1997 Master National Hunting Test

Day 1 - Sunday, September 14, 1997
Frank Prendergast and Stan Huff were paired together to judge section A. Gary Brady and Jim Morris were paired together to judge section B.

Dogs 7, 27, 61, and 143 were scratches. Dogs 30 and 39 failed the bitch check and were scratched.

Sunday morning dawned with temperatures in the mid-40's with a clear sky and ground fog. The fog quickly lifted and temperatures reached the mid-70's before afternoon clouds rolled in to cool temperatures slightly. Morning wind was light southerly switching to gusty northerly around midday.

Section A began with a walkup to a shot flyer (pheasant out of a winger) shot straight away on the left, followed by a dead bird out of a "training group" (Mike O'Hearne created special remote winger) on the right. After picking up the double, dogs then picked up a blind tight and deep on the left side of the flyer. Distance to the flyer varied, but was about 100 yards, the dead bird was 65 yards from line and the blind was about 100 yards.

Section B began with the dog on line (no walkup). First a dead bird was thrown from one of the "training group" devices (angled back left to right about 75 yards from line. One of the judges then yelled to a hidden group of gunners inquiring as to their whereabouts. This was followed by a pheasant call and a pheasant thrown (by hand) from right to left with the fall varying from 40-75 yards. The terrain in this test included a small creek that had to be crossed for the dead bird. Once the marks were retrieved, a blind, located between the marks, but closer to the left hand bird and approximately 100 yards from the line was retrieved. The line to the blind also involved crossing the creek.

Dog work varied in both sections, but judges were generous and called back a total of 67 dogs in section A and 71 in section B. Monday, the groups will reverse and group B will attempt the test done by section A and vice versa. Tuesday plans call for one group to attempt a land/water triple while the other group does a water triple with honor. Upon completion of this test, the groups will again trade tests. When both groups have completed four series in this manner, the fifth series will feature a land and water blind combo with dogs from each section alternating in groups of 5. Throughout the test, dogs will be judged by the same judges. There are plans for a sixth and seventh series as well.

Callbacks:
Section A:
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78
(dropped/scratched: 4, 7, 15, 22, 24, 27, 30, 39, 54, 61, 69)

Section B:
79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 90 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 113, 114, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158
(dropped/scratched: 86, 89, 102, 111, 112, 116, 137, 143)

Reported by Bruce Bachert

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