UENATOR CAUE (HUNTER BEWARE) A FIELD GUIDE +O HUNTING LODGES

From ice bars to plywood shacks, in-room hot tubs to a kitchen staff uprising, the hunting lodge experience can be fascinating and frustrating.

- BY SCOTT LINDEN

I know; while I'm a wild bird hunting fanatic “for fun,” doing television and magazine work, I've been to almost a hundred of them.

Whether it's an annual tradition, bucket-list item or your preferred strategy to make your lodge hunt work is a matter of carefully defining what you want, then finding a place that provides it. As Shakespeare's Hamlet said, “There's the rub.” So, here's your field guide to wing shooting lodges.

Mom-and-pop side hustles, family-owned charmers and corporate behemoths — each has advantages and drawbacks. And that's before you add in the fly-by-night operators and outright poachers trying to claw away your hard-earned Christmas bonus. So, let's set some ground rules to help you make an informed choice.

Generally speaking and with some caveats, you will get what you pay for. A simple day hunt at a nearby preserve could start as low as $150 for two or three planted birds while you run your own dog. A couple days (usually the minimum) at an all-inclusive Orvis-endorsed facility runs around $2,800 or more. You can have a fantastic time at each. The differences? Let's parse them out.

GROUNDS

Often, smaller operations are re-purposing working farmland, cut over crops, CRP corners or wastelands. The acreage will be smaller, and what management

there is probably benefits the cash crop, not birds. If you're lucky, it works for birds, too. Ask about center pivot corners, ditch and fencerows, shelterbelts and fallow acreage. They're bird-holding honey holes often overlooked by other hunters who favor easy walking in more “civilized” portions of the lodge's grounds.