DOVE SHOOTING IN ARGENTINA

Dove shooting is a speciality of La Dormida lodge in the Córdoba Province of Argentina and is considered to be the dove shooting capital of the world. With over 250,000 acres of fields and rolling hills, the land offers guaranteed diversity and sporting challenges and an excellent retreat for all shooting parties. With a population of 50 million doves, the lodge maintains 55 shooting fields. The lodge also supplies the local village kitchens with thousands of doves, making sure that not one dove goes to waste. Shoots often run from dawn til dusk and offer an excellent day out in the fields. Staying hidden and still in a good blind, is the key to success. Wing shooting in Argentina has always had a kind of legendary status with most of the people I speak to and so I’ve only ever heard the stories and all I can say is that they’re totally true. It’s not just the magnificent landscape and it’s not just the beautiful wilderness that’s out here. There are more birds here than I have ever seen on any continent of any species in my life. Argentina truly is an absolute haven for wing shooters.

Shooting skills put to the test

The mornings and the afternoons shooting were entirely different. A few single doves coming in turned into absolute mayhem. As the birds were flying back from the feeding fields they were just coming in droves, Ian had never seen a population like it. Forty to fifty, even a hundred birds at a time could fly in, which makes it almost impossible to pick out an individual bird. As you’d get on one, the dove 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. Strewn around the ground around me were a lot of cartridges than there were birds. But that’s what wing shooting in Argentina 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, a huge amount of fun and it really challenges your shooting ability. Argentina offers a sensational day of shooting. There were a lot of birds, but it’s the teamwork that really makes it happen. It’s the communication between the loader and the shooter and making sure the cartridges go in and then get quickly onto the next bird. The scenery is breathtaking, the countryside is just phenomenal and this for me was a culmination of a lifetime worth of shooting and it really was a dream come true.

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