The author and Ray Cato
Once again I am having the opportunity to hunt
in Uruguay with JP Cacerias (jpdacosta@netgate.com.uy),
and this afternoon my friend Ray Cato and I hunted perdiz (Nothura maculosa).
We had a most enjoyable afternoon, and besides
watching some excellent dog work, we also got some birds and sent many more off
with “two-gun” salutes.
The perdiz is the princess of the upland birds,
and they occur in very high numbers in Uruguay, even this late in the hunting season,
while the queen (at least in South America) is the much larger, but very
similar in appearance, Martineta or Perdigão (Rhynchotus rufescens), but the later bird is protect in Uruguay and
unhappily cannot be hunted.
Today I used a Stoeger/Boito/ERA 28-gauge
side-by-side, and shot Spanish made ¾ ounces 7 ½ shells to shoot a 10 bird
limit on perdiz, and for an inexpensive Brazilian made shotgun, it performed
amazingly well. All birds that I hit fell hard, and the many that I missed were
entirely my fault.
Hunting perdiz with a side-by-side 28 gauge
shotgun is almost a soul searching experience, as this is what my father used
to do. I probably will never come close to his 82% hit ratio, but just being
able to enjoy the same bird with what is my opinion the best balanced gauge for
upland hunting is a great reward.
By the way, JP Cacerias offers some of the
greatest and most affordable upland bird hunting anywhere in the world, even if
you include the airfare to come down to Uruguay. This trip was a last minute arrangement and I
will only be here for three days, but the afternoon was so pleasant that it was
worth coming.
The day could not have been prettier, and tomorrow
morning we will go after doves and we will let you know how we did.
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