LIBRARY

CHUKARS
By Pat Bramwell, Spivey, Kansas

The Springer Spaniel Club of Central Kansas held its second chukar spring field trial March 16-17, 1996. All 3 series were on chukars this time!

If you remember reading my fall 1995 article, you'll recall we had decided we couldn't just hold one chukar trial - that wasn't a solid basis for making future bird decisions.
We heard some of the same negative comments this year but that wasn't going to stop us. Who can argue an increase in 8 dogs! True, we lost a few that came last year, if we hadn't we would have had a larger increase. What will next year bring?

We elected to use lighter cover than we would use in the fall both years. Per Mark Tholen, one of our judges, "The cover was fine. If you would have been in much heavier cover, the chukars would have burrowed in and dogs would never have smelled them."

Last year we had 3 traps, this year we messed up, we had 11. That's still far better than having 120 traps in a spring pheasant trial as we have had in the past.

We are not advocating the use of chukars in the spring for every club, but for us it works great - for now. It has been said that we shouldn't do this. My question is - if someone doesn't try it, how will anyone know. How many "new" things is the ESSFTA putting into effect this year? It is my understanding that the first Nebraska club used chukars for their shooting dog stake. It is also interesting to note, that per July, 1974, Outdoor Life, "Last February 2 the Ohio Valley English Springer Spaniel Club conducted the first officially recognized grouse trial for spaniels." David Michael Duffy and Dan Langhans were the judges.

In conclusion we had a great trial and we would like to invite everyone to join us on chukars (who knows, maybe we'll even throw in a few grouse next March! I'M JOKING!