It was funny. Our friends have hunted with us many times and been sucked in the mud before. But this time was different, was funny and unbelievable. We had a rain the night before and we knew the grave roads would be muddy. We left the lodge in our Mercedes mini bus and one 4x4 Toyota truck and we thought, if Rolando gets stuck in the mud we will pull him over. We had drove the main road and when we have arrived to the grave road, we realize that it was difficult but not impossible. Like Nike slogan, impossible is nothing!!. We have driven about a mile and I have told my friend Derek: “I am afraid that Rolando is not going to be able to make it happen, it should be Martin the driver”. Five minutes later, Roland was stuck and everybody was laughing. 

The true story is that the roads were in a bad situation for driving the minibus, so we had taken our friends in our 4x4 wheels from there to the fields, and 15 minutes later we were ready to shoot. What we had never expect was to have Roland stuck again the following day. That was an amazing surprise. The rain was not that bad the day before, and was water and mud only in few areas of the road. But if you drive to slowly in a muddy area, you get chances to get stuck again and that had happened. We wanted to let you know about this funny story, because it is a record! But it was fun to live it. We should be fair with our friend and also say that it was 3 big trucks stuck and 2 more vehicles close by to where we have been hunting.

Our British friends enjoyed a lot the journey to the field, but they couldn’t belive the Scottich weather we had lived for 2 days in early September. Foggy, misty rain, and warm weather, with a heavy cloudy sky. We thought we could listen to the Celta music any time. Thanks God, the last 2 hunting days were sunny and great weather; and they had the chance to get some red color in their faces. 

Besides the weather, it was an excellent trip to our friends, and we were able to present the HIGH QUALITY BIRDS that they were expecting to shoot. Colin had said: “In fifteen years coming to Cordoba, this were the best dove presentation ever; specially the last afternoon”. We have felt so glad about it; glad about been able to given our friends the birds they were expecting.

We have use some over and under Beretta shotguns in 20 and 12 gauge and we have also use some semis Benelli. We had some RD shells and ammunition was 7, 7 and a half and 8; depending on the cases.

As I have read once in The Gentelmans Journal many people who shoot would probably consider themselves a good shot, this is just the nature of the sport, and when you miss an easy bird there will always be some sort of excuse that you will no doubt share after the drive ends. This was not the question with our friends.

The question is what really makes a good shot? We believe that a good shot has the ability to shoot high birds over and over again. A high bird is one that is considered over 45-60 yards above you. It is a well-known fact; once the bird is over 45 yards away your shot to hit average will significantly decrease.

There is mainly two ways of shooting. Mount your gun after you have selected your target, and swing the shotgun starting behind the bird, and then swinging though the bird, with with both eyes open. If you start in front, and try to keep the same distance, then you will more than likely miss the bird with the first barrel and will have no chance with the second. Another key area where people go wrong is mounting the gun too soon, this will result in you not following through enough, due to you traveling the same speed as the bird. 

We recommend you will request your guide to check once in a while how is your swing and how you are shooting, some little tips will be very helpful to improve your shooting. Remember that our guides shoot very often in the field and have been lucky to shoot and exchange experience with professionals shooters and coach from US and UK.

We will continue talking about shooting tips in one of our next reports. Winter is coming to an end and we all hope you join us in this next spring or summer. Remember that at summer time cast and blast could be a great option.

Have a great hunting season in UK and US. 

Thanks to keep in the loop

Pablo Aguilo

Pointer Wingshooting