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Steve Merlo: Traveling troubles worth it for bird hunting

by STEVE MERLO, contributing columnist | Saturday, Aug 16 2008 8:03 PM

Last Updated: Monday, Aug 18 2008 2:44 PM

Last of a three-part series on the finest duck, pigeon and dove shooting in the world.

Growing up, I remember seeing an old advertisement that claimed, "Getting there is half the fun." Getting to Paco Riestra's Argentine hunting estancia northwest of Cordoba will never rate high on anyone's list of fun things to do unless one really, really wanted to go there. But our group of seven serious hunters really, really did, specifically to enjoy the world-class dove, duck and wild pigeon shooting we eventually found there. That being the case, we were more than willing to suffer layovers, long flights and uncomfortably bumpy automobile rides, sometimes for hours at a time.

Now I'm not trying to sound negative about our eight-day adventure (it was anything but that), but it's only fair to let potential travelers know what's in store for the trip. Once there, however, all the travel trials and tribulations will soon be forgotten, especially when a hunter's front shotgun bead lines up on that first of many hundreds or even thousands of feathered targets.

We flew on American Airlines for the majority of our flights, and believe it or not, I actually found the airline to be the best I've used in a long time. The ticketing lines were reasonably short, the smiling people behind the counters super nice and attentive and all were willing to go the extra mile each time we needed an added favor. Our luggage arrived when and where it was supposed to go and I don't remember any flight being more than several minutes late, if that. I will definitely use their services again.

Our trip began with a 4 a.m. drive to LAX for a 9 a.m. flight to Dallas and an immediate eight-hour layover. Fortunately, we turned the rest of the day into a great afternoon, visiting Bass Pro Shops for inexpensive waders and a fun trip to Hooters for some chicken wings and adult beverages. By 7 p.m. we had returned to the airport, checked in and boarded our plane for our eleven-hour flight to Santiago, Chile.

This meant sleeping on board for most of the time, and while the boring flight was uneventful, economy airline seats are not the most comfortable for that purpose. Next time, I would seriously consider going first class, but then, a single 6-8 hour sleeping pill can overcome an awful lot of higher prices, believe me.

From Santiago, we flew to Cordoba, Argentina, where our interpreter Romero and several drivers met us and took us under their wing. The trip to the ranch took a little more than three hours in nice, air-conditioned Fiat vans, but almost half of the trip was on reasonably maintained dirt roads. We did stop several times for espresso coffee breaks and got to see a good deal of the Argentine countryside, which made the trip more than bearable and actually quite enjoyable.

Arriving at Paco Riestra's Hunting Estancia around sundown, we found the staff to be an excellent example of what I'd like any business I owned to be. The employees, Hugo the manager, Ramon the scout, Patricia the cook, and the birdboys Jose, Daniel, Cristobal, Tomas, Patero and Ricardo did everything in their power to make our visit the exceptional one it was.

We did not take our own guns with us because the four-day gun rental was only slightly more than the $100 fee charged by the government to bring one into the country. The decision proved to be the right one, with an armory of new and extremely reliable Beretta 391A 20-gauge shotguns at our disposal, and I would recommend anyone traveling there to do the same. Some packages, like ours, included gun rental as well as the first 1,500 shells, but plenty of additional shells are always available at a nominal fee. If doves are the targeted species, one can easily spend $1,000 or more in shells additional to the first 1,500.

Some indispensable things to take with you are insect repellent, sunscreen, a warm coat and windbreaker, passport, camera, hat, shell bag, necessary medicines, shooting and/or sunglasses, hunting boots and silk shirts to keep one's shoulder from bruising from the continual battering of shotgun recoil. A pair of lightweight gloves prevents hands from getting burned on the forearm of the gun from the intense barrel heat. They also halt any chaffing on one's thumbs when continually stuffing ammunition into the relatively stiff magazine for hours at a time.

Argentina is basically a third world nation, and the people we encountered outside the major cities are very poor. With the country's peso worth only 30 cents U.S. or so, every penny the estancia's support force earns goes to support their livelihoods and families. The work the ranch staff provided would have cost us a fortune anywhere else in the world, so we were more than willing to tip a little higher than the suggested amount for their efforts. Most tips ran about $40 per day per individual bird boy, and they were incredible, doing everything they could to make certain we were comfortable, well-supplied with ammo and had a great time. They succeeded.

Our trip home proved better than the one down. We spent a few hours exploring Buenos Aires, spending the night sleeping semi-comfortably across vacant seats on an almost empty red-eye to Chicago. From O'Hare, we flew on to LAX and drove home, arriving at noon, almost eight days after our trip began.