I usually take the guys from Cordoba, where they do wingshooting for a few days first and from there they take 4 more days for a big game hunt. But it was not the case this time. The guys took an overnight flight from Dallas to Bueno Aires (BA), where they stayed one day & night doing city tours where they discovered different “faces” about our varied and rich city.   

Saturday 7 am a private chart took Jay, Mike, Kyle and Andy to a small airport in BA where a private plane was waiting for them, all set up by Cici, our travel and leisure management at the office. It’s a 2 hours’ flight from BA to Santa Rosa, La Pampa. It’s not that far, but private planes are smaller than commercial ones, and for so, they flight a little slower. There is only one commercial flight from BA to La Pampa and the other way. So the coolest thing about a private flight is that you can fly at any time you want. In fact the guys were supposed to get back to BA in a 6 am commercial flight but on the first night at La Pampa lodge, when the guys realized we needed to wake up by 4:30 am they said there was no way they are waking up that early, if there was a possibility to set up a private flight again. 

It is 7 hours driving from BA to La Pampa Lodge, so since I knew the guys would not be hunting until the afternoon, I left BA by 9 am so I can join them on their first hunt, by 16hs.

I finally met Nico at the Lodge. I had a big coffee while Nico was telling me who the guys were hunting with, and who were the guides for each. The first call at the radio was Horace, Kyle’s guide. They were not far from the Lodge when Horace called us to let us know Kyle hunted his first trophy, a ram. I looked for my cameras and waited for Nico at his truck. 15 minutes later I met Kyle, took a few pictures and we had a short talk since the idea was to keep on hunting. Once we were back at the Lodge I got my luggage out from the truck and while I was getting the clothes out I heard the radio again, from the living room.

-Nico, do you read me?

-I do Dani, whats up?

-I’m close to the road that goes to “La Cañada”, Andy shot a nice Stag.

We both got into the truck again and went to meet the guys. It was really dark this time. Once there I introduced myself to Andy and started doing some footages. It was a very nice Stag, with very open horns. Nico and Dani calculated like about 330-340 pts big. 

Once back in the lodge I met the other part of the band: Jay & Mike. What a cool group this was. After a few minutes, we were having some drinks, music and an appetizer when Loli, our young waitress,replicas de relojes finally told us dinner was ready. We had a great classic beef, French fries and a great bottle of wine. A great dessert followed this and 45 minutes after Loli called us for dinner, we were back again at the fire pit. With some whiskeys, wine, vodka, and beers. Depending on who you take the picture too. 

On the following day, we woke up by 7. 7:30hs we had breakfast and we left the lodge by 8 am. We took 2 trucks. In the first one, it was me, Nico (driving), Jay in his right and Andy in the back with me. Outside, in the very back of the truck was Mike and Kyle seating in a special chair perfectly made to fit in from one side to the other of the cargo area of the pickup truck. Gonzalo and Franco were standing up behind them and Dani was driving the other truck.

We were in a ride in a search for some buffalos. I opened the right truck window and started doing some footage with half of a body outside of the truck, seating on the window (this is a very slow drive, so there is no danger at all). 30 minutes after we left the Lodge we saw our first group of Buffalos. I turn left to check the guys' faces and I could see Mike, he was very excited already. 10 minutes later we pull over like about 700 yards from this big group. We started walking, Gonzalo in the front, just behind him Mike with the rifle. I was the third one in the line and the rest of the guys stayed closer to the trucks. We hide behind a small tree and after the guys picked which they thought it was the biggest one, BUUM!!

The Buffalo did like a quick jump with the back legs, walked for a few yards and finally went down. Great shot from Mike. The other guys joined us and after shaking hands and congratulating Mike Jay took his rifle and followed Franco’s to his first trophy of the trip. I was, of course, behind the guys doing more images. We walked for about 7-8 minutes when the guys finally hide behind some bushes, they set up the stick and BUUM!! Another great shoot. But this time the Buffalo went down and after a few seconds he got up again and started walking away from us. We accelerated the pace so as not to lose sight of him and he suddenly stopped walking. He was depth wounded but Franco advised us to take a second shot anyway. BUUM! Now it was down forever. The rest of the guys joined us and after a bunch of pictures from both trophies (not only me, we used almost everybody’s phones) we went back to the trucks so we could go after Kyle’s Buffalo. He told us they saw him the day before on the other side of the hill, with a different herd. So we took the trucks and 15 minutes later we were surrounded about this big group. We all got out from the truck. Horace and Kyle walked just a few yards from the truck and, with no much cover at all, Kyle set his rifle on the stick and…BUUM! We all realized the Buffalo was very badly hurt, he was going down. But the guys didn’t want to wait and see what happens so Kyle took a quick second shot giving an end to the story. The guys asked Andy if he wanted to go and look for another Buffalo herd. I think he was still very excited with his Red Stag trophy from the day before because he said he preferred to wait and see what happens after lunch (his stag was the biggest stag of the group).

We keep on hunting until lunchtime, when we went back to the lodge. We had a great barbecue with wine and once lunch was over, we all went to our rooms for a small nap. 2 hours later, by 16:30 pm we all joined back at the living room for the afternoon hunt. We did it the same way the whole trip: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the lodge. We had a blast! And in the end, the guys shot total: 6 Red Stags, 3 Fallow Deer, a Muflon, a Goat,replicas relojes 2 Blackbucks, 3 Water Buffalos and 1 Axis Deer!!! With this numbers the guys are, with another group from 2 years ago, the group that shot the most in 20 years at La Pampa Lodge!

Jota

Host & Media

Pointer Outfitters.