Etowah Valley Game Preserve

I have known the owner and his sons for many years and helped them get the hunting preserve started spending time taking the owner to different facilities around the state. I did this Pro Bono and I even guided with my dogs for «FREE» until one was nearly killed. Later I hunted with family and friends a few times upland style unguided hunts. I never was satisfied with the birds, especially the pheasants as my dogs would catch them on the ground to often. Eventually I quite that. However, I did try a British style hunt and that was unsatisfactory as well especially the hunt master’s demeanor, «condescending»! Then they sent their dogs to pick up birds and that really was the reason I go to these things, to work my dogs, not watch theirs! Recently I called them to see if I could just do some individual training but the owner denied that request. That was a deal breaker for me, I cannot recommend this facility to folks who want to take their own dogs, especially Labrador Retrievers or other flushing dogs. It might satisfy someone with pointers but it does not meet my requirements.

I will start off by saying that I had a hunt here last year and had a good experience with my kids.
That being said, I booked a British style hunt weeks in advance on their website and called Alex the day before only to be told they never had the reservation. He stated the real way to book was by phone, but he stated he had a couple slots available.
Get up the next morning and my son is sick and, so I call Alex to let him know and proceed to get chastised that I should have let him known earlier. Clearly he was irritated and I told him there was nothing I could do.
This is not they type of kid who would ever miss a hunt if he felt even halfway descent.
Seems to me he valued money more than the safety of the hunt. Keep in mind, this hunt had the numbers as we were accommodated.
Won’t be visiting here again.

I would give these guys 5 stars but I feel like I should reserve some upside. Maybe if they had free snacks or something like that I would up their score.
GREAT time. Nice people. Friendly and none of the macho hunter — I’tougher than you are — I know everything and you don’t — attitude… They put on a really nice hunt for us. If I recall correctly, we planted 12 Quail and 8 Chukka for each group. Three groups of us, two guns in each group. They supplied dogs and three guides. There was no lunch (that might have gotten them a 5)…
Their cabin is cool. Raw cut wood on the outside. The kitchen is a bit run down, (maybe it’s good they didn’t serve lunch). The place makes a killer picture after the hunt when they hang birds up on the front porch and let you stand behind the rail for a portrait…
They have some scenic land to hunt. Our set up was nice, we could see a three fields from one point, so in theory for at least some of the hunt, we could see each other.
Guides were good. Dogs were good. Everyone was relaxed, skilled, etc. so that we had a good hunt. Their birds were probably the best pen raised birds we have seen, they got up and really took off. They are big too — so if you actually enjoy cooking them — that’s a plus.
I think they charged us $ 2 per bird to clean them. We tipped each guide $ 40 which is a bit above the expected $ 25. The whole bill was about $ 1700, so it’s going to run about $ 300 per person for a half day hunt.
By the way — two in the party were women — they had a good time — that’s a fine test of the attitudes of your guides — they passed the test.