Our near monthly W2 Profiles have featured over 50 sportsmen and women around the region. Some are hunters, others are anglers, all share a love of the outdoors and do their part to share it with others with standard-setting efforts.
For this edition of our W2 Profile we caught up with Matthew Hawkins, 40, the farm manager of and guide at Rose Hill Shooting Preserve just outside of Culpeper, Virginia.
The current resident of Fauquier County has been at Rose Hill for over 15 years and notes that being outdoors every day is what keeps him going.
“I love all aspects of this job from the planting and farming, to getting to know all of our customers who come from such a diverse background, as well as getting to work with my dogs every day in the field.”
With a very busy schedule, we asked Hawkins what he thought makes Rose Hill such a popular preserve?
“The fact that we are located within two hours of DC is helpful, as well as the quality of our birds and guides. Also, our hunting fields are well maintained so that we can provide people with limited mobility a chance to hunt,” Hawkins told W2.
We also asked what had changed in the hunting preserve business over the years?
“Not much, the state has lost a few preserves over the last few years and that has caused us to see a large increase in customers.”
Rose Hill, like some of the other preserves around Virginia enjoys hosting special events throughout the season. One such event Theis noted he was looking forward to is an annual tower pheasant shoot.
“We have our tower shoot in honor of Lt. Jason Mann in late October which benefits the Families of the Wounded Fund. We have a full field and it’s a great day to enjoy the shooting/hunting traditions.”
Hawkins went on to say that Rose Hill offers tower shoots for large groups of up to 24 hunters. They are a favorite option of corporate clients to offer a full day of fun in the outdoors for their employees and vendors.
When you go on a guided hunt at a game preserve there are certain aspects that make it memorable for all the right reasons – the guide is one of the most important. We asked Hawkins what makes a good Rose Hill guide?
“Our guides have lots of experience, good people skills and most importantly, an awesome dog!”
As someone who’s personally visited Rose Hill, I know how meticulously the fields and cover are maintained. It would really be eye-opening if hunters know just how much prep work goes into a successful hunting preserve operation. We asked Hawkins to explain how he and his team sow cover and manage it as well as maintain the supply of game.
“Ha! A lot of hard work goes into what you see each season when you visit. We have a variety of warm season natural grasses as well as sorghum that we plant every year. We also have only the highest quality game birds for hunting on our property.”
We asked what a typical hunt at Rose Hill looks like.
“You can expect a fun day of hard flying birds with excellent dog work accompanied by good conversation and camaraderie with your hunting companions,” Theis noted.
When he’s not tending Rose Hill Hawkins told W2 he enjoys hunting and fishing with my son, as well as watching his daughter play softball.
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