EP 383. Why the La Paz Argentina Combo

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Duck Season Somewhere from Argentina on the banks of the Parana River at the world-class duck-dove combo La Pod, if I don’t say so myself. But, hey, who cares what I say, let’s hear what some folks that are down here have to say about it, starting with Stephen Giggenheimer from Texas. How the heck are you, man?

Stephen: I’m great, Ramsey. How are you?

Ramsey Russell: You came up to me at Dallas Safari Club. You kind of asked some questions, but you were more or less like, when we going? When are you gonna be there? We’re ready to go.

Stephen: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: That’s what you say it. Gotta rate up, Mike. Good to say. There you go. Stephen: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me, how’d you find get duck?

Stephen: Man, It was the dog days of summer, and I heard the podcast, and I started listening, and I got hooked.

Ramsey Russell: Big Honker Podcast.

Stephen: Originally.

Ramsey Russell: I know you’re listening to them, too.

Stephen: That’s correct. And then I found you, and I started listening, and I just got hooked full sinker. And I’ve always wanted to go to Argentina. I’ve been going to the Dallas Safari Club show basically since I was born. So I’ve seen the booths, I’ve seen the outfitters and I said I wanted to go. And when I found you that you do ducks, completely different ducks than back home. plus the birds, I was just sold, and it’s been absolutely incredible.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of Big Honker, can we talk about him this week? How fun would it be to have Jeff and Andy down here?

Stephen: Oh, that’d be a hoot.

Ramsey Russell: I think it would be.

Stephen: Those guys are great.

Ramsey Russell: I think it’d be a ride.

Stephen: I want to get there next, to be honest. But I’d bring him down here would be even better.

Ramsey Russell: Hey, we talked about it, because you never been, and I know you like to shoot duck, but I said, I got this duck-dove-pigeon and mower combo. It’s a great first-time hunt, a great sampler. Did I make the right call?

Stephen: 100%.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Stephen: We totally left it up in your hands. We said, where do you think we should go? And we took it all in, and, I mean, looking at this absolutely gorgeous view right here, every hunt’s been different. That dove hunt, I shot 257 doves in about 3 hours, shot two cases of shells.

Ramsey Russell: And I watched it, you were picking your shots.

Stephen: And we’ve heard about that pick your shots. But I get out there, I just start shooting, right. But doing that hunt, oh, my gosh, they were there, I mean, I started figuring out where to hit them, and it’s been a really, really great experience.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s start with the dove hunting because we drive up to a sunflower field. And I’ve hunted that field before in the past, but it’s the first time ever in this area there’s been sunflowers like it. You know, we drove in, we saw a few doves, and we kind of got in position, and then all hell broke loose. Talk about what it looked like when a first few shots were fired and that section of sunflowers began to wake up with dove. Just describe that to me.

Stephen: They erupted from those sunflowers, and they did not stop coming. And they were in front of me all afternoon, and I could truly pick the shots. Birds everywhere, 360 degrees. They were falling within feet of me, and I could shoot as fast as I could load the gun.

Ramsey Russell: So that old char dog could mark a few. I kind of stood in the open under a tree, looking that way, and shot plenty. Shot six boxes, which I rarely shoot that much anymore, but I could see you down there and it looked like you had a little pillbox off in the sunflower. I don’t think you ever stood up. I just see your gun come up. I see a bird start to fall, and I’d hear the shot. How did that go? You hunkered down. What did you have in front that you were propping your gun up on?

Stephen: I guess that was a big grain bags. And at first I started standing, but I could tell they were flaring off a bit. So I said, let’s just kind of hunker in here. They had no idea. And I was learning the more birds that came by, I could hit them further. And that really gave me confidence, birds that I didn’t think I could hit, but I knew where to aim and, I mean, they were getting knocked down. And that was really, really fun.

Ramsey Russell:  While we were looking one direction at all those doves, the guys across the turn row were looking the other direction, seeing the same thing. Wild ass guess, how many birds do you think there were just in front of you? I mean, just wild ass guess, 100,000, half-million, 10,00,000.

Stephen: 100,000, maybe 200,000. I don’t know.

Ramsey Russell:  Countless.

Stephen: I can’t count that hard.

Ramsey Russell: More than the stars in the sky.

Stephen: I don’t have enough fingers and toes.

Ramsey Russell: Steven, I have had so much fun hunting with you and your dad and y’all’s buddies because y’all are a different class of hunter, like, I knew you were an exhibitor when I met you. But I learned a whole lot about you. You’re a very young man, 28 years old, and I learned a lot about your dad and y’all friends. Talk about growing up. You’ve been going to Dallas Safari Club since you was a child. Why is that?

Stephen: Yes, sir. Our family owns a ranch. We’ve owned several ranches over the years. Our current ranch is Cotton Mesa Trophy Whitetail, an hour and a half south of Dallas, Texas, its 4200 acres. We have about 25 species of game. We lived on the ranch. I’ve lived on the ranch my entire life. It’s a great place. And we take a lot of hunters every year and try to make everybody as happy as possible. And when we’re not doing that, we’re expanding the globe for our next great hunt.

Ramsey Russell: Hunting yourself. That’s the thing about it. I mean, sitting around with these guys at the table, man, I have heard stories. You’re a very experienced hunter. I mean, like I say, come on the globe. You’ve made a lot of hunting accomplishments.

Stephen: It’s been a great experience and a great ride, and I appreciate every minute of it.

Ramsey Russell:   Relative to a lot of your big game stores, like the brown bear you were telling me about, which was hilarious. And some of these other trophies you’ve shot. How much bird hunting have you done?

Stephen: It’s all just been local at home, it’s been doves, it’s been ducks. And then truly, in the past two years, I don’t think I shot a dove or a duck because the freeze of ’21 really killed our dove.

Ramsey Russell: Knocked it back, didn’t you?

Stephen: Yeah. It wasn’t even worth going. And then with our hunting season, it’s been so busy, I just didn’t get to the duck field. So I’ve been playing in something like this, and this got me going, Shoot. I think this is more than I’ll shoot in the next 20 years maybe.

Ramsey Russell: Just an educated gift, but you seem to really like swinging a shotgun.

Stephen: I do.

Ramsey Russell: I could tell.

Stephen: They’re fun. I really, I love big game, but I love it all. It’s just a whole another, whole another side of hunting, Big game is really, really fun and so a wing shooting.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about the duck hunt. I know you’re a duck hunter. But talk about the duck hunting experience this past week.

Stephen: My first day in the blind, we went out on horses way early in the morning, got to the blind, got set up almost an hour before daylight, got everything ready, I mean, here they came. I was limited out by 07:55. It was the best 30 minutes shoot of my life. We shot them all and it was great.

Ramsey Russell:   You were done way before everybody else.

Stephen: The birds were there and in our face, and we made the best of it, for sure. Ramsey Russell:  A lot of first species, I’m sure all of them were first.

Stephen: Yes, sir, exactly. That was a big part of why I wanted to do this. I’ve hunted the American birds but these totally different teal and all the other opportunities out there seem like this would be a really good deal to do.

Ramsey Russell: What about the pigeon hunt? Did it live up to the hype?

Stephen: It was better than I thought. I’m thinking kind of city pigeons feeding them, breadcrumbs, but no, these birds were wild. They were hard to hit. They’re very tough. And they decoy really well. It was everything I could think of, it was more than I could think of, and got to shoot 80 of them before lunch. And then we moved on to other birds, so we shot them up that day, too.

Ramsey Russell:  In the afternoon I was finishing up my pigeon limit. I couldn’t see you because of the way the limbs and bushes were. And you were, I don’t know, next post up the fence shooting parakeets. And every now and again I’d hear the shot and I’d wonder if you got one. And I see this little puff of green feathers come drifting by me. Yeah, must have got that one.

Stephen: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell:   You’ve had a good time shooting all, everything, haven’t you?

Stephen: It’s been one of my top trips of my life, I think. True it is.

Ramsey Russell:  How does the food rate?

Stephen: It’s excellent.

Ramsey Russell: You’ve been to camps around the world. What would you say about the food hospitality here?

Stephen: It’s top-notch. These people are great. They’re working for us the whole time. They make sure everything’s taken care of. There hasn’t been one hiccup in the whole trip.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your favourite cuts of meat you’ve eaten, what’s some of the favourite meals you’ve had?

Stephen: Filet mignon, pizza, bone-in Ribeye. I can go on fresh. We had fresh fish from the river today. Got to see a crocodile, alligator, whatever that was beautiful. Caiman. And I mean, it was caught a huge piranha. Biggest piranha I’ve ever seen in my life. Ramsey Russell: Biggest piranha I’ve ever seen.

Stephen: That was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, it was big as a dish.

Stephen: A great shore lunch. The guys worked their butt off, made a fire, cleaned it all up. We sat there, told more stories, and they just worked. And we got to hang out and relax and enjoy this beautiful river. And, I mean, these are memories of a lifetime.

Ramsey Russell: We sell this hunt. Steven has ducks, doves, pigeons, perdees. It’s been a dry year, so we’re leaving the perdees alone and optional fishing. And really, truly, it’s rare that a team shows up and wants to take a day on the river like we did. And I get it man. You booked a five-day trip. You want a bam bam, bam, bam, shoot birds of a lifetime. We’ve kind of sort of done that in the past three days, haven’t we?

Stephen: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: We still got one more day to go tomorrow.

Stephen: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: But today was the first time that I’d ever been out all day on the river. I’ve gone out in the afternoons, maybe gone out in the morning, but I’ve never gone out and spent the day and man, I loved that kind of lunch. And one of my favourite things I learned they did not bread with cornmeal, especially, but or anything, the fish, and they fried it a combination of 50% corn oil and 50% beef tallow. And I think it made a difference, it was. I could have eaten just a fish for dinner, but then, oh, no, no, no, we got to have short ribs and chorizo and everything else.

Stephen Giggenheimer: Appetizer.

Ramsey Russell: Appetizer.

Stephen: And they lay it on you.

Ramsey Russell: Yes, they do. And tomorrow we’ve got, some of us are going to go duck hunting in the morning. But a couple of other gentlemen said, let’s go back on them pigeons. So they’re going to go pigeon hunting. I think we’re all going to meet, from what I heard today at lunch, we’re all going to convene back at the sunflower.

Stephen: We got to get back to those sunflowers one more time.

Ramsey Russell: Now, being it’s your last day, took a day off of fishing, we’ll go out duck hunting in the morning, get our 25 bird limit. And what do you think about a 25 duck limit?

Stephen: It’s more than we could shoot.

Ramsey Russell: And some people say, well, that’s not enough.

Stephen: Oh, I think it’s perfect. We can shoot six. We wake up at the same time to shoot six at home, why, you know, 25.

Ramsey Russell: That’s my point and when I think about, okay, I come up here and I hunt ducks Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, and if I get 25 each morning, that’s 75. And when I think back of how many mornings I might have to hunt at my own camp to shoot 75 ducks, that’s a lick.

Stephen: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: Then I get to go shoot pigeons and doves and parakeets and go fishing and everything else, I mean, that’s really a lick, isn’t it?

Stephen: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: What about tomorrow? Are you going to try to top your number from yesterday afternoon, or you just gonna kind of coast in there?

Stephen: We’ll just have to see how I feel, I guess.

Ramsey Russell: You gonna make them put extra ammo in front of you just in case you get angry at them?

Stephen: I shot that first case yesterday, had to be within an hour. And he said, you want more? And I said, no. He said, you want more? I said, okay.

Ramsey Russell: They asked me, how many boxes do you want? And I always say, four. Sometimes I’ll shoot two and, boy, if I’m shooting shitty, I’m only going to shoot two. Sometimes I get in the zone I’m going to stop at four. I went through four shells, four boxes yesterday so quickly. First box, I might as well just throwing at them cause I was excited. Then I settled into the next three boxes and luckily they laid out a flat. And I went through about six. Char was tired, I was tired. Then I walked around and watched y’all shoot some. And I had a good time.

Stephen: Yeah.

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Ramsey Russell: Still, the doves were flying.

Stephen: They were flying like crazy. We shot almost 600 between the five of us.

Ramsey Russell: We talked a lot about this hunt before you got here. How did reality reconcile with your expectations? And was there anything you’d have done differently or wish you’d done down here? Would you have brought your fiance, for example you all talked about bringing the girls.

Stephen: Right. No, this place is very family-friendly, very female-friendly, very comfortable. We’ve got two-bedroom cabins, I mean, it’s great. This is everything I could think of and more. Argentina’s been on my list for a really long time to get to do it with you. This is top of the list. Have my dad here, have some friends. It can’t get any better. This is life.

Ramsey Russell: I hope we get to hunt here or somewhere else again, together again. And I know I’m gonna talk some of these men right here for the rest of the episode, but I’m looking forward to coming down to your ranch around Dallas Safari Club, come down to Cotton Mesa and visit, maybe eat a dinner and just get to know each other a little bit. But I want to see this freaking game room I’ve heard about.

Stephen: We’d love to have you, and I can’t wait for the next adventure.

Ramsey Russell: And you all got an Instagram page.

Stephen: That’s right. Cotton Mesa Trophy Whitetail. We’ve been doing it 25 plus years and we’d love to have you out.

Ramsey Russell: And dad been in the industry for 40 years.

Stephen: He’s been doing it his whole life. And he can tell you more stories than I can even think of.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you, Steven. I’ve enjoyed it.

Stephen: I appreciate it very much.

Ramsey Russell: Robert Giggenheimer, Stephen’s daddy. You have been doing that a long time. You told me on the drive up. You’ve been in this hunting industry for 40 years. Your dad was in it.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yes sir, we started together back in about 1986. We bought a ranch in Colorado called Cotton Mesa. We operated that for 22 years, and then we had a guy wanting to buy it, so we sold it.

Ramsey Russell: You told me on the drive up somebody wanted to buy your property, now you said, I won’t even go there.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve had three different ranches we’ve sold. We had Cotton Mesa in Colorado, we had Whitetail Junction, and we had Blue Mountain, and hunters bought all three of them. So people come to buy this ranch, and this is our home. Stephen grew up there. We lived there our whole life, and it’s not for sale.

Ramsey Russell: That’d be tough to move away from.

Robert Giggenheimer: I couldn’t.

Ramsey Russell: It ain’t just a property, it’s home.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, my dad bought the initial place there in 1967. It was 600 acres, and that’s where our houses are on that spot.

Ramsey Russell: Was he a big hunter, too?

Robert Giggenheimer: He was a huge hunter. He went to Africa 14 times and took me my first time when I was 17. We went to Zambia, shot lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, pretty much everything.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a really small world, isn’t it?

Robert Giggenheimer: Very small.

Ramsey Russell: We learned on the way up here that we had a mutual friend Mr.Greg Kitchens. Was he a client of yours also?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, Greg Kitchens was a really good client of mine. And he had introduced me to Martha years ago and told me what a great place it was. And he always wanted me to come here, but we’re busy, we couldn’t do everything. So when you introduced me in your booth to Martha, I was like, I know you. And that was like ten years previously. And she still looked the same.

Ramsey Russell: Greg came up here a few times, he and his wife, Cynthia. One time they brought the late Bill Brewster, and they just had a great time. Now, Bill kind of freaked me out. He was one of the first clients. They came down here, they hunted, and one afternoon they just said, we’re going to stay in. And I think they stayed in a couple of afternoons, and I called him up, I said, man, was everything okay? Is everything fine? He said, man, we had the time of our life [**00:26:24] we want to pull the trigger. After pulling the trigger in the morning we decided just to take the afternoon off. And in the afterglow, or whatever you want to call it. You got to admit, this is a long five days of bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, morning and afternoon changing up and everything. It makes for a long week, doesn’t it?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, it does. This is day four, and I was glad to get the break and go fishing. I really enjoyed the fishing. And the Golden Dorado has been one of the fish I’ve wanted to catch forever. I think I caught five today and a couple of Piranha. It was beautiful.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. How did this operation compare to somebody other because you’ve been all over the world, Robert, to some of the other operations you’ve been on?

Robert Giggenheimer: It’s top class. It’s as good as any of them. What’s important to us is the way we’re treated, the hospitality. Everybody here has been very nice. I figure there’s 20 or 25 people taking care of us around here. Us being in the same industry, we can appreciate it. There’s a lot of people behind the scenes working very hard for you. Everybody’s happy, smiling. It’s been wonderful. We’re coming back. And like I mentioned to you, I wish you could handle more people, because we’d like to bring 15 people or something back, really big group.

Ramsey Russell: We can tell we can’t do quite that many because we try to keep it personalized. For example, tomorrow we’re going duck hunting. Some of the guys want to go pigeonhole. We’ve got some flexibility, but if we get too many people, we lose that flexibility. We try to have a big enough crowd that we can really customize this experience. And sometimes we will mix groups. If there’s three guides, we say, well, there’s already three guides in these dates. And you know what birds with feather flock together usually hit it off when you’ve got a team like this. To me it adds a whole another level when you all can tell, Martha, hey, we’d really like to eat pizza again tomorrow night, or we’d really like to maybe go shoot pigeons or go to a feedlot or go do something instead of it having to be a democratic vote with everybody in camp. I think it adds a whole another level. Not trying to max out bed nights.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, I agree with you. I just like to bring a lot of friends because we have a lot of fun. And when I find a good place, I like to send my friends there.

Ramsey Russell: What was your favorite day this week?

Robert Giggenheimer: Probably the dove. When Stephen shot 256 of them, and I got 122. I said, Stephen, how many did you get? He said, 256. I’m like, Oh, my goodness, that’s crazy.

Ramsey Russell: You said something the other night. We were looking at that video we took. It’s like, well, I kind of want to show no bite then I’d have to say, we only shot 600 in aggregate. How many would you guess there were? 50,000? 20,000? I have no idea. It’s just more than I could count.

Robert Giggenheimer: 100,000 maybe. It was unbelievable.

Ramsey Russell: Unbelievable.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Unbelievable. What do you think about the pigeons? Because a lot of people I talked to back home that have never done anything but shoot a few barnyard pigeons around Papaw Silo. They don’t really get wild pigeon hunting. And I think it’s something you’ve got to experience. And once you do, you go, Holy shit, this is kind of real. What did you think about the pigeon hunt and about the day?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, I love the pigeon hunting. And you told me how it was one of your favorites because of the way they duck and dive and dip, and I like the pigeon. My favorite is the dove, then the pigeon, ducks, and then the parakeets. I like it all, of course. But my son Stephen, who brought us here, he really loves to duck hunt. The way we came here, he had been listening to your podcast for a long, long time. And we’re at the Dallas Safari Club and he said, let’s go see Ramey. And I said, Okay. So we went by your booth, like, ten times, and every time the booth was full, we would stand there ten minutes, go back to our booth, back and forth, back and forth. One day, I’m walking by the booth. There’s nobody there. I ran, got Stephen. I said, let’s go. So we went and sat down, and mainly you and Stephen talked. I didn’t say much. I just sat there, and I said, you have any dates open? And you said, yeah, I’ve got these dates. I said, we’ll take them. Stephen’s eyes got big. So we booked the hunt right there on the spot. We’re walking back to the booth. I said, what do you think? He said, Oh, my God. I can’t believe you booked it. I didn’t know you were going to book it. I said, well, you wanted to go, let’s go.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s go. You gotta pull the trigger and go, don’t you?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I talk to a lot of people. I know, man. It’s all about time and money, and time is time, and money is money. But man, I hate when I meet these people that have always been dreaming their whole lives about doing something, and I’m like, don’t be that guy that on your deathbed is still dreaming. Life’s too dang short to do whatever it is you really want to do, whether it’s this or something else. Go do it. Don’t you agree with that?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, I agree. We try to make one big hunt a year, and we usually make two or three, but, yeah, we like to go hunting and create memories.

Ramsey Russell: You got quiet on the ride out yesterday that you and Stephen hunted together ducks in the morning. We rode a pretty good bit in it. And I just noticed you were quiet, but you weren’t quite, you mad or suddenly didn’t kill enough? Why were you quiet on a ride out?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, I was just looking around. It was incredible. We rode those horses in an hour in the dark.

Ramsey Russell: That hour.

Robert Giggenheimer: And then we rode them an hour back, and it was great. I was looking around at the cows and the birds, and I was just enjoying it.

Ramsey Russell: It’s got cows, it’s got people, but, I mean, that’s a big, big bottom right there. It feels very wild, doesn’t it?

Robert Giggenheimer: No, it’s wild. Especially when you ride an hour out on that horse.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I just never will forget. I’m gonna say we were a half mile apart, and I was sitting in a little shallow water right there. And I was kind of looking y’all’s direction, the way the wind was blowing. And I saw some flick, flick, flick, flick. I saw some flickering lights, like little blips on a radar. And initially, I thought it was your headlamp, till I heard pa-pa-pa. I heard this volley go off, and y’all shot some species that, to me, some pretty prized species are the black-bellied whistling ducks. We’ve got them back home, Robert, but we’ve got a different subspecies, and it’s just a really cool bird. And I’ve really not seen them anywhere about south of here and other parts across the river. They’re a northern species bird, and I think y’all were fortunate to get those.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, we were real happy. Stephen was happy. He likes to shoot a lot of different species, and he was very happy about that cinnamon teal he shot.

Ramsey Russell: What about the food? We’ve talked about this. You’re in the hospitality business, same as I am. What do you think about the food and the hospitality here, the different variety of meals we had?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, we ate a lot of beef. We had homemade pizza. That was incredible.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about pizza night?

Robert Giggenheimer: Well, we had a five-course meal. It was five different kinds of pizzas, and they were great. My favorite was the anchovy pizza.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Robert Giggenheimer: The food’s been awesome.

Ramsey Russell: I like the anchovy, and I like, I can’t remember what Martha called it, but it’s the onions and the cheese. I think it’s unbelievable.

Robert Giggenheimer: Right?

Ramsey Russell: So this is a hunt you’d like to do again?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, we’re gonna do it again.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Duck and dove, pigeon combo?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. So, I was telling Stephen, it’s pretty uncommon. I’d say 10% of the groups that come up here will allow themselves to take a break from pulling the trigger and then spend a day on the river. We were coming back, the sun was setting, I could see it filtering through the willow trees on the bank. And I was thinking just how peaceful and relaxed I was on a ride out and rested for tomorrow, where I can go into it sharp and pulling the trigger on one final day. Would you recommend the fishing?

Robert Giggenheimer: I would definitely recommend the fishing. Heck, yeah. It’s a good break. See some beautiful country. We saw two big caimans pulled right up to them and filmed them. My friend Richard caught a big catfish, different kind of catfish. We caught piranha. We caught Golden Dorado. The shore lunch was incredible. We loved the shore lunch.

Ramsey Russell:   Heck, yeah. Wasn’t that great? I never would have thought of frying fish and beef tallow, but it was amazing. I’m gonna use that recipe back home. I sure have enjoyed it. Like I told you before we recorded, being here with a caliber of hunters that you four represent, really made for a relaxing week. It’s like you all have done the hunts you’ve been on. I’m sure some big game hunts. Maybe you didn’t score. Maybe you didn’t connect. Maybe it was day 21. You had to do something. Bird hunt’s totally different, isn’t it?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: If you just go into it without painting yourself in a corner, you can really enjoy it for what it is, don’t you think?

Robert Giggenheimer: Oh, it’s much more relaxing than a big game hunt. You don’t have the pressure on you if you miss a bird, don’t worry. There’s a hundred more coming.

Ramsey Russell: Coming, Yeah.

Robert Giggenheimer: I love it all. But what I like about this is coming with my friends, with my son, my friends. Y’all have treated us great. We’ve made a lot of new friends here. Everybody’s been wonderful.

Ramsey Russell: Are big game camps. You’ve been around, too. Are they as sociable as bird hunting?

Robert Giggenheimer: Not at all. No. Usually you’re by yourself. If you go with your friends, you split up. You see them back at the airport.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: I sure have enjoyed it, Robert. Thank you very much. And like I told, I want to record a full episode with you at Dallas Safari Club this year. From looking at the pictures, you got a hell of a game room from listening the last four days. You need to write a book.

Robert Giggenheimer: Well, I’m writing one right now.

Ramsey Russell:   Are you? You need to.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yeah, I’ve got about twenty five chapters written already, and this is going to be chapter two. And I’m doing in chronological order, it starts with the first hunt in 1978 in Africa and Zambia. And it’s got a lot of different hunts in there.

Ramsey Russell:   Did you and your dad do a lot of bird hunting at all or was it all big game?

Robert Giggenheimer: Pretty much big game. We would do a little dove hunting on the ranch, but mainly big game.

Ramsey Russell: I saw an Instagram picture, by the way, of your parents. Man that ought to be framed. You had a picture of your mom and dad right before they were going to Africa. And, man, have times changed.

Robert Giggenheimer: Yep, that was 1964. They went to Africa and they were gone for six weeks. They went around the world the whole trip cost them $6,800. They went to Mozambique and the general license had 44 animals on there.

Ramsey Russell: Wow. Yeah.

Robert Giggenheimer: They had four elephants on there. Only shot one, but yeah, they had an incredible trip.

Ramsey Russell: What struck me is that get on an airplane now, people wearing warm-ups and cut-offs and everything else, man, they were wearing a suit and tie. It’s like they were going to a formal. Times have changed.

Robert Giggenheimer: Right, right. Yeah, they had a suit on.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a very endearing picture seeing that. It said a lot about who they were and the time that that took place.

Robert Giggenheimer: I didn’t know you had seen that picture. But that’s on my nightstand by my bed.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Robert Giggenheimer: Yep. I look at that every day.

Ramsey Russell: Good, good picture. Good time. Thank you, Robert.

Robert Giggenheimer: Thank you, Ramey.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Howard Miles from Dalhart, Texas. This is the first time I’ve shared camp with you, Harold, but you’ve done some get ducks on before. You’ve been around some of US hunt lists before.

Howard Miles: Stuff before, I think. Ramsey, I’ve hunted in five of your camps so far.

Ramsey Russell: But here’s what gets me. I know you’re from Dallas Safari Club. You come by, we visit, we talk on the phone. You’ve hunted with Dirty Bird Outfitters. You’ve been to King Eider Hunt, you’ve been to Netherlands, you’ve been to some different hunts with us. And when we’ve talked in the past, Harold, you tell me about the snow geese and the cranes and a lot of the birds that used to come up around Dalhart that used to Hunt. But what I just, I learned a whole new Harold Meyer down here on this trip. Man, you are an accomplished big game hunter, man. You’ve been around.

Howard Miles: I’ve been so fortunate my life, Ramsey. I mean, I had a so-so childhood. I would have never in my entire lifetime ever guessed I would take an international hunt. Yet alone, I’ve been to 73 countries, over 250 guided hunts worldwide.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Howard Miles: And who would have guessed, when I was, for example, graduating high school, I didn’t get a chance to go to college. I went to work right out of school. I would have never in my lifetime ever imagined I’d have been so fortunate in order to do what I’ve been able to do.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you’ve done it right, I’ll tell you that. I think you’ve got an enviable hunting track and life, and just by your testimony right there, it’s living proof that anybody can be successful. It doesn’t mind working hard.

Howard Miles: That’s it. I mean, you’ve got to put your nose to it. It’s not all glamour by any means. You just have to bear down and you can get it if you really want it.

Ramsey Russell: Did you grow up around Dalhart?

Howard Miles: No, I’m originally from here in South Dakota.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, okay.

Howard Miles: And I started hunting with my father and my uncles, a lot of uncles.

Ramsey Russell: Bird hunting, pheasants?

Howard Miles: Bird hunting, pheasants, ducks, geese, deer, antelope, you name it, everything.

Ramsey Russell: How have times changed since you grew up in South Dakota to now?

Howard Miles: I still go back to South Dakota. I still have family there. When I was a kid we just hunted, wherever we wanted to go we just went. You never had to even ask permission to hunt. You just went out to somebody’s place and hunted. Of course, you couldn’t even attempt to do that today.

Ramsey Russell: No, you can’t.

Howard Miles: Everything is tied up, you know, it’s so, so different, I mean, that’s just the way everything has evolved.

Ramsey Russell:  And I know you’ve been to the Netherlands, you shot barnacle geese, you shot gray lags, you’ve been to shoot King Eiders. Told some great stories even here. And you been to a lot of country, shot lot of big game animals. Are you a trophy collector or an experience collector? Right now to me like, you’re an experienced collector.

Howard Miles: I’m just experienced, I mean, I’ve been fortunate. I shot nine elephants, for example.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Howard Miles: I mean, I’ve did culling in Africa. I’ve shot 40 buffalo, 50 giraffe, I mean, it’s crazy. I usually film everything. And so I have films, and I have films running when we. When we open our house.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Howard Miles: It’s getting so now I’ve got quite a large trophy room, and it’s pretty full.  I don’t get a lot of stuff Taxidermy now, I do have. I say that, and I’d have 20 animals coming in the pipeline. Now I just want to experience things. And, like, this trip here, I probably have shot the least number of shells of anybody here but I’ve just been more selective. I just want to enjoy the moment. I mean, this is such a cool experience to be able to go out there and if a bird comes by and you don’t shoot at it or if you miss it, it’s not that big of a deal. There’s one right behind it. It’s crazy.

A Relaxing Hunt with Plenty of Options

“It’s not about the numbers. It’s not about who shoots the most ducks. The person who pulls the trigger most times. It’s just about shoot to your heart’s content. Enjoy it at your speed and your level because it’s an abundance of ducks and doves and pigeons and it ain’t a competition.”

Ramsey Russell: I told Robert, I’ve really enjoyed hunting with you four guys, because y’all are a different level of hunter than a lot of people that come here. And we talk about that very thing over a cold drink when we all got back from horseback riding. It’s like, it’s not about the numbers. It’s not about who shoots the most ducks. The person who pulls the trigger most times. It’s just about shoot to your heart’s content. Enjoy it at your speed and your level because it’s an abundance of ducks and doves and pigeons, and it ain’t a competition.

Howard Miles: Yeah. If you’re not satisfied with the number you shoot here is nobody’s fault but your own. I’ve hunted Argentina for ducks, doves, pigeon and stuff before, but been quite a few years ago I’ve always wanted to come back. I just never got around to it. I’m ecstatic coming back. I asked my nephew this afternoon, if I paid for it, if he’ll come with us next year.

Ramsey Russell: What do you say?

Howard Miles: Well, take me back yeah, I don’t expect to know, put it that way.

Ramsey Russell: I got a crystal ball. I think I can predict what the answer is going to be.

Howard Miles: So, I mean, I appreciate what he does. He’s in the service, so that’s another story. But it’s just experience. Until you experience it, you can’t even imagine it.

Ramsey Russell: What was your favorite day? Or are they all kind of the same, Just different?

Howard Miles: They’re all the same. But I really like the pigeons, just because I don’t get to do them any other place in the world except here. They’re hard to hit, they’re hard to kill. I mean, you shoot them and there will be a ball of feathers, and they just fly right off.

Ramsey Russell: But to me a pigeon decoy, like they do, they present themselves.

Howard Miles: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, the ones that don’t ain’t worth shooting. Just wait. There’ll be more come that will just put their wings back behind them and present themselves beautifully.

Howard Miles: That’s right. And it’s so cool to see that. Like I say, we don’t get to shoot pigeons any other place in the world except for here, especially in this kind of volume.

Ramsey Russell:   One thing we do here, Harold, is we all convene right here around the camp. We eat dinner together, we drive together, we ride together, we socialize. And, boy, if we socialize this week, but normally we go out for ducks and doves and pigeons. We hunt solo in a blind by ourselves. And on day two, the pigeon hunt. Monday night, you said, I’d like to hunt down there with Robert. Because it really ain’t a competition. It’s like, hey, I want to go have fun with my buddy.

Howard Miles: Yeah. And last night during that monstrous dove shoot, we sat together, and the whole time we were talking, and we were shooting like, hey, good shot. Oh, yeah, blew that one. It was back and forth. We talked about other stuff besides hunting. I mean, just talked about people we know. We’ve known each other for over 25 years, and it was just really a cool experience. I would have been satisfied sitting there and shooting one box of shells.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Howard Miles: But it was just a great experience in order to do that.

Ramsey Russell: How does the food and hospitality rate as compared to many other places you’ve been to?

Howard Miles: Well, it’s top-notch, I mean, there’s not even hardly any comparison. There are some places that are obviously very good. And you expect them to be good, but this, you can’t ask for any more than this.

Ramsey Russell: It’s good, but it’s different. We’ve eaten a lot of cuts of beef. People aren’t accustomed to that they fried fish like I’ve never seen before today. It was amazing, I mean, that’s what it’s supposed to be, though.

Howard Miles: Yeah. One of the businesses I’m in is in the beef business. And it’s crazy to see the volume of meat that you guys cook and how it’s cooked and how good it tastes. I mean, I’m waiting to go back and tell people, like, hey, you ain’t gonna believe this.

Ramsey Russell: Most of the stuff that Valdo cooked here, mostly, like those ribs we ate for lunch today or the other night. He takes a coarse finishing salt. That’s it.

Howard Miles: That’s it.

Ramsey Russell: Finishing salt at room temperature beef over live coals. That’s how it’s done.

Howard Miles: Yeah. There’s not a bunch of seasonings and all this kind of stuff that’s not rubbed, it’s not aged. And it’s as good as you’ll ever find.

Ramsey Russell:   Did you enjoy the fishing trip today on the river?

Howard Miles: Yeah. And I’m not a big fisherman.

Ramsey Russell: I’m not either.

Howard Miles: And. But nevertheless, it was. It was great. I mean, and the camaraderie of it and. And fishing fish that I’d never ever even caught before, obviously, I mean that was a treat. That was fun. I’d do that in a heartbeat again.

Ramsey Russell: How’s your shoulder holding up?

Howard Miles: His mind’s going good because I haven’t shot as much as the other guy. But, I started wearing a pad day one, though, too.

Ramsey Russell: Tomorrow morning, y’all asked to go shoot pigeons instead of ducks?

Howard Miles: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: Isn’t it great that you got the option to go do something like that?

Howard Miles: Yeah, I mean, you probably wouldn’t have had a big group. And not that ducks are bad. It’s just that those pigeons are hooting. I mean, and I don’t get to shoot ducks at home either, but the pigeons, I get pretty large volume of shooting. And it’s just for me, it’s just the one thing that I remember most when I was down here 20 years ago was the pigeon shooting. That and shooting parakeets. People ask you, parakeets, are you crazy? What the hell are you shooting a parakeet for, until you come down here and see them, you have no idea.

Ramsey Russell: And pigeons and doves and parakeets are literally listed as plague species on the hunting list down here because they deprive crops. It’s like yesterday we did that big dove hunt, Harold, and let’s say we shot 650 doves as a group. Nobody was particularly mad at them, but we shot Eddie, and everyone I shot had about a shot glass of sunflower seeds in his crop, and we shot 600 out of maybe 100,000. I don’t know how many pounds that equates to every feed that those birds are hitting that field. But by the minute, by the hour, that farmer’s losing a whole lot of grain.

Howard Miles: Absolutely. I used to farm and I just sold out a few years ago. And I’m doing, I’m sitting there on that chair watching all these birds, and I’m doing the math. Couple of times, I got my calculator out my phone. I’m looking at like, you believe this shit. You’re like, really?

Ramsey Russell: It could be several percent per day he’s losing. They had just, in the last day or two, they had Gramoxone just sprayed.

Howard Miles: Right.

Howard Miles: A lot of that grass was still yellow. It wasn’t burned down yet. They had just sprayed it and the doves are already swarming it. I would guess as soon as he can run a tracker through there, as soon as tomorrow, the next day, he’s gonna be running through there getting oak. But they’re not quite. Sunflowers I looked on are quite dry enough to harvest you.

Howard Miles: Yeah, I checked some out myself and looked at them and seen, because I could see the doves that were landing on them and they were picking on them and whatever, and, yeah, they were still a little bit soft and, and they weren’t ready to combine yet, but give them another few days and they will be especially.

Ramsey Russell: They better get him out if they’re gonna make now, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings. They just left them bait.

Howard Miles: But Argentina being in a drought, the crop looked, the sunflower yield ought to be really, really good. I was really, really impressed. He no tilled them into a stubble field. They were much better than what I would have anticipated.

Ramsey Russell: You all are going to pigeon hunt in the morning, eat lunch, and then we’re all going to meet back at the sunflower field. You ready for that?

Howard Miles: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Go out with a bang.

Howard Miles: I’m going to go out with a bang. I just might finish up with the biggest day yet. I don’t know, for shells anyhow. I’m gonna probably have to go for it.

Ramsey Russell: Harold, I’ve enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

Howard Miles: Thank you. Ramsey.

Ramsey Russell: Richard Weaver at La Paz. Richard, do you drink much wine? Are you a wine fan?

Richard: I am.

Ramsey Russell: What kind of man goes on a vacation to La Paz and swears off, only you did drink wine at night, but you swore it off initially. What was up with that?

Richard: Oh, just one day I swore it off.

Ramsey Russell: For the first pass but you drank it later.

Richard: Yeah, I did. I’m weak.

Ramsey Russell: I am, too. Do you really drink a lot of wine, though? Do you drink enough wine, like, Malbec’s a big deal? Or you can explain some of that kind of stuff, why it’s so good down here.

Richard: Well, it’s the grape.

Ramsey Russell: I just know I like it.

Richard: Well, the grape, the Malbec and the Cabernet is my favorite drink.

Ramsey Russell: I come down here and I drink wine for dinner cause they serve it. They serve it just like Italians. And I went home last year and was gonna have a new tradition where every day at lunch I was gonna drink a glass of wine and take a nap. That didn’t last. The phone rings too much back home to do that.

Richard: Yeah. I don’t drink during the middle of the day much ever. But when you’re on a hunting trip, enjoying everything that today has to offer with all your friends, it’s nothing to open a bottle of wine and enjoy.

Ramsey Russell: You’ve been to Argentina before. You were telling me this afternoon. Richard: I’ve been twice before.

Ramsey Russell: How did this compare?

Richard: Probably out of the three and maybe the next two I’ll go to, which will be here. Does that answer your question?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Richard: No, the atmosphere, the camaraderie. Of course, you always come hunting with friends. You don’t want to go hunting with people you don’t know. I don’t. But this has been awesome.

Ramsey Russell: Especially Bird Hunt is a social sport.

Richard: It is.

Ramsey Russell: And we sure did some socialize.

Richard: We did. And we are so.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s why I figured we better wrap up this episode before our interview, before I get to imbibing in the grape some more myself.

Richard: Well, I want to make this comment that the package that’s put together here is top notch.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you.

Richard: I’ve been twice before. Bird hunting is good, but there’s so much more here. And that day we took and went fishing. Awesome.

Ramsey Russell: When you say there’s more here than some of the places you’ve been in Argentina before. What specifically sets this apart? I mean, birds are birds. Dove hunt, if it’s a good dove hunt, it’s a good dove hunt. But beyond the birds, I mean, it’s like, I think that when you go on vacation, you do these bucket list trips, it’s beyond the hunt. Whether, if you go to Africa to hunt lions, it’s still beyond just pulling the trigger. It’s beyond. What was it about this La Paz hunting that spoke to you as, wow, this was my kind of Argentina hunt?

Richard: I would say the accommodations, the people that are running it, they’ve got everything top notch. The organization’s top notch. I mean, We were wanting for nothing.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Richard: Everything was there and didn’t have to ask for it. They knew what you needed, and he had it.

Ramsey Russell: So, what was your favorite day out in the field? We did ducks. We did doves. We did pigeons. And you went back, today instead of ducks, you went back and shot more pigeons and doves.

Richard: Yeah. I would say the pigeon hunting was the best for me.

Ramsey Russell: Heck, yeah.

Richard: Yeah. I mean, I’ve never had a duck hunt like this. The duck hunting is world-class. Anywhere you want to go and sit down and do it. But here with the dove, which, if you hunt enough, you can end up taking that for granted because Argentina’s got birds.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Richard: But the pigeons showed up wilder than [**00:52:54].

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Richard: This isn’t barnyard huntin, I mean, they’re big, they’re beautiful birds, and there’s a lot of them, so just got to learn how to shoot right.

Ramsey Russell: It’s so few people that show up here, and I get it, I understand. If a guy books five days and wants to pull the trigger. I get it. Why not, you know? But y’all wanted to go fishing, I’ll go fishing. That sounds fun. And, man, I told you today at the tailgate, I am so glad I did not pull the trigger yesterday. I was kind of ready for a rest. And we went out, and we were coming back to the boat ramp yesterday, man, I was so relaxed, you could pour me in a shot glass. You and I, that the boat came by the other boys, they were leaving, and a TO had taken us to this little bend in the river. It was up in this little creek. The current would kind of come through by the bend, but then it would go back over to this other area. The water was deep. He’d kind of come back to our side of the riverbank, no matter how you threw it. I said, guys, look, a Mississippi boy can catch catfish. I’m like, there’s got to be catfish on this side. It’s got to be.

Richard: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And I kind of reeled in slowly, and boom, there he was. I got mine. I said, let’s go one more cast. I knew you wanted to catch.

Richard: Once I saw that spotted catfish, I said, no. I’ve caught the Dorado now. Took that off my bucket and I got the Dorado. Then when I saw that spotted catfish in the way you describe it, the fish, I said, no, we ain’t gonna. We’re not going anywhere. Just leave that anchor right there.

Ramsey Russell: Gotta catch one more.

Richard: One more.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What a great way to end the day.

Richard: That’s two species that I’ve never taken caught before. And I said, this is a win-win.

Ramsey Russell: Those fish, those [**00:54:41] surubi they call them, catfish we call them down here. I’d have filleted them and eaten them all day long back home, Mark said, no, no, they’re too small. What did you think about the fish that we ate, the surubi the other night, how’d you like the way they prepared?

Richard: Like I said, the groceries here are top notch.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Richard: And the way they cook the food. I’ve never been dissatisfied with Argentinean cuisine.

Ramsey Russell: Did you have a favorite meal while you were here? Is there one meal that just stood out to you? It’s been a long week, man.

Richard: Yeah, it has. I’m not taking anything for granted. I expected it because I’ve been here twice before, and I know what they could do. The cuisine, the atmosphere, the ambiance is what I look for when I come somewhere.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’ll say one of the most unique meals we had this week, as far as I’m concerned, was the shore lunch. The way they cooked the catfish and the piranha, I’d never had it that way, and I loved it.

Richard: Well, fish doesn’t ever taste any better than from the water to the frying pan. And that’s what we got.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely. And then this afternoon we wrapped up with a dove hunt. What do you think about Char dog’s skills when she kept going back out, I was like, damn, where’s she finding all these birds?

Richard: They ever had a battery, and her was never gonna quit.

Ramsey Russell: Well, she picked up a lot of birds by me. Not all of them. Then we walked out and picked up more birds. And then when I sit down to play on my phone or talk to Martha or whatever, she’s out there running. I’m like, where in the hell is she finding all these birds? She was going a hundred yards away to your pile and picking up the birds and bringing it back one at a time.

Richard: Well, and the only reason I just glanced, because I like watching her work, and tail up, head down, boom, boom, boom. And she said, she’s just drifting towards my bird pile. And I went, no. Yes, you did. That was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: Nothing you change on this hunt.

Richard: Nothing.

Ramsey Russell: Nothing. Richard, I’ve enjoyed sharing camp with you. I’ve enjoyed sharing camp with you all. The stories. Every time we sit down at this dinner table, the stories are amazing. You’ve got stories. He’s got stories. He’s got stories. He’s got stories. I’ve got stories. And we’re just constantly telling. That to me is like real hunting camp stuff. It’s real stuff. And it makes such a difference being in camp with real hunters that got a world of experience to talk about, I mean, all the world to talk about. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Richard: So have I. That’s why I come back.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve eaten a lot of food this week. Last question. We’re going to get up in the morning, drive back to Buenos Aires about 6 hours. What do you think about stopping at that little parilla again on the way home?

Richard: I’m not about to argue with anybody about where we stop because they’re not going to stop. And it’s like when the pilot’s going up to the front, he says, folks, I really don’t think we ought to take off. I’m off the plane.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. Same way. Thank you, Richard.

Richard: Thank you, sir.

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Martha: I think he’s right.

Ramsey Russell: He is right. You’re world famous.

Martha: Well, when you say, Martha-Martha, they know you’re talking about La Paz. They’re talking about Argentina.

Ramsey Russell: I hear people describe you as the fixer. What do you fix?

Martha: Almost everything I can.

Ramsey Russell: Seriously. Come on, give me substance now. I mean people show up. It’s a trip of a lifetime. We get them packed up right. They do everything right. They know what to expect. But still, things just kind of.

Martha: Yeah, it happens. They may lose their passport. They may cancel their flights like they did last night, actually. They may lose directions and be in the middle of Buenos Aires. Don’t know where to go or what to do or so they call me. And also when they are here at the lodge, they need something to be fixed, like, the water is not hot enough. I need shampoo. I need certain medication. I enjoy helping people.

Ramsey Russell: You bring up water, is that a big deal, like, do you notice a change when you come to America? The hot water is different than it is down here.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, really?

Martha: Oh, yeah. The thing here is that you gotta be gentle with everything.

Ramsey Russell: You say that. Let me adjust your mic just a little bit. You say that. Go ahead.

Martha: Yeah. Like, Americans turn on the hot water and it’s too hot, so they want it cold. And they turn the cold water, like, all the way, now the water is freezing. And then we go back and forth. So I gotta teach them how to use the water.

Ramsey Russell: It’s a little more antiquated, isn’t it? It’s not America. It’s different. But we got hot water.

Martha: Yeah.

The Perfect First-Time Argentina Hunting Experience

“I tell everybody you don’t need to speak Spanish. You just need to know Martha-Martha. And you’re the fixer.”

Ramsey Russell: And they show up in the cultural practices. Things are different. And I tell everybody, you don’t need to speak Spanish. You just need to know, Martha-Martha. And you’re the fixer.

Martha: Well, yeah, I think I am. I mean, I enjoy doing it. I don’t even realize I do it. I just do it.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Martha: I don’t know, like this morning, I cannot ride the horse. My knees are broken. So we make changes, like right there. Okay, this guy can ride a horse, he jumps in the horse. The other guy goes to the walking blind or little things that make big differences.

Ramsey Russell: And the great thing about La Paz is the staff doesn’t speak English.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Doesn’t understand English, but they all got radios.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Martha-Martha. What’s this guy saying? Martha-Martha.

Martha: Exactly.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s always something and, I mean, it’s a great hunt, though, I mean, you can the many, many, many, many clients that come here absolutely enjoy this hunt. What do you see as the hostess that Americans tend to like about like about La Paz? What do you hear and see? Is it the doves? Is it the ducks? Is it the food? Is it all of it? What are some of the current things that you hear?

Martha: I think there are too many points to highlight. First of all, the variety. They enjoy doing different things every day, going to different fields, having different shots. And then I will say the people, they really enjoy how they feel at home every time they come here. And also the food. They like the friendly environment. I mean, not every group come here with their friends. Some people come here by themselves and they end up making a good group of friends and going back home.

Ramsey Russel: Yeah. We talk about the people and the food. You and I got to do something one day, and I tell you how it started is, we were here, and the guides, I learned, this is different than America, they would like, we’re in the field, we all come in, we meet at the truck, we say goodbye, we go back to camp, the guys take the ducks back to their house. And then what I heard and learned was that, kind of like back in [**01:02:57] day. The men show up on the horses, throw the ducks down in the courtyard going and drink, mate, and the women jump in and pluck the duck, cook the ducks, prepare the ducks, do everything.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: So I said, I want to go see that. That was a heck of a fun lunch that day.

Martha: It was a great day.

Ramsey Russell:   First off, we leave here, we go eat breakfast at 4:30, we drive 30 minutes, we get on horseback, we ride 30 minutes, whatever, and then we come on back, back to the house. And what I didn’t realize is that when we’re back at the camp those guys are still riding because it wasn’t, we got on the horse and started riding and riding and riding that I realized those guys are going an hour, an hour.

Martha: You made me ride an hour.

Ramsey Russell: It was a fun.

Martha: It was a lot of fun.

Ramsey Russell: And they ride an hour. That means they’re getting up at like 2:30 in the morning, 2:30, 3 o’clock in the morning to be out there and meet us. But when we got there, that hard-packed dirt was swept clean, the laundry wasn’t hanging in the courtyard, and everybody turned out, and Pacho threw down the ducks, and lickety-split, boom, them women jumped on the rosy bills. And I’m gonna say in five minutes, they had them filleted all spread out like they made about four cuts on that single breast to get it spread out . Plate-sized like milanesa. And they had it battered, marinated. Battered and frying in lard.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And what really got me was when the little matriarch of the bunch motioned us over and she pulled the sheet metal back on that mud oven, and all that bread was baking on top of it.

Martha: Oh, my God, it was like heaven.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like going back, I’m gonna guess the 1930s, you could tell you were getting close to their house because what we found out, she has six sons and six daughters and living in those three or four houses all together right there in that compound, I guess I’d call it, with kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. It must be 30, 40 people.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And a half-mile there’s pigs. You start seeing pigs and chickens and turkeys and ducks and more and more house cats and dogs ass you get closer. It’s like stepping back in, I don’t know when back in America, 100 years ago.

Martha: Yeah, probably.

Ramsey Russell: It’s crazy.

Martha: Also here. It’s like going back in time.

Ramsey Russell: Even for here, it’s like going back in time.

Martha: Oh, yeah. The way they live, it’s so primitive.

Embracing the Local Lifestyle in Argentina

“If somebody that spends one or two nights a week in Buenos Aires the hospitality was through the roof. Like when you go to the big city nobody makes eye contact nobody talks to. If you talk to strangers you’re crazy. But here they are just so welcoming.”

Ramsey Russell: Simple. Like, I don’t remember the last time that in the middle of this compound, in the middle of their yard, the courtyard or whatever you want to call it, they had a pump like old water pump. And that’s where they wash their hands and wash the food and wash the ducks and wash everything, wash clothes, I’m guessing. Just an old hand pump. It’s crazy.

Martha: And the hospitality.

Unique Memories Made in Argentina

“It may not have been the best but they brought out their best. And I was honored. I just couldn’t. It’s one of the highlights of my trip down here was to see something like that.”

Ramsey Russell: That’s what I like about it. If somebody that spends one or two nights a week in Buenos Aires, the hospitality was through the roof. Like when you go to the big city, nobody makes eye contact, nobody talks to. If you talk to strangers, you’re crazy. But here they are just so welcoming.

Martha: It was like a celebration. You notice the table on the tablecloth and the plates. Everything they have spread out there it was beautiful.

Ramsey Russell: It may not have been the best, but they brought out their best.

Martha: Yes, exactly.

Ramsey Russell: And I was honored. I just couldn’t. It’s one of the highlights of my trip down here was to see something like that. What do you see as the favorite meals here at La Paz? What do you hear clients talking about the most?

Martha: Beef. Beef is number one for everybody. Hands down, It’s like barbecue, an Argentinian barbecue. I guess the way we cook it, it’s so different than America that they love that, the wood and the grill inside the kitchen, that’s what they really enjoy looking at.  I mean, they all take pictures of it. Everybody says if I have to rebuild my kitchen, I want a grill in my kitchen.

Ramsey Russell: A parria.

Martha: A parricha.

Ramsey Russell: No. Yeah. I say it Mexican. You all say it different.

Martha: Argentinian, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What about the pizza night?

Martha: Oh, yeah. They all ask for the pizza night. There are so many different flavors, and it’s so light. Everybody says, It’s so light. So they have, like, two pizzas each, and they are stuffed.

Ramsey Russell: I found out last night after eating nine or ten or 15 slices, something like it. I stood up. I felt fine. It’s when I got back here that my stomach started to swell.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It grows on.

Martha: It’s the flour. Yeah, but it’s worth it.

Ramsey Russell: And what kind of cheese is that they put with that? Everybody’s favorite seems to be the first course because five or six, however how long the customers last, at least six courses of pizza. But the first one is grilled onions with cheese, but there’s no mozzarella on any of those pieces. It’s some kind of cheese.

Martha: We call that kind of pizza fugazzeta, and what they like about it is that we use queso fresco. That’s not mozzarella. It’s not as greasy. It’s more salty, and it melts perfectly fine in the oven. So that’s why we like it on pizza instead of mozzarella. We use mozzarella too but queso fresco is more popular.

Ramsey Russell: One thing that, we’ve been coming here to La Paz for 13 years. Argentina is in the grips of an absolute drought since 1901 drought.

Martha: Mm-hmm.

Ramsey Russell: And La Paz had ducks.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Now, you and I are recording weeks after the initial podcast started, and we’ve been here for a few more groups and fail-proof. We’ve moved to different properties, we’ve moved around. Pacho and his staff go out and scout, and you told me yesterday morning we’ve not missed a single limit except for one morning, one morning. But it was practical limit. I shot like 23 instead of 25. Somebody shot 21 instead of 25 or 24 instead of 25. But it was 80 degrees, there wasn’t a breath of air, and there were ducks galore. They were just sitting out there in that field. But I mean, that’s pretty amazing because there’s enough habitat here.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And there’s enough scouting and dedication to it.

Martha: I know so they do whatever to put you on ducks. Like, we got to ride a boat, we ride a boat. We get to ride a horse, we ride a horse. We got to walk extra miles, we walk the extra miles. But they put you on ducks.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, they really do. I hear a lot of people say one of the downsides of coming on a combo is, well, I don’t want to shoot no doves. I just don’t care about doves. And dove may not be my favorite. I love to shoot ducks. I love to shoot decoy pigeons. And I mean, I do love to shoot decoy pigeons. But I’m gonna tell you what to somebody that tells me, well, I don’t really care to shoot doves. Bullshit. I’m gonna say right now, for the record, bullshit, because there’s so many of them. And if a man likes to shoot a shotgun at ducks or pigeons or whatever it is, you’re gonna love to be under a cloud of doves that just never ceases for 2 hours. And you get to shoot your angles or shoot what you want. Just shoot.

Martha: Yeah, you get different opportunities. Right or left, left or right, high, right ahead of you. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: A shotgun and a shotgunning, whether it’s a duck or a dove or a pigeon or anything you shoot that flies. Shotgun and a shotgunning. And the more you do, the better you get.

Martha: Yeah, you were doing really good yesterday afternoon. Not in the morning, but good in the afternoon.

Ramsey Russell: I get better every time I come down here. And I’ve been coming down here for a long time. Because you got time to figure it out. Like for the last two days, the doves were high.

Martha: They were so high.

Ramsey Russell: They were high. There’s so many of them, all I have to do is pull the trigger and figure it out.

Martha: Yep.

Ramsey Russell: And then I figured out. Yesterday morning, I disagree. I was shooting the 28 gauge and I was smacking that ass. You know what I’m saying?

Martha: I got some missing. You’re a great shot, I have to admit that. And I’m going to admit it in front of all the people who listen to your podcast, you are a great shot.

Ramsey Russell: And I’m always right.

Martha: No, you’re not. But you were missing and I love when you miss.

Ramsey Russell: I can miss with the best of them. And I will admit readily, I can miss with the best of them. But I love the, especially as I get down towards the end of a long trip like this, I just really savor the dove hunts because there’s nowhere else on earth that we can shoot it now. We’ve got a gentleman in camp this week. He didn’t tell me this when he booked a trip. He went to Cordoba in March.

Martha: Yes.

Ramsey Russell: And that’s kind of interesting because he shot way, we were driving up and I told him, I said, I think you’re going to see more dove than you saw in Cordoba. He said, I don’t think so. I said, I think you are. And he did, didn’t he?

Martha: He did. The very first afternoon.

Ramsey Russell: He shot more doves in an afternoon than he shot in three days in Cordoba.

Martha: He did.

Ramsey Russell: That’s crazy, isn’t it?

Martha: Well, this is the, what I like about this area is that all the agriculture, we have birds everywhere, and when there’s not a drought, it’s even better because they have water also everywhere, and they fly different directions, different fields, different roosts. So how you call that the environment is just perfect for dub.

Ramsey Russell: What about the fishing here, Martha? I’ve never spent as much time at La Paz as I did this year, but most groups wanted to go fishing at least one day. Is that normal?

Martha: It’s normal. It’s, usually they take a fishing day on the middle of the week.

Ramsey Russell: They don’t have to. Like a team, we’re hunting this week, did not. That’s fine. But I really enjoyed it.

Martha: Yeah, it’s a nice day out. You rest your arm after all the shooting and you go catch Golden Dorado, that it’s a trophy for fishermen. So, yeah, I wouldn’t say that every group goes fishing, but maybe 80% or 75% of the people when I go fishing.

Ramsey Russell: I noticed too that an overwhelming amount of the people that come to La Paz leave, having said, we’re coming back.

Martha: Yeah, they do.

Ramsey Russell: Just about everybody. And, you know, it’s like, I describe this hunt as the perfect once in a lifetime Argentina trip because it’s the perfect sampler or the first time, you know you’re gonna come back, but it’s the first time because you get to sample everything. Since I got you on the horn a few weeks ago we had to do the couples trip.

Martha: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Those ladies had fun, didn’t they?

Martha: That was wonderful. It was the right week. The weather was perfect. They enjoy every activity we did. They went to the spring water pools. They stay at the lodge just enjoying a couple of bottles of wine.

Ramsey Russell: They draw us a couple of bottles of wine.

Martha: Then we found this place, which is only an hour and a half from here, where it’s a vineyard, and you can go there and spend the whole day. They will fix some empanadas for you and taste different. How you call those grapes.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Martha: And then we also took a day to go downtown, and we went shopping. We visited the cathedral. We took a look at the city. You know, La Paz is a really neat little town. And we just had a great time.

Ramsey Russell: Quit messing with your mic.

Martha: You know, it’s weird to have something here.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Martha: That close.

Ramsey Russell: I can make a joke, but I won’t. It’s really is a good hunt for everybody. It’s a good destination for hunters, non-hunters, fishermen. Because since I’ve been here, we actually had a client that came here. Want to go shoot a few ducks. Want to go shoot a few doves. Enjoyed the pigeon day, but spent a lot of time fishing.

Martha: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Because the fishing is really good here, isn’t it?

Martha: It’s really good. It’s excellent. You can go for the golden Dorado. You can go for the catfish that we call surubi. Also, there’s another variety of catfish. Really strange. Well, you got a strange thing. I don’t remember a prehistory.

Ramsey Russell: What was that thing Armored catfish? Look like a dinosaur.

Martha: The lady of the water.

Ramsey Russell: The old lady of the water.

Martha: Or something like that, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like a catfish with elephant skin and armor.

Martha: It’s horrible, yeah, it’s a really bad-looking fish.

Ramsey Russell: It was an ugly fish, I gotta admit that. But you know, what I did not realize is a TO, who kind of like the head guide and sanni, who one of the principals here. I didn’t realize what astute fishermen they were until I went out fishing with them a few times. I mean, that’s kind of their thing. They love that river.

Martha: They love it, I mean, it’s their whole life. Every time they have some week off, they will go to the island and fish all week by themselves.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Martha: No clients. Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And they cook the fish on the bank. And we just have a wonderful time. It’s just a big day.

Martha: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And then we go out the next day and air out on birds again.

Martha: Exactly.

Ramsey Russell: You notice how the hunters really like the horses?

Martha: I noticed that, yeah. I was afraid at the beginning, but everybody loved the adventure of riding a horse on their waders.

The Adventure of La Paz

“They all enjoy it. They enjoy the sky looking at the sky with all those stars because it’s dark it’s pitch black. There’s no city lights within 50 miles.”

Ramsey Russell: And the horses are so docile and just old saddle nags. They’ve walked millions of miles in that swamp. And unless you’re wearing a goat poncho, I found out, they don’t like Colombians wearing goat ponchos.

Martha: No, they don’t.

Ramsey Russell: And they may stop suddenly and buck you off into the mud.

Martha: It was the only time.

Ramsey Russell: But, I mean, out of millions of miles with clients on the back of horses, we’ve never had anything like that happen.

Martha: They all enjoy it. They enjoy the sky, looking at the sky with all those stars, because it’s dark, it’s pitch black.

Ramsey Russell: There’s no city lights within 50 miles.

Martha: You can even see the Milky Way sometimes.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, you can see it all the time. Well, Martha, I’ve enjoyed it. And we’ve already got a lot of bookings for next year. Not surprisingly. And I know you’re gonna miss me.

Martha: I’m gonna miss Char. I’m gonna keep her.

Ramsey Russell: You ain’t gonna keep Char. But look at her just sitting there, laying there.

Martha: Oh, my God. She loves me.

Ramsey Russell: She loves everybody. Everybody loves her. She’s the rock star.

Martha: Oh, she is.

Ramsey Russell: I’m just glad she lets me tag along on this stuff. Nobody cares about me. They just want to see Char.

Martha: Yeah, we do. We’re all gonna miss her. The cleaning lady, the waitress, everybody’s gonna miss her.

Ramsey Russell: Well, she’s coming with me cause she’s got a lot more miles to run. But she’s had a big trip. I tell you what, I’m not big on numbers, I won’t say numbers out loud, but she’s made more retrieves in seven weeks than she made in the last 60 weeks back home in North America. That’s amazing. That’s just the level of hunting opportunity we’ve got here, and it’s great for her. And one thing all the guides noticed, and I noticed because back in the day, when she was younger, she’d make a mark go out. And if she couldn’t find a bird right away, she’d come back without it.

Martha: Now she’s hunting.

Ramsey Russell: She would not hunt. But now, we’ll be 300 yards from where we hunted, and I looked down on the horse and she’s walking around with a duck. I don’t know where she found it.

Martha: Now she’s hunting.

Ramsey Russell: And I see her ranging out 500 yards from where we are, looking for something to pick up. Now she just really hunts.

Martha: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: So it’s good for man, for wife and for beast, La Paz, Argentina. Thank you, Martha. I’m gonna miss you, I hate to say it. I’ve had a good time down here. We all appreciate what you do. You bring sanity to it because we’re thousands of miles from home, we don’t speak the language, and so many outfits down here that I have worked with or met or associated with or visited and scouted in the past 20 years, people don’t understand. It’s just a very highly contracted, it might just be a former translator or a former lodge host that said, oh, I’m going to be a guide. And he contracts it all out. So you leave home, you land in the airport, you meet somebody, they hand you off to a driver, that hands you off to a staff, that hands you off to the guide, that hands you off to the cook, that hands you off to the lodge, and you never see, I mean, by the time you go back, different translator, different driver, different this, different this and different this. And it’s no connect. And where you bring sanity, where I see La Paz as having been such a huge success because of you is because you meet him at the airport. Martha-Martha, you’re just a Martha-Martha job fixer away. But it’s like all day long it looks like you’re playing on your phone, but you’re not. You’re talking to clients that are fixing to come down here, that are down here, that are doing stuff. And it’s such a help when you’re in a big city like Buenos Aires. For example, like Mister Egan, I just figured, Mister Egan would get stuck, you know, 600 pesos more than everybody else. You had to leave first and take the longest ride. And that’s where Martha comes in handy. When he’s sitting there squabbling with the taxi ride driver, Martha bows up and the guy just basically gives him the ride for free. Says, okay, you can go.

Martha: Well, thank you. I appreciate what you say, I appreciate what you do. And La Paz is a success mainly for that, but also because you’re selling it. If you were not spreading the word, I’m not sure people will know about this little place.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of Duck season Somewhere from La Paz, Argentina. Ducks, Doves, Pigeons, Partridges, Golden Dorado, Martha-Martha. See you next time.