• A favorite outfitter of Bird Hunting Report subscribers

• Lots of waterfowl including premium duck hunting

• Accommodations “ Once in a little farmhouse, now a luxurious lodge..."

• Food: Gourmet from live-in chef

• Hunt: Close-decoying geese, an abundance of ducks, and sporty upland shooting in Argentina

Several Bird Hunting Report subscribers have described George Criddle of Los Gauchos Outfitters as a straight shooter who delivers what he promises. And if he can’t, as was the case last year when drought and other weather conditions put the goose migration off in 2005, Criddle will go out of his way to make up for it. Here’s what he has to say about his outfitting services.

Criddle came to the business in a backwards sort of way. He was a client whose outfitter left him stranded at the airport on his very first trip to Argentina. During his flight, though, he had met an Argentine who lived in the U.S. and whose family owned a lot of land in Argentina. The two not only became friends but they also eventually created Los Gauchos Outfitters, in the city of Colonel Pringles, Province Buenos Aires.

For two years, they ran hunts out of backcountry estancias, little farmhouses that Criddle describes as old, “clapped out” facilities with thin mattresses, a trickle of a shower and only fireplaces and blankets for heat. The upside was the flights of ducks and geese they were able to produce for their clients. Before long, the two built a brand new facility with all the comforts and amenities of a modern lodge.

What sets Los Gauchos apart from every other such operation is location, location, location. It sits just off a paved roadway only two minutes from the intersection of three major wintering area for Ashy-headed and Magellan geese as well as thousands ducks.

From that vantage, the Los Gauchos clients gain easy access to hunting areas. Guests at other estancias, located as many as 15 miles from major roadways, are often required to take a hour’s drive to get to the good roads-double that if the back roads are mucked up by rain. Furthermore, Estancia Los Gaucho’s location makes it the only lodge in the region that can offer goose, duck, dove, Perdiz and pigeon hunting all within an hour’s drive.

He describes the goose hunting as high-volume shooting for Ashy-heads and Magellan that can be good to spectacular, depending on the conditions. In fields of cut wheat and sunflowers, hunters sit in chairs camouflaged with ghillie blankets and shoot over decoys. Unfortunately, rules and regulations in Argentina as well as mother nature have caused Los Gauchos to take goose hunting off our Argentina hunting packages. Our lodge in Santa Fe though provides excellent waterfowl and wingshooting from a luxury lodge and area that is not affected by mother nature.

Duck hunting is from dry blinds, or natural cover among the reeds on the edge of water or from ground blinds in cut cornfields. Species that hunters can collect include rosy-billed pochards, yellow-billed pintail, cinnamon teal, silver teal, speckled teal, chiloe widgeon, red shovelers and possibly white-faced tree ducks, white cheek pintails, and black-headed ducks. Los Gauchos provides decoys and Labrador retrievers.

English setters and English Pointers produce “above average” Perdiz hunting in pastures and the foothills of the Sierra de la Ventanas mountain range. There are also some low volume shoots for pigeons and doves (2 to 8 boxes), mostly near roosts. In total, Los Gauchos has access to well over 70,000 acres of varied terrain for all their shoots.

Criddle says he spends up to $10,000 a season on supplemental baiting, which is legal in Argentina and Uruguay. He also prides himself on running the business with the efficiency expected of any American-owned and operated facility in South America.

The Los Gauchos Santa Fe Lodge is an hour and fifteen minutes from the airport in Santa Fe, Argentina. It features four double-occupancy bedrooms with private baths. Groups are limited to six shooters, individual hunters are welcome, and exclusive use of the lodge can be arranged as well. Amenities included a private business center with phone, fax, and high-speed internet service. A live-in chef prepares meals. Hunt packages are 4 to 4.5 days, with clients arriving on Sunday evening in time for dinner. The season for ducks runs from April 15-Aug. 15 in Argentina and May 1-September 15 in Uruguay.

Another chance meeting led Criddle to establish another lodge in Rio Branco, Uruguay. The Los Gauchos Rio Branco Duck Lodge or Los Gauchos Uruguay Duck Hunting Club as it has become known as, is about 5 hours from the airport in Montevideo, near the Brazilian border. Here he offers what he calls “old fashioned duck hunting” on a rice plantation. The fields attract eight species of migrating ducks. While he cannot guarantee 100 ducks a day, Criddle says that shooting is consistently good. He has access to over 25,000 acres of fields and pastures.

Depending on the period hunted, clients can take rosy-bills, pintails, widgeons, sliver teal, specked teal, yellow-billed teal, red shovelers, white-faced tree ducks and Brazilian ducks. Hunts take place no further than 30 minutes from the lodge. Hunters wade about 15 yards along the rice roads to platforms blinds for morning hunts. Afternoon duck hunts are on potholes.

Criddle utilizes a Duck Hunting Club style estancia. It has four double-occupancy bedrooms, each with a private bath. The great room has a fireplace and a bar stocked with imported German beer and wines from Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Groups are limited to eight shooters, and individual hunters are welcome for the Uruguay duck hunting. Amentities include close access to all duck hunting marshes and blinds. Internet in the lodge and satellite tv. Meals are prepared by a professional chef and all guides and hosts are fluent in English. Packages are 3.5 4, or 4.5 days with all clients arriving on Sunday night for dinner.

The alternate to the Uruguay Duck Hunting Club in Rio Branco is the Estancia Fortin located about 3.5 hours from the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the Fortin Lodge clients may opt for an afternoon Perdiz hunt in pastures over Brittany spaniels. Criddle says the walking is very easy and there are no thorns or cockleburs to deal with.

The Fortin Lodge is located in Chuy and sits among some of the best Uruguay duck hunting land. The distance from the lodge to the marsh can be up to 30 minutes depending on the head guides scouting and baiting schedule. Rooms are double occupancy and 8 duck hunters per week are accepted. Fortin Lodge can provide hunters with a single room, if available (*extra fee).

In addition to having his own waterfowl hunting operations in Argentina and Uruguay, Criddle is also an affiliate for Estancia Los Chanares in Cordoba where he offers high-volume dove shoots.