Marc and Blaine Scholes came out for a upland bird hunt on a beautiful Sunday  afternoon.   It was a little too nice for bird hunting, but the wind was low so the birds hung tight to make a nice hunt.  I placed some pheasant, quail and chukar in the clubhouse field and Marc brought out his two German Shorthairs, Spook and and Ava to find them.   This was Blaine’s first upland hunt and after a couple of rises he had it figured out and was knocking birds out of the sky.

Bobby and Cole Halberstadt and their buddy, Mike Bush decided they wanted to try our new chukar hunt, the Southern Illinois Grouse Hunt.  They started out with Bobby’s lab, Rocky, and must have had some fun, because they said “Let’s do that again.”  For the second round, Cooper and Toby, Mikes’ labs got the job.  They didn’t come back with all the chukar, but they had some great fun and interesting shooting on this challenging course.

Mark, Jordan and Jacob Ing came out for a hunt with their friends, Paul, Jon and Joel Witt. Mark brought out his new lab pup, Aela, to meet some new people and smell some new smells. It was warm and windy and the group wanted to hunt for pheasant and chukar so I stocked the north end of the Tinkerfarm Field and Greg Ireland brought out Daisy to do the guiding.  Daisy, just off the disabled list, did a great job finding the birds in the milo strips and the group came back shy of just a few birds.

Richard Burnett set up a hunt for his family, John, Todd and Jacob Burnett and Matt Murphy.  Jeff Powell brought out his Brittany Spaniels and German Shorthair to guide and set out some pheasant, chukar and quail in the Clubhouse Field.  The day was beautiful, a little too nice for bird hunting, close to 50 and breezy.  We did a couple of sets but the dogs and the hunters did their job and came back after a couple of trips with most of their birds.

Our annual Youth Pheasant Hunt hosted by the Cumberland Trail Chapter of Quail and Upland Game Alliance is coming up on Saturday, January 24th from 9 am to 4 pm.   The cost is only $25/hunter, and each hunter will get to hunt for two pheasants,  a door prize and food and drinks.  Clay pigeon shooting will be available all day.   This hunt has limited space, so please call to make your reservations for the time you desire to hunt.   Participants must be 16 and younger, have a hunting license and be accompanied by an adult with a FOID card. 

Check out some videos of our past youth hunts.

Ray and Michael Williamson came out with their two pups, Evan (Human) and Ranger (German Shorthair).  They picked a warm, windy January morning to hunt some pheasants.  They tried the milo at the Tinkerfarm but the birds were still tough, ducking and running through the cover.  They were able to get some birds and came back with some tired young hunters.

Dan Crunk and Cleatus Roy brought out some their English Pointers, including Millie, Flirt and Missy to run them on some quail.  I placed some quail singles throughout the Clubhouse Field and they hunted them with a couple of braces of pointers.  The warm, windy day had the singles on the move but the dogs sifted through the cover and found them all.

Larry Jones came out with his two English pointers, Bill and Julie and his two friends Jim Robinson and Mike Beckett.  They picked a warm, windy January day, but the birds and the dogs behaved fairly well for the conditions. 

Ken and Zaine Schwerman came out for an upland bird hunt with their friend, Arlon Long and his German Shorthair, Cooper.  I stocked the Clubhouse Field with pheasant, chukar and quail and Cooper started the hunt finding the birds.  Zaine started shooting a little slow, but was hitting all his shots by the end of the hunt.

Mike, Stan and Kyle Kuhns held their annual meeting with their two favorite veterinarians, Charlie Durbin and Tanner Kirby.  Hog production was discussed over a breakfast of biscuts and gravy, eggs, hashbrowns and bacon.  Then we broke off into two groups, with their friend, Jeff Powell guiding at the Cabin Field while I took Stan, Mike and Charlie to the Clubhouse Field.  Great morning to be in the field and with those three shooting, we didn’t have to chase many.