The Cumberland Chapter of the Quail and Upland Game Alliance and Sandy Run Hunt Co.  held their annual Youth Pheasant Hunt, January 24.  We had 38 kids participate, shooting over 700 clay pigeons, hunting 76 pheasants, and consuming 3 gallons of chili and countless hotdogs.  We started the hunt at the north end of the Tinkerfarm, stocking the milo strips with pheasants.  The hunters did well there and when the ground thawed we moved to the Clubhouse Field to finish the afternoon.  The sunny, windy day had the birds up and moving around, but most of the hunters got a couple of opportunities at their pheasants. 

John Cavaletto came out with his buddies, Larry Ackerman and Dennis Smith.  John, brought Burl, his English Pointer and Larry and Dennis both brought German Shorthairs, McCallister and Gretchen.  I set some coveys of quail in the Clubhouse Field and they headed out to find them.  The dogs did their job finding the coveys and the singles later on.

Charlie Durbin set up a hunt for his friends, Mike Kuhns and Darrel Ahlf.  Darrel brought along his setter, Candy to do the guiding.  I filled the Clubhouse Field with pheasant and quail and Candy led the way.  Although she hasn’t gotten out much this season, Candy did a great job finding the birds.  The group chased the pheasants and quail around until Mike finally nailed the last one.

John McIntosh came down with his English Setter, Mickey and his friend Jeff Marshall with his new Setter pup, B.  Jeff wanted to work B on some single quail so I set out some singles around the east bottom field and B found them all.  Then I set out a big covey of quail in the center of the Clubhouse Field for Mickey.  He found the cover and except for a couple they knocked down, the quail spread out around the big field.  Mickey got some help from Mac finding singles and eventually Mac’s son Yadi got into the mix.  The hunt got ended a little early due to an impending prayer meeting, but they got most of their quail for a nice meal. 

Chris Lewis set up a quail hunt  for his friends, Tim Cincotta, Ty Fonte and Harvey Rhoads, and his German shorthair, Nitro.  I put out some mini-coveys of quail in the Clubhouse Field and Nitro went into action with the rest in tow.  They knocked a few down on the rises but left plenty of singles for Nitro to search out on a nice afternoon to be in the field.

Chuck Gurkin and Gene Hodge came out to hunt some chukar.  They picked a warm, blue bird day, so we headed to the north end of the Tinkerfarm Field to hunt the chukar in the milo strips.  Gene brought along is chocolate lab, Kizzy to do the finding and flushing.  She must have done a good job, because they came back with most of their chukar and a couple of quail. 

Larry Jones came out with his son, Nathan and son in law Brian Lewis for a quail and pheasant hunt.  They wanted to hunt a new field so I  stocked some pheasants and quail at the north end of the Cabin Field.  Larry brought along his two English Pointers, Bill and Julie to find the birds.  They started off with a rooster pheasant that gave them a couple of opportunities before escaping to safety.  The quail and other pheasant were more cooperative and gave them some nice hunting in the prairie strips and timber edges.

Larry Kleiner set up a hunt for his friends, Dave Schumacher, Doug Hayes and Marc Seale. Larry brought his two German Shorthairs, Trigger and Holly, Dave his Brittany, Dan and Doug his English setter, Daisy. I placed 5 nice sized coveys of quail in the Clubhouse Field and the eight of them set off. They had a couple hours of non-stop bird action with coveys to break and singles to chase.

It had been a couple of years since Ray Rudy and Robert Hernandez had been upland bird hunting, but they set up a hunt to get back in the saddle.  I set some pheasant, chukar and quail in the Clubhouse Field and grabbed Curly to start the hunt.  They picked a beautiful, warm day with almost no wind and the birds behaved well and gave us some nice opportunities.  Mac and Sol came out for the second half and Roy and Robert started knocking down the birds.

Karey Courson set up a hunt for her husband David and sons Blaze and Blake, and parents, Dean and Sandy Devall.  Dean brought out his two labs, Peaches and Hunter and Karey came with her Brittany, Belle.  I set out some pheasants and chukar in the Clubhouse Field and we all headed out to hunt.   Blake said he was there to back up everyone, but knocked down most of the birds to start the hunt.  Blaze was on fire at the end, smoking both chukars on the last rise.