[Ron in Portland]

Someone pointed out to me that they are running a double Hunt Test this weekend on the grounds where the Master National will be.

They are running a Fri/Sat/Sun test with four flights and 280+ dogs, and a Sat/Sun test with jfive flights and 260+ dogs. You can see it on EE.

That means on Saturday morning they'll be running 9 flights of probably close to 500 Master dogs.

All I can say is WOW!!! We run two flights and it stretches our club to the max. Hard to imagine nine at the same time.

Must be some party down there. My hat is off to the club that can pull that off.

 

[browndogbill]

what is ee?

 

[Wayne Nutt]

Entry Express is ee. It is an online service for hunt tests, field trials, etc. They take care of many of the things that the hunt secretary used to do: registering dogs, collecting fees, publishing test program booklets, etc.

There are two of these on line services. The other is HuntSecretary.com

 

[roseberry]

ron,
down here in alabama that's what we call a "BIG UN'".

 

[Sundown49 aka Otey B]

The site of this test is absolutely beautiful !!! I went by and looked at the Cattle Ranch when I was at the Advanced Judging Seminar a couple if weeks ago and thought I was in Retriever heaven...........LOL>

 

[mostlygold]

What club could possibly get enough workers to cover 9 flights of dogs, not to mention the other stakes SH and JH? Even if it is 2 clubs, I can't see how they can get enough workers to cover that many dead bird stations, flyer stations and blind planting. I can only say I am VERY glad not to be running this test. It must be a raving madhouse down there.

Dawn

 

[JustinS]

I wonder if they got the high school FFA or 4H clubs to help and the club would make a donation to their club- heck i bet they would need both - ha good luck to em

 

[DoubleHaul]

I wonder if they got the high school FFA or 4H clubs to help and the club would make a donation to their club- heck i bet they would need both - ha good luck to em

You would need the whole high school--or at least the marching band. I think I have run one with as many as five MH flights going at once. I can't imagine that many.

 

[1st retriever]

Wow! We decided to have a double MH this year and are worried about having enough workers. I can't imagine the amount they have! Good luck!

 

[cakaiser]

Cattle ranch is a prison farm. We can hire as many workers as we need.
They can't shoot, but they cook, make lunches, throw, plant blinds, load and unload the trailer, anything really.

And they are grown men, not kids. Many of them are very experienced.

 

[hughest]

The gounds are at the state cattle ranch - prison workers that work at the ranch/wildlife management area are the majority of the work force. They don't shoot the flyers or marshal, but they are the bird boys. In my experience, they are very glad to be out on a weekend in the fresh air, are very courteous and work very hard. Interesting conversation in the blind, I must add.

 

[ARay11]

I have competed at and judged on the Cattle Ranch. An incredible property, with plenty of hard workers. Good Luck competitors! Best wishes to the judges! Kudos to the club! Hope all is well!!

 

[Happy Gilmore]

Wow, 9 flights. Quite an accomplishment. Hope everything turns out well and the club does well financially.

 

[Jim Butler]

9 flights, wow! Congrats and best of luck. I wish it were closer I'd like to watch that. We just cancelled our test due to lack of entries.

 

[roseberry]

i asked how, during "the great american duck shortage" they found enough birds.......nobody is talking!

 

[Duckquilizer]

Now that's a good use of " captive" help! :snipersmile: :twisted:

 

[Eric Johnson]

Cattle ranch is a prison farm. We can hire as many workers as we need.
They can't shoot, but they cook, make lunches, throw, plant blinds, load and unload the trailer, anything really.

And they are grown men, not kids. Many of them are very experienced.

At one time the Cattle Ranch was a true prison farm. Now the land has been taken over by the state land trust known as Forever Wild and the prison population cut by about half and is a work release center. We used to go out there on Wednesday afternoon with a training group that varied between 3-8 people. The trustees that would help us had become so good that we could pull up at a site and say something like, "We need a triple thrown left, right, center and the last two need to be about an inline and then a blind between the left and center birds. Oh yes, we also want it to be just singles or a double for the younger dogs." We'd air dogs and when we were finished, they'd be set up and ready to go.

A couple of them went on to work for pro trainers when they were put on probation.

The Cattle Ranch is truly a one of a kind setting and it's all Alabama's....neener, neener!

Eric

 

[Alan Sandifer]

It is running very smooth , weather was tough last night . But i have not seen a problem in the 2 flights im running . It always goes smooth here , the help works several FT & HT each year .

 

[Splash_em]

We've been blessed so far that the tests have been running pretty smooth. As everyone can imagine, this morning was a touch of a rat race getting 9 flights rolling. Worst part was the 3 inches of rain that we got last week has the grounds pretty soft do parking has been the worst issue, but the tractors are staying fueled up and been used very little.

My hat is still off to Dave Kress and Allen Dilliard for pulling this all together and the extra judges that stepped up on short notice to help us make this test as successful as it has been thus far.

 

[Ron in Portland]

ron,
down here in alabama that's what we call a "BIG UN'".

I would definitely agree with that. When talking about this with a friend, all I could say was, "those folks down South must really take their dog games SERIOUSLY to be able to pull this off".

I bet it would be a blast to run.