1997 Master National Hunting Test
Day 6 - Friday, September 19, 1997
Weather this morning was ideal. Temperatures at dawn were in the upper
20's with a light frost and no wind. There was a heavy ground fog which
began to dissipate as the sun peeked over the mountains. When the combined
6th series concluded at about 1:30, the temperature had risen to a very
comfortable 60 degrees (almost everyone had their jackets off). There was
little or no wind for most of the dogs.
The sixth series featured three dead ducks launched from automatic wingers.
Each winger fired a primer and a gunner fired a popper at the duck that
was thrown. First, the long bird appeared to the left across a small
channel and about 75 yards from the line. Next, a winger launched duck
crossed from left to right (crossing the line to the long bird) and fell
about 30 yards in front of the dog. There was a shooter, one of our
hunting companions, stationed on the bluff with a double barrel gun to pop
at the first two birds. Last, a dead duck was launched from the right,
angled away from the line and landing at a distance of about 50 yards.
All dogs picked up the right bird with no problems. There were some loose
hunts and handles on the middle bird as dogs tended to overrun the short
bird. The left bird was the most difficult of the three and very few dogs
took a true line to the bird although most knew the proper area to hunt.
The majority of the dogs did very good work on this series and only 2 dogs
were lost, one from each section.
Plans for tomorrow call for a double flyer, one pheasant and one duck.
Callbacks to series 7:
Section A:
1-3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 16-21, 28, 33, 35-38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48-51, 57, 59,
60, 62-64, 67, 71, 72, 76, 78.
Section B:
79-81, 83, 87, 91-93, 95, 105, 106, 108, 113, 114, 127, 129-131, 133, 138,
141, 146-148, 150, 153, 154, 157.
Reported by Bruce Bachert
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