Master HT set ups

[saabisil]

What has been some of the more challenging Master set-up this season?

[BrettG]

People are scared to post up because the judge police will jump on them for discussing a test.

[MDowney]

2nd series. land water. triple. 1st bird l to r on land,80 yards 2nd bird 180 from 1st bird and thrown L to R on land 75 yards. 3 rd bird in water 20 yards in front of dog. No dog off the triple and run a blind past the water bird and then 40 yards of water and 50 yards of land. Now pick up the triple.

[Furball]

Land/water series...
Single gunner placed on the shore launches bird angle back right into the water. No dog off bird and run a blind with a long entry tight to the left backside of that gunner, enter the water and 70 yards of shoreline. Come back with blind, watch a double thrown to the left on land, pick up all 3 marks.
Running that blind with my pup was like herding cats but he did it then picked up the marks clean so on to the next series...

[BrettG]

Land/water series...
Single gunner placed on the shore launches bird angle back right into the water. No dog off bird and run a blind with a long entry tight to the left backside of that gunner, enter the water and 70 yards of shoreline. Come back with blind, watch a double thrown to the left on land, pick up all 3 marks.
Running that blind with my pup was like herding cats but he did it then picked up the marks clean so on to the next series...

This sounds similar to a poison bird open set up. Gunner on levee, and gunner at the base of the levee about 50yds from the other gunner. Gun station at the base of the levee throws a bird toward the other gunner with a slight angle back. No, off that bird and run a blind with a long angled entry backside of the gunner on the levee. Fun series.

[JTS]

Land 1st series........

Delayed quad with a walk-up and a blind run next to the area of fall of the flyer which was the long bird in the test.

Walk-up as short lefthand mark is thrown, then flyer is shot pinched to short mark. Pick up flyer then two more marks are thrown on right side of test.....pick up three remaining marks then run blind between short left mark and along the AOF of the flyer.

Test was set up on very sloping/rolling terrain with two swales and good cover.

[saabisil]

I didn't know you were not allowed to discuss test set ups. I wasn't able to run many masters this year because of our litter of puppies. Trying to see what I have to look forward to in the spring. Thought that hear what some of the set ups this year were. Would better prepare for next years hunt test season. How else can you prepare for some of these harder tests if you have know idea what they are testing you on.

[saabisil]

Sounds like there were some hard tests out there this year. And I will have to work on some poison bird set ups

[bjoiner]

Not a master test, but an HRC finished test I judged this year.

Original plan was
Water triple with well placed birds, two with angle exits out and up. Dogs that exited the water early had a difficult time finding the birds due to wind and barriers between the early exit and area of fall. A down the shore blind with a ten yard angle entry. Line to the blind had to fight through a bunch of lily pads.

First dog to the line actually resulted in:
A delayed quad poison bird blind with a dog running loose on the shore during the blind.
Bird boy set off the reloaded winger while the first dog was in the middle of the blind. A handler lost control of his dog in the holding blind at the same time. Luckily the running dog was a GRHRCH and handled all this in stride. Needless to say, that dog passed.

[captainjack]

...How else can you prepare for some of these harder tests if you have know idea what they are testing you on.

Train on fundamentals.

You don't have to replicate a particular setup to train. This weekend I couldn't get a cast into the water off a scented shoreline in an Open water blind. I won't try to run a huge water blind to train on this skill. I'll run a 5-peat casting tune up where I put my dog on scented points or shoreline and cast into the water for a blind.

Then some things I see in tests I won't train for at all.

In a Master test we saw a long bird thrown from a levee angled in toward to dog, then a short bird thrown from the same levee angle back. These two birds were separated by a 10 yard wide point. As soon as the second bird hit the water, that station through a long flat throw as a wiper bird that landed on a point. Birds 1 and 2 were down the shore and under the arc of bird 3. Pick up any two, then a diversion bird is thrown on the return. Pick up the diversion and then the last bird.

I enjoyed the test but I don't train on birds thrown toward the dog. It is contrary to my training which is to teach the dig to stay in tbe water until past the gun.

If you have a dog with great fundamentals, you can handle any particular test that comes your way.