One trigger pull required one shell to be put back into the gun, two pulls two shells and so on. I almost never pulled the trigger three times unless I thought I had a chance at a triple (three birds with three shots all in the same gun mount). I actually had three triples this morning and was most pleased with myself. More often than not I was dropping one bird at a time with one or two shots. I would be remiss if I did not own up to the fact that on numerous occasions (more than I care to admit) no birds fell from the sky no matter how many times I pulled the trigger. By the end of the morning, I had spent 340 shells and dropped 186 birds.
I should also mention that we were asked to shoot parakeets as well as doves. It seems the parakeets do more damage than the doves do. Both doves and parakeets eat the seed and grain at the start and end of a planting cycle. The parakeets also have a nasty habit of pulling up the young shoots just after the grain sprouts to get at the seed underneath. They can ruin a crop in just a matter of days if allowed to go unchecked. The little rascals are also darned hard to hit.
The shooting was called about 10:30 and we headed back to the estancia for lunch. Lunch was an absolute delight. We had axis deer tenderloins grilled to a perfect medium-rare. More of the malbec from last night was also on the table and it complimented the venison even better than the beef, if that is possible. I limited myself to a glass and a half as we would head back to the dove fields in two short hours. For dessert there was tiramisu with a hint of mint. All in all the meal was better than the likes of me should hope for and I enjoyed every bite.
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- 1/2 of our mornings haul. I should also say that the birds not used by the camp and staff go to the local communities and schools.
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- From left to right: yours truly, brother Doug, nephew Lee, John and Bob.
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- The view from inside the papyrus blind.
