Writing a recent article about Pigeon reminded me of an interesting period in my life. I used to spend a good part of my spring in Baja. While there, I managed to meet a great friend that came from a shit situation. Some friends and I had a place rented in a small town near where we like to fish. We had a few incidents with a drunken neighbour with whom the landlords were familiar. We started noticing little things missing from the property but didn't want to start making waves and we said nothing. The last straw was when they stole some of my snorkel gear and then I found my filleting knife out in the yard stuck in the sand. This was too weird and it was time to do something. We called the cops. We weren't sure what would become of it, but before long, they were at the place and asking for descriptions of what was missing, timelines, etc.

Clemente with a whack of Doves. He liked to keep a bit of score. He ended up with 31 and I had 30. that was enough. That’s a lot of plucking.

Mexican police roll around with some serious weaponry. I engaged in a conversation about one of the officer’s rifles. He was a hunter and fisherman as well. I had some questions about hunting Doves and Quails in the area and we had a great chat. He asked if I wanted to go with him one day and of course, I did. I never expected to hear from him, but a few days later, the phone rang and he invited me to go for a Dove hunt on his family's ranch the next day. It was one of the most fun days I had down in the Baja. We were lucky and were able to harvest a bunch of Doves and a couple of rabbits with high powered pellet rifles.

Gonzalez bros with a rabbit which became lunch. His Aunt simmered it up in salty water then sautéed it up with garlic, salt, and oregano.

His aunt cooked us up one of the rabbits for lunch along with some fresh tortillas and some homemade goats cheese. It was incredible. I would never have thought that those wirey ol jackrabbits in the dessert would taste as good as they do.

I believe this guy was guy was an 11 time winner in the ring. That’s a lot for a fighting cock apparently.

At the end of the day, we went back to his brother's house and they showed us their fighting roosters. It was the end of their season and they weren't going to be fighting them for a little while, so we sparred some of the roosters and shared a few Modelos.

Janinini about to sparr. notice the little leather bolos on their spurs to keep them from hurting each other.

The next year he brought me to an actual real deal cockfight. It wouldn't be for everyone, but I had a great time. Say what you want about unethical, I'm not particularly eager to shove my nose where it doesn't belong, saying what's right for others. It was an interesting cultural experience and the best part of it all was watching the crowd. This was just another situation where I wished my Spanish was better.

Air Rifle hunting in the Baja