Wings Over Argentina

Before the sun rose above the horizon, the ducks began to move--first as singles and pairs, then as small groups and flocks. They seemed to come from no particular direction, but they all wanted to take a look at the decoys directly in front of our makeshift blind located in the vast flood-plain marshes of the Parana River in Argentina.

The first birds, a pair of Brazilian teal, surprised my hunting partner, Jeff Bauman, and me, landing among the decoys. The nervous birds sat motionless for seconds before jumping skyward. Jeff dropped two shells in his over/under and slammed it shut just in time to catch up with the teal as they scrambled for altitude. He dropped the drake with a single shot as the hen made an escape. We exchanged high fives; the first morning of our Argentine wingshooting odyssey was off to a smashing start.

Before our bird boy had a chance to pick up the teal, a small flock of larger ducks loomed over the decoys. I took the birds on the left, picking a duck that was dropping to the dekes, while Jeff worked the birds to the right. My first shot hit its mark; a second round anchored a double. Meanwhile, my partner managed to drop a drake. The rosy-billed pochards fell dead inside thirty yards. We continued shooting at the almost nonstop stream of ducks--rosy-billed pochards, silver teal, Brazilian teal and both fulvous and white-faced whistling ducks. After the first hour, there were twenty ducks on the water.

In the 1970s, international travel for big-game hunting was relatively common, yet a trip outside North America to hunt birds was rare. In contrast, the 1990s became the decade of international wingshooting, with proven destinations in Central and South America, Europe, Africa and New Zealand. Among these destinations, Argentina is the undisputed leader when it comes to wingshooting.

Nearly three decades ago, the first reports of Argentina's excellent bird hunting began filtering into the U.S. At first it was the superb goose hunting found in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia that drew hunters to this South American jewel. Later, word of dove flights that blocked out the sun and top-notch waterfowling made sporting news. Then perdiz hunting over pointers was the rage, and eventually pigeon shooting made its way to the available variety.

Today, there is a growing infrastructure to support wingshooting, including a number of outfitters well versed in meeting the needs and desires of visiting hunters. Current estimates indicate that between 7,000 to 8,000 American hunters travel to Argentina each year specifically to hunt birds. Upgraded service aboard reliable airlines, sizeable investments in sophisticated lodging, vehicles and extensive scouting have opened up exciting new worlds for the wingshooter. These attributes, along with an abundance of game, allow the hunting in Argentina to be accurately described as world class.

The first duck shoot of our trip continued at a fever pitch, and by 10 a.m. we attained our limit of twenty ducks each. With heavy straps of ducks, we jumped in the boat and settled in for the twenty-minute ride back to Los Ombues Lodge. After an exquisite lunch, we boarded a van for the ten-minute ride to our afternoon shooting venue. When the van pulled up to a line of trees separating a harvested soybean field from a sunflower field, the doves were already flying.