A clear day that even at 6:00am was promising high heat and humidity. The judges opted for a big land quad before the temperatures reached the 90's. The line was atop a mound facing north with a SW wind. Scattered clumps of poplars and a few large patches of cattails were in the wild grass field. The first guns on the right side at 216 yards threw a rooster pheasant to the left. Next a set of guns to the left at 322 yards threw a duck high and back to the left. On the right side at 159 yards a pair of gunners threw a duck to the left converging or hip-pocket to the first guns. Finally the go-bird was on the far left at 82 yards and throwing a duck to the right into a cattail pond. The tests proved problematic for many dogs. The short retried gun was easy to run through and the duck could not be winded unless the dog was close and had a positive mark. Many dogs also hunted on the wrong side of the right middle bird. The long retired gun had several factors (cover and wind and go-bird) pushing the dogs to the right and many hunted on the wrong side of it. Several excellent jobs were turned in while quite a few dogs handled including some that had previously been very clean.. The test started at 9:00 am and was finished by 1:00 pm. The toll was 8 dogs as 17 were called back to the 8th. Dropped were 14, 17, 21, 26, 31, 43, 45, 50.
8th Series Land Double Blind with Poison bird.
As the temperatures soared, the judges set up a double land blind and a poison bird from a mound near the 5th series marks. A "poison" duck was thrown to the left at 114 yards The first blind was a rooster pheasant at the base of a mound to the left at 95 yards. The second blind was between the first blind and the poison duck but at a distance of 212 yards. Several small bushes and a patch of cattails provided both slots and hazards for the dogs which faced a slight cross-wind. Overall the work was quite good on this series although nobody lined both blinds. 3-4 whistles jobs were fairly common. The long day before and the heat prompted the judges to call it quits for the day after 4:15pm. Callbacks showed one dog dropped - number 9.
