DOVE SHOOTING IN SOUTH AMERICA.
I have never done it but I am not sure I get Dove Hunting South
American style. I fail to see the appeal. To me it just seems to be clay
shooting with feathers on it. There is no particular struggle to get under the
birds. You hand over your money, get driven to the ground, have your gun loaded
for you, your lunch cooked for you, your arse wiped for you (ok, maybe not the
last one) and a seemingly endless stream of doves pours over. From what I understand
you struggle not to get through 1000 cartridges a day. Where’s the challenge? I
suppose the challenge is like any pigeon/dove shooting - the shear variety of
targets; the speed, the angles, and maintaining consistent performance under
the sustained pressure of fatigue. Is it any different to buying a day’s
pheasant shooting in the UK something I have done myself? I paid my money, got
driven to the ground and shot reared pheasants driven over me, had my lunch
cooked for me. I suppose not – so where does my uneasiness come from?
It may be that the shear gluttony of
numbers would for me dull the appetite. When shooting reared driven pheasants
or partridges I do not want to see the sky full of birds and to pick the best
one. I want the anticipation of a bird perhaps coming my way; the prospect of
rotating through the numbers so that on one drive during the day I might be in
the bung hole. That is the excitement – the anticipation. I don’t want to shoot
every bird I see, but I do want to kill cleanly every bird I shoot at and for
them to be quality birds. This is one reason I really enjoy taking a 16b
hammergun (aside from the fact that the gun it the best handling gun I have, a
lovely calibre and a restoration project of mine). The invitations to shoot
driven game are few and far between and cherished when they arrive. It’s not
about pulling the trigger it is about the spiritual connection with the
landscape, the people, and the history of the environment and the endeavour in
which you are immersed. It flows around you and if you connect properly the
physical act of shooting seems to flow with it. The connection is deep rooted
and almost inexplicable to those who have never done it.
I have never been part of a team that
shot over 400 hundred reared birds in a day I have no desire to change that.
The largest bag I have ever shot of Woodpigeons is 310 but it was all my own
work and hugely satisfying for it. (Worth missing dinner with my wife’s friends
and the fearful bollocking that resulted!)
To be honest clay shooting bores me and
I think high volume dove shooting would too. It may appear to have all the
elements – but somehow it lacks soul.
