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.

Mark and Owen Peterson came out for a pheasant and quail hunt, before Owen headed back to school.  I put out some quail mini-coveys and pheasants in the Clubhouse Field and got Sol and Mac to find the birds.  The windy day had the pheasants up and moving so we chased them around getting some long tough shots.  I changed out dogs for Curly and Yadi and we headed back out across the Sandy Run bottom after some quail and a rooster.  The quail had disappeared, but the rooster gave us one last chance.

Brad Bickhaus set up a big upland hunt for a bunch of his friends.  There were enough hunters we broke into 5 groups with each going after their own set of pheasants, chukar and quail.  I guided Terry and Brian Knebel, Tom Hartman and a Josh Jenkins in the Clubhouse Field with Sol.  Good job by Sol and the hunters and we came back in just a couple birds shy of what we put out.  Back at the Clubhouse, Brad fried up a pile of crappie and hushpuppies for the end of great hunt.