argentina.

Muller applies different designations than the rest of the industry to their choke constrictions. U1 is .005 inch, U2 is .012 inch, U3 is .022 inch and U4 is 035 inch. The U1 is the rough equivalent of skeet while U4 is described by the company as having an improved modified and extra full choke in the same barrel. I selected a U2, which is Muller’s rendition of an improved cylinder combined with a light modified. The Muller chokes are distinguished by an ultra-modern industrial aesthetic, and are priced at $74.95 each.

When it came to the over/under, the Beretta SV10 Prevail clays gun seemed to fit me slightly better than the SV10 Perennia upland model. So in anticipation of hot-barrel shooting, I chose the SV10 Prevail with 30-inch barrels – the shotgun weighing 7-¾ pounds.

Introduced in 2009, the SV10 Prevail represented the next generation to Beretta’s 600 series. The SV10 Prevail, however, has a lower profile than the beloved 682 thanks primarily to redesigned hinge pins and forend iron.

The Beretta SV10 Prevail with game-scene engraving in Argentina.

As a fresh design, the SV10 Prevail includes a lightweight titanium trigger, vented barrels, shell-removal technology that lets you easily choose between automatic ejection or manual extraction, dual conical longitudinal locking lugs that are self-adjusting for wear, replaceable hinge pins and forend iron that constantly adjusts itself for a tight fit. The shotgun incorporated Beretta’s new Q-Stock for removal of the stock via a single screw that’s accessible through a polished, spring-loaded trap door in the pistol grip – the objective to provide easy trigger removal with the same tool. Of the full set of Optima choke, I decided initially on improved cylinder and light modified for Argentina.

The standard level of engraving on the Beretta SV10 Prevail.

The suggested price for an SV10 Prevail with Kick-Off was $3,098 with standard engraving, and if your tastes lean toward contemporary designs that particular model shows quite well. There’s an elliptical swoosh to the polished sideplates, which are laser engraved with a partial, high-tech checkboard pattern repeated on the locking shoulders. An elongated lever contributed to a svelte appearance of the semi-beavertail forend.

The SV10 Prevail I took to Argentina boasted a higher grade game scene engraving. Bundled with the Kick-Off system, that gun carried a suggested retail price of $3,498.

Putting myself in the shoes of an everyday shotgun enthusiast, I felt satisfied with the best possible pair of shotguns to test my theory of whether or not the 12 gauge would be overkill in Cordoba – on the shooter.

The night before departure, I packed both guns in an FAA-approved travel case. Snapping shut the padlocks, it was time to bring on Argentina.

Click here for Part II of this series.

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Quail Management Beneficial for Other Declining Bird Species

While some landowners manage for bobwhite quail and work to boost wild bird populations across the state, they may not realize they are helping to benefit other bird species at the same time. Bobwhite quail have been experiencing drastic population declines across their range. Since the 1960s, quail populations have declined by an average of 5 percent annually. Similarly, grassland species such as dickcissels, as well as open pine species such as Bachman’s sparrow, have been showing drastic population declines. These declines are mainly due to habitat alteration through urbanization and changes in agricultural practices over the last 50 years. Many practices used to try and reverse bobwhite declines have similar benefits for other declining species.

One of the most commonly used tools for managing quail populations is prescribed fire. Prescribed fire in open pine stands will help to improve the habitat structure as well as boost habitat diversity of the understory, which is important for quail. Prescribed fire is also important for controlling hardwood species encroachment of the habitat. Quail prefer a mix of forbs and woody shrubs and some bare ground, which prescribed fire helps to maintain. If there is a lack of fire on the ground for more than 3 years, the vegetation quickly becomes too dense for quail to move around and forage.

Similarly, Bachman’s sparrows require frequent burning to maintain an open understory. They are found in association with quail in open pine stands that have been burned within 3 years. Growing-season burns, often used in quail management, promote an abundance of flowering forbs and grasses as well as an increased insect abundance, which is important for many species such as the Bachman’s sparrow when fledglings are present. Another declining species, loggerhead shrike, also benefits greatly from prescribed fire. Shrikes, a grassland species, are often found within open pine systems as well, but will only utilize those areas that are frequently burned. They require prescribed fire to keep the mid-story and understory open for foraging opportunities.

While prescribed fire is the most frequently used practice, other management techniques are also important for songbirds. The creation of habitat buffers or field borders around agricultural lands is often used for bobwhite quail management. Creating buffers of grasses and forbs around agriculture fields helps to create increased foraging opportunities for species such as quail, dickcissels, and indigo buntings, which often breed around field edges.

Restoration of longleaf pine systems, as well as native warm-season grasses, is beneficial for bobwhite quail. These game birds are abundant in open longleaf pine systems, which are maintained through frequent burning. Bachman’s sparrow, as well as brown-headed nuthatch, may benefit from increased longleaf pine habitat, which they readily use because of the open understory characteristic of this system. One species that has seen drastic population declines, the red-cockaded woodpecker, may eventually benefit from the increased longleaf pine stands across the Southeast. Some grassland birds, such as dickcissels and Eastern meadowlarks, may benefit from restoration efforts with native warm-season grass fields as well. These fields provide great foraging opportunities with increased insect abundance.

While these management practices are beneficial, many grassland species, as well as quail, require larger blocks of habitat to breed and maintain sustainable populations. Therefore, it is important to take a landscape approach to provide habitat for these declining species. One such effort is being made by the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI), formerly the Southeast Quail Study Group, which has developed a range-wide strategic plan in an effort to reverse the decline of quail while also benefiting other songbird species. The NBCI is a collaborative effort between state and federal agencies, including Alabama, and non-profit organizations such as Quail Forever with the common goal of reversing the decline of quail. They have recognized that these range-wide efforts could be beneficial for many other declining grassland and open pine bird species.

While there are efforts to manage for and stop the decline of these species, it will take time to see results. It is hoped that these increased efforts across the entire Southeast can reverse population trends of many of our songbird species while benefiting bobwhite quail.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through five divisions: Marine Police, Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. To learn more about ADCNR visit www.outdooralabama.com.

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Will the Early Arrival of Spring Produce More Pheasants?

I woke up this morning with one question in my mind: Will the early arrival of spring produce more pheasants?  To help me answer this question, I reached out to Pheasants Forever biologists Aaron Kuehl from Illinois and Jim Wooley from Iowa.  While the guys made it clear there is no simple answer to my question, they did provide a number of reasons for optimism.

Healthy Hens

The recent mild winter was advantageous for a variety of reasons when it comes to setting the stage for a productive nesting season, but at the top of their list was hen health.  Egg laying, nesting, re-nesting and brood-rearing are very taxing on hens.  Consequently, a mild winter allows hens to begin the spring reproduction season in top shape with the ability to produce the maximum number of eggs per clutch (the average clutch size of eggs is 12).  The math is simple; more eggs equal more chances for chicks, which provide better odds of adding more adult birds to the autumn population.

If a hen loses her nest due to cold weather, predation, haying, flooding, or some other disturbance, she will attempt to re-nest up to two more times.  Each subsequent re-nesting attempt leads to a drop in the average number of eggs a hen will lay.  A second effort will average eight eggs in a clutch, while a third re-nesting generally produces four to six eggs.  As a result, the healthier the hens are coming out of the winter, the better the chances for nest success during these re-nesting efforts as well.

Nesting Season

Let’s start with the basics of establishing a hen’s spring calendar:

Average Nest Initiation Date: May 1 (beginning as early as March 15 running through July 15)
Average Incubation Start: May 24 (beginning as early as April 1 running through August 1)
Average Hatch: June 15 (beginning as early as April 15 running through August 15)

So, if a hen begins laying eggs in a nest on May 12^th, then incubation will start on May 24^th if that hen stops egg production after the 12^th egg drops.  Then on June 15^th, after 23 days of incubation without any complications, the chicks will hatch.

Photo period is the top factor influencing when pheasants begin nesting.  In other words, the length of light in the day determines the bird’s nest initiation.  However, according to Wooley, temperature is an influencing factor moderating the hen’s “decision” when to initiate nesting.  Consequently, both Wooley and Kuehl believe the early spring could accelerate the pheasant nesting season by a few days.

“If you think about the reproductive calendar visually as a bell curve with the peak of the hatch traditionally occurring on June 15^th, this early spring will likely shift that bell curve to the left a few days,” explained Kuehl.

Best Case Scenario

If the weather through April, May and June continues to be warm and relatively dry, then hen pheasants will have a high probably of pulling off successful first nesting attempts prior to haying season.

Worst Case Scenario

If hens begin incubating eggs earlier than normal and our spring weather turns cold and wet, then those eggs stand an uphill battle.  Cold and wet spring weather generally leads to multiple re-nesting attempts, smaller broods and less than ideal chick survival.

Exceptions in the South and West

In the western United States and southern Great Plains, a cold spring isn’t a common limiting factor for pheasants.  In fact, most western biologists will point to the need for spring moisture to “green” things up for insect production as the more important factor influencing their pheasant recruitment success.

The Mr. Mom Advantage for Quail

One major difference between pheasants and quail is the role males may play in the reproductive cycle.  In some years, perhaps particularly when the density of quail is low, a hen may lay a clutch of eggs, and then leave her male bobwhite mate in charge of incubation duties for the next 24 days.  Hens may then take up with one or more additional males.  The male also assumes brood rearing responsibility once the eggs hatch (he has to—Mom is down the road with another boyfriend).  Think about that; a hen quail could theoretically produce two or three broods during one nesting season with the assistance of different males. Consequently, quail have an increased ability to rebound populations quickly given quality habitat and optimum weather conditions during nesting season.  In contrast, rooster pheasants play no role in their reproductive cycle other than hen fertilization, so each hen can, at maximum, produce one brood.

Habitat is the Key

Ultimately, we can’t control the weather and it will always be a wild card in the equation.  However, we can control the quantity and quality of habitat on the landscape.  Habitat is the key to providing hens with the places they need to successfully nest and raise broods.

The Moral of the Story

Weather conditions are lining up well to produce a very good spring nesting season for pheasants that will likely begin earlier than normal.  Keep your fingers crossed the warm conditions will extend a couple more months.

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Reading Your Dog’s Getting Birdy “Tells”

Successful poker players often talk about identifying opposing player’s “tells” in route to victory.  Some card players can’t look others in the eye when they’ve got a good hand, or they start tapping their fingers on the table when they’re bluffing.  Baseball pitchers are known to have similar “tells.”  I can remember one pitcher from high school who would only grunt when delivering a curve ball.  Fastball = no grunt.  Curve = grunt.  I hit pretty well off that guy.

I believe a parallel can be drawn between successful hunter and dog teams.  Without the ability to talk, the hunter is left to interpret the pup’s body language in the field to determine what that dog’s nose is communicating to the rest of its body.  Most of us refer to this interchange of scent to body language as a dog getting “birdy.”

While there are common traits consistent across bird dogs, I believe each birdy dog’s tells are as unique as batting stances in the Hall of Fame.  In my opinion, the basic birdy dog indicators are a pup’s tail, ears, eyes and pace.  The key to being a successful hunter over your bird dog is honing in on how your dog’s tail, ears, eyes and pace behave when your pup’s hot after a bird or covey.

My shorthair has a couple of surefire tells.  The biggest indicator for me is the pace at which her tail wags left to right.  The faster it goes, the surer she is to be on a bird’s trail.  Contrastingly, as soon as she believes she’s located it, her tail and the rest of her body goes “rock solid” into a point and her ears are pricked at attention.  In essence, the more statuesque she is, the more certain she has the bird or covey pinned in the cover somewhere in front of her nose.  As long as I’m not behind her, she’ll also make eye contact with me; making sure I see her and know she’s got one located.  While I don’t know if pro dog trainers would encourage or discourage this eye contact, I absolutely get a rush out of the interchange.  To me, it galvanizes the passing of the baton from her job to mine as the shooter.

While Trammell’s tail and eye contact tells aren’t unique to her, she does have another tell that I’ve yet to witness in anyone else’s bird dog.  When Tram is hot on the trail of a running rooster, but she simply can’t locate it after an extended chase, she’ll let out a whine.  When I hear that whine, I pick up the pace as fast as I safely can with shotgun in hand, because based on past experience that whine tells me she’s on the scent of a wily old rooster that is going to flush before he ever lets her get close on a point.

When it comes to pace as a tell, my buddy Matt Kucharski’s Lab, Lucy, provides my best example.  There is no doubt a dog’s chasing speed picks up as it zeros in on a rooster, running grouse or covey.  Matt’s Lucy is no exception.  As the scent grows in intensity, so does Lucy’s horse power, until Lucy finally zeros in on a bird pinned under grass.  At that point, Lucy stops, looks up to locate Matt, and then immediately pounces on the clump of grass concealing the bird.

What is your dog’s surefire “tell” when on a bird?

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Are You Like Your Bird Dog?

We’ve probably all heard the sayings about owners and their dogs looking alike, but what about shared mannerisms?  I’ll venture our bird dogs mimic their hunting masters in a variety of ways.  Here’s a sample of the similarities and adaptions I believe my shorthair, Trammell, and I share.

Methodically Short and Deliberately Dainty.

I am not the tallest guy in the room, any room, even an 8th grade classroom.  At 5’ 7”, my short legs work harder than most to cover the fields and forests.  Thankfully, my shorthair works slower and more methodical than other pointers I’ve observed.  Amongst my Pheasants Forever co-workers, Trammell is referred to as a “dainty” hunter.  To some guys, those may be fighting words, but I’m pretty sure Tram and I bag more roosters than those China Shop Bulls.  We may not vacuum up big expanses of ground, but I’m relatively certain we don’t run over too many hunkered birds either.

Hunting Marathoners.

While Tram and I may not beat many tag teams to their daily limit, our deliberate pace does allow us to hunt from the day’s sunrise to the day’s closing bell.

Cattail Skirters.

Unless one of us gets “birdy,” we’re both content to work the outside edge of the cattail sloughs and keep our feet dry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away.

Speaking of dry feet, Tram and I both avoid being outside on rainy days.  It’s funny to watch Tram go outside for a potty break in the rain, she tip toes into the yard as if she’s literally melting and zooms back inside the minute her “business” is complete.  Likewise, I’ve been quoted as saying “this isn’t fun for me anymore,” during a rainy hunt.

No Water Wings.

While I love to eat ducks, I’d rather spend my time and energy walking in pursuit of any bird without webbed feet.  Tram has a similar aversion to spending her hunting hours stuck in the mud over plastic fake birds when the real thing is to be had one step in front of the other.

Favorite Color is Orange.

Hunter orange and Detroit Tigers orange compose our wardrobe’s two seasons.

Birdy Buddies.

Probably most important of all is our shared affinity for upland birds; including, pheasants, quail, grouse, woodcock, sharpies, and prairie chickens.

What about you?  What traits do you and your bird dog share?

This story first appeared on http://www.pheasantblog.org

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A $10,000 Grouse Hunt: Bow Hunting Grouse While Pursuing Canadian Moose

Giant canadian moose had always been a bow hunting dream of mine, so in 2010 I booked a trip to British Columbia to chase the largest deer in North America.  Ten days in the bush, chasing moose all day, and camping in the wall tent at night.  I was geared for this trip, and from talking with the outfitter, I knew bow hunting grouse would be a bonus along the way.  Forty-seven arrows were packed and ready to rock, with every style of broadhead,  judo and whatever else I could muster for the end of my arrows for bow hunting grouse.

No moose, lots of grouse

A full quiver for bow hunting grouse

Which nine arrows survived a week of bow hunting grouse?

The only arrows I had left at the end of the trip were six moose arrows and three others, all tipped with Snaro bird points for bow hunting grouse. I lost all my judos and the two G5 tips I brought along through the trees. The Snaros flew from my 60 lb compound as well as my 50 lb recurve, and we killed lots of birds with each weapon. I used the 2 and 3 inch from the compound bow hunting grouse so they could clear the riser at full draw with my original hunting arrows, and I used the 3 and the 6 inch in my recurve bow to give me a margin for error (there’s a lot of air around a grouse). The Snaros were almost impossible to lose, and aside from the two I left in the top of different spruce trees, I came home with three of the five I left with.

The design of the Snaro heads keeps them from diving under grass, moss and leaves for birds on the ground. The grass and forest leaf litter ate my broadheads of every style at a quick pace. The Snaro bird point also keeps the heads from skipping through the woods when bow hunting grouse. My Snaros quickly became the head of choice for birds in the trees as well, as even a solid hit with a broadhead meant the arrow kept going far enough it was futile to search for them. The Snaro bird tips stopped in the brush and branches and we always found them. My best guess is the broadhead-tipped arrows lasted 2 to 3 shots before they were lost, and the Snaros were all I had left the last 4 days of the trip. I was glad I brought them along on my trip to British Columbia for what twisted from a dream moose hunt to a trip devoted to bow hunting grouse.

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