The Cumberland Trail Chapter of the Quail and Upland Game Alliance held its annual Youth Pheasant Hunt on March 10. The weather was great for the day and around 35 kids got to hunt some pheasants, shoot hundreds of clay pigeons and eat a bunch of hot dogs and chili. Lots of pheasants were harvested and few got away, but all the kids got a nice introduction to upland bird hunting.
Brad and Dave Compagni came our for one final pheasant hunt of the season. Travis Devall came with his pointer, Sadie, and setters, Zip and Patches, to do the guiding in the North Tinkerfarm Field. Lost of good flushes and shooting in the milo strips before the birds made it to the timber edges. Some tough shooting throught the fencerows, but they still knocked them down.
Jim, John, Jeremy and Bethany Kunick came out for a second day of hunting, this time adding a few pheasant to their quail hunt. Steve Sanders got the guiding honors again with his dogs doing a nice job finding the coveys in the prairie edges and then timber around the Cabin Field.
Mike Severe brought out his buddies, Dan and Joe Butler, Elliot Geisler and Joe Hodge for a couple of upland bird hunts. Colton Wilkins did the guiding duties in the morning over at the North Tinkerfarm Field. Preacher and Bama did a fine job, finding and pointing the quail, pheasant and chukar tucked into the milo and prairie strips. A bit of chili and hot dogs for lunch and they were back in the field for their afternoon chase.
Jimmy Robinson switched his usual quarry of quail and brought out his friend, Ron Kistler, who prefers to hunt pheasant. Jim’s pair of droppers, Zeke and Pete, didn’t care whether the birds were big or small. The foresome did a nice job and except for one excellent flyer they brought back all their birds.
Roy Moore, Vito Amiano, and Brandon Young stopped by for an afternoon of quail work on their string of young Drahthaars. I let them have a box of quail and the Cabin Field and they worked their 8 dogs in the prairie and milo strips, getting them ready for hunt tests the next morning. The cover was perfect, the birds did well and the dogs got some good finds and points in.
Jeremy Manier set up a pheasant and chukar hunt for his daugter, Ella, Michael and Brian Pokojski, and William and Scott Lindsco. Jeremy’s yellow lab had the job of finding and flushing the birds in the Clubhouse Field. I made it out to catch a few rises on camera of a nice late season upland bird hunt.
Colton Wilkins treated his buddies, Tyler Butts, Dakota White and Jonathon Torbeck to an upland bird hunt. Colton brought out his shorthair, Preacher and setter, Bama to try to track down the birds I hid around the Clubhouse Field. High winds and sun got the pheasant on the run, but they had some nice covey rises and caught up with most of the big birds.
Brian, Jake and Ben Cripe came out to hunt some pheasant, chukar and quail. Steve Sanders brought his pointers to help them find the birds spread out around the Cabin Field. Steve was able to get a couple of the rises on camera, showing off some nice Cripe shooting.
Charlie Durbin set up a meeting with some of his dairy and cattle producers. We started out with some upland birds, splitting the big group up into three fields. Gary Miselbrook guided over at the Tinkerfarm, Steve Sanders in the Cabin Field and Jeff Powell in the Clubhouse Field. After ridding the fields of most of the birds, they came back to the Clubhouse to learn about the latest in the best bovine health practices and products. Then I served up some pulled pork (oops) and we all had an enjoyable dinner.