harves

Mossy, You are correct on the Michigan Morning Dove shooting, the season is closed. Michigan did have a test hunt zone in the Southern Part of the state but the anti hunters were successful in closing that part of the state also. It is interesting that they won't allow the hunting of morning doves in Michigan which allows the use of bait piles for deer hunting.

Yes I did mean paraguay, which has excellent pigeon shooting but good shooting can certainly be had in Argentina, depending on the reqion that you're in. On the dove shooting, they are smaller birds, like our Mourning Doves here in the States and can be shot in a number of ways. The main shooting is pass shooting as the birds move from the roost to the fields and also they can be shot in the fields. With the large number of birds the outfitters move you between locations in the morning and afternoon shoots to give a variety of bird presentations. Many who've gone to Argentina say they don't want to shoot more than 500 shells per day and then the birds start flying and suddently their shell count is at 1000 + for the day. It is very hard to hold back until you've shot a few thousand shells. The pigeons are hunted more in your style, with field shooting, hides and decoys used, but they are also present for pass shooting as they fly with the doves. So, with a good bird boy it is possible to pick the pigeons out when they fly with the doves, as they are much larger than the doves and shoot them. The outfitter puts a limit of 200 birds ( pigeons ) per shooter per day on the pigeons as the numbers are smaller and they do not reproduce at the rate that the doves do. With the doves they are millions of them and they consume 25% of the crop, so the land owners want them shot. The distance from the States to Argentina is great also, but now is the time to experience the best wingshooting in the world so, if you're up for it you may want to consider going.

Returned from Argentina / Cordoba region, shot 589 pigeons. The main shooting was high volume doves, 1392 doves. So total for 3 days bag, pigeons + doves = 1981 birds. I do not post this to lessen the bag limits that you lads shoot in the U.K. but only to show you the volume of birds to be had. The pigeon shooting is better in Paragay and also in so other parts of Argentina, but still very good in the area that I was. The numbers of birds down there is simply hard to believe. Now my Pigeon shooting here in the U.S. for the year is 0. I've not found fields or farms that have birds. On the dove front, last year, the season is Sept 1 - 30th we took 4 limits each time we hunted which is 15 birds each. On the opening day we had 5 people all of who filled limits. I hope to come to the U.K. one day to experience your excellent pigeon shooting and I have the Archie Coats VHS on Pigeon Shooting in the U.K. so I have an idea of what the experience is like. Do you know Chris Batha? He has a show on the T.V. here title "Wingshooting the World" and one of the shows was on Pigeon Shooting in Paragay. He goes to very expensive places but the program is very good with high production values. One show was on shooting driven pheasant in Scotland, some very tall birds were being taken.

Plinker, I live in the States & purchase a lot of my choke tubes on e bay. The seller should have no problems sending to you in the UK other than adding more postage. FYI - e bay has it's own hunting section & you can search by type of choke tube desired, briley or under gun name, beretta.

roe doe, Who can I purchase the Jim Albone DVD's from?

I need some recommendations on pigeon shooting dvd's. I live in the U.S. & would like to purchase a few dvd's showing your english pigeon shooting. I do have the Archie Coats video but, I'm wondering if there are others that members on this board would recommend.