Orvis Sandanona - A Hunting Experience

Currently I am employed at a small, yet very well-known hunting and shooting preserve in my hometown of Millbrook, New York. Orvis Sandanona is the oldest established hunting preserve in the nation, dating back to the late 1800s. Not only does it offer a world-class sporting clays course and a renown fly fishing school, but it also home to some of the premier guided wingshooting and tower release hunting on the east coast. As an employee there, I wear several hats, one of which is gathering photographs for the monthly member e-mails. I pulled four photos to show here from two events. The first two are from a duck hunt, the second two a pheasant hunt. Both hunts are called tower releases. In both cases the birds are released from a tower where they proceed to travel various "lanes" (Or not, in some cases. While they are pen raised birds, they are still wild and unpredictable). These lanes provide each hunting blind with several presentations of "flushing birds". Sandanona also offers more traditional field hunts, where dogs are used to flush birds from a field.

While I'm not photographing every day, I really enjoy this job. Growing up as a competitive shooter exposed me to this world, and I feel very at home in sporting environment.

Photos © Jason Lenhart