It was a beautiful morning with a full moon lighting the way through the gate, just before the sun came up. We dodged a couple of rain showers and it never got as warm as forecasted. The grounds were wet in low places but the cover was excellent and if the planters didn’t throw them in a puddle, the birds flew really well. The scenting conditions seemed perfect to us humans but the dogs, with the 15-17 mph breeze, seemed to have some difficulty pinning them down. Three finds got you in the game but as usual retrieving and a back carried the day. Backs were coming hot and heavy with a total of 8 for the day making the scoring pretty tight. Josh Gwartney’s dogs worked really well again and this time Kate rewarded him with a 1st place. Ricky Jannsen did some work with Drake, after figuring out the game at the 3-2-18 trial, and they came out and took second. Should be fun to see their progress by the fall. Tom Krause backed up his win on the last trial with a 3rd place Saturday, trailing Ricky by 49 seconds on the first find. It was a close day all around with nothing being decided till the last brace when Kelly Sample came in with the same score as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th and only losing to them on time to first find. Nail biter for sure.

Over in the puppy field Carl Downs brought his puppy Sassy back, after missing the 3-17 trial because she had come into her first season. That young girl is a force to reckon with and like on the big field it is all about the retrieves, where she recorded four returns to hand out of five finds. Bob Dorn’s Bella again looked focused with four finds for her 3rd 2nd place finish in a row.

Lunch was sandwiches from the local Harp’s Market, along with some excellent quail stew by Tom Krause and a macaroni salad by Linda Dorn. Dessert was again provided by Ben Faulkner and the double chocolate cake was a “good” reason for several “bad” dietary decisions.

We took down the field, pulled in the blinds, boundary posts, and water barrels, for the hay to be bailed this summer and it’s now time to break out the fishing gear. Have a great summer and drop by the Sunday Shoot at 8am at the Tulsa Gun Club, if a missed bird or two made a difference on your score.