Shooting at Pheasant Valley Preserve

Pheasant Valley Preserve in Whitman County became Washington's first licensed game-bird shooting preserve in 1967. Since then, the Wiedrich family has raised pheasants to release for hunters on 400 acres of irrigated bottomland along the Palouse River. In the 1990s, the preserve also set up a challenging sporting clays course, adding to the fun of hunters and shooters who reserve visits by the day or buy annual memberships. Clients who want to stay overnight at Pheasant Valley Preserve can stay in the farm house, which was built shortly after the family homesteaded the area in 1902. The preserve is situated at the end of Wiedrich Road eight miles north of LaCrosse, Wash. These photos follow Dan Hoke, a Cheney-area bird-dog trainer and expert sporting clays shooter, as he scopes out the hunting and shooting opportunities with outdoors editor Rich Landers.

Section:Gallery

Sat., Oct. 6, 2012

Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke moves in to flush a pen-raised pheasant while hunting with his German shorthair pointer at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash. The preserve features hunting for ducks and pheasants as well as accommodations and sporting clays shooting on a family farm homesteaded in 1902.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Terry Cummings, Jana (Wiedrich) Sprague and Don Foster, raise 6,500 pheasants for hunters at Pheasant Valley Preserve, started by the Wiedrich family in 1964 north of LaCrossse, Wash.

Dan Pelle The Spokesman-Review
Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke hikes toward the 400-acre hunting area where pen-raised pheasants have been released at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Terry Cummings returns after releasing roosters at Pheasant Valley Preserve as Cheney-area dog trainer Dan Hoke sets out to hunt with his latest field champion German shorthair pointer.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Rich Landers moves in to flush a pheasant pointed by his English setter, Scout, at the edge of thick irrigated cover at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Dan Hoke
Rich Landers moves in to flush a pheasant pointed by his English setter, Scout. The pen-raised rooster was burrowed into thick irrigated cover at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Dan Hoke
Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke moves in to flush a pen-raised pheasant while training his German shorthair pointer at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke moves in to flush a pen-raised pheasant while training his German shorthair pointer at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke pulls up on a flushing pen-raised pheasant while hunting at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Billy, a field champion German shorthair pointer, retrieves a pheasant for Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Cheney-area bird-dog trainer Dan Hoke praises his German shorthair pointer for retrieving a pheasant at Pheasant Valley Preserve north of LaCrosse, Wash. After a successful hunt, Hoke headed to the preserve's sporting clays range.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The sporting clays range at Pheasant Valley Preserve starts at the mouth of a canyon rimmed on both sides by basalt outcroppings.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Targets come from all angles at the sporting clays range at Pheasant Valley Preserve. They're coming from the left at this station. At another station, they'll come down off the high cliffs in the distance.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Two targets from the cliff above fly toward Dan Hoke, and expert sporting clays shooter. Move quickly through the following eight-image sequence to see now Hoke tracks the targets and vaporizes them with his 20 gauge at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Here come the targets...

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Dan Hoke smokes the first of two clay targets coming at him on the sporting clays course at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Dan Hoke quickly swings his 20-gauge ahead of the second of two sporting clays targets coming simultaneously from the cliff above.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Dan Hoke is locked on to the second of two sporting clays targets coming at him from the cliff above.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bam! Dan Hoke smokes the second of two clay targets coming at him on the sporting clays course at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Don Foster of Pheasant Valley Preserve throws clay targets down into the bowels of the canyon for shooter Dan Hoke. The station simulates a common way chukars flush to frustrate hunters.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Dan Hoke, an expert sporting clays shooter, calls for a target at the "chukar flush" station at Pheasant Valley Preserve.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A fast crossing shot tests shooters at the Pheasant Valley Preserve sporting clays range.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Don Foster launches a pair of targets that come from behind and over the head of shooter Dan Hoke in one of the toughest stations at Pheasant Valley Preserve's sporting clays course.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review