Count Lars Magnusson among the sportsmen who, when considering the merits of a shooting lodge or estate, are concerned more with the thrill of the hunt than the thread count of the sheets. “What really draws me is whether the shooting is fantastic,” says Magnusson.
"I can stay at the estate, or I can stay at the local pub."
Magnusson is the founder and as president of Blixt & Co., a business that conducts pheasant and partridge shoots at the 2,200-acre Lazy Triple Creek estate. The company has the exclusive sporting rights to the property, which is in Newdale, Idaho, about an hour from the Blixt headquarters in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
The shoots at Lazy Triple Creek, which are limited to eight hunters—or guns, as the hunters are called—at a time, are driven shoots as opposed to the more common walk-up shoots, in which the birds are roused from the ground as the hunter approaches. In a driven shoot, the hunters, dressed in traditional European shooting garb, form a line, and then the estate’s gamekeeper and his team of beaters tap sticks and wave flags to direct the birds toward a flushing point. There, the birds take to the air, with enough room to gain height and speed before they fly in front of and over the shooters. "Like any herding of animals, you push the birds in a certain direction," says Magnusson. "And unfortunately for the birds, it’s toward the gun line."
Magnusson also consults with landowners seeking to establish their properties as private or semiprivate shooting estates. And he organizes trips to shooting estates throughout the world for groups of hunters. The company is named for his great-grandfather (blixt means lightning in Swedish), who, like Magnusson’s father and grandfather, was a hunter.
"It always comes down to whether the shooting is great and the hospitality is up to par," Magnusson says of hunting lodges. "It doesn’t have to be four- or five-star quality, but the hospitality is still important. At the end of the day, you go on a trip so that you can enjoy the company and enjoy the shooting experience. Otherwise you might as well stay home."
Fishing trips are no different, says Tom Ashby, a former CEO of a multinational corporation who retired from that profession in 2005 and opened American Legacy Fishing Co. in 2007. The fishing supply store, which is said to have the world’s largest inventory of G. Loomis rods, is based in Evansville, Ind., and serves customers around the world through its web site.
When asked about the criteria for a great fishing trip, Ashby uses an experience he had a few years ago at a lodge in Belize as a benchmark. "You never really know what a great trip is until you have one that knocks your socks off, where all the stars align, and things just work out," says Ashby.
That happened in Belize, he says, because of a few factors: he fished for (and caught) a variety of species (snook, bonefish, and tarpon); he fished with the right equipment and brought the right clothes for the tropical weather, thanks to the advice of the lodge management; the accommodations, though hardly luxurious, were comfortable and the staff hospitable; and he went with a good group of friends. "Good friends and cold beer," says Ashby. "After six or seven hours of casting in the sun, when we got back to the lodge and had a couple of cold ones, I’m telling you there was no better beer on earth."
Ashby took the trip to Belize before the advent of the BlackBerry and Wi-Fi. And the lodge didn’t have any e-mail or Internet access for guests. "It was a way of getting away from everything," says Ashby. "People similar to me in business or in government or in health care have a lot of pressure every day. When you can get away from that, it’s nice. I don’t remember too much about the fish I caught, but what I remember is the experience of just getting away."
These hunting and fishing estates and lodges are among those that promise to deliver a similar experience, but it’s up to you to leave the smart phones and laptops at home.
Winging It
Tumbleweed Lodge, in Harrold, S.D., offers the chance to hunt what’s known as the grand slam of the Dakotas: Chinese ring-necked pheasant, Hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse, and prairie chicken. They inhabit the grassland, corn and sorghum fields, shelterbelts, creek beds, and slough bottoms that you’ll find on this 12,000-acre property.
The lodge itself is an 18,000-square-foot structure that accommodates as many as 24 guests and features a game room, a den, and a cigar room. Outside is a new, 2,200-square-foot gazebo.
The lodge conducts a morning and afternoon hunt, the latter of which is followed by dinner in the dining room, where the specialty is, naturally, pheasant—prepared with a Mandarin glaze.
You’ll find only one kind of game bird at Rio Piedra Plantation, bobwhite quail, but you’ll find plenty of them. Rio Piedra, located in Camilla, Ga., is in the heart of the plantation belt, which stretches about 100 miles through southern Georgia and into north Florida. The belt is prime bobwhite quail–hunting territory. It encompasses close to 100 contiguous or near-contiguous plantations on which quail thrive, and Rio Piedra sits right in the middle of all those properties.
Rio Piedra has more than 30 hunting areas, allowing you to experience a variety of terrains, from pine forests to wire grass meadows. The plantation conducts two hunts a day, bringing hunters, guides, and dogs by jeeps to a new area each morning and afternoon.
High and Mighty
High Peak Game Estate is renowned for the majestic red stags that inhabit its 4,500 high-country acres in the central portion of New Zealand’s South Island. High Peak also has fallow deer, wapiti (elk), chamois, Arapawa rams, wild boars, and alpine goats roaming the grounds. If you prefer smaller game, you can find rabbits, hares, and opossums and such game birds as mallard ducks, paradise ducks, Canada geese, and black swans.
While High Peak has an abundance of its own red stags, if you want to venture off the grounds, the estate’s management will organize free-range wilderness hunts for deer as well as Himalayan tahr and chamois in the surrounding mountain ranges. You reach your destination by helicopter and then set off on foot in pursuit of your prey.
Hard-core hunters seeking an authentic bush experience can stay at the estate’s traditional hunter’s lodge, which has been updated only to include hot water, a shower, and a separate guide’s quarters. Or, High Peak will arrange a stay at one of the many nearby golf resorts, guesthouses, or lodges.
For an entirely different big-game hunting experience, there’s Ekland Safaris, a 35,000-acre hunting and ecotourism resort in Limpopo, South Africa’s northern-most province. There, you lodge in bungalows, a guesthouse, or tents at night and spend the days pursuing—on foot or in open vehicles—white rhinos, African buffalo, elephants, giraffes, antelope, and leopards.
Shoots and Leaders
The Lodge and Spa at the Three Forks Ranch, a working cattle ranch in northwest Colorado, near the Wyoming border, hosts elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope hunters, and thanks to the largest privately funded river restoration project in U.S. history, the property also is a fly-fishing haven. A decade ago, the ranch’s owner made the 16-mile portion of the Little Snake River that runs through the property narrower and thus deep enough to support a thriving rainbow trout population.
A year ago, the ranch opened a 15-bedroom, 30,000-square-
foot lodge that features a 40-foot cathedral ceiling in the lounge area, a 6,000-square-foot spa, and a horseshoe-shaped indoor/outdoor swimming pool that’s set in a rock grotto.
The High Lonesome Ranch, which covers about 300 square miles of deeded and permitted lands north of Grand Junction, Colo., between the towns of DeBeque and Loma, has no spa treatments, but it does have big-game hunting, wing shooting, and a variety of fly-fishing options.
The ranch’s populations of elk and mule deer are among the West’s largest, and they roam on a topography that ranges from mountains and gentle slopes to bare plateaus and forested valleys. In addition to elk and mule deer, black bears and mountain lions also inhabit the ranch. And in the wheat fields and grass pastures you’ll find pheasants and chukars.
For anglers, the ranch has clear and shallow ponds into which you can sight-cast for trout. The ponds are bountiful year-round, and summer is the best time to fish the ranch’s rivers and streams. Guest lodgings include the five-bedroom Pond House, which is only a few yards from a pond teeming with trout.
On the Fly
You could think of the HomeWaters Club as a kind of destination club whose members, instead of having access to villas and resorts in vacation locales, can fly-fish on private portions of rivers in Pennsylvania and Colorado. The club has secured access to more than 20 miles of rivers near Vail and more than 15 miles of rivers near Steamboat Springs. In Pennsylvania, members can fish privately on rivers near Penn State University, Philadelphia, and Lake Erie. The club offers various levels of membership, each with a different rate.
In Pennsylvania, members can stay in lodgings that range from quaint cabins to a log home with a vaulted ceiling. In Colorado, members are hosted by the family-friendly Elk River Lodge, which is a 25-minute drive from Steamboat Springs.
Atmosphere, an expedition cruiser, serves as your home base when you participate in the Nomads of the Sea Ultimate Fly-Fishing program. The voyage covers some 600 miles along the Chilean Patagonia coast, passing coastal waters, rivers, and lakes that you can fish in.
You reach each day’s fishing destination in one of Nomads’ 400 hp jet boats or Zodiac RIBs or in the company’s Bell 407 helicopter, which is Aboard Atmosphere. The helicopter can carry a smaller, deflated RIB for use once you reach your fishing hole, or it can take you to one of the more than 20 secluded lakes where the company leaves its drift boats. Wherever that day’s itinerary takes you, rest assured it will be far from any of the pressures at work or home.