Day 3: Wednesday, July 14, 1999
Wednesday morning started off heavily overcast about 18 C with a light north-northwest wind. The fifth series was a fairly wide land triple in a large cut hayfield with large round bales everywhere. Gunstation 1 in the centre was about 175 yards out. They stepped out and threw a rooster pheasant to the left to land on a line between two bales. They retired behind a third bale. Gunstation 2 was way left and threw a drake mallard flat left and downhill to land in a strip of cover in front of a bale. Guns 3 were to the right and considerably deeper than the centre guns. They threw a drake mallard back to the right to land in an uncut area. Most dogs did this test quite well with the only real problem being some hunts on the centre bird caused by dogs hooking around the bales rather than going between. All dogs were called back to series 6-a water triple at a new site.Dog 8 withdrew due to injury.
As the workers packed up for the move to series 6 a light rain began which progressed to a very heavy rain with increasing wind. Conditions were quite brutal and I would like to thank all gunners who endured these conditions, especially Marianne Bedard, Mrs Rose, Anna Calvert, Buck MacKenzie and all workers from the wild rose club. Special mention as well to my dynamic duo of Vern Taskey and Bud Gau who have worked every series to date.
The water triple was set up facing west at the end of a large pond approx 200 yards long with large rolling hills at the back. Retired gun 1 threw a drake mallard flat right to land about 10 yards off the shoreline. This mark was about 125 yards from the line. To the left at about 100 yards guns 2 threw a drake mallard to the left and steeply back towards a hillside, Further left and closer to line Guns 3 threw rooster pheasant to the right. The pond curved into a narrow bay, which was on line to the left birds. A fairly charitable assesment of the work on this series would be varied. I didn’t see all dogs run but dog 9 who ran first had excellent work as did 12 and 37. Several dogs handled and dog 43 broke. 24 dogs were called back to 7th series-land blind which will be preceeded by bitch-check. Weather forecast for thursday-3 C with heavy rain and 30-40 kmh winds!!!!!!
