Shoots & Tours '05

Readers & Writers Adventures, which is what we call the gunning junkets we put together for friends of SSM, got off to a hot start this year (our 11th of these adventures, by the way). Our first event-a classic three-day, Dixie-style quail hunt at Rio Piedra Plantation, in Georgia, in February-sold out before Christmas. The next shoot, our now-annual Sporting Clays Seminar at White Oak Plantation, in Alabama, is filling up at press time. (The dates are April 24 to 28, and the price is $2,250. A few slots may still be available.) And we hope to escort a group to Italy again for another exceptional week in May.

Silvio Calabi will take half the group through the Val Trompia, the fabled gunmaking district, to visit a dozen firms, including Fabbri, Piotti, Poli, Perazzi, Creative Art, the engraving school and the proof house, and Sue Bramhall, Mrs. Calabi, will lead the other half on touring and shopping forays from Milan to Venice to Modena. We say "hope to," because we need at least six couples to make the trip fly. The dates are May 22 to 29, and itineraries and prices (for couples or singles) are available on-line or by phone or email-see below.

Next fall we'll present a couple of opportunities for pheasants in South Dakota and Scotland. From September 29 to October 3 we'll be at Tumbleweed Lodge, on the wide-open prairies, hunting not only pheasants but also Hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens. The hospitality, dining, accommodations, facilities, dogs and staff are all first-rate-Tumbleweed has hosted the South Dakota Governor's Hunt since 2000-but the price is still just $2,650.

In November we'll return to Corsewall, in southwest Scotland, where we'll shoot pheasants, partridge and wildfowl with Ken Duglan, owner of Atkin Grant & Lang. Dates and prices are still being set, but as the Pound Sterling now hovers at around $2, it's a "value-priced" way to shoot driven game in the classic British manner (manor?).

For information, visit www.shootingsportsman.com or contact Silvio Calabi or Jeff Dodge at 207-594-9544; scalabi@downeast.com; jdodge@downeast.com. And whether you're a single, couple, family or hunting buddies, come join our famously agreeable groups to shoot with like-minded new friends you haven't yet met.

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