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Feb 12th, 2024
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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: dr730] #2996975 02/08/12 03:54 PM
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Thoumitch Offline
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Interesting dialog Gents. Be assured NSTRA and wild bird hunting are not mutually exclusive, and certainly NSTRA extends the time spent doing "something" in the field with bird dogs. What's wrong with that? I like NSTRA as it's a trial group for people with hunting dogs. I like Shooting Dog venues too as many of these dogs are the breeding backbone for hunting dogs and, yes, NSTRA dogs. Several years ago, I participated in a group that paid Bob Wehle the stud fee to breed Snakefoot to a little known at the time "hunting dog" in Kansas owned by friend Bryce Flamming, Hanna's Elhew Lou. The litter produced 7 pups as I recall, 6 of them becoming champions in various field trial venus, including 3 in NSTRA, plus Elhew Snakeye which had success in Shooting Dog stakes and went on to Open plus Hall of Fame Shooting Dog Elhew Sunflower...which produced the multiple year Top Shooting Dog Elhew Hannibel. I understand that old Kansas hunting dog Hanna's Elhew Lou has been nominated and perhaps elected to the Field Trial Hall of Fame for her production. One littermate from the Snakefoot/Lou breeding, a dog named Belle, was perhaps the best wild bird dog I have ever seen. She was always to the front, always out of sight, and it seemed like always on point when found. She was also a 3X NSTRA champion, maybe 2X, and always very competitive in NSTRA. Yeah, she had to be hacked a little to stay in the bird field, just like we have to hack dogs in to hunt small patches when hunting wild birds. So what? I also had one of the litter, a 1X NSTRA champion, Levi, and she also was a wild bird hunter with good success and ranged out to about 500 yards. She just didn't have the nose of Belle...and likely that of Sunflower (Jill was her call name) and Snakeye. Anyhow I just received a pup from Max Harsha in New Mexico (look him up...mulemanmanharsha.com). Those dogs can also trial if you want but he's a wild bird man. my guess is they can also NSTRA trial. I'll find out. By the way, Bill Oxner is a friend of mine and perhaps the greatest lover of bird dogs I have ever known and also a damn good NSTRA trialer. His dogs consistently beat mine on wild birds with finds out on the fringe and he NSTRA trials all year long. What's wrong with that?? Again, NSTRA and wild bird hunting are not mutually exclusive. Give it a try!


Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: bill oxner] #2997111 02/08/12 04:59 PM
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Vizslaguy Offline OP
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There is 3 things I love about bird hunting. One is dogs, two is the fellowship, and the third is birds. I used to hunt a 3000 acre ranch in central texas that produced 35+ coveys/day. The family only charged me $75/day/gun and this was only 5 years ago. The only bad thing was I had to boot my dogs because the place was loaded with sand burs, but moving that many birds made me and the dogs not care very much. We would let 3 dogs down at a time and there would be many times when dogs would all be on point with different coveys. There were so many birds we would not care about working singles. I guess I got spoiled because I don't look forward to paying $500/day/gun to hunt a ranch that may produce 2 coveys. Even if you point 2 coveys you won't shoot any because you feel guilty. That is all I am saying. I have a ton of fun giving these guys in NSTRA a hard time and trying to beat the top running dogs. Im am not saying NSTRA is better, but it works for me. If I had that place where i could go find 10+ coveys again I would not be running NSTRA. It takes birds to make a dog!



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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Thoumitch] #2997287 02/08/12 05:55 PM
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Originally Posted By: Thoumitch
Interesting dialog Gents. Be assured NSTRA and wild bird hunting are not mutually exclusive, and certainly NSTRA extends the time spent doing "something" in the field with bird dogs. What's wrong with that? I like NSTRA as it's a trial group for people with hunting dogs. I like Shooting Dog venues too as many of these dogs are the breeding backbone for hunting dogs and, yes, NSTRA dogs. Several years ago, I participated in a group that paid Bob Wehle the stud fee to breed Snakefoot to a little known at the time "hunting dog" in Kansas owned by friend Bryce Flamming, Hanna's Elhew Lou. The litter produced 7 pups as I recall, 6 of them becoming champions in various field trial venus, including 3 in NSTRA, plus Elhew Snakeye which had success in Shooting Dog stakes and went on to Open plus Hall of Fame Shooting Dog Elhew Sunflower...which produced the multiple year Top Shooting Dog Elhew Hannibel. I understand that old Kansas hunting dog Hanna's Elhew Lou has been nominated and perhaps elected to the Field Trial Hall of Fame for her production. One littermate from the Snakefoot/Lou breeding, a dog named Belle, was perhaps the best wild bird dog I have ever seen. She was always to the front, always out of sight, and it seemed like always on point when found. She was also a 3X NSTRA champion, maybe 2X, and always very competitive in NSTRA. Yeah, she had to be hacked a little to stay in the bird field, just like we have to hack dogs in to hunt small patches when hunting wild birds. So what? I also had one of the litter, a 1X NSTRA champion, Levi, and she also was a wild bird hunter with good success and ranged out to about 500 yards. She just didn't have the nose of Belle...and likely that of Sunflower (Jill was her call name) and Snakeye. Anyhow I just received a pup from Max Harsha in New Mexico (look him up...mulemanmanharsha.com). Those dogs can also trial if you want but he's a wild bird man. my guess is they can also NSTRA trial. I'll find out. By the way, Bill Oxner is a friend of mine and perhaps the greatest lover of bird dogs I have ever known and also a damn good NSTRA trialer. His dogs consistently beat mine on wild birds with finds out on the fringe and he NSTRA trials all year long. What's wrong with that?? Again, NSTRA and wild bird hunting are not mutually exclusive. Give it a try!

You're being overly modest about Levi. Remember the day she went into a pointing frenzy, in the roost area up in Knox county.



Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: bill oxner] #2997987 02/08/12 09:49 PM
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I think the best of both worlds would be to create a NSTRA trial over a continuous course. All the same rules in a minimum 400 acre pasture instead of a 40-60 acre quail peppered lot. Make it one retrieve instead of multiple. If we can get NSTRA to simulate real hunting conditions by their rules,I am in.


Last edited by NorthTXbirdhunter; 02/08/12 09:54 PM.
Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: NorthTXbirdhunter] #2998346 02/08/12 11:38 PM
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Sounds good, have a 15 to 20 minute back course with a bird field at the end and birds on the back course as well as the bird field. I think this probably isn't possible due to land avalible to most clubs. But would be nice. Several other formats are like this but hard to find many of these trials in Tx.


Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Chet] #2998391 02/08/12 11:54 PM
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Originally Posted By: Chet
Sounds good, have a 15 to 20 minute back course with a bird field at the end and birds on the back course as well as the bird field. I think this probably isn't possible due to land avalible to most clubs. But would be nice. Several other formats are like this but hard to find many of these trials in Tx.


BINGO!!! That's NBHA, and ABHA. Their numbers are really down. They split somewhere along the line. The ABHA trial that I entered was not my cup of tea. The bird planter road along and planted the birds and then ran his own dog, in the following brace. I don't think they used more than 30 acres. They just didn't have boundries.


Last edited by bill oxner; 02/09/12 01:03 AM.

Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Vizslaguy] #2998489 02/09/12 12:38 AM
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Kris, When are you drawing your trial? I am supposed to judge in Ok that weekend, but it might not make. I will know on Friday.bg


Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: 5ANDABACK,] #2999961 02/09/12 04:04 PM
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I am drawing the wed before the trial. let me know.



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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Vizslaguy] #3024790 02/18/12 04:04 PM
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I'd hate to be judging that sucker today. It'll be raining off and on all day, with a high of 51 degrees, and a north wind at 15 to 20 mph.



Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Vizslaguy] #5636039 03/05/15 06:36 PM
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Hey Duckedup here's more on NSTRA.


Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Vizslaguy] #5636435 03/05/15 10:07 PM
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Thank you Bill!!

Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: DuckedUp] #5636569 03/05/15 11:35 PM
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Originally Posted By: DuckedUp
Thank you Bill!!


Contact 5andaback on this forum. He guides with hard headed pointers. He'll be judging this weekend at the Corsicans trial. You can watch most of the action from the gallery, but you can see it better while riding with a judge. He might let you ride with him.


Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Chet] #5637377 03/06/15 01:32 PM
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Originally Posted By: Chet
Right you are, she ran across both bird fields to a hedge row that had the only cover in the area. Just what I would have wanted her to do if we were hunting. In fact if my memory is correct, and it may not, that trial had little piles of branches as the only cover in the bird field. One more reason why I'm not a big fan of NSTRA. But for those with a tight handle on their dogs or naturally close working dogs it's a fine way to get some bird work.


This was a real valid observation about the Anna trial grounds and was made a couple of years ago. There have been some really great trial grounds added since then. I'm not sure they still use the Anna grounds. The braces are only 30 minutes long, and there is only so much ground a walking handler can cover in 30 minutes. I assure you that you cant cover some of the newer fields in 30 minutes.


Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: bill oxner] #5637475 03/06/15 02:24 PM
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I skimmed through this....... I would venture to say I hunted more wild quail this year than most in this forum can fathom and I'm about to go trial this weekend. During the season I ran in one trial and got a first place. Nstra is a great way to compete a hunting dog in my opinion. If it's not for you it's probably because you found your dogs not competitive? Some don't like competition and I get that but some do and love to show off their hard work they've done with their dog. If you've never been to a trial, GO! Go watch, bring an orange hat, ride with a judge and meet all the really cool guys that are bird hunters just like you.

Re: NSTRA trial on Feb 18th and 19th!! [Re: Wilsonandleo] #5638691 03/07/15 02:18 AM
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Originally Posted By: Wilsonandleo
I skimmed through this....... I would venture to say I hunted more wild quail this year than most in this forum can fathom and I'm about to go trial this weekend. During the season I ran in one trial and got a first place. Nstra is a great way to compete a hunting dog in my opinion. If it's not for you it's probably because you found your dogs not competitive? Some don't like competition and I get that but some do and love to show off their hard work they've done with their dog. If you've never been to a trial, GO! Go watch, bring an orange hat, ride with a judge and meet all the really cool guys that are bird hunters just like you.


That last point is great. I've been going to trials on and off for the past 4 years, and if nothing else, I've made life long friends and hunting buddies doing it. It's a blast.


Say When.....
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