Mi Favorito:
The truth about South American perdiz hunting is not what it would seem.
Like many of our readers, I have been fortunate to be a life-long wing shooter. As you know, we come in all forms. Some are die hard dove hunters and others are nut-job duck hunters. Unfortunately, the demise of the bob white quail has all but eliminated true wild bird hunting. While I’m fond of the aforementioned species, I’ve been fortunate to have years of access to wild quail. I’ve trained and worked dogs most of my adult life, so the pageantry of old school quail hunting has long had it’s hooks in me. Even so, I’ve long held that true wild bird quail hunting is about as good as it gets. Then… I met the lowly perdiz.
Prepared to be Humbled:
When we first set up our cattle and row crop operations at the Ranch, I often bumped perdiz in our fields, and was singularly impressed by their strong, fast flight characteristics. The ducks and dove on the Ranch were as expected and very familiar with our US experience, sans the huge volumes, but, I was pretty stoked to give this perdiz thing a try.
Needless to say, my first time out was an absolute embarrassment and my guys on the Ranch thought me a rookie. Once I learned the need for a quick gun mount and appropriate timing, the birds began to fall. Our string of brittany’s and setters completed the necessary orchestration and we haven’t looked back since. Needless to say, while our duck, pigeon and dove are truly world class, I have to admit that perdiz is “mi favorito” for sure.
Ducks and more Ducks:
Fully 90% of our prospective client inquiries are about duck hunting. Pigeon always is a close second and virtually everyone is up for our non-stop dove hunting; however, very few show much interest in perdiz hunting. At boking, I have to beg clients to at least give it a try, and 100% thank me after the fact. For years, I’ve remained miffed why so many accomplished wing shooters would turn up their nose to what is arguably the most challenging wing shooting one can ever pursue. My first thought was that maybe it was too challenging? Time after time and had clients say they had hunted perdiz before and didn’t care for it. The more I asked questions, the more I came to learn of a shocking and disappointing truth.
The Fake Perdiz:
From our inception, we have had 100% wild species that we hunt at the Ranch. While we have release bob white quail outfitting in the states, I assumed that all outfitters in South America also hunted 100% wild species.
Well, I recently learned I was wrong.
In speaking with prospective clients that hat hunted perdiz, I asked what about hunting them wasn’t appealing. To my surprise, they indicated that they didn’t feel the perdiz was a challenge. Wow! I’m not saying I’m a world class shot, but in my 15 years of hunting wild perdiz, there is no possible way for it NOT to be anything but challenging.
This piqued my interest and I began to do my own investigative work. Enter the Crested Tinamou. Our typical perdiz is in the tinamou family and he has a much larger, wild cousin named the crested tinamou. In Uruguay, the crested perdiz is not a legal game species and we very rarely see them while hunting.
What was a shocker to eventually learn, was that there are many domestic breeders of the crested perdiz in both Uruguay and Argentina.
Some further sleuthing revealed that many Uruguayan and Argentinian outfitters lack sufficient, sustainable hunting grounds for perdiz, and therefore use these “put out” perdiz. Yikes! No wonder their clients thought the hunting was a joke! From everything I’ve since heard, these release perdiz are not good flyers and the hunting leaves a lot to be desired.
Our primary disappointment with other outfitters is that this big little secret is not disclosed to their clients.
100% Wild, Free Range, 100% of the Time:
At Closaway Outfitters – San Jose Lodge, all of our game species exist how and where God intended. We have never and will never supplement any of our species with domestic bred animals. We work extremely hard to provide necessary habitat and limited hunting to ensure that we have sustainable populations that provide generous and predictable harvests for our clients. It is not uncommon for our clients to push 40+ wild perdiz in an afternoon hunt.
Full Transparency:
So many South American outfitters run “industrial operations” to maximize their net income and transparency is not very common. Whether it be release perdiz, or charging you for absolutely every thing they can, native outfitters bad practices are the biggest driver of our new clients.
At San Jose, we are the only all inclusive outfitter, to where all costs are known before you book. Time after time, our clients comment that they’ve never seen a bespoke operation that exudes an intimate experience at such an affordable investment.
Please read our reviews and view our social outlets at Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, where you can see how hard we work for our clients.
We would be honored for you to join the ranks of our 100% client satisfaction! See you on the wild perdiz field!
