GreenT
AH senior member
I submitted the winning bid on an Argentinean hunt donated by “Catena Safaris Argentina” to the SCI South Florida Chapter Sportsmen's Club Banquet & Fundraiser in the fall of 2022. The hunt was a package for 3 hunters, 5 days, and included trophy fees for a wild boar, blackbuck antelope, and Dorset ram. I asked to upgrade the trophy list to include a second blackbuck, a red stag instead of the wild boar, and a multi-horned ram instead of the Dorset. Additionally, we would only be two hunters and an observer. Catena had no problem accommodating my requests, and very graciously gave me full credit for the trophy fees of the animals included in the donated package. They only asked that I pay for the difference in the trophy fees of the additional species I asked for. I wired them a booking deposit and secured my dates for the spring of 2024, as I was hunting Africa in 2023.
I checked in with Catena after my return from Africa in September and this is when things started to go sideways. The other hunter and observer going with me had backed out, so I asked to amend the package to keep the one blackbuck on the list and exchange the wild boar and Dorset ram for a red stag. But now I was told that I would only be allowed one animal from the package, since I was hunting solo - I could hunt the blackbuck (or boar or ram), but would have to pay full price for any other trophy. I pointed out that I had already paid in full for the three animals included in the hunt package that Catena had donated, and they had already agreed to give me full credit for them when it was only going to be two of us hunting and I wanted to make upgrades. But Catena was now adamant that they would not honor the terms of the original package or the amendments we had previously agreed to. The explanation I was given was “this is just the way we do business”. I felt totally put off by this turn of events, and rather than proceed while alarm bells were ringing I thought about cutting my losses. I’d paid to hunt three animals, been permitted to make amendments, paid the booking deposit, and now was being held to a company policy that seemed to have just come into being. It didn't feel right at all, and rather than fight it I decided to simply walk away. I told them I was no longer interested in continuing to do business with them and suddenly I was being addressed by more senior people in the outfit trying to get me to proceed with the hunt. I clarified that I was not engaged in a negotiating tactic, but that I had no faith in their credibility and no desire to keep digging now that I’d found myself in a hole.
(Catena’s hunt donations since then now specify the condition that there’s only one animal allowed per hunter in a package deal, so there's no sharing, and full credit for donated trophy fees will not be allowed in the event an upgrade/exchange is requested.)
But I still had a very strong desire to hunt red stag and blackbuck. Argentinean stag hunts are much more affordable than in Europe or New Zealand, and it was also less expensive for me to hunt blackbuck there then in Texas, so I started contacting other Argentinean outfitters with inquiries. I made a spreadsheet with nine prospects, and eventually settled on “Caza y Safaris” as my top pick. The descriptions of their hunts were very intriguing, their prices very competitive, and most of all their customer service was great. Some of the outfitters were pressing for a booking deposit before we had even sorted out the terms and conditions, which struck me as a red flag, but Federico at Caza was very patient and informative. He answered all my questions in a thorough and timely manner and established a very professional, courteous, and trustworthy relationship that I was very comfortable with.
(Argentinean outfitters have a fee structure similar to African outfitters, with separate daily and trophy fees, but extras include a hunting license, ground transportation, and skinning fees. These can vary quite a bit, so a spreadsheet format was useful in making direct comparisons.)
By the end of November I had booked a hunt with @Caza y Safaris Argentina for one red stag and blackbuck antelope (silver medal class), from March 10th-15th. (As a matter of perspective, the total for this hunt package was less than the trophy fee that Catena wanted to charge me for a silver medal class red stag alone.) I was going to Caza's lodge near the town of Dolores, which is about a two hour drive south of Buenos Aires. This is one of three lodges that owner Jorge Noya maintains in Argentina.
Federico met me at the airport after I landed late in the morning on Sunday and we started driving south. He’s a younger man than I was expecting - maybe because he displayed such a high degree of professionalism and expertise in our correspondence - and he made for great company as we talked back and forth about Argentina and my home in Alaska. At the half-way point we met a vehicle from the lodge that was northbound. The driver was my guide, Leo, with the owner, Jorge. Leo would take me back to the lodge while Federico would return to Buenos Aires with Jorge, who I regret not being able to spend more time with as he was very cheerful and enthusiastic.
Leo is also very good company, but I’m afraid the 22 hours of traveling was catching up to me and several times I nodded off. We made another stop along the way to pick up Soledad, who was to be our cook for the week.
At the lodge I put my things away and we had a late lunch. I was the only client there, as Jorge does not book multiple parties at the same property for the same time. My room was one of four in a separate building, similar to a motel. It had a twin and full size bed, and an en suite bathroom with bidet. The decor throughout is mostly African (Jorge is fond of African safaris). Electricity is by solar panel and is reliable, although there’s no internet. A windmill keeps a water tank full and hot water was always available for washing, although it's a bit salty with a brown tint (we were about 50 miles from the Atlantic coast, and the elevation is slightly below sea level, so drawing fresh ground water can be problematic). The tap water is perfectly fine for washing up, and bottled water is supplied for drinking. The lodge has four pet dogs, a few free ranging horses, and one overly serious cat in residence.
The lodge itself is fairly small, consisting of a sitting area with an L-shaped couch, corner fireplace, small bar, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Next door is a house for the resident staff, a young family (husband and wife and their small boy) who act as caretakers. The food was excellent: pizzas or empanadas for appetizers, then steak, chicken, or pasta for the main course (including tenderloin from your kill), with vegetables and bread, and a fantastic fruit dish for dessert. Soledad and her assistant are excellent cooks and very attentive. I love a good cup of coffee and theirs was premium. My stay would be cut short due to weather, so I’m sorry I did not get to enjoy more from Soledad’s kitchen.
This location is not family friendly, by which I mean to say that there's nothing else to do here if you're not hunting. I was told that the town of Dolores has a spa, but other than that there is no entertainment, no other activities to engage in. The small boy at the lodge was young enough that a toy gun and the ability to keep his mama and papa company were all he needed to stay as happy as could be, but visitors who won't be out looking for game every day might became very bored, especially without internet.
The terrain is mostly flat, but not featureless. It is short grass, open plains that surround marshy areas, and is divided by low ridges only 50-75 yards across and up to several hundred yards long, topped with trees. The mosquitoes were out in force – I would encourage visitors to bring DEET with them, and maybe some extra to leave with your guide (Leo had OFF spray to share, but I really like DEET in a pump bottle). Nothing else there will bite you, fortunately, neither are there many thorny plants. It was very easy to walk through and glass the open areas, while the ridges, trees, and areas of tall marsh grass provided great cover. Our routine, such as it was in only a few days, was to have breakfast at dawn, hunt until returning to the lodge for lunch, take a little siesta, and then hunt the afternoon until dinner.
There are tons of fallow deer here, in different color phases from all white to light tan to various shades of brown. There's lots of axis deer too, although I didn't notice any huge bucks (specifically because I wasn’t hunting for them, I’d say). Blackbuck antelope are abundant, also in different colors from tan to deeper brown to nearly black (although I learned that winter coats tend to be darker than summer coats). The red stag here do not have palmated tops, but I encountered several bulls with really nice (good medal class) racks. During my stay I saw one group of buffalo with some good bulls (not the Australian type with long, ribbed horns, but horns shaped like Cape buffalo, without a boss, and curved back instead of up, possibly the “carabao” subspecies). I only saw two sheep, but they were impressive rams (again, we were not hunting them), and a few times we came across capybara, the world’s biggest rodent. There were also lots of waterfowl that weren't all ducks (but neither is it "the duck place", as Leo said). Saw a few birds that are a native Argentinean ostrich, which was a surprise to me. There are no predators bigger than foxes there, so old bones are scattered all over. I didn’t see any wild boars, but we did come across evidence of their presence.
It’s also very noisy. There are birds, frogs, and insects sounding off at all times, and the red stags and deer all have their own amazing vocalizations (which would only become more intense as the mating season progressed). Leo would identify each of the different calls for me, and I found the little blackbuck to be the most impressive and comical, as those males can grunt like 500 pound hogs.
Bringing firearms into Argentina sounded like a tremendous hassle, so I decided to borrow from the lodge. Two rifles, both in .308 Winchester, were available for me to rent. The first was an older Mauser (that I would have trouble running, with failures to eject/feed, although it was responsible for taking untold numbers of game) with a Zeiss 3-9x40 scope and suppressor. The other was a new, short barreled, lightweight Ruger American (not yet suppressed) that I had no trouble with, topped with an equally new Leupold 3-9x40 scope. Remington Core-lokt ammo is provided, but sparingly - I would have preferred to go through a box of shells with targets at different ranges as a matter of familiarity, but two practice shots at 75 yards was enough to prove acceptable accuracy, as ammo is hard to come by in the country. Bow hunters are welcome, and I saw a few enclosed, elevated stands on the property, although they are not strictly dedicated to archers.
Leo has 26 years of experience with this outfitter, guiding hunters (big game and wing shooters) during the fall and winter, and fishing during the spring and summer. He is highly skilled, having done this his entire adult life. He’s fluent in English (the other staff only speak Spanish), but fairly quiet (I think as a matter of concentration as well as his own sense of etiquette). Leo is the kind of person who is perfectly suited to his profession, as a “people person” who is also an expert in the area and species he’s hunting. I really liked spending time with him.
Hunting starts as soon as you exit the building. There is no cruising in the Hilux, just walking, spotting, and stalking. Bring some kind of pack if you want to carry raingear/ food/ water/ other items. The property covers a thousand acres. It was late summer going into fall there, and the “roar” (rut) was just about to start. The temperatures were very pleasant, mid 60's to upper 70’s as a guess, but a lot of rain. My first night there it started pouring, and although it would occasionally pause it did not clear up for the rest of my trip. It was difficult to get clothes to dry out, and my boots stayed wet the whole time. I did not have laundry done.
On Monday Leo guided me to a red stag, not yet fully rid of its velvet, that qualified as gold medal class, and on Tuesday he put me onto the kind of blackbuck I was after (I was more interested in a dark black coat than big horns, so I passed up better scoring trophies that had lighter, brown bodies). We had a discussion that night about the conclusion of my stay. I would have loved to continue hunting, of course, but I had already taken what I had come for and had exceeded my budget in the process, so I turned down offers to shoot doves or hunt ducks or go fishing at other locations. The continuous rain was turning the clay roads into a lard type mess, so if I stayed and the roads didn’t dry out then we might be stuck for longer than planned. With that, I chose to leave the next morning and stay at a hotel in Buenos Aires, then was able to snag the last seat available on a flight departing for home the next day.
I really enjoyed my time at the Dolores lodge and will always regret being rained out. Had the weather been better I might have spent more time scouting my options, enjoying the food, and just hanging out. I’m very pleased with the animals I took, though, and was entirely impressed with the operation of “Caza y Safaris”. Not having an internet connection seemed inconvenient, but then I decided that it was a silly thing to be concerned about while on a hunting trip. My thanks to Jorge, Leo, Federico, and the rest of the staff for providing me a great experience in Argentina. I would absolutely book with them again.
I checked in with Catena after my return from Africa in September and this is when things started to go sideways. The other hunter and observer going with me had backed out, so I asked to amend the package to keep the one blackbuck on the list and exchange the wild boar and Dorset ram for a red stag. But now I was told that I would only be allowed one animal from the package, since I was hunting solo - I could hunt the blackbuck (or boar or ram), but would have to pay full price for any other trophy. I pointed out that I had already paid in full for the three animals included in the hunt package that Catena had donated, and they had already agreed to give me full credit for them when it was only going to be two of us hunting and I wanted to make upgrades. But Catena was now adamant that they would not honor the terms of the original package or the amendments we had previously agreed to. The explanation I was given was “this is just the way we do business”. I felt totally put off by this turn of events, and rather than proceed while alarm bells were ringing I thought about cutting my losses. I’d paid to hunt three animals, been permitted to make amendments, paid the booking deposit, and now was being held to a company policy that seemed to have just come into being. It didn't feel right at all, and rather than fight it I decided to simply walk away. I told them I was no longer interested in continuing to do business with them and suddenly I was being addressed by more senior people in the outfit trying to get me to proceed with the hunt. I clarified that I was not engaged in a negotiating tactic, but that I had no faith in their credibility and no desire to keep digging now that I’d found myself in a hole.
(Catena’s hunt donations since then now specify the condition that there’s only one animal allowed per hunter in a package deal, so there's no sharing, and full credit for donated trophy fees will not be allowed in the event an upgrade/exchange is requested.)
But I still had a very strong desire to hunt red stag and blackbuck. Argentinean stag hunts are much more affordable than in Europe or New Zealand, and it was also less expensive for me to hunt blackbuck there then in Texas, so I started contacting other Argentinean outfitters with inquiries. I made a spreadsheet with nine prospects, and eventually settled on “Caza y Safaris” as my top pick. The descriptions of their hunts were very intriguing, their prices very competitive, and most of all their customer service was great. Some of the outfitters were pressing for a booking deposit before we had even sorted out the terms and conditions, which struck me as a red flag, but Federico at Caza was very patient and informative. He answered all my questions in a thorough and timely manner and established a very professional, courteous, and trustworthy relationship that I was very comfortable with.
(Argentinean outfitters have a fee structure similar to African outfitters, with separate daily and trophy fees, but extras include a hunting license, ground transportation, and skinning fees. These can vary quite a bit, so a spreadsheet format was useful in making direct comparisons.)
By the end of November I had booked a hunt with @Caza y Safaris Argentina for one red stag and blackbuck antelope (silver medal class), from March 10th-15th. (As a matter of perspective, the total for this hunt package was less than the trophy fee that Catena wanted to charge me for a silver medal class red stag alone.) I was going to Caza's lodge near the town of Dolores, which is about a two hour drive south of Buenos Aires. This is one of three lodges that owner Jorge Noya maintains in Argentina.
Federico met me at the airport after I landed late in the morning on Sunday and we started driving south. He’s a younger man than I was expecting - maybe because he displayed such a high degree of professionalism and expertise in our correspondence - and he made for great company as we talked back and forth about Argentina and my home in Alaska. At the half-way point we met a vehicle from the lodge that was northbound. The driver was my guide, Leo, with the owner, Jorge. Leo would take me back to the lodge while Federico would return to Buenos Aires with Jorge, who I regret not being able to spend more time with as he was very cheerful and enthusiastic.
Leo is also very good company, but I’m afraid the 22 hours of traveling was catching up to me and several times I nodded off. We made another stop along the way to pick up Soledad, who was to be our cook for the week.
At the lodge I put my things away and we had a late lunch. I was the only client there, as Jorge does not book multiple parties at the same property for the same time. My room was one of four in a separate building, similar to a motel. It had a twin and full size bed, and an en suite bathroom with bidet. The decor throughout is mostly African (Jorge is fond of African safaris). Electricity is by solar panel and is reliable, although there’s no internet. A windmill keeps a water tank full and hot water was always available for washing, although it's a bit salty with a brown tint (we were about 50 miles from the Atlantic coast, and the elevation is slightly below sea level, so drawing fresh ground water can be problematic). The tap water is perfectly fine for washing up, and bottled water is supplied for drinking. The lodge has four pet dogs, a few free ranging horses, and one overly serious cat in residence.
The lodge itself is fairly small, consisting of a sitting area with an L-shaped couch, corner fireplace, small bar, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Next door is a house for the resident staff, a young family (husband and wife and their small boy) who act as caretakers. The food was excellent: pizzas or empanadas for appetizers, then steak, chicken, or pasta for the main course (including tenderloin from your kill), with vegetables and bread, and a fantastic fruit dish for dessert. Soledad and her assistant are excellent cooks and very attentive. I love a good cup of coffee and theirs was premium. My stay would be cut short due to weather, so I’m sorry I did not get to enjoy more from Soledad’s kitchen.
This location is not family friendly, by which I mean to say that there's nothing else to do here if you're not hunting. I was told that the town of Dolores has a spa, but other than that there is no entertainment, no other activities to engage in. The small boy at the lodge was young enough that a toy gun and the ability to keep his mama and papa company were all he needed to stay as happy as could be, but visitors who won't be out looking for game every day might became very bored, especially without internet.
The terrain is mostly flat, but not featureless. It is short grass, open plains that surround marshy areas, and is divided by low ridges only 50-75 yards across and up to several hundred yards long, topped with trees. The mosquitoes were out in force – I would encourage visitors to bring DEET with them, and maybe some extra to leave with your guide (Leo had OFF spray to share, but I really like DEET in a pump bottle). Nothing else there will bite you, fortunately, neither are there many thorny plants. It was very easy to walk through and glass the open areas, while the ridges, trees, and areas of tall marsh grass provided great cover. Our routine, such as it was in only a few days, was to have breakfast at dawn, hunt until returning to the lodge for lunch, take a little siesta, and then hunt the afternoon until dinner.
There are tons of fallow deer here, in different color phases from all white to light tan to various shades of brown. There's lots of axis deer too, although I didn't notice any huge bucks (specifically because I wasn’t hunting for them, I’d say). Blackbuck antelope are abundant, also in different colors from tan to deeper brown to nearly black (although I learned that winter coats tend to be darker than summer coats). The red stag here do not have palmated tops, but I encountered several bulls with really nice (good medal class) racks. During my stay I saw one group of buffalo with some good bulls (not the Australian type with long, ribbed horns, but horns shaped like Cape buffalo, without a boss, and curved back instead of up, possibly the “carabao” subspecies). I only saw two sheep, but they were impressive rams (again, we were not hunting them), and a few times we came across capybara, the world’s biggest rodent. There were also lots of waterfowl that weren't all ducks (but neither is it "the duck place", as Leo said). Saw a few birds that are a native Argentinean ostrich, which was a surprise to me. There are no predators bigger than foxes there, so old bones are scattered all over. I didn’t see any wild boars, but we did come across evidence of their presence.
It’s also very noisy. There are birds, frogs, and insects sounding off at all times, and the red stags and deer all have their own amazing vocalizations (which would only become more intense as the mating season progressed). Leo would identify each of the different calls for me, and I found the little blackbuck to be the most impressive and comical, as those males can grunt like 500 pound hogs.
Bringing firearms into Argentina sounded like a tremendous hassle, so I decided to borrow from the lodge. Two rifles, both in .308 Winchester, were available for me to rent. The first was an older Mauser (that I would have trouble running, with failures to eject/feed, although it was responsible for taking untold numbers of game) with a Zeiss 3-9x40 scope and suppressor. The other was a new, short barreled, lightweight Ruger American (not yet suppressed) that I had no trouble with, topped with an equally new Leupold 3-9x40 scope. Remington Core-lokt ammo is provided, but sparingly - I would have preferred to go through a box of shells with targets at different ranges as a matter of familiarity, but two practice shots at 75 yards was enough to prove acceptable accuracy, as ammo is hard to come by in the country. Bow hunters are welcome, and I saw a few enclosed, elevated stands on the property, although they are not strictly dedicated to archers.
Leo has 26 years of experience with this outfitter, guiding hunters (big game and wing shooters) during the fall and winter, and fishing during the spring and summer. He is highly skilled, having done this his entire adult life. He’s fluent in English (the other staff only speak Spanish), but fairly quiet (I think as a matter of concentration as well as his own sense of etiquette). Leo is the kind of person who is perfectly suited to his profession, as a “people person” who is also an expert in the area and species he’s hunting. I really liked spending time with him.
Hunting starts as soon as you exit the building. There is no cruising in the Hilux, just walking, spotting, and stalking. Bring some kind of pack if you want to carry raingear/ food/ water/ other items. The property covers a thousand acres. It was late summer going into fall there, and the “roar” (rut) was just about to start. The temperatures were very pleasant, mid 60's to upper 70’s as a guess, but a lot of rain. My first night there it started pouring, and although it would occasionally pause it did not clear up for the rest of my trip. It was difficult to get clothes to dry out, and my boots stayed wet the whole time. I did not have laundry done.
On Monday Leo guided me to a red stag, not yet fully rid of its velvet, that qualified as gold medal class, and on Tuesday he put me onto the kind of blackbuck I was after (I was more interested in a dark black coat than big horns, so I passed up better scoring trophies that had lighter, brown bodies). We had a discussion that night about the conclusion of my stay. I would have loved to continue hunting, of course, but I had already taken what I had come for and had exceeded my budget in the process, so I turned down offers to shoot doves or hunt ducks or go fishing at other locations. The continuous rain was turning the clay roads into a lard type mess, so if I stayed and the roads didn’t dry out then we might be stuck for longer than planned. With that, I chose to leave the next morning and stay at a hotel in Buenos Aires, then was able to snag the last seat available on a flight departing for home the next day.
I really enjoyed my time at the Dolores lodge and will always regret being rained out. Had the weather been better I might have spent more time scouting my options, enjoying the food, and just hanging out. I’m very pleased with the animals I took, though, and was entirely impressed with the operation of “Caza y Safaris”. Not having an internet connection seemed inconvenient, but then I decided that it was a silly thing to be concerned about while on a hunting trip. My thanks to Jorge, Leo, Federico, and the rest of the staff for providing me a great experience in Argentina. I would absolutely book with them again.
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