Now this was some serious dove shooting

[BigD_in_FL]

Quite a pile of empties



Seems 20, with a smattering of 28's is the ideal choice for dove in Argentina

Of course, when the birds are this thick,



It isn't hard to see how they shot so much

[BigJimP]

With that kind of mayhem....you'd have to wear gloves, so you don't burn your hand on the barrel...

Personally, I'd be mentally worn out as soon as I filled an empty 55 gal drum with empty hulls .../ let alone a dump truck....or two or three....

[BigD_in_FL]

I saw an ad for Benelli in one of the gun mags. Seems a gent from Ireland had a new record for one day shooting volume - using 12 gauge. He shoot almost 11,000 rounds in one day with a kill rate of about 7800 -
give or take. It seems he had 5 Benellis and 4 folks loading and he just continuously pulled the trigger

That HAD to leave a mark.............

[BigJimP]

It would leave a mark in his wallet too ..../ ammo is pretty expensive on those dove hunts down there...

some of my buddies are going down there again in the Fall.../ they've been there 2 or 3 times...( and yes, they had Benelli's furnished to shoot too )...but I don't see the attraction ( and it takes forever to get there -- and I don't like flying that much !! )...

[pathdoc]

The ideal hunt for the newbie hunter. Almost no way to miss. Wow.

Could be interesting to see what a 4-bore punt gun would do to that flock...

[Dreaming100Straight]

If it is anything like that, I just don't see much sport in it.

[BigD_in_FL]

It is done for pest control in Argentina - the 10,000,000 dove there eat more than 30% of the crops - instead of using poison, they get hunters/shooters who pay - that helps offset some of the losses.

This is not dove "hunting", this is dove "shooting" - there is a difference

[CurlyQ.Howard]

This brought to mind gangster Joey "The Doves" Aiuppa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Aiuppa
In a move reminiscent of Al Capone's infamous conviction for tax evasion, Aiuppa was convicted in 1966 for the unlawful possession and transportation of mourning doves across state lines. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 it is illegal to possess more than 24 doves per person outside of hunting season; however, in September 1962, as part of Robert Kennedy's crackdown on the Chicago Outfit, FBI agents in Kansas searching Aiuppa's car discovered 563 frozen doves. Following a series of appeals, Aiuppa was eventually sentenced in August 1966, and received a 3-month jail sentence and a $1000 fine.

[csmsss]

This is not dove "hunting", this is dove "shooting" - there is a difference

I'd agree. This is a cull, not a hunt. And while I understand the necessity, I don't think I'd want to be a part of it. When it becomes nearly impossible to miss, the importance of skill is diminished to the point of irrelevance.

Not that I wouldn't love to see thicker herds of doves in our part of the world (I dearly would - I haven't been on a truly successful dove hunt in years - last time I think as a group we saw a dozen), but something like this is work, not fun.

[BigD_in_FL]

Even as thick as they are, no one shoots 100%; most are still only 50-65%. What my friends who have gone several times like to do is practice certain shots - i.e., for a while they will only take L2R shots, then R2L, then going away, incoming, etc. Many like to make it to the 1000 shots in a day club

In any event, the birds are given to local villages and churches for distribution, so nothing is wasted

[Sphawley]

Almost looks like no fun! I like the challenge of hunting them!

[mxsailor803]

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.

[CajunBass]

That looks about like what it took for me to hit my first dove.

[publius]

Where some people see a thick group of birds as requiring no skill, I see a training opportunity. Pick out that single bird and shoot him. A good number of us(me included) get too excited when there is a big flock of anything and miss b/c we shoot at the flock, not the bird. I imagine all that plastic is worth a little bit of money!