Summer entertainment doesn’t have to involve restaurants or dance parties or going to the theater. 

Your favorite sport can be  your summer’s entertainment. For me, that sport is sporting clays, but for you it might be fly-fishing. Either way,  I heartily recommend Orvis Sandanona in Millbrook, N.Y., as a relatively affordable place to pursue or learn to fish and shoot. 

As a sporting clay devotee for more than 20 years, I have spent many entertaining, challenging and happy days at Orvis. It is “the oldest permitted shotgun shooting club in the U.S.” and their facilities are the equal of any club anywhere, in my opinion. Seasoned wing and clay shooters can try two clays courses, both with a variety of target presentations. 

But perhaps the best offering at Orvis is instruction for the first-time shooter or fly-fisher. The instructors for both “games” are highly experienced and qualified “pros.” 

Chief Shooting Instructor  Paula Moore is a five-time member of Womens World Team USA, who holds many championship titles. The fishing instructors, like Mark Searle, can boast equal accolades and achievements.

Clay shooters always say to new shooters “when you see your first clay break, you’re hooked.” You can see this proven daily at Orvis Sandanona. 

Information about sporting clays, wingshooting and fly-fishing instruction and curriculums can be found at www.orvis.com/sandanona-shooting-grounds.html.

Paula Moore, at right in photo, teaches a first-timer how to shoot sporting clays at Orvis Sandanona. Photo by Lans Christensen​