14th Annual Rooster Run @ ROYAL FLUSH

Well most of the dust has settled and I’m guessing most of the pups feet are still a little tender from the crusty ice/snow this past weekend. But, I’m also guessing they all would go another day if they could get the action they had this weekend. It was birds flying and running on the ground just like in the wild and some awesome dog work topped the weekend for me. I had an absolute blast this past weekend at the 14th Annual Rooster Run put on by Corey & Jen Waller and for the 2nd year in a row it was hosted @ ROYAL FLUSH SHOOTING PRESERVE , just West of Hinckley, MN. They are a top notch shooting preserve with an even better British Lab Kennel facility. If anyone is in the market for a British Lab, make sure you check out Royal Flush and give John a call. He is more then happy to give you the run down of his kennel and give you a tour.

Jason and I arrived Saturday morning to find out we were paired up with Chris Tuckner (Tuck) and his son Ben. Right there I knew it would be a fun day as the temps were just below 30 degrees and that made it a perfect day to hunt some birds and joke with friends. We had a lil’ trouble shooting in the morning but after a great lunch we got back out and started our run of not missing a bird until the final flush. Rufus and Maggie did their thing and did it very well as birds were no match for the two determined labs in our field. Again just like lat year we had some good laughs and some fun times at the expense of ourselves, the dogs and the birds. The funniest one of the day was after a marathon chase for a bird across the barren pasture Maggie and Rufus finally teamed up to get a running rooster that was never shot. As Rufus was retrieving the bird Maggie had come back and gone back to work. Rufus drops the bird as he is trying to catch his breathe after the long chase. Maggie goes on point with the camera rolling and flushes another rooster as Rufus is almost back to the group. The rooster flushes and Rufus hears the excitement and takes off after this new rooster that hit the ground leaving the first rooster on the ground. After seeing Maggie has that Rooster under control he looks back to see the other rooster get up and bee line back into the cover as Rufus turns on the burners and another chase is on. Believe me this was a fun and chaotic couple of minutes. We ended the day with 16 of our 20 birds and some good laughs, fun times and memories that will carry me until next year.

After the hunt we headed back to the clubhouse and enjoy a few and share events and laughs of the day with other hunters in our group. My wife Stacie came up that evening and we all enjoyed some great hospitality from John and his crew from Royal Flush. They had prepared a prime Rib dinner that was fit for a king as a big group sat down and enjoyed the food, drinks and some ultimate fighting on the big screen. After a late night for Lip and a few others the morning came a little to fast. I think someone else in the group said it best by stating “When you are up there it is more like staying at a buddies cabin. You feel very welcomed and at home up there.” John and his crew made it very comfy and homey during our stay up there. It was nice to just wake up in the morning and be there and ready to hunt. We gathered around the TV @ 8 am to watch In-Depth Outdoors first open water show of the season as we were treated to watching some sumo fat momma walleyes come to the boat on Pool 4 courtesy of James Holst and Steve Dezurik. After the show we gathered and hit the fields for the morning hunt.

The morning found me hunting with Mike the rare meat eater (a buddy of Corey Waller), Slack and his pup Ollie (Ron from the site), my wife Stacie and our boy Rufus. It was a little cooler the 2nd morning and we were greeted with a nice chilly wind. Again we had some great times and some pretty funny events. The shooters made the dogs work a little extra hard that morning with some shots that had the birds hit the ground running. Mike and I started that trend with the first two birds of the day. Rufus first retrieve ended up being just over 100 yards and his second was about 150 yards. It was another great morning as we ended up going 7.5 for 10 as we had one bird that would just not die. Slack put the hurt to a bird that decided he wanted to take a run in the woods with Rufus. After about 20 minutes of searching for that bird here comes Rufus in hot pursuit of the bird as it reached the wood edge up ahead of us and decides that it can now fly and takes off to the next county. After another good lunch we ended up switching Ron’s in our group as Stacie had missed out hunting with Sliderfishin (Ron Buchovich) and his dog Star this past Fall and wanted to hunt some with those two. Why you ask?? I’m not sure. Hunting with Slider is always a treat and our Dogs work very well together. If Slider shows up at our house my dog goes Ballistic as that usually means good things are about to happen. Well same deal in the afternoon. Many laughs were had and Mike gets the award for quickest and closest shot. As Star gets locked on a bird we get Stacie and Mike set up around Star as Rufus and I stay away form and honor Stars point. The bird gets up and just as quickly the bird is back down as feathers are every where as Mike dusts the bird 6 feet off the end of his barrel. Again we have issues of hitting a bird causing a long chase and an escape by a bird that should have dropped a few times. We end day 2 with 16 out of 20 birds, not to bad but both days we saw all of our birds, but even on a preserve you still need to shoot in order to get al your birds. Guess that is why they call it hunting. Overall, I have visited 3 Game Farms/Preserves in the last month and Royal Flush by far had the best cover and birds that acted more natural. Not to mention they were some nice big birds with some dandy tail feathers and a few exotics that were shot by all the groups.

It was great hunting with everyone this weekend and can’t wait for the 15th Annual Rooster Run next year. I had a great time seeing the IDO guys and meeting a few new ones. I loved the fact that we had some GIRLS and KIDS along on this Hunt. It is important that we share this great sport with the ladies and kids to keep this sport going. Corey & Jen thanks a ton for a great weekend and mark down Lip, Stacie, and Rufus for next year. If I have one, I definitely put in a vote in for holding it at ROYAL FLUSH again next year. Thanks to John and his Crew @ ROYAL FLUSH SHOOTING PRESERVE for making a great weekend even better!

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