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mxsailor803 · June 1, 2013, 04:37 AM

I got to do one of those hunts a few years ago. My old squadron did a deployment in Punta Del Este, Uruguay and we ended up meeting a older gentleman and his wife at a little restraunt while they were on vacation. The old man heard some of us swapping hunting stories and we struck up a conversation. 2.5 hours later the old man invited all of us to go dove hunting on his property. We told him we didn't bring any of our gear. His exact words were "just buy ammo, we have plenty of gear". Six of us loaded up into a van on a Friday night and got there just in time to go for the morning hunt. This old man had 18 shotguns ready for us and 6 young boys to be our escorts. The boys were there to help reload and man did they. By 11 none of us had any ammo let, we all brought at least 2 cases. After we got done for the morning hunt, the old man and his wife asked if we would stay for lunch. Now we had to earn our keep, we ended up cleaning about 40-50 birds to eat. Only 3 of us had ever cleaned doves so it wasn't that big of a deal. We were looking at the field while we cleaning lunch and we see all these villager boys out in the field with baskets. Apparently they would shoot the birds and donated them to the locals. After lunch we asked the couple what did we owe them? They wanted nothing. And we tried to give them money, command hats, and even a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Nothing at all!!! We asked is there anything we can send them from the states and the old boy and boys perked up and said "deer jerky" lol. Of course we said we could do that. When we got back, we all ended up making about 25lbs of deer jerky each to send them lol. Sure enough we sent it to them and about 3 weeks later we got a nice thank you letter from the couple. Little did they know, we couldn't thank them enough for their hospitality.

June 1, 2013, 04:37 AM	#12
mxsailor803 Senior Member Join Date: February 8, 2010 Location: SC Posts: 1,344	I got to do one of those hunts a few years ago. My old squadron did a deployment in Punta Del Este, Uruguay and we ended up meeting a older gentleman and his wife at a little restraunt while they were on vacation. The old man heard some of us swapping hunting stories and we struck up a conversation. 2.5 hours later the old man invited all of us to go dove hunting on his property. We told him we didn't bring any of our gear. His exact words were "just buy ammo, we have plenty of gear". Six of us loaded up into a van on a Friday night and got there just in time to go for the morning hunt. This old man had 18 shotguns ready for us and 6 young boys to be our escorts. The boys were there to help reload and man did they. By 11 none of us had any ammo let, we all brought at least 2 cases. After we got done for the morning hunt, the old man and his wife asked if we would stay for lunch. Now we had to earn our keep, we ended up cleaning about 40-50 birds to eat. Only 3 of us had ever cleaned doves so it wasn't that big of a deal. We were looking at the field while we cleaning lunch and we see all these villager boys out in the field with baskets. Apparently they would shoot the birds and donated them to the locals. After lunch we asked the couple what did we owe them? They wanted nothing. And we tried to give them money, command hats, and even a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Nothing at all!!! We asked is there anything we can send them from the states and the old boy and boys perked up and said "deer jerky" lol. Of course we said we could do that. When we got back, we all ended up making about 25lbs of deer jerky each to send them lol. Sure enough we sent it to them and about 3 weeks later we got a nice thank you letter from the couple. Little did they know, we couldn't thank them enough for their hospitality.