Dale Wiegard came out with son, Matt and son-in-law, Devin Burmester for an upland bird hunt.  They picked a beautiful, spring day for the hunt, great to be out for a walk, just not the best conditions for upland bird hunting.  I set some pheasant, quail and chukar in the Clubhouse Field for Steve Sanders and his posse of dogs to find for the group.  I made it out to see a little bit of the hunt and found Matt knocking down birds out of the air all over the field.  They lost a few pheasant due to the spring weather or errant shooting, but really cleaned up on the chukar and quail.

Larry Jones and Jimmy Robinson came out to try out Larry’s new pointer, Ike on some quail.  I hung around for the first quail covey over at the Tinkerfarm Field and got to see a point by King and one by Ike.  I knocked down a quail in the fencerow while Jimmy worked on backing with Ike.  

Ray Rudy and his son-in-law, Willie Bone finished up their upland hunting season with a pheasant and quail hunt.  I set some pheasant and a couple of mini-coveys of quail in the Clubhouse Field and got a seasoned pair of dogs,  Curly and Mac to do the bird finding.  The pheasant wanted to run in the mild, spring weather but we eventually tracked them all down.  The quail were some tough targets to begin with, but Ray and Willie knocked them all out of the sky.

Michael Williamson came out with his dad, Ray, son, Evan and shorthair, Ranger to hunt some pheasant and chukar.  The spring conditions quickly woke the pheasants I set out in the north Cabin Field.  Ranger really did a nice job locating and pointing the birds.   A couple got a way, but they spent a fun, beautiful spring morning in the upland field.

Trevor Hubbs set up an upland bird hunt for his father, Mark and brother, Adam. Trevor brought along his Irish Setter pup, Jackson, to work some birds, so I set out a couple pheasant and chukar for Jackson to work on his own.  He found and pointed them all except one disappearing rooster pheasant.  So I  set out some pheasant, chukar and quail in the Clubhouse Field and Steve Sanders brought along his dogs to do the guiding with Jackson coming along to help and learn.   The nice, spring weather had the pheasants up and running, but the chukar and quail behaved fairly well.  They hunted hard and came back with all but one quail and one chukar.

Stan Soldner and Mike Niehaus brought out their three young setters, Rowdy, Red and Pearl for a quail hunt.  I set out some quail coveys around the Tinkerfarm Pond on a warm, breezy afternoon for the dogs to find.  The weather had the quail restless, but the pups and hunters had a fun time hunting the running birds through the fencerows and brush around the field.

Jim Robinson set up a pheasant and quail hunt with his son Jason.  Jim also brought along a passel grand daughters, Annie, Ella, Avery and Gwen to flush the birds.  This was one of my favorite hunts of the year.  The birds behaved well and so did the flushers, each getting more than one chance to put a bird up into the air.  

Bill Miller and Mike McDowell came out for a pheasant and chukar hunt.  We stayed in the clubhouse a bit, waiting for the rain to quit, then I stocked the birds and got Mac and Sol ready to do the hunting.  Bill and MIke did a nice job on some running pheasant and hard flying chukar.  One of our roosters got away, but we picked up a spare hen pheasant along the east fencerow.   We timed the hunt just right, because another downpour came through as I was cleaning their take.

Dan Crunk came out with his buddy Cletus Roy along with pointers, Millie and Missy to work on some quail I set out around the south end of the Tinkerfarm.  The wind was whipping around 25mph and the spring quail wanted to run through the timber more than fly, so they did not have any easy time.  But the dogs held steady and despite the tough shooting in the woods, they came back with a pile of quail. 

Daniel and Chris Webster came out for a pheasant and quail hunt.  Steve Sanders came out with his pointers, Rebel, Rose, Maggie to do the guiding.  They took off into the Clubhouse Field looking for the quail coveys and running roosters.  The pointers did a nice job finding the fleeing birds and keeping them in the cover until they launched into the air, with only a couple of quail escaping.