Winter Season 2021 Newsletter
The start of this New Year takes us into the second half of what is proving to be the busiest Hunt Season in the last four years for our hunting club, with so many working from home and finding the time to come out and enjoy the Clubs beautiful Illinois grounds.
This New Year has also brought some changes here at the Club, as many of you already know, Jonathan Powers, who was the face behind the counter for these past five years, in December decided to leave, to make a career move into the world of Finance, and we all wish him success for the future.
Being General Operations Manager here at Green Acres is both a very unique and very demanding job, to say the least, and requires somebody with a certain type of work ethic and a particular passion for the outdoors and all it involves.
Looking to find a suitable replacement was proving difficult, until the answer was found on the door step, when Sage Ihkre, bravely stepped into the breach to fill the gap, on what was to be a temporary basis, but we are delighted to say:
Sage Ihkre is to be our new office manager/outdoor operations coordinator. As most of our long term members already know, Sage was raised at our beloved Green Acres and, over the years, has participated in about every part of the business, including; taking care of the dogs in the kennel, assisting dog training, cleaning birds for hunters, stocking upland fields, and assisting in the kitchen. Hard work, and focus on customer satisfaction have literally always been part of her life. Sage is an avid outdoorsman. She has trained her own upland flusher and loves shotgun shooting, archery hunting and fishing. During her teenage years she was active with our local Pheasants Forever chapter, assisting with events and being part of the high school shooting team. She was also given the honor of being elected to the Pheasants Forever National Youth Council. We congratulate her for taking the position and look forward to many years with her as part of our team. As of Wednesday, January 26th, Sage will be answering phone calls and Emails, organising hunts, and scheduling events.
Upland Hunting
Due to this Upland hunt season being the busiest the Club has experienced in the last 5 years, our bird stock reserves are now becoming limited, so the hunt club has stopped bookings for “Intro Hunts” to ensure that all remaining stocks are used for Member Hunts only.
Although, we increased our purchase of Bird Stock numbers at the beginning of the year, in anticipation of growing Membership and business, with so many folks staying home in the present situation demand has been considerable and I am sure you all appreciate that we have put our Members first.
We are still trying to secure further bird stocks to allow us to keep Hunting to the end of the season, but we have already heard of other clubs in the region running out of bird’s s and shutting down, it does appear that this is a nationwide problem with breeders across the width of the country now sold out.
So please plan and book your Hunts as far in advance as possible to help us manage remaining Bird stocks to keep everyone hunting for as long as we can!
British Style Driven & American Tower Shoots
This is going to be one of those “Do you want the Good News first or the Bad News?” Well I think we all want to get the bad out of the way first so here goes:
Once again due to the limited Bird stocks we have decided to cancel our Valentine’s Day Driven shoot and all our planned American Tower Shoot Combos for the rest of this season.
The Good News though, is we have had a brilliantly successful season of British Driven shooting, which of course was kicked off at the beginning of October with what is now our famous “Trifecta” 3 day Extravaganza, for those of you that haven’t been on this event, here is the trilogy of Video’s that says more than words ever can!
DAY 1. https://www.facebook.com/100570163893/videos/1576167402540736“The Downton Day Simulated British Driven shoot”
DAY 2. https://www.facebook.com/100570163893/videos/2752358494828857“The Grand Battue British Driven Pheasant Shoot”
DAY 3 https://www.facebook.com/100570163893/videos/128472505676104“The British Driven Duck Shoot
The season carried on with our Christmas Grand Battue and we got the New Year off to a really grand start with a Traditional “Scottish Hogmanay” driven shoot.
The team of Guns on each day shot magnificently well and celebrated with our traditional seasonal style hospitality!
One thing I would like to mention is that I have heard that some folks are put off of coming along on one of these British Style shoots because of the “Clothing”!! Well that’s really a bit silly, isn’t it! American Hunters in the past dressed very similar and if you go Quail hunting in the Southern states, you would be expected to dress smartly, just take a leaf out of our regular Guns in the photos and dress in what I refer to as Classic American style, or just Country style.
Why not book on one of this coming summers “Downton Day” simulated driven shoots to see just how much fun both the shooting and hospitality are!!!
We are already taking reservations for this 2021 Seasons Trifecta which is planned for the weekend of Friday the 1st to Sunday the 3rd of October, so call Keith on the Club house number for more information.
Sporting Clays & Simulated Driven
Depending on the prevailing weather conditions we plan to open our Sporting Clays Course at the end of March on Saturday the 27th.
Our 12 station course always includes target presentations for all levels of shooter. Stands are colour coded – green, blue, and red – with a posted target menu. This allows shooters an opportunity to choose the types and difficulty level of targets they prefer to shoot. Our wireless target release handsets offer 3 unique target presentations on each stand.
We take pride in setting a well-balanced course with monthly target changes while maintaining 2 unchanged stations designed for both the novice shooter and upland hunter.
We are an open shoot – everyone is welcome!
Also we shall be starting our season of “Downton Day” simulated British Driven shoots on Saturday 24th April, details of the day, with the video, can be found at: https://www.huntgreenacres.com/simulated-driven/
In signing off
We hope you have found this newsletter of interest and on behalf of Dan, Cindy, Sage Ihkre, Myself and all the team here, may we wish you and your families a Very happy 2021, with continued good health in these times and we look forward to seeing you all here at some time over the coming weeks and months.
And you can keep up to date with all the news and daily happenings at the club by logging on and liking the Clubs Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/huntgreenacres
Also, don’t forget Gun Dog Success has its own web site at: https://gundogsuccess.com/ and its own Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/gundogsuccess/
If you have any questions or need further information on any of the Clubs activities, services and events please do not hesitate to contact Sage at the office.
The very best regards, Keith Coyle,