NILO

From our March/April 2026 Issue

In 1952 John M. Olin, then president of Olin Industries—the parent company of both Western Cartridge Company and Winchester Repeating Arms Co.—purchased a tract of cropland and forest just north of St. Louis. He called the place NILO in a playful nod to his surname. Olin, a businessman and philanthropist whose influence shaped much of 20th Century America, wanted a private refuge from the corporate world: a place to indulge his love for pheasant and duck shooting and to breed and train Labradors that would set the standard in the sporting world.

In the 75 years since, NILO has remained largely unchanged, preserving its singular purpose. Today the sporting public can walk the same hedgerows, follow great Labs from the same bloodlines and feel the same sense of privilege that Olin did—perhaps with an even keener awareness that such places have become rare and all the more precious.

NILO feels like a Heartland hunt club from a bygone era. The clubhouse, its walls lined with sporting art and vintage Winchester memorabilia, serves as a social hub, a gun-and-ammunition room and a living museum. Staff greet guests with coffee or a plate of steaming pheasant pie, but most visitors are eager to head out the back door to where the main action unfolds.

On the shooting side, NILO, which is an Orvis Endorsed Shooting Ground, offers a full array of clay-target games—trap, skeet, sporting clays, 5 Stand—and a 40-foot tower for sporty high birds. There’s also “crazy quail,” a lively, home-grown game sure to keep the barrels hot. Hunting guests can follow the kennel’s legendary Labradors through strips of corn, milo and grass for pheasants and chukar or settle into bottomland blinds for pass-shooting flighted mallards. Wherever you turn, there are dogs in motion—working in the field or undergoing training in the loafing yard.

Dogs have always been central to NILO’s identity. Off the kennel sits a handsome wood-paneled trophy room where photos, awards and polished silver celebrate NILO’s storied retrievers. Chief among them was King Buck, Olin’s most famous dog, who won back-to-back National Field Trial Championships and remains the only retriever ever featured on the Federal Duck Stamp.

Standing in that quiet trophy room surrounded by decades of history, you feel the continuity between Olin’s time and the present. The dogs, the land, the traditions—they are not just artifacts of the past but living elements of a sporting heritage that still thrives today.

Whether you come for a morning of clays, a day chasing upland birds or a multi-day wingshooting experience, NILO offers not just sport, but also a chance to step into a place where history lives in the smell of cordite, the whistle of wings and the intensity of a dog sent in to flush.

Only 40 minutes from downtown St. Louis, NILO is available for half-day, full-day and multi-day hunts as well as clay-target shooting. For more information, visit nilofarms.com.