European Tower Shoots

Here’s your chance to experience what centuries of European royalty have known all along – European Tower Shoots are fun, fast and challenging. It starts with a grove of trees about 175 yards in diameter with a 34-foot tower in the middle.

Around the perimeter are 10 shooting stations with a shooter, a dog and a dog handler. Fifteen birds (pheasants, quail, ducks, etc.) are released from the top of the tower, one or two at a time. The hunters never know how many will pass overhead. After 15 are released, the shooters rotate stations and 15 more birds are released. Shooters eventually shoot from each station. After all the birds are released, the handlers take their dogs into the trees to flush the birds that stayed in the timber. But the shooting doesn’t end there. Participants are invited back the next morning for a “scratch hunt,” where they walk nearby fields for a second chance at birds that were missed during the Tower Shoot.

Tower Shoots begin with a pre-shoot meeting and then participants get a hayride to the course. Tower Shoots include a Special Bird Contest, where one special bird is released, and the shooter who gets it wins a prize. After returning to the lodge via the haywagon, shooters and handlers find refreshments and hors d’oeuvres waiting for them, followed by a catered meal that’s fit for a king. It gives participants a chance to relax and relive the afternoon shots and experiences, however humbling they might be.

Check out our Calendar of Events to find out when the next Tower Shoot is scheduled.