My wife and I are going to Ash Grove, Mo. this weekend for the Missouri State and Southwest Regional Gundog Pack field trials. Two big hunts in two days at the same place. I know alot of you guys are SPO but if your close you ought to stop by and check out the Gundog Pack format for yourself. I think youll find the dogs are pretty similar and you might end up liking it. :wink:
Thanks. I guess I should have posted sooner but if anyone needs a dog hauled back this direction Ill have plenty of room.
I had a little bit of luck today but it came from a different place than I expected. A little male out of FC Willie's Bad Boy Blake that I "was" going to sell got 5th today. I think Im gonna hold on to him awhile now. :wink: I had a female that is almost too conservative get picked up for getting too wide. It suprised me that she'd do that but I saw it twice myself and the judge said afterwards that she did it once that I didnt see. Another male that I thought would do the best didnt get picked up but they didnt call him back for second series. Oh well, thats the way it goes sometimes. Tomorrow is another day and maybe the other two will put on a little better showing than they did today.
Today was another day that sort of had me scratching my head. The male that I thought would do the best didnt get called back to second series (again), the male that won 5th yesterday was the first dog picked up today, and the female that is usually too conservative came in second and according to the judge almost won the trial. Every day is a new day in this stuff. Different rabbits, different pack mates, different cover, different running times (early and you might still have frost on the ground-later in the day the scenting might get better or worse)etc., etc., changes everything. I know I had one heck of a good time and cant say enough about how nice the folks at Missouri 4 States Beagle Club were. They put on an outstanding hunt and they were so nice that if you didnt know better youd have thought they were from the South. :razz: Some of these guys didnt get to run their own dogs and some that did get to enter theirs, didnt get to watch em run because they were busy judging or doing paperwork or whatever else it took to make sure everybody else had a good hunt. And something else they did, without me asking, was to donate $100 to our club to help buy trophies for our upcoming hunt. Ive met an awful lot of people at trials and these guys (and girls) are as good as any of em. :thumb:
FB we had a great time too, My best hound was having a hard time handling the pressure. When he is the strongest dog he is almost flawless, but this weekend there were many strong dogs and he spent more time fighting for the front instead of just running his rabbit. It was a blast and they do a great job every trial, and you are correct, you cant find a nicer bunch of folks anywhere. It was good seeing you again, and like I said we will be down next month. Looking forward to AR we never been there before.
FB we are all glad you got to come up and are really glad you had such a good time. We were very happy to see some new faces there for both days. We had a good turn out considering the way the weather has been up here. I enjoyed getting to vist with you and poking a little fun too. Let me know how Honey turns out? Tell Crofford we would like to see him make the trip with you next time!
Im pretty excited about her and will definitely let you know how she turns out. I wanted to run her yesterday but it was so cold and everything was iced up and the wind was blowing quite a bit so I decided to wait. I dont know if Crofford is allowed to get that far from home or not. :hide: I know what you mean Brian. Ive got a couple that are sort of like that. You just about had to rent a U Haul to get your trophies home didnt you?
