More on Wingshooting in Argentina  by Pat Lieske "On this trip, I quit shooting after 15 or 20 ducks and spent the rest of the morning watching and coaching the other members of the party." In last month's column, I described a dream shooting trip to Argentina and told you about the uncountable numbers of doves available to the visiting wingshooter. But doves are only part of the shooting equation in Argentina. There are also ducks and perdiz. A shooter has many chances to practice, improve and score. The morning after our first day's dove shoot brought rough weather. Luis decided that we should all sleep in and try the ducks later in the morning when things calmed down. So at 4 a.m. we all returned to our rooms. The weather eased at about 8 a.m., and we loaded up the boat for the 50-minute ride to the marsh. The length of the boat ride varies from hunt to hunt, as Luis is constantly searching for the ducks. As we got closer to where we would set up for the morning, it was easy to see that the duck population was steadily growing. Rosy bills, teal and whistlers were everywhere. At first I just sat in amazement as I watched the ducks fly. This was my first duck hunt in Argentina and I was not prepared for what I saw. In the U.S., duck hunting can be an incredible amount of work for the opportunity to harvest the small bag limits that we are allowed. But it does present some of the best and most challenging wingshooting available. On this trip, I quit shooting after 15 or 20 ducks and spent the rest of the morning watching and coaching the other members of the party. Just being a part of their excitement was enough for me. After a couple of hours we boarded the boat and headed back to Patria Chica. On the way back, we saw cows and horses grazing almost at random on every dry piece of ground. Luis told us that the marsh we were hunting had been a farm for many years. The farmer had built dikes around the entire circumference in an attempt to keep the water out during the rainy season. The floods of the last two years could not be stopped and the farmer had finally given up. There were also huts and lean-tos all along the river where the fishermen lived year-round. Many of these structures were as simple as a couple of posts and a plastic tarp. After lunch we returned to the dove field for another incredible afternoon of shooting -- our party averaged 30 boxes of shells per person in the dove field each day. The next morning came early and we departed in the dark for the duck hunt. It was cool -- about 40 degrees F -- and our trip was longer and took us much deeper into the marsh. Still, we arrived in the marsh before sunrise. As the sun began to rise, so did the ducks. They arrived in numbers that, at times, almost blocked out the sun. I frequently had to put my gun down, stand up and look around in amazement at all of the ducks. Luis provides you with the opportunity to shoot as many ducks as you desire. Or, as I did, shoot a few ducks and then just look around for a while and take pictures. With so many ducks you can be selective. I tried to remember shots that had given me problems in the past and then wait until those shots presented themselves. It was great practice. And then there were the perdiz, a member of the partridge family that resembles a large quail. But while quail tend to covey up, perdiz usually come as singles. The other difference is that when a covey of quail flushes, you can hunt the singles; when a perdiz flushes and is missed, it is likely to fly right out of the hunting area. The perdiz we hunted seemed to congregate in fields with very little cover, and some fields were actual wide-open cow pastures. Even so, only once did I walk up on a point and see the bird before it flushed, and it is a rare occasion, at that, to have one of these birds hold tight enough to be flushed. We hunted in groups of two, plus a guide and pointing dogs. One of the dogs, Cindy, a little English pointer, was just amazing. If she was working a bird and the hunters were not paying attention or keeping up, she would lay down on her stomach and turn around and look at them as if to say, "hurry up." Then, when the hunters began to approach her, she would go back to the job of finding the bird. We were able to bag 10 to 15 birds per hunter on each hunt. A trip to Argentina is one I would recommend to any wingshooter. It is a great adventure in a place that you can really work on your wingshooting technique on live game. To find out more about shooting in South America, contact Pat Lieske at 810-664-4307 or e-mail PLieske@aol.com. Copyright © 1999 Pat Lieske. All rights reserved.