Still in Argentina. Subscriber John Boeger has filed a rave review on a hunt handled for him this past July by outfitter George Criddle. Although things didn’t go exactly as Boeger had planned, he has nothing but praise for the way Criddle bandied his situation. In an enthusiastic letter Boeger writes, “I was surprised and disappointed when George Criddle, one of the owners of Los Gauchos Outfitters, found me at the local airport in Buenos Aires and advised me ‘that he had thought it best for his clients that he cancel the remainder of the goose hunting season at his lodge near Bahia Blanca because of the continuing dry weather. Although he reported good hunting the first six weeks of the season, he said the geese were no longer concentrated in flocks sufficient to expect continued good shooting. Thus, Criddle went to a lot of trouble to find me (I had already been in Argentina and Paraguay for five weeks and was hard to locate) and to give me some options so that I would forget my initial disappointment of not going on a good goose hunt.

‘First, Criddle told me he would return 100 percent of my money, and he has done so. Second, in addition to the full refund he offered to send me on a free dove shoot at Los Chanares lodge near Cordoba. Of course I could have gone home and not gone on a free first class dove hunt for five days, but that did not seem to be the wise choice. Thus, Criddle changed my plane reservation (at his expense), and off I went to Cordoba. Several hours later, I was delivered to Los Chanares, was met by the owner and given a late steak dinner by the manager of the lodge, Alex Mitri and his lovely wife. ‘I enjoyed four full days of great dove shooting (I decided not to shoot the fifth morning) and was very impressed with the lodge, the food, the service and the fact that all hunting took place on Los Chanares ground. Thus there were very short drives and sometimes we even walked back to the lodge when we decided we had shot at enough doves. Because the birds were close by, we slept to 8am, ate a big breakfast and were shooting by 9 am or shortly thereafter. I shall return in the future. You can visit their web site at www.loschanares.com or call direct at 800-281-2717. This place is first class.

“I have experienced hunts when the outfitter gave credits for the next trip because the hunting was not up to his standards, but a refund of all moneys, plus a five-day free dove shoot at a first class lodge? First time for me. Above and beyond!! I will hunt with George Criddle sometime in the future because any outfitter that does what he did will certainly do his best to provide good shooting. Los Gauchos Outfitters web site can be located at www.losgauchos.com, and George Criddle can he reached at 214-695-4746. I might add that Criddle is a commercial airline pilot in the US and also provides duck shooting in Uruguay and duck and perdiz hunting in Argentina.”