Hunting: Home, Home on the Preserve

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Most preserves are too small—and too close to big cities—to stock anything but birds; the next-door neighbor might complain if a high-velocity rifle bullet smacked through his picture window. But at Hunter's Haven, 30 miles from Knoxville, Tenn., nimrods can turn a day away from the office into a full-fledged safari. The Haven's 3,500 unfenced acres border on Great Smoky Mountains National Park and teem with native game: wild turkeys, bobcats, deer, black bears, ferocious Russian boars that can rip a man open with one slash of their 6-in. tusks. And that is not all: Owner "Wolfie" Wolfenbarger, a retired Knoxville restaurateur, has stocked the Haven with big-horned aoudad (wild sheep) from North Africa, mouflons from Corsica, elk from Canada, sika deer from Japan and red stags from Bavaria. In two days of casual shooting at the Haven last week, three hunters bagged four wild turkeys (average weight: 22 Ibs.), three huge boars, a 425-lb. black bear and two aoudads—one with 29-in. horns. Grinned one of the happy trio: "I feel like the last of the Habsburgs."

Rocks & Towers. Purists scoff at preserve hunting ("Like shooting in the city zoo," says a Colorado gunner), and Natty Bumppo would shudder at the way some owners operate. Most preserves bill hunters only for birds and animals actually shot (from $3.50 for a pheasant, up to $600 for a European red stag)—so the more killed, the merrier. To accommodate lazy patrons, owners will "rock" pheasants and chukars, tucking their heads under their wings and spinning them around until they are too dizzy to fly properly; some birds are so groggy that hunters have to kick them into the air. At the Fin and Feather Club outside Kansas City, the newest fad is a "tower shoot"; hunters form a circle around a 30-ft. tower and pheasants are released, one at a time, from the tower. Some of the birds are banded in different colors, and the hunters contribute to a Calcutta-type pool. Everybody blasts away; a gold band wins 50% of the pool, red gets 30% , blue 20% —black buys the drinks. Other owners let hunters shoot animals from moving jeeps or set out salt licks to lure deer within easy range.

But at preserves like Tennessee's Hunter's Haven, the sport is still the thing. Hunters are warned not to shoot females or small, "nontrophy" animals. Baits are never used, and "still hunting" (stalking) is encouraged. When it comes to pulling the trigger—even against a charging boar—the hunter is strictly on his own: guides carry no weapons except skinning knives and shinny up the nearest tree at the first hint of danger. "We'll help you find your animal," says Owner Wolfenbarger. "But you have to shoot it yourself."