Keven Diekroeger brought out his setter, Penny, wirehair, Ina and his two brothers, Kurt and Craig for a quail hunt.  They enjoy hunting the thick cover at the Tinkerfarm Field so I set 6 nice sized quail coveys around the old lake.  The cold and windy day got the quail moving, whole coveys moved together and disappeared together, making a challenging and fun hunt.  

Neal Hause set up a pheasant hunt with his friend Tom Bradley.  Tom brought his two Brittanys, Ned and Arch to find the birds.  I got to see Ned do a nice job working the pheasants placed in the Cabin Field with only one escaping into the woods.  The young Arch got out to find the lost pheasant, work a grounded hen, and found some quail hidden in the woods.

Bob Dasenbrock came out with his English Setter puppy, Libby for some chukar and pheasant hunting.  Libby covered the Clubhouse Field well finding the chukar and pheasants.  She even roused up a couple of extra pheasants.  Nice workout for the young setter.

John Cavaletto brought his pointer, Burl out for some quail work.  I set out some quail in the Clubhouse Field and Burl found them all plus some extra pheasants.  John cleared the field of all his quail behind some classy points by Burl.

Larry Jones came out with Jimmy Robinson to get Larry’s new Brittany pup, King on some quail.  I set out some singles for King to work alone and then a couple of coveys for King to work on backing Bill’s points.   On the first covey Jimmy worked on the dog training while Larry and I were supposed to knock down the quail.  Larry got one out of the 5 bird covey and I couldn’t hit anything.  On the next covey, Larry didn’t need any help, knocking them all down.  King did a nice job, pointing, backing and retrieving.

Mike, Stan and Kyle Kuhns set up a pheasant and chukar hunt as part of an annual meeting they have with their veterinarian, Charlie Durbin.  I fixed them some biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon before the hunt.  They discussed their hog operation while I stocked birds with the two guides they brought along, Jeff Powell and Darrell Ahlf.   Darrell and Candy got to guide Charlie and Mike in the Clubhouse Field and along with some help from Doo they found all their birds plus a few extra pheasant.  Lots of fun on a chilly, windy day.

Jeff and Aaron Haverfield came out with their two German Shorthairs, Billy and Millie for a quail and chukar hunt.  I set out some quail mini-coveys and some chukar doubles in the Clubhouse Field.  The dogs were on, finding  and pointing the birds, but the shooters were a little rough at first, scattering the birds around the field and into the fencerows and timber.  The wing shooting improved and the dogs got more good bird work and they came back with nearly all their birds and a spare pheasant.

Brad Bickhaus set up an upland bird hunt for his sons, Blake and Trevor and friends, Terry Knebel, Tom Hartman, Tom Lavelle, Chris and Alex Nuzetta, and Eddie Jacobs.  Terry Knebel brought out his German Shorthair, Sadie to do some of the guiding, while Brad requested Jeff Powell to guide the other half with his team of Brittanys and Shorthairs.  They chose the morning after the Continental Shoot so they had a few extra pheasants running around, but the wind was up and the temperature crashed and scenting conditions were tough and the birds were on the run.  Even with the tough conditions they still picked up some birds and as always with Brad’s hunts they relaxed and had a great time.

Some nasty, rainy weather didn’t stop the shooters from coming out for the first Continental Pheasant Shoot of the season at Sandy Run.  They got treated to over 200 pheasants flying over the field.  The rain must have been distracting, because they knocked down 99 in the shoot.  After drying out as much as possible in front of the fireplace we shared a nice lunch of pulled pork and all the fixin’s.