Before you start shaking your head about the cost of foreign travel (never mind sporting holidays) and cleaning your weapons in preparation for mothballing, have a look at Outside Days out of season sporting breaks. After all, I didn’t get a can of WD40 for my birthday because I am a frivolous spendthrift.
Texas
No. 2′s nationality has nothing to do with my passion for this vast state and the varied sport it offers (her kind cling to the coasts). From quail over pointers to hogs in high seats and bass from boats, there is literally sport to be had 365 days of the year. Packages can be as simple or complex as you like: take in multiple venues or be based from one camp, devote yourself to one quarry or sample a plethora of sporting opportunities. In 2011, start from $250USD a day.

Argentina
The high volume dove shooting in Argentina needs very little introduction, nor does Tierra del Fuego and its enormous sea trout. But it wouldn’t be an Outside Days adventure if we hadn’t explored every nook and cranny to bring you sport off the beaten track. The pampas holds enormous trophy reds and antelope that will have the stalkers dreaming, and Patagonia’s stunning trout rivers and freshwater lakes will take the ardent flyfisherman by surprise. Whether iconic Argentinian sport or a diversion from convention gives you the shivers, we can take you there with 2011 excursions starting at $450USD a day.

South Africa
Last year’s guinea pig trip is this year’s strong contender for the best boys trip away, offering huge value that almost matches the bag. We offer a range of South African options from the luxe and plush colonial to the no-frills lodge experience. From wildebeast to dove and all sizes of fur and feather in between, we’ve got a southern African trip to suit. And the meager hour time difference means no jet lag! With 2011 African experiences available from £1,600 for a week, you can trade the heat of the British spring and summer for the balmy African winter.

Croatia
With the amount of time I spent there last year and the fun I had, I’m considering registering as a Croatian citizen. They think nothing of waking before dawn to pursue quail over pointers, then heading to the Dalmatian coast for a bit of spearfishing and baitfishing, or to icy mountain streams for trout before returning for another bash at the birds. Add chamois, moufflon, boar and woodcock to the sporting menu and it represents pretty amazing value within a couple of hours of London. Let’s be honest, that’s closer than the big Devon high bird shoots (for most of us), and with two days of sport starting at 900euros in 2011, a LOT more affordable.

If any of these sporting destinations appeal to you, please get in touch so we can help you customise a trip to suit.

******CALLING ALL GUINEA PIGS******
If you like the unexpected, the bargain, the occasional compromise, and expressing your considered opinions in a constructive way, this is for you.

Every year, we add a few new strings to our bow. And, as you would expect from us, everything is road tested before we offer it to the wider world. The road test dummies, affectionately known as guinea pigs, get bargain trips to stunning (well, we hope) locations. In exchange, they tolerate me and the unforeseen. Risks have included dodgy transfers, mystery meat, unusual food combining (banana, ham and salad cream sandwiches), local games, and patchy sport. On the other hand, we’ve had enormous bags of a diversity of birds, real bargains, made some new friends around the globe, and no shortage of laughter.

Providing I have enough of you volunteer to be experimented on, the 2011 offerings include:
* Flyfishing for trout on the rivers in Bosnia
* A three day barbel on the dry-fly trip to Spain. Yes, you read that right, my fantasy fishing experiment has been made a reality by the Spaniards.
* Partridge, taimen and antelope, the Mongolian McGenghis, for the really adventurous.

Sign up now to join the doughty band of adventurers named after a children’s pet. You, too can be an Outside Days guinea pig.

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Going on safari to South Africa once meant weeks of travel just to get there, and time spent pursuing big game with even bigger rifles. Today its possible to catch a flight from London and be ensconced under canvas or in a lodge inside 18 hours. And a yearning for zebra, lion or antelope can be replaced with a passion for winged targets. Among South Africa’s numerous natural blessings is its enormous diversity of bird species, somewhere in the region of 50 of which are quarry species.

The best of South Africa’s shooting is concentrated between May 1 and August 31 – the winter months in the antipodes. And this is when you will find Outside Days setting up camp ready to welcome you to the best sport in South Africa’s agricultural breadbaskets. Whether your passion is pigeon and dove, waterfowl, or Lancaster bomber (guinea fowl) and their spur fowl cousins, we can tailor a package to suit you. Combining fluff flicking and the odd antelope with winged quarry is always a possibility: we love to turn dreams into fur, feather and fin.

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Our destination was a game lodge some 5 hours south of Johannesburg, just outside Kimberley in an area famous for diamond mines and agriculture. If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ll know the journey was…eventful. We were treated to some of the best of African driving including exhibitions of weaving at speed and sweet talking policemen. The lodge was a welcome sight, nestled down a 3km drive in 3,000+ acres of veldt (the African equivalent of Salisbury plain, complete with bustards).

Like farmers everywhere, the Christiana agriculturalists view (African mourning and ring necked) doves and (speckled or rock) pigeons as pests. Having tucked ourselves into the edge of maize fields and taken cover in hides on peanuts, it was only too easy to see why. The kit and the tactics here are the same as on British soil with our wood pigeons: decoys and pigeon magnets are deployed to great effect. Just make sure you get the polarity right when you hook up your battery: reversing birds may be amusing, but are unproven as a strategy even for attracting antipodean fowl.

While not quite Argentina, the birds came in thick and fast. At their peak, even with two in a hide we couldn’t load fast enough. If the tactics are the same, the quarry are quite different. African mourning dove jink like a snipe and are pretty similar in size. The rock pigeons are slightly smaller than wood pigeons, and fly in a less predictable pattern. We managed to cram three pigeon expeditions into our five days of sport, firing more than a thousand between the six of us. The birds that didn’t end up on the lodge’s dining room table went to locals who welcomed the extra protein with open arms.

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Looking for a chance to get away from it all this spring (Dates TBC) ? I am looking for a clutch of guinea pigs to join me on an exploratory trip to Argentina.

The three locations we are looking to visit are:

Cordoba

World famous for its dove shooting and the enormous number of birds it produces, most of us have heard about this area – Cordoba makes every list of the top places to shoot before you die. Not wishing to cast aspersions about your health, but life is short and this trip is cheap. Why not make it this year?

Northern Patagonia

This relatively new fishing destination offers truly wild rainbows and brownies in a spectacular setting. Couple this with a luxury lodge and you have a memorable adventure.

Tierra del Fuego

When you fish the rivers of the sea trout capital of the world, even the average fish is the fish of a lifetime. We will be fishing the River Menendez were the fish average 16lbs. So pack those 8 and 9 weights and start eating your spinach!

You don’t have to do all three locations. Just pick the one(s) that appeal to you. This is a trial trip so the prices will never be beaten. For more information drop me an email.

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