Blog | Argentina Big Hunting

The flight

Dove shooting in Argentina is a very sporty and difficult kind of blast and yet a great fun due to the amount of cartridges that hunters shoot daily.

The little effectiveness that the hunter can have on windy days makes it very challenging as well.

The air pressure during a sunny or a stormy day may also change the flightway height.
Doves fly at a speed of between 60 and 80 km/h depending on the weather conditions.

Their plumage is lighter than that of the duck, more similar to the partridge.

The doves’ flight is deceptive, because it seems slower than it really is, for this reason the biggest mistake of the shooters is to stay behind the bird.

The dove itself is not really strong so to use a big gauge is not particularly necessary.

Dove shooting technique

The correct technique is to quickly measure the distance and pass the target (lead) to achieve a hit.

Considering that it flies at a height of 20 or 30 m, it is essential to calculate as accurately as possible the speed and distance at which each specimen has to be shot in order to hit each shot.

Aiming too close to the bird is a common mistake.

We mostly shoot passing doves in the fields where they go down to eat or water holes where they drink.

Another excellent flightway is the one where doves come and go from the roosts.

This last one is the least advisable place to shoot because it may ruin the population of them.

It is also advisable to camouflage yourself within the crops where you are hunting, or under the trees near the pass or even with portable posts that hide the presence of shooters.

This avoids the famous breaks that the birds do when they see the hunters.

When hunters catch the trick to lead the aim at the right distance this kind of shooting becomes a big fun.


Dove shooting in Argentina

The Argentinian people call doves as “the rat of the air”, due to how prolific they are and because the diseases they can transmit.

This species has been declared a pest so its hunt is open all year round.

If we stick to strictly sports, dove shooting is not easy at all.
On an average hunting day a shooter can consume 1,000+ rounds or even more and the average of hits is around 40% accuracy.

We had hunters shooting consistently over 5000 rounds per hunter/day.

Bring your shoulder pad in your next trip to Argentina. We highly recommend it for such a high volume of shooting.

Under normal circumstances Argentina Big Hunting is capable of delivering any kind of shooting since we manage different flightways. Hunters can decide to go to hunting fields where dove fly high or low, as they prefer.

Shooting on rainy days is not a problem. Except for stormy days doves will fly out and back to the roost anyway.

During those difficult days we also have a window of opportunity to shoot birds for at least a few hours.

During the warm months of the year (September to April) doves fly all day long. In winter time they usually take a break at noon.

Shotguns and shells

Hunters have different preferences: Americans like semi-auto shotguns, Europeans like over and under.

You can actually shoot very well with either ones or the others.

It depends on how comfortable you feel with your gun and how much you are used to shooting with it.

Regarding which caliber would be the ideal one, the first answer would be that all are good: 28, 20, 16 and 12/70.

According to our knowledge and experience the best shotguns are semi-auto 20 gauge (26 or 28 g cartridges) or 12 gauge (28 or 32 g) with 7 or 8 shells.

We preferred dependable brands as Beretta or Benelli because we shoot very heavily. However, we know that ,any other first class guns do the job.

Winchesters, Remingtons, Brownings are just some of very good semi auto American shotguns.

Blaser shotguns are excellent in the niche of over and unders because their high quality and durability.

Dr. Patricio Geijo / Argentina Big Hunting

Introduction

Water buffalo hunting is one of the main challenging hunts in Argentina.

This species from Asia is originally introduced in Brazil as a domestic animal and from there it goes to Argentina.

Large lagoons, marshlands and the thick bush are the ideal habitat for them. The province of Corrientes, Argentina is the first place where they settle.

The most common subspecies of these buffalos in Argentina is the Mediterranean.

There are other species not that common such as Jaffarabadi, Murrah and Carabao.

Argentina Big Hunting hunt them in their areas of La Pampa, Entre Rios or Buenos Aires province.

Main features

Its main characteristics are a robust black body with a hump on the back, short and strong legs with large and sharp hooves. Adult males reach 1000 kilos in weight. The horns are black and solid, triangular in shape with wider rings at the base and thinning at the tips.

Males and females have horns, but those of males are thicker.

Water buffalos have excellent senses of sight, smell and hearing so they are not easy to stalk.

They are diurnal animals that prefer to be in small groups in the vicinity of water bodies.

Older females are in charge of caring for the herd and are usually very aggressive.

The old bulls are usually alone, away from the herd.

Buffalo Hunting in Argentina

Water buffalo hunting is very interesting because they are unpredictable animals. The first shot is essential since once injured they have great resistance and aggressiveness, so it is essential to locate it in their vital organs.

We recommend to use of large calibers for buffalo hunting. The 375 H&H is the smallest of them. It is preferable to use bigger calibers such as 416 Rigby, 470 NE or even larger.

The only sporting way to hunt them is by stalking them on foot in the thick bush or in the grasslands of La Pampa. Stealthy approach with the wind in your face to get within a short range to shoot is the best way to hunt them down.

According to our experience the ideal shooting distance is 50/60 meters.

Main targets

When the buffalo is calm there are two main targets:

1) head and spine (nervous system) causing immediate death

2) Heart and lungs (blood system) where death is slower but equally fatal.

It is important to note that these organs are located lower than in deer.

The Charge

If the animal is injured and charges the hunter, it is best to ensure the first shot to the chest. If the animal continues to approach the hunter, an accurate headshot is the best.

The buffalo attacks with its horns but also jumps on the body of the fallen hunter and hurts it with its powerful and sharp hooves.

This danger is what makes buffalo hunting attractive in Argentina.

Dr. Patrick Geijo / Argentina Big Hunting

Background

Blackbuck hunting in Argentina is synonymous of excitment and challenge.   They are originally from India but now you can find them in other places like in Argentina and USA (Texas).   They were introduced to Argentina in the beginning of the XX Century. The plains of this country became the perfect habitat for this species and the region where they live has no predators for them, that’s why they thrived in Argentina and their population  didn’t stop growing.

Characteristics of Blackbuck

Size, Horns and Colour

It is an animal that weighs 40/45 kilos and has 70 centimeters 0f heights at the shoulder (male). The color of the skin varies according to the sex and age of each individual. The mature males present a brown color turning to black in the back, neck and face but their belly, chest and legs are whitish.

Since they belong to the family of goats the males have spiral black horns that grow along their entire lives and can reach a length of up to 70 centimeters in a straight line. Females are smaller, have no horns and their skin is light brown.

Speed, Behavior and Defense mechanisms.

They run at a speed of 90 km/h and they jump once in a while. Their sense of sight is remarkable though the other senses are also really good. They are naturally gregarious so they stay in big herds led by a dominant male or an old and experienced female. To live in big groups is their way for self defense since the individuals situated at the exterior limit of the herd are watching any potential danger in the surroundings.

Then, they protect the other members that are staying in the interior part of the group. To hang on in the open range is also their best way to be protected. When one of the sentinels feel that there is a close danger they start to jump to notice the other members of the group that something wrong happens and right after they warn the rest they start running fast to the opposite direction of the threat.

Matting season

Despite that you can observe males in heat almost all year round, the peak of the mating season in Argentina is during Fall and Springtime. The males rub their orbital glands in branches and bushes to notice to the females and other males that they are ready to work for their reproduction. The fights between males are not really dangerous, they are more a test about their strength and the strongest buck is the one that will keep the harem of females.

Hunting blackbuck with Argentina Big Hunting

Argentina Big Hunting manages blackbuck different hunting areas so our policy is to conduct the different hunts where hunting is best during our hunters’ visit.   We hunt at our own ranch in the bush of La Pampa or in the plains of Buenos Aires province either way.  Since we have access to the best hunting areas in Argentina our goal is to organize tailor made hunting expeditions suitable to the hunters’ needs and expectations.  They have a long season, it is open almost all year round. In some areas blackbuck hunting is permitted from March 1^st to November 30^th  of every year but in some others they can be shot throughout the year.

Although they are very abundant in Argentina, their trophy exportation requires a Cites permit because the population in India (where they are from) has decreased fast and it turned on the red lights for their preservation.

Main hunting methods for Blackbuck

Stalking

Stalking is the most difficult way to hunt them due that blackbuck herds always stay in open plains with short grass with some sentries watching all the area around them. Besides, they use some local birds like the Southern Lapwing that react under the first sign of danger screaming and flying around the occasional thread. This kind of hunt demands a big physical effort and a long range shot. Rifles with flat trajectory like a 243 Wing, 270 Win or even a 7 mm Rem Mag are ideal for this job. This hunting modality is easier in the bush of La Pampa because hunters have more concealment to make a good approach to a potential target but in one place or another the stalking includes long walks crouched or crawling to be able to reach a good position where the hunter can shoot from.

Still Hunting

Since stalking these animals represents a quite complicated task sometimes the hunters rather wait for them in some estrategic spots where they normally pass at shooting distance.

In cattle breeding areas with low fences those spots could be next to those pathways that blackbuck use to change from one lot to the next one.

In this way, hunters take advantage of a particular feature of this species: despite that they jump all the time when they run they don’t jump over the cattle fences, they cross underneath them. It is quite easy to find the places where they leave very clear tracks and a hole underneath the fence on their move over.

Besides, given that they hang around in big groups and walkways that we described are very narrow, they must cross one by one so they always delay to go over because they have to wait for their turn to do it and that is the exact moment when it is ideal to shoot them. To wait for them at waterholes is totally pointless because the moisture of the grass is enough for them, they spend many days without drinking water. When you hunt lying in wait the shooting distance is shorter and that’s why this modality is much easier for bow hunters.

For all what we explained here blackbuck represents one of the most challenging and pretty trophies that a hunter can shoot in Argentina.

                                                Dr. Patricio Geijo

                                           Argentina Big Hunting                                                         November 2020

Red stag history

The outstanding red stag trophies in our hunting operation is the result of a long process.

This story begins in 1909 when Pedro Luro, a very rich landowner from Argentina, introduces the first group of red stags in the province of La Pampa.

He is committed to replicate the best European hunts in Argentina and red deer is the most popular hunting species in those days.

Thus, he imports the best red deer blood line from the Carpathians, Hungary.
This ranch was fenced and it was abandoned after Luro passed away. The broken fences allows animals to spread out all over that region. Being a perfect habitat for this species stags thrive quickly.
For many years these magnificent animals roam around with no hunting pressure. At some point the local hunters find and hunt them.

The story of Argentina Big Hunting outstanding red stag trophies begins in 1909 when Pedro Luro, a rich landowner, introduced the first group of red stags in La Pampa province, Argentina.
He choose one of his big ranches in the center of Argentina to do it.

Big game hunting rules

The local authorities of La Pampa province start to regulate red stag hunting without the appropriate knowledge of game management.

Those regulations wrongly demand to the hunters to shoot just males with, at least, one crown on top of the antlers.

With that mistaken policy hunters start to shoot only beautiful stags and left the inferior ones to be in charge to breed.

It resultes in a decrease of the excellent quality of the first stags introduced in the past.
We quickly understand that mistake and when we start our hunting operation so we decide to fix it by ourselves.

Can not expect any action from the local wildlife department lack of the financial resources to solve it.

Our red deer management

Argentina Big Hunting starts to be a leader of outstanding red stag trophies.

We take the right way to upgrade the trophy quality introducing new outstanding genetics from different places of the world such as New Zealand and a few European countries.

The goal is to avoid the inbreeding and to enrich the quality of the game of both in La Pampa and Patagonia mountains.

We decide first to release high quality breeders in our ranches.

It is not a good solution because our breeders can’t compete in their fights with the wild stags so they continue in charge of breeding.

Therefore, we carry out the action of getting breeders loose and shoot defective stags at the same time.

These “management” stags don’t expect to stay with the hinds.

Finally, the key of our success of Argentina Big Hunting is to work very hard with the wild red deer females.

We decide to take the following actions:

• Build special facilities for it and we release pregnant hinds at the end of the roaring season.

• Capture them before the mating season and put them in breeding pits until they are pregnant.

• Use the best genetics of the world to be sure of a good outcome.

• Release the females back in the wild bush. They deliver their fawns without contact with human beings.

The idea is to insure that baby stags have the same behavior than any other free ranged individual.

Therefore, we shoot now the great grand kids of those first breeders living in the wild and the babies of those pregnant hinds born in the bush a few decades ago.

High quality of red stag trophies

As the result of all these years of active work in the improvement of our trophy quality we are now hunting incredible individuals in free range.

That’s why Argentina Big Hunting has outstanding red stag trophies.

It makes our hunters’ dreams come true and give us an international reputation of high class red stag trophies.

That recognition allows us being host of the most pretigious international hunting events in Argentina.
As nature lovers it is very rewarding to observe the contribution that we made to the wildlife and the environment when we behold those magnificent animals nowadays.

Dr. Patrick Geijo
Argentina Big Hunting