We turned right off Route 56 to bounce and splash
down a pitted gravel road that dead-ended at a gravel lot and a small shed
anchored on the periphery of a large, brushy field, dominated by the august
vista of The Priest—the highest peak of the Religious Range, spanning Nelson
and Amherst Counties. A party of six men
donning blaze orange field vests, carrying shotguns and the glow of pre-hunt
enthusiasm, piled into a pair of Ford pickups and bounced along the field edge
to a distant arena.
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| The Priest view. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
“You must be Matt,” a voice questioned as the
background audio returned to the scene and the rumbling of vehicles faded. My dad, along for the ride, slid out of the
driver’s side of the Suburban behind me.
“You must be Tim!” I returned, extending a hand to
Tim Castillo, owner, operator, and guide at PriestView Hunting Preserve.
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| Tim Castillo with a wing-shot chukar. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
Since 1994, PriestView has been offering guided and
unguided upland hunts for pheasant, quail, and chukar in the Blue Ridge
Mountains during the Virginia preserve season, which runs from Labor Day
through the end of April. A guide staff
of five and four fields totaling 460 acres allows the property and staff to
safely accommodate up to four parties of hunters at a time.
PriestView books hunts Friday through Sunday only,
but Castillo, an area manager for Aqua Virginia, isn’t looking to make a living
from the operation. “PriestView is my
hobby,” he said. “We raise dogs, and we
used to raise birds. We don’t need a
huge lodge to work out of. That helps us
keep our costs down, and we cover our costs with our pricing.” This business model allows the PriestView
family to offer modest rates, which in no way reflects the quality of the
experience.
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| Photo by Matt Reilly. |
After getting to know one another, I took up
position in a shooting cage overlooking the front field as Tim pumped juice
into the automatic skeet trap via jumper cables linked to an old FARM USE truck.
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| Photo by Matt Reilly. |
“Pull!”
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| Dad warming up. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
Having not pulled the trigger on a moving target
apart from a gun-inspired squirrel in two years, a warm-up on the clay birds
was a welcome refresher, something the Priestview team has incorporated into
the hunting package. I yielded to Da
after hitting the last few targets and regaining faith in my swing. After he had done the same, it was game time.
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| Ginger, the brittany. Photo by Matt Reilly |
The frantic huntress that had remained in the
background was quite literally reaching the end of her leash, and had, after
the first shotgun blast, begun elevating to a state of excitement bordering on
a mental condition that only a passionate bird dog can demonstrate correctly.
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| Ginger, ready to go! Photo by Matt Reilly. |
With boom sticks and shells in tote, we followed
Castillo’s sprightly 11-year-old Brittany, Ginger, and the zipping microfiber
check cord that trailed her, into the shadow of The Priest. The landscape was rolling, stippled by large
dirt mounts left from clear cutting the fields we hunted.
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| Working cover. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
PriestView leases the fields from the local Silver
Creek Orchard. Full-time operations
might find this arrangement a hindrance to habitat management, but the deal
works out perfectly for Castillo and the crew.
Silver Creek bush hogs the fields in halves on alternating years,
allowing a portion of the property to offer two years of successional field growth
for bird habitat every year.
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| Ginger on point. Photo by Matt Reilly |
After just moments of watching Ginger and her ears
bounce across the landscape, intermittently pressing her nose against the
ground in search of a bird, she locked up on point—motionless. Da took his turn first, and moved in,
flushing a blue-gray blur of chukar into the air.
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| Wingshooting. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
Seven more birds, including two quail, lit and
faced the firing squad, with the help of Ginger and her adept nose.
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| Photo by Matt Reilly |
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| Man and dog. Photo by Matt Reilly. |
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| A batch of wing-shot chukar and quail. Photo by Matt Reilly |
With all the birds we could find bagged and ready
for dressing, we began the stroll back across the field to operation
headquarters with The Priest at our backs, covered in shadows by the setting
sun.
See the full batch of photos from this adventure on the Adventures Afield Photography page.
Originally published in the Rural Virginian□
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