High Volume Dove & Pigeon
El Monte is a premier pigeon and high-volume dove shooting lodge in San Luis Province, in South Central Argentina.
The pigeon shooting at El Monte is what everybody comes for, however the high- volume dove shooting is fantastic as well. The pigeon shoots are over harvested peanut fields and grain fields of sorghum and milo. The field staff / bird boys build new blinds every day along the edges of the fields and tree lines The pigeons are attracted with motorized decoy sets and make for very challenging shoots. The pigeons are extremely wary and are would be compared to shooting ducks on dry land. The doves are shot over grain fields or in flyways between fields and roosts. There is no limit on the doves and most shooters average 40 boxes of shells per day. Shoots at El Monte are split 50/50 pigeons and doves. They shoot full days for each species to keep the drive times between the fields to a minimum. If you book four days of shooting you will shoot pigeons two days and doves two days. The drives are 20 – 45 minutes from the lodge. Most days the group will eat lunch in the field, an asado, where they make everything from scratch. While the group is shooting, the cooks and staff assemble the lunch tent, table and cots in the shade for naps after lunch.
The pigeon shooting is best between late April and mid-June. The peanut harvest can vary slightly from year to year but the most reliable months are April – June. The fields are scouted daily and they always have a backup plan. The doves are prolific from April through August. Once the pigeon season is over a lot of people come to El Monte just to shoot doves.
The lodge was built by the English railroad and has a great atmosphere as a base for the trip. There are six bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. If the group is more than 6-8 shooters there is another house nearby (a 2 minute drive) that we can put any additional shooters in. It is equally as nice and all meals / activities will be at the main lodge with the rest of the group.
Your trip starts with an easy overnight flight from the US to Buenos Aires. All flights depart between 7:30 and 11 pm. There are daily flights from Houston, Dallas, Miami, New York and Atlanta. Once you clear customs at Ezeiza Airport our representative will meet you and take you across town by private transfer to Aeroparque Airport for the 1 hour flight to Cordoba. She will be with you while you check in and walk the group up to security where she will see you off. Once you land in Cordoba, the outfitter will drive the group 2 – 2.5 hours (depending on traffic) to the lodge. If you prefer to charter it’s 90 minutes and you can depart from Ezeiza airport. In that case the charter company will meet you outside of customs and drive you 10 minutes to the private hangars. If the group wants to arrive early and spend a night in Buenos Aires, we can easily facilitate that, book tours and dinner reservations.
We have a ticket agent in Buenos Aires that we use to purchase the internal flights. They issue e-tickets and we will add the cost to each shooters final invoice 2-3 months before departure. Each shooter will receive a copy of their e-ticket to carry with them. Our representative will print out the boarding passes for everybody before they arrive. If you charter, we will add the cost to each shooters invoice. The charter price varies by what aircraft is chosen.
