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Introducing Hermógenes Guerrero, with 3 decades at the Casa de Campo Shooting center, he’s one of Casa de Campo’s most experienced shooters!
@cdcliving: How and when did you start working for Casa de Campo?
I started at Casa de Campo approximately 30 years ago in the tennis courts. My brother brought me to work here when I was very young and after working in the tennis courts for a while, the man that created the Shooting Center (Michael Rose) asked me if I wanted to help him develop it further; to which I responded “we’ll see” . He said “You can come with us, if you like it you can stay, if not you can go back to tennis”. I went with them and I liked it, I thought it was interesting.
Ever since I was a child I liked shooting because we used to go to the rural areas to hunt birds and that is how my interest for shooting started.
@cdcliving: What advice did Michael Rose give you that you still use today?
That to be a good instructor, you must have a lot patience and learn the personality of the person you are teaching. That was a great advice. People tell me that I have a lot of patience and that they like that.
@cdcliving: Tell us about the history of the Shooting Center.
Well, the Shooting Center used to be located where the horses are, where the rodeo is now. There was just a small skeet and trap shooting-range.
Later Mr. Pepe Fanjul brought Michael Rose to develop the shooting to another level. Michael began to build this firing range, which is one of the most important in the Caribbean. We started small, we didn’t have a club like this, everything was smaller. It has grown a lot, just like Casa de Campo.
@cdcliving: Tell us about the different shooting options you have here.
We use only shotguns here, that is very important. We use all the calibers, 28, 20, 12 and 410 – a very small shotgun that is normally used for children and women when they are beginners; once the person already knows how to shoot, they can use any caliber.
We have the skeet which is a form of clay pigeon shooting. The positions are in semi-circle around the tower.
We have the trap, a form of shooting where the clay moves away from the shooter.
There is also the olympic trap or the double trap which is basically the same. We also have sporting clays. We can spend half a day walking around the tower, shooting in every position where we can simulate a different type of shooting. We have 250 positions, more or less, that we can change at any time.
We also have Pigeon Rings, something which is very famous in Europe. We have two Pigeon Rings used throughout the whole year; but we also offer European-style driven bird shoots at Rancho Peligro [outside of Casa de Campo].
J.Pepe Fanjul at Rancho Peligro
@cdcliving: Which activities are most popular?
The most popular is the clay pigeon shooting, it doesn’t matter if it’s skeet, trap or sporting clays; because the majority of people, when they start, want to start with clays and well… after that they start to get enthused and want to shoot at birds, but normally they begin with clays.
@cdcliving: What do you recommend for someone shooting for this first time?
Sometimes, there are people who say, “I want to try the sporting clays” even if they have never shot, they have heard of it. After that the customers go with an instructor, who goes over the basics; what they should do, the care of the guns, safety procedures etc. But for a beginner skeet or trap, either of the two is good to start, because the area is small and it is faster to learn.
@cdcliving: What are the Shooting Center’s greatest achievements?
Without a doubt the development of the shooting preserve in Rancho Peligro. [Where the European-Style Driven Bird Shoot takes place, click here for photos.]
We also have kennels, a hotel for dogs. It’s a great option for villa owners who have pets, they can leave their dogs with us when they go on trips.
@cdcliving: How would you compare Casa de Campo with other shooting centers around the world?
I think we are unique. Casa de Campo has the best shooting center of any part of the world because of the way it is designed and how it works.
Photo credit: The first 2 images in this article are by Terry Allen.