DRIVEN
SHOOTING

DUCK IN ARGENTINA:
BUENOS AIRES BOUND

Figuratively, 5:00 a.m. came earlier than usual. The day before we had been shooting dove in the province of Cordoba, and working on a tight schedule we shot the eared dove early in the day, returned to lodge for lunch, chartered a plane from Cordoba airport to Buenos Aires, and drove another hour south to Los Patos, the appropriately named ranch in San Miguel del Monte. Dinner began at 10. Then into the arms of Morpheus.

Breakfast passed quickly and quietly. By 6:00 a.m. we were outside, dressed in waders and waterfowl gear. The guides fetched our shotguns from the gun room. It was nearly a 40 minute drive though probably only five to ten miles as the crow flies. We left the main road and turned down a dirt or mud road pitted by too many drivers cutting cross country when it was wet. Torn up badly, it limited our speed. Nutria crossed the track. Some say their meat is delicious. I, who have been known to eat lion, draw the line on rodents. I do admit that their fur is lovely. Someone said that the species is not a rodent. They look like a giant round faced rat to me.

The moon was full, and very bright. A few clouds formed eerie shapes. The children of the night were, no doubt, happy.

We arrived at the small pond. In the darkness we made last minute adjustments and walked a hundred yards or so, the last 40 through the puddle, to a clump of grass, Junco reed, like bulrush about 20 yards wide. We sat on metal stools stuck in the mud. I place my shells on a large clump of dry grass, a mini island, if you will, to my left.

As my two companions Chuck Larsen and Kirk Kelly and I settled in, our guides- Brian and Paco set out the decoys.

Brian's dad is one of Chuck Larsen’s best friends. Indeed, they have hunted every year for the last 43 seasons except for one when Chuck was in the army. Brian has guided for three years in Argentina from March through September. During the “other” hunting season, he returns to Burnt Pines which Chuck owns, one of the best and most successful whitetail deer and quail plantations in the South, situated close to Atlanta.

Brian is very helpful and well spoken, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin. While guiding is relatively new to him, he grew up hunting North Dakota and the prairie provinces of Canada with his dad and Chuck. He likens this area of Argentina to the prairie pothole region of the North American plains. He works his two duck calls like an old pro. He uses a single or double reed mallard call and creates a “guttural slur” to bring in the rosy bills. Alternatively, he uses a pintail whistle-tweak, tweak-tweak ending in widgeon whistle chatter.

Chuck is a great guy. We have shot Francolin over pointers in the Orange Free State of South Africa, dove streaming into sunflowers near Kimberley, and driven guinea fowl near Sun City. Add to this the geese, partridge and pigeon of a Bahia Blanca, dove in Cordoba province, and now the duck shooting just south of Buenos Aires. Amazing considering we first met only two months ago.

The area is vast and lightly hunted. Brian guesses that there are fewer than a hundred hunters shooting the entire area. The first duck came in, a trio of Rosy Billed Porchard, the most common species, when it was still too dark to shoot. Soon, as the sun slowly rose, the action became fast and furious. Duck came in singly, in pairs, trios, quartets, quintets; sometimes larger flocks, and sometimes two separate groups coming in almost simultaneously. It was July, winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Close to freezing, skim ice glazed the surface. The shooting kept us warm.