A pointer locked on point in frosted broomsedge at first light

Armuchee, Georgia · Est. 2021

A covey rise, ninety minutes from Atlanta.

A private quail plantation in the Armuchee ridges. One party at a time, seasoned pointing dogs, and no reason to hurry.

Checking season…

The Idea

Good ground, good dogs, and no one else in the field.

We started DanMar in 2021 to share what we grew up with — respect for the land, for the animals on it, and for a hunt that has fed families for generations.

We take one party at a time. No shared fields, and a guide whose whole job that day is you.

Aerial view over the plantation toward the Armuchee ridges — The ridges from the air

The Ground

The land folds. That is the whole difference.

Nearly every quail plantation in Georgia is four hours south in the flat longleaf. This one is in the mountains.

Pine stands give way to hardwood draws, draws open into broomsedge, and every one of those transitions is an edge that holds birds. You can be in tight cover at nine in the morning and standing on an open rise with the ridge line behind you by eleven.

Walk the ground

A German shorthaired pointer standing on point in frosted broomsedge — Locked up on frost

The Dogs

Everything here runs on the dogs.

Setters, pointers and shorthairs find the birds. Labradors bring them back. Your guide handles all of it, and they set the pace of the day.

People come for the shooting and go home with photographs of somebody else’s dog.

Meet the dogs

A ring-necked cock pheasant in full colour — Ring-necked cock

The Birds

They live here before they fly here.

Behind the pines there is a barn full of bobwhite quail and ring-necked pheasants — feeders, roost boards, and a great deal of noise at first light.

Birds that have been on the property, in the weather, with room to move, fly better than birds that came off a truck that morning.

The covered porch lined with rocking chairs and long tables — Rockers, long tables, ceiling fans

The Pavilion

Everything happens within forty steps.

Black board-and-batten under a standing-seam roof, wrapped on every side by a deep covered porch: an outdoor kitchen, long tables, rocking chairs and string lights, open to the field.

Coffee before daylight, the safety talk on the porch, and — at the end of it — boots off and birds in the cooler, forty steps from where you shot them.

Clays and group days

A stacked-stone fireplace running to the ridge beam — Stone to the ridge beam

Afterwards

The best hour is usually the last one.

Most preserves hand back your birds and wave you off down the drive. We would rather you sat down. Beamed great room, stone fireplace, a kitchen built for feeding a crowd, and a billiards room glazed on three sides. Three bedrooms and three baths, by arrangement.

Boots off, birds in the cooler, and an argument about the covey that got away that runs longer than the hunt did.

The lodge and the ground

The Lake

Nothing to do with the shooting.

Down past the pines there is open water with a dock running out into it and a covered stand at the far end. On a calm morning the whole treeline lies upside down on the surface.

It is simply somewhere to go when you have eaten too much lunch, and the reason more than one group has stayed an extra hour.

Three Ways to Spend the Day