DRIVEN
SHOOTING

I am, or so it seems, used to shooting extremely long, extremely fast targets - tall driven pheasants and that wonderful bird, the European wood pigeon. Perhaps because these dove are so small I initially read the target as being much further away than in actuality they were. The diminutive size of the eared dove creates the perception of great distance. At first I could not shoot my way out of a brown paper bag. When I cut my lead by 60 to 80 percent the bird started to hit the ground with great consistency.

Dove shooting in South America is one of the great shooting schools of the world. One beauty of this sport is the variety of shots presented. The other is the great number of shots that one will take in a day. The typical shooter who comes to these lodges averages 36 boxes for each day of shooting. That is nearly a thousand cartridges. This provides tremendous practice at many different angles and at many different distances.

And with the shooting comes a Pavlovian feed whistle in the form of the noise associated with shotgunning which brings in the scavengers from near and far. First to arrive are the large brown eagles. Drawn by the shooting they seem to know that they are not fair game and perch near the shooters with imperious immunity. They seem to prefer cripples. Whether this is because they are drawn to the movements or enjoy their meat rare I cannot say. Often they gorged to the point of almost being unable to fly. They are not the only scavenger drawn to the shooting. Sheep come and eat the crops, goats prefer to eat the head and the crop, and the hogs which are also attracted to the shooting eat everything. With the plethora of scavengers about it is not surprising that the dove prefer to roost in Piquilla trees, the thorns of which keep most predators at bay.

While we are not scavengers, we are predators, indeed the animal at the very top of the food chain. We are here in July at the very height of their winter. Mid June to mid August are the cool months although it is rarely cold. At 700 meters the climate is almost Mediterranean. And even when it is cold at night, the warm northern wind turns midday to shirtsleeves weather.

Climate plays an important part in the shooting experience. The rainy season runs between the end of November or early December until February or March. I have been told that most of the rain is at night so it does not interfere too much with the shooting. Mid August and September are spring months and this spring extends until late October. November is warmer still while December and January and part of February tend to be quite hot though it is a dry heat.

During their summer months the plan is to shoot early, have a siesta and shooting again late from about 4:00 p.m. until 8 or 9 in the evening. From the beginning of July until the end of March the birds are concentrated in the hills. In early April the come in on corn; corn and sunflowers are the most important crops. One shoots the crops early in the morning. In a dry year one concentrates on the water holes during midday and pass shoots the doves late as they return to roost in the evening.