|
Millbrook,
New York
Taking aim at clays at Sandanona Shooting
Grounds.
From the March 24, 2003 Issue of New York
Think
of shooting clays as bird hunting without all the mess. It’s
all about marksmanship (not bloodlust), and there’s no better
place to learn than the Sandanona Shooting Grounds in Millbrook, New
York. Once a tweedy private shooting club (the oldest in the country),
Sandanona was purchased a few years ago by Orvis, the outdoor sports
clothier, and opened to the masses. Sip coffee and roam the wood-shingled
clubhouse before being outfitted for a twenty-gauge shotgun (manageable
for beginners) and taking in a gun-safety lecture. Then head out for
a round on the world-class sporting-clays course. The little disks
come flying at you from all directions—you take aim and (hopefully)
blast ’em. Though there’s no lodging at Sandanona, the
Old Drover’s Inn, a Relais & Château property in nearby
Dover Plains, offers snug but comfortable rooms, hearty country dinners
like double-cut rack of lamb and browned turkey hash, and eighteenth-century
atmosphere to spare.
Kendall Hamilton
|

|
 |
Details
Orvis Sandanona Shooting Grounds (800-548-9548; orvis.com);
Old Drover’s Inn (doubles from $325, including dinner
and breakfast; 845-832-9311; olddroversinn.com).
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Photograph: Preston Schlebusch |
|
|
|