Destinations

You undoubtedly already know the catchphrase “Beretta 500 Years, One Passion.” In distinguishing the world’s oldest industrial enterprise, Beretta’s message resonates with an antiquity only assigned to shotgun sports royalty.

When it comes to putting together a bird-hunting trip, the power of the Internet marketing machine, good pictures and clever words go a long way in selling someone on the positive attributes of a location, a lodge and an outfitter.

As the oldest hunting club in America, Cabin Bluff exemplifies that celebrated down-home, Low-Country hospitality duly expressed when I received a pecan pie on the house for the ride home.

Wingshooting has been my lifelong passion and the motivation that has resulted in my occupation which runs the whole gambit of wingshooting worldwide. I have worked for several of the top gunmakers in England and Europe as shooting instructor, gun fitter, gunmaker and sporting agent (outfitter).

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. For Part II, we reached our first hunting destination, the Sierra Brava Lodge. Now in the final leg of our trip in the fabled Córdoba region, we head to the sumptuous Estancia Los Chañares

Over dogs and overhead, pheasants took to the sky as Primland hosted a weekend of both European driven shoots and walk-up hunts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

British best-gun maker Holland & Holland had invited a handful of clients to experience the jubilation of traditional guns-on-pegs hunting as strong-flying pheasants were driven from the fields above by a line of beaters. Meanwhile, I spent a full day with a guide and his dogs flushing pheasants in a mountain-top clearing cultivated for habitat.

I’ve never considered myself to be one of those pampered hunters who expects to be catered to and afforded the type of treatment normally reserved for royalty and rock stars.

I would not, however, completely exclude the possibility of occasionally experiencing such treatment (voicing just the right amount of protest, of course), all for the sake of reporting on one such operation, Rough Creek Lodge and Resort, a hunting and resort destination located a 90-minute drive southwest of Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.

Both Uruguay and Argentina have great dove shooting every month of the year. Of course, their perdiz and duck shooting takes place in their winter – May, June and July – in a few instances into August. Many prefer the combination of ducks and perdiz or perdiz and doves or ducks and doves. With some outfitters it’s possible to hunt all three.

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.

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.