The fun trial almost didnt happen for us yesterday. We didnt get to leave Raleigh until about 10 pm Friday night. It snowed the entire drive and things got pretty dicey a time or two but we made it to High Point(my parents house) alright. I made a game time decision at 6:00 am Saturday morning to go for it. It turned out to be the right decision. It was about an hour down the road to Rimrock Shooting Preserve in Harmony , NC. We saw a few wrecks on the way but made it just fine. There were about 15 or 20 dogs in the event. It was basically just for the members of the Yadkin Valley Chapter of QU, so it was small.I got my first experience as a judge in the competition. It wasnt as hard as I thought it would be and judging another hunter and dog helped me when my turn came. Brewer did awesome for his first event. For those of you who do not know how these events work I will explain. Yesterday there were 2 different fields used. One for flushing dogs and one for pointing dogs. When it is your turn to go, you have to sit in a designated place with your dog where you cannot see the field while someone plants the birds. The field is about 15 acres give or take a few acres. You have 20 minutes to find 3 birds, shoot them and complete a full retrieve. The field is a cut corn field and the birds are planted in patches of the corn. The faster you complete your run the better. For pointing dogs like Brew, the dog has to hold a point for three seconds, then the hunter has to walk in and flush the bird, shoot it and not take any steps. To get points for a full retrieve the dog has to retrieve the bird to hand, the hunter gets one pivot step and thats it. The best dog/hunter combos yesterday did this in around 3 minutes, but they are old pros. Brewer actually found 4 birds, one flew too low to the ground all the way out of bounds. Brewer was fast on his tail or I would have shot. Since the bird went out of bounds, It was a lost cause and we moved on. He pointed and caught 2 birds I flushed out and he retrieved them to my hand. But since I did not shoot the bird I was penalized a little. With our time running out he went on point again, the bird flew and I connected with a second shot.It was the perfect point, shot and retrieve, but time expired before Brewer got back to me with the bird, so we lost a lot of points. We scored 150 points, the best scores for the day where in the 240's. The top six pointing dogs and the top 4 flushing dogs were selected for the final round. We came in 7th so our day was over, but I am still so proud of how well he did. Just a few seconds sooner and we probably would have advanced. On 2 occasions, Brewer made the most beautiful point I had ever seen, he locked up hard, it was textbook stuff, he looked just like those stickers for your car with a GSP pointing. I wish I could have taken a picture of those points, they were awesome. Steffi and I could not be more proud of how well Brewer did yesterday, he completely exceeded my expectations and I cannot wait to compete with him again. I learned a lot yesterday, it was a valuable experience for both Brewer and my self. I know we can improve greatly the next time out. Steffi took some great pictures that I will put up tomorrow. I left the cord needed to transfer the pics from the camera at home.
On another note, I just realized that Daniel "Moose" McLaughlin, the man behind the Moose Droppings blog, gave this blog a great endorsement. He did a post just about me and NC OUTDOORSMAN back in January and I just realized it. I want to take this opportunity to really thank him for that. I wish I had realized this sooner. I greatly appreciate him doing that, he has a great thing going over there at Moose Droppings, I check it out everyday. Hopefully I can continue to improve this blog and my writing to get to his level. If you havent done it already, go to my links on the right side of the page and click on Moose Droppings, he has a very informative blog and I guarantee if there is big news in the outdoor world, he knows about it.
Well, it is Sunday morning and we are going to Church with my parents. I have to get in the shower before I make us late. I am really excited about the future of this blog, we will see were it takes me. Thanks for stopping by, there is plenty more to come. Thanks to all the guys from Yadkin Valley QU and Rimrock Preserve for putting on a great fun trial yesterday, cant wait for the next one.
By the way, I am officially 28 years old today.
-Andrew
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