By C.C. MCCOTTER
One of the most often asked questions we receive from our readers in the fall is: “Do you know of any good plac-es I can hunt?”
Well, based on the excellent and varied array of hunting preserves and guides in the region we can say, “You bet!”
Each year we compile our Guide to Hunting Preserves & Outfitters and our recommendations follow in alphabetical order. This list of hunting preserves and outfitters can take you upland bird, deer, turkey and bear hunting. One can even offer African safaris! The terrain varies from place to place from moun-tains to Piedmont hills, rugged valleys to farm fields, so be sure and know what you can physically handle before making your arrangements.
In many cases, W2 has personally visited many of these establishments or will be in the coming months. When making plans to visit one of these businesses you should expect to make reservations via a phone call or email, then be required to send a deposit in advance to hold your day. Each establishment has its own rules, but all require proper licenses you must often obtain before arriving. Blaze orange is also necessary. Be sure and inquire about tipping policies and total cost for the trips so you won’t be surprised at the end of the hunt.
Good luck and let us know how you do with a Reader Letter or email.
Adansonia Safaris
An African safari is on most hunter’s bucket list but cost is a big factor. With Adansonia Safaris you can set up a custom itinerary and plan to hunt the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo), plains game (antelopes), spiral horn game, night creatures, upland birds and more while staying in a luxury lodge and enjoying post hunt drinks and all meals in comfort. Lodge staff pick you up from the airport and transport you personally.
Contact Gary Pleasants at 434.566.1444 for more information or visit www.adansonia.co.za.
Bacon Farms
Guests enjoy extensive private hunting grounds including a 257-acre property not far from Nottaway Reservoir smack dab in the middle of rural Virginia (between Blackstone and South Hill) that Bacon and his family have carefully curated to provide outstanding cover and crops for the early dove season as well as upland bird hunting during the long preserve hunting season.
Bacon is a champion dog trainer and breeders. At just 34 he’s already trained six national field trial champions and his now 10-year-old yellow lab, Mason, was inducted to the National Upland Classic Series (NUCS) Hall of Fame and can consistently vacuum a field of three birds in under six minutes. Bacon trains all breeds of hunting dogs, but his specialty is finishing upland bird dogs. His dove shoots are not to be missed!
Contact Bacon at 434.774.6567.
Chincoteague Hunting & Fishing Center
Captain Pete Wallace is a highly rated outfitter that offers guided waterfowl hunting adventures on Virginia’s Eastern Shore; the wintering grounds for one of the largest, most diverse populations of waterfowl found any-where. Chincoteague Hunting maintains approximately 100 blinds from the Maryland/Virginia state line south for approximately 30 miles. They also have blinds in and around the Saxis Wildlife Management area on the Chesapeake Bay. These blinds include marsh blinds, which overlook ponds and creeks and pole blinds, which are located in the open waters of the bays and sounds.
Guides provide you with transportation to and from the blinds and are licensed Coast Guard Captains with Coast Guard inspected vessels. Your guide will remain with you throughout the hunt to set out decoys, retrieve your birds and relocate you as necessary. Moving a few times throughout the hunt depending on weather condi-tions, tides and the type of waterfowl you are hunting is another way Chincoteague guides keep the shooting hot. It is possible to hunt puddle ducks, divers, sea ducks, brant and geese all in the same day.
This outfitter also offers rail hunting trips – a rarity these days. If you want to spend a morning chasing marsh hens be prepared to wade in old shoes and long pants. The birds are plentiful but you have to flush them yourself and they run, swim and hide before flying! Contact Capt. Wallace at 1.888.231.4868 or visit www.chincoteaguehunt-fish.com
Forest Green Shooting Preserve
One of Virginia’s oldest continuously operated hunting preserves, Forest Green is a great venue to experience the tradition of upland bird hunting in a relaxed environment.
Owner, David Sutter manages over 600 acres and a beautiful lodge/corporate meeting facility that can sleep up to 12 guests. The grounds at Forest Green include natural and planted cover fields and pine plantation. Hunters can utilize Sutter’s staff guides and dogs or self-guide with their own dog on packages of quail, chukkar and pheasant. New this year is a 5-stand, sporting clays shooting experience. You can run 50 through 50 clays prior to your hunt or just shoot the targets. www.forestgreenpreserve.com. 540.582.2566.
Razorback Guide Service
Brian Bodine has been living in the Central Virginia area for over 25 years. Now living in Scottsville, he is guiding hunters on some of the same countryside that Teddy Roosevelt once did, (his hunting cottage, Pine Knott, is three miles from headquarters).
This area of Virginia holds as much game as it is scenic. Its rolling hills in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains contain deer, turkey, bear, and a variety of bird hunting opportunities. Brian has the skill and local knowledge to make your adventure as enjoyable as well as successful.
Razorback owns and leases over 2,000 acres of farmland with exclusive hunting rights in the central Virginia area. Much of it is river bottom land containing planted grain fields, oaks ridges, planted pines and cutovers. Many hold farm ponds offering opportunities for mixed bags of ducks and geese. Deer are abundant and some of land is managed for trophy bucks only. 434.923.9305
Rose Hill Bird Hunting Preserve
In the heart of Virginia’s Piedmont region lays Rose Hill Farm Game Bird Preserve. This is a 210-acre estate where sportsmen have hunted since Virginia was still a colony. Today hunters still enjoy prime upland game bird hunts at this Culpeper area preserve about an hour’s drive from DC. The property features a variety of managed cover and natural grassland providing a unique hunting experience for pheasants, Hungarian partridge, chukar and quail. You may choose from guided and unguided hunts and clay target warm-ups are available. Rose Hill even offers limited hog hunting after deer season. 540.827.7484.
The Preserve at Dundee
As a fully licensed hunting preserve, The Preserve at Dundee offers phenomenal hunting even for the most dis-criminating shot.
Owner Ted Barrett, Jr. strives to fill every hunter’s bag and stocks thousands of birds thoughout the year in-cluding quail, chukkar and pheasant. With no bag limits, that is certainly no easy task but Ted’s father instilled in him true southern hospitality. Keep the birds flying and the bourbon glasses full!
As a guest of The Preserve at Dundee, you literally have an endless list of options to create a unique and excit-ing adventure that is custom crafted to your exacting requests and will exceed your expectations. There are half day hunts in the morning and afternoon, full day hunts, full catering by the fabulous Homemades by Suzanne, overnight options and so much more.
The half day hunts are available for up to three guns and include unlimited bird privileges, phenomenal guides with dogs, bird cleaning and preparation, hunting vehicles to/from field, post hunt lunch for morning hunts or delectable hors d’oeuvres for afternoon hunts and a tremendous open bar featuring the very best in local libations. There is also an optional dinner add on showcasing wild game wrapped in an amazing four course meal. www.ThePreserveAtDundee.com 804.543.1897.
Ramrod Guide Service
Head guide and owner, Travis Stauch is one of the more colorful people you can hunt with in the region. He’s an expert caller with access to some of the best waterfowl hunting in the state and even in Canada.
Join him this fall and winter for field goose hunts and blind hunts on the tidal Potomac River. When he’s not guiding for ducks and geese, Stauch is in the bow doing guided bowhunts for snakehead on the Potomac. 1 703-209-9989. ramrodbowfishing@mail.com
Virginia Shooting Sports
Virginia Shooting Sports offers outstanding sporting clays and wing-shooting instruction to students of all levels and disciplines. Beginners will absolutely delight in the easy to understand and simple to duplicate pro-cesses taught. The serious competitor and avid bird hunter will completely appreciate the no nonsense, 100% in-fallible methods to create consistency in their shooting. You can easily and quickly learn how to add Xs to the scorecard and more birds to the bag.
Kate Ahnstrom, professional associate instructor of the Paragon School of Sporting, doesn’t just show you how to break a clay bird, she custom crafts a shooting experience based around your goals.
Virginia Shooting Sports is proudly partnered with Syren and Caesar Guerini to bring students and clients the absolute finest in Italian shotguns. 804-512-2771. www.virginiashootingsports.com.
