Skylark hunting

Skylark hunting

Skylark hunting, an unique hunt that can be done legally (as far as I know), only here in Romania. I searched on google and I found very few articles on internet about skylark hunting in english. Most of them are in Italian language (allodole caccia). I think that a compressive article about skylark hunting in English will be very interesting for birds hunters all over the world.

Except Italian hunters, very few European hunters know about skylark hunting. I am an outfitter for around 15 years, mostly for big game, I admit, but I grew up in a family of hunters…pheasants, partridges, ducks and geese…
My problem is … I don’t speak Italian…so I never had a group of hunters for skylarks.

Every year in October, thousands of Italian hunters are coming to Romania for this tinny, small, but challenging bird.
It is a high volume hunt, not like in dove hunting in Argentina, but if I had to choose a similar European hunt this hunt is the closest.
Hundreds and hundreds of shells are shot every day for each hunter. And the birds are active only in the morning, up to 11 am or latest 13 pm. The weather is an important factor, the sunny and calm days without wind are perfect for a successful hunt. Well, successful skylark hunting is depending on who are you asking. If you ask me, 150 to 200 shells per morning is a successful skylark hunting day, but it looks like for serious Italian hunter, 250 shells per morning is the minim for such a day.

Now, let’s take a look to the equipment for such a hunt.

Guns and shells for skylarks hunting

Semi-auto shot guns are the best for such high volume shots, Beretta, Benelli or Fabarm are the most common ones.
12 Gauge, of course, with zero chokes are the optimal. Shells number 11 (1.7 mm) or number 10 (1.9 mm) with minimal 30 grams load are perfect.

Blinds, decoys and callers

If blinds are easy to set up, 4 sticks and a camo net that surrounds 3 parts of the square, things are changing when we are talking about decoys. I have seen owls, mirrors and even taxidermy of 3 or 4 skylarks on a long stick placed in front of the blind(I never seen a skylark in a tree before but…)
For callers, Italian electronic callers are the best. Period! You can not make the difference between an italian electronic caller and the song of a skylark. Expensive but very good. you can find some copies from China but I do not recommend that.

Hunting season

Best period for hunting skylarks are first two weeks of October. Due the migration from North countries the concentration of the birds is very high, especially in the South of Romania. As I wrote in the first part of the article, best time are calm sunny days, without wind and no clouds. The fly of the skylark is very challenging.
At the first look you will say is an easy target. Well…not at all..If for ducks you have 3 shells per one birds ratio, here a good ration is 5 shells for one bird. Hard to believe, no?

Conclusion

For any serious European waterfowl hunter or pheasant or woodcock hunter this hunt will be a joke, but take my advice and try it for at least one time, few shots…you will find out that sinuous fly of this birds is as difficult as teal fly or woodcock fly. Do not believe me? Just try it and let me know…
Another sensitive subject, that have to be mention, is what you do with those birds after the hunt. Well…clean it, put them on a wood stick and grill it. They are … fabulous.