The Central Prairie Field Trail Club held their fall trial at Sandy Run Hunt Co. this past Saturday.  Weather was beautiful for a nice autumn walk, but too hot and dry for excellent dog work.  Even with poor conditions the dogs did well having some nice casts, finds and points.  J.D. Wirth’s dog Tom received the first placement in the shooting dog trial, with Bobbie, handled by Brad Hargis  taking second.  Snoopy, an English Setter female,  handled by Ron Hamp, got top honors in the Derby Trial.  The club recently lost one of its members, Jimmy McNutt, to a long battle with cancer, but you could feel his presence throughout the day.  Jim’s wife, Elanor and son, Jamie, put on a great lunch and snacks throughout the trial.  But the highlight of the day was when Trinity McNutt, Jim’s granddaughter, helped Brad Hargis with the handling of Charlie, a pointer pup that came out of Jimmy’s kennels.  Charlie and Trinity won the puppy trial with Kate, handled by Rich Green coming in second.  

Greg Ireland brought out the amazing pound puppy, Daisy, to get the smell of some quail to start of the new bird season.   I set some quail and a chukar in some of the lighter cover in the Cabin Field and Daisy made easy work of all the birds.   Already in late season form.

Brad Wood came out with his young German Wirehair, Cooper and his buddy Alex Hesser to work Cooper over some chukar.  I set some out in the east bottom and Cooper found all but one, then after a short break to let Cooper cool down on a hot morning, we headed on another hunt, including ponds with every bird set.  Cooper did great getting all the birds in the second set.

Don Deters brought out his young English Setter, Odie, for some whoa training on quail.  I set out some quail in some lighter cover and Odie and Don searched the Cabin Field for the quail singles.   Odie hunted hard in the warm, dry morning air and found and pointed most of his quail.

Chris Cotton brought out his friend Max Fitzgerald for his first upland bird hunt.  They took some clay pigeon practice and I stocked the clubhouse field with pheasant, chukar and quail.  The day was warm, windy, and dry and the birds and dogs did not cooperate.  We were still able to track down some chukar and a covey of quail.  Max made some nice shots knocking down his first bird.

Gene Hodge came out with his young German Shorthair, AbbyMay to do some training on chukar.  Chuck Gurkin came along to help knock down the chukar after Abby had a good point.  She did well, finding and pointing almost all her birds.

Bob Dasenbrock has a new setter pup, Lilly.  She came out a couple of times to find and chase some quail.  She is doing a great job finding and pointing the birds already.

Last season was full of good dog work and some nice points.  Here are a few that I caught on camera.  

One of the most experiences in hunting is the quail covey rise, large numbers of hard flying birds bursting out in all directions.  I really enjoy setting up my “good ole days” quail hunts with large quail coveys scattered through the cover.  The following videos are some of the best ones I caught on camera last season.

Phil Dunn started off his season with his new shotgun and a fun upland bird hunt.  I placed some pheasant and chukar in the Clubhouse Field and Curly and Phil set off to find them.  The pheasant were up and moving on the warm, breezy day, but the thick cover kept them from moving too fast.  Phil was on with his new gun and we came back with all the birds plus an extra quail.