La Vista, NE Outdoor Activities

Throughout Husker Paintball Adventures’ rural backcountry speckled with trees and tangled thickets, paintballers explore six battlefields spread across 20 acres and find refuge behind plastic barriers and stacks of timber. After traipsing through creeks and crouching along the low ridges of shallow gullies, players seal their truces with lunch by bringing their grills for a picnic among the spindly trees and garden of organically grown target symbols. In the interest of sportsmanship and making the hobby accessible to everyone, the staff never pits pros against rookies and enforces a 20-foot shooting rule. Safety is also paramount, so they turn down firing velocity on all paintball markers for groups of younger players.

At K/B Stables, instructor Donna Stading-Smith imparts the equine wisdom she has been accruing since she first saddled up when she was 3 years old. As a former elementary media specialist and a 4-H teacher for 14 years, she’s experienced in making horseback riding a comfortable and fun activity for both beginners and more seasoned riders. Regular lessons and training prep students to take the reins for casual or competitive rides in English, western, or dressage styles. When they're not supporting budding equestrians, some 20 horses gallop across K/B Stables’ 11 acres. The family-run stable hosts 30 stalls for boarding accommodations by the night, week, month, or whatever period of time the horse’s former girlfriend said it needed to “sort things out.”

Stalking through the prairie grass, a guide leads his labrador retriever and a hunter into a stretch of foothills. They hear a rustling ahead, prompting them to pause. Peering through the brush, they see a bird with red plumage around its eye, a green head, and a white ring around its neck—the distinguishing marks of a pheasant. The hunter readies his gun, the labrador poises, and both wait for the guide's signal.

The hunting guides at Pheasant Bonanza lead hunters through experiences like these and ready them for similar outings with sport shooting. The sporting-clay course, for example, supplies beginning through advanced shooters with 20 stations whose targets simulate the movements of animals such as quail and rabbits. To further sharpen hunters' aim, the guides also oversee trap, skeet, five-stand, and snooker ranges. This diversity of shooting scenarios prepares clients for guided hunting trips—which include the retrieval and tracking service of trained labradors or german shorthaired pointers—on Pheasant Bonanza's grounds. Spanning hundreds of acres in the Loess Hills, the grounds sustain game such as pheasant, waterfowl, whitetail deer, wild turkey, and rogue Yahtzee dice.

The lodge accommodates guests on extended trips, surrounding them with rustic touches such as a stone fireplace, knotty-pine paneling, and furniture upholstered in hunters' orange. Further services range from expert advice at the pro shop to Pheasant Bonanza's boarding, training, and breeding programs for hunting dogs.