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Fifty million birds, and no bag limit
Córdoba holds the largest resident dove population on earth. The Macha roost alone is estimated at twenty million, and it is fifteen minutes from the lodge.
Córdoba · Argentina
Why the numbers here are not like anywhere else
Two things explain it, and neither is marketing. The eared dove does not migrate — it stays in Córdoba all year, so there is no close season and nothing to wait for. And it breeds five to six times a year, against once for the birds you know at home.
The second is the ground. Córdoba is one of South America’s bread baskets: sprawling farms and established irrigation give the bird food and water in the same place, year round. The result is a population that grows rather than holds, and farmers who are glad to see you.
What that means for a day in the field is birds that are fast and high. Volume is the headline, but the shooting is harder than the numbers suggest — these are not the slow flushes of a driven day.
- Dove population
- 50M+Estimated, and rising year on year
- The Macha roost
- 20MThe largest in Córdoba, 15 minutes away
- Ground
- 160,000Acres of exclusive fields, north of Córdoba
- Bag limit
- NoneNo season and no daily limit on doves
What you can shoot, and when
Four quarry, four different days
Doves are the constant. The rest have windows, and they do not all overlap — worth knowing before you pick your month.
Dove · all year
Eared dove, off the roost and along the flight lines. No season, no limit.
Pigeon · May to September
Spot-winged pigeon, decoyed. Fewer than the doves, and a harder bird. $250 a shoot.
Duck · May to July
Flighting the Paraná marshes, from Río Bravo Lodge in Santa Fe.
Perdiz · seasonal
Argentine partridge, in open country. Added to a package for $400.
A number, for scale
The single-day record has been broken here twice
It stands at 14,000 birds in a day, set by Toby Thomas in January 2018. Before him it was 13,000, and before that 12,112 in 2012 and 11,301 in 2010.
We put it here for scale, not as a target. Nobody needs to shoot fourteen thousand birds to have had a week, and most guests book 500 or 1,000 cartridges and go home perfectly happy. But it tells you what the ground is capable of, which is the only reason the number is worth printing.
Before the field
What Guns ask us
No. The birds here are fast and fly high, and a good share of our guests come for that rather than for the numbers. Volume means you get the chances; it does not mean you take them. Most Guns find the first morning humbling and the third one very good indeed.
Correct — Córdoba sets no season and no daily limit on doves. The bird is classed as an agricultural pest: local farmers lose a quarter to a third of their crops to it, which is why they welcome Guns onto the ground. In practice your day is bounded by your cartridge allowance, not by law.
Around 160,000 acres of exclusive fields north of Córdoba, held through long-standing agreements with the landowners, with access all year. The field leases are in your rate. It is also why the drive out in the morning is short: the ground is around the lodge, not two hours from it.
No — the gun room holds over a hundred guns for hire, and most guests use them rather than travel with their own. Hire is $95 a day and the shooting licence $65 a day, charged on top of the rate; cleaning and the field permits are included.
Open every month of the year
Pick a month and we’ll do the rest
Tell us roughly when and how many Guns. You’ll get dates, availability and a price.
Plan your trip