2014 MNRC Blog: DAY 7: Flight D: Bill Blochowiak and Mike Jespersen; Test 5 “Clays"

"Clays" is a land triple using all pheasants with a blind and an honor. The first bird down is to the left of the line, shot to the left at 48 yards. Bird two is an out-of-order flyer shot to the right at 102 yards. The third bird, to the far right of the line, was shot to the right. The blind was run under the arc of bird three, crossing a small piece of water, placed 119 yards from the line. The placement of holding blinds for this test made it more difficult. The holding blind of bird one and flyer station two were almost in line with each other which seemed like it was in "flower pot" configuration; the judge referred to it as a "cornstalk."

In Flight D, 66 dogs were called back to the fifth test, "Clays." When we caught up with them, the temperature had warmed up to 74 degrees and the wind is between 8-10 mph, blowing on the handler's back. The flyer continued to be a problematic bird. There were several big area hunts as the dogs tried to find this pesky rooster pheasant. We watched one dog front foot all three birds. While we were at Flight D, we saw one handle, one double handle and one pick up. The test continued to range between 4-8 minutes a dog depending on how much time was spent hunting.