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.

The Central Prairie Field Trial Club held their Jimmy Dale McNutt Memorial Amateur field trial at Sandy Run’s Tinkerfarm Field.  The trial started with the Shooting Dogs and setters taking all the placements.  Things were different in the Derby, with Pointers dominating the field.  I made my debut handling Ava in the Gun Dog Trial.  Setters again took all the placements with Ava getting third, despite her handler.

Jim and John Kunick came out for an upland bird hunt.  I filled the Clubhouse Field with pheasant and quail coveys and we set out with Doo and Curly to find them.  The pheasants played fair and were some easy targets, but the quail were flying excellent and were a nice challenge .  The next day, they came back with Jims’ kids, Bethany and Jeremy for more pheasant and quail hunting.  Steve Sanders brought his pointers to do the guiding on the second hunt.    This was Bethany’s first upland hunt and she scored on both pheasants and quail.  Great family time in the upland field.

Kevin and Tommy Diekroeger met up at Sandy Run for a two day quail hunt.  Tommy brought his young brittany, Abby and Kevin his wirehair, Ina and setter, Penny to find the quail coveys.  The first day they hunted the coveys I stashed around the edges of the Clubhouse Field.  The second day’s hunt was at the Tinkerfarm Field with quail coveys set around the south end and old pond.  Some nice work by Ina  and Abby, finding the coveys and later the running singles in the timber.

Larry Jones, Mike Beckett and Jimmy Robinson came out for a quail hunt. Larry brought his new Brittany, King, along with a couple of English pointers.  I set some coveys of quail and few chukars in the Clubhouse Field.  They came back with all their chukar and nearly all the quail.