When it comes to managing land, Phillip Jennings’ credo is “give back, leave the place better than the way you found it.”
And that includes an abiding respect for the ducks, quail, turkey, deer and hogs and their habitat hunted on the section of the family’s 8,500-acre farm that’s dedicated to the new Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club in historic Soperton, Georgia.
Now in his early sixties, Phillip grew up in the vicinity on a one-acre hardscrabble homestead that served to reinforce a deep gratitude for his own success in agriculture built acre by acre that inspires the family-style hospitality and appreciation extended to the guests of Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club. The Jennings’ family legacy is ever-present, with his son Phillip Jennings II co-managing the hunt club. A rough-hewn house on the farm dating back to 1910 where Phillip’s grandmother lived has been repurposed into a private, rustic hunt club notable for its help-yourself sociability of Pappy Van Winkle, Blanton’s and Colonel E.H. Taylor bourbon along with just about whatever else you can possibly request.
The lodge at Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club.
Soperton is a rural county seat, and its location helps shape the culture of the Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club. The area is rich with lore of moonshiners, Indian settlements, opera and murders by the old Southern Mafia. Here, people say what they mean, believe in hard work and support their neighbors. Warmth and kindness are existential qualities in a town of just under 3,000 people, which occupies an area of only 3¼ miles in Treutlen County. It’s much easier to gain a bad reputation than to maintain a good one based on the merits of honesty, cooperation and faith. Having built an enormous agricultural business from nothing more than a small food plot, local-boy-made-good Phillip Jennings parlays his life story into genuine guest thankfulness that inspires people to return even if they have a disappointing day behind the trigger.
Although new, the take-up has been fast. The Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club is fully booked almost every weekend. During my visit there were about 10 guests. An incredible dinner of home-cooked fried pork chops with all the traditional sides was accompanied by amiable conversation. A big surprise awaits when he you head up the room.
Phillip Jennings in the lodge of the Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club.
The Jennings are eleventh-generation farmers. The family settled in the U.S. in the 1730s and eventually moved to the Soperton area in the 1800s. They’ve been farming in Treutlen County for five generations. Phillip made his fortune selling turf grass to golf clubs and other luxury destinations, although the farm also grows raw crops. When the hunt club became popular enough to justify lodging, the Jennings men wanted to show their farmer pride. There were three silos close to each other, and the Jennings decided to build the lodge around them. So the walls of the rustic guest rooms are curved around the shape of a silo, with high windows that welcome natural light. It’s pretty darn cool.
Phillip Jennings II with one of the vintage Land Rover Defenders used on the hunts.
When I arrived on a weekday, the new lodge was receiving its final touches. The cement in the walkway was almost dry, some last-minute painting, and renovations to out-building were all under way. The interior, though, was complete in a traditional rural old-timey aesthetic with a cozy bar that had bottles in cubbies formed by vintage wood ammunition crates, and a big brick fireplace in the lodge lounge furnished with comfortable couches, chairs and folk art.
The bar in the Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club features old shotgun shell boxes. The original silo on the site is visible. There are three silos that were integrated into the lodge’s construction.
The Pro Shop is in a separate building. It’s fully stocked with fine clothes, gear and boots. Gun sales are highlighted by the first Benelli Experience Center in the U.S. where you can rent one of their semi-autos for $24.00 per day and if it fits and you like it give them your credit card.
I saw firsthand the focus of both Jennings men in overseeing the finishing bits. Every detail in finalizing the construction is addressed while multitasking running their farm here in Soperton and another big agricultural operation in Canada. Phillip Jennings II confided in me that nothing gave him more satisfaction than to plant a seed and watch it grow. Now he was experiencing that same thing with the birth of Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club.
The author with some of the bobwhite quail taken on the hunt.
I had booked a split bobwhite quail hunt: lunch followed by a hunt then dinner, stay overnight, with breakfast the next morning, hunt and finally lunch. After lunch on the day of my arrival, a vintage Defender was waiting for me with the engine running. The truck was part of a small collection the Jennings are building to drive hunters around the property – and it’s a heck of a lot more fun than riding in a bird buggy pulled by a Jeep.
My guide Noah Fouche was running Pointers, Setters and Labs. I’ve been to quail preserves where the guide is always yelling at his dog, but my guide here was quiet. A subtle command and his dogs obeyed. The first afternoon was bright and unusually hot. The classic South Georgia habitat of loblolly pines and sprouts, broomsedge, scrub oak, wax myrtle and sand gave the bobwhite quail plenty of opportunity hunker down and run. But when they flushed, the birds had a strong tendency to circle back over my shoulder then fly low and fast, making for challenging shots with my 20 gauge over/under. We did raise about 30 birds of singles, doubles and coveys. Given the heat, by time dinner approached I was ready for a cold beer at the lodge.
Guide Noah Fouche with some of his dogs.
The next morning started with a classic big breakfast. We were back in the Defender bouncing along the trails. Fortunately, winds of about 25 miles per hour and light overcast brought cooler temperatures. The quail flushed and at a high speed grazed the tops of the vegetation. Snap shooting was the order of the day. Once again, we flushed some 30 birds during the half-day hunt.
Phillip Jennings at one of the duck impoundments he had built at the Broomsedge Rod & Gun Club.
Back at the lodge, I saw Phillip as he was rushing to his truck. Still, he wanted to show me something. As we drove, I discovered that Phillip was really a duck guy. He showed me around different impoundments that could take years and lots of money to develop for flighted duck hunts. Forty acres of cultivated wetlands around the property complemented the rivers and lakes in the area that also attracted ducks. The impoundments were also Phillip’s way of trying to restore duck populations to the level of his boyhood. And so far, the highest count they recorded was about 600 wood ducks that were making an overnight stopover during migration.
“We’re making our habitat better,” he said.
Irwin Greenstein is the publisher of Shotgun Life. You can reach him on the Shotgun Life Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/shotgunlife
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