Has anyone out there ever tournament hunted? Let me hear what you have to think about it.

I think the same about it as I do tournament fishing: A bastardization of time honored traditions.

okay lets get some other replies from someone other than this guy who his dog cant compete

What the hell are you talking about? What does my dog have to do with anything?
Are you refering to field trials? Hunt tests? Or some kind of contest where guys & their dogs compete against others for points and prizes hunting planted birds on a preserve and then sit around in a circle jerk telling each other what great hunters they are?

yeah thats exactly what we do you moron, theres good money involved, thats all right you have your little sausagefest in whatever you do. Just because you cant run with the big dogs. If you think this is so easy then why dont you break out your pocket book and lets see what you got,

Your started this thread asking for opinions. You got one. But in reality you were looking for someone to share your point of view. You couldn't even be honest about it. When you got a differing opinion you couldn't handle it and had to come back with an immature,"Oh yea, let's see you try it"! Grow up kid.
I'll stick by my opinion. If your doing it for money it's not hunting, and is a bastardization of the sport & tradition. And please, don't call preserve shooting for pen-raised planted birds "hunting". You not fooling me or anyone else. Just yourself.

Jumpshootin you obviously have never been on a preserve for a hunt have you? And if you have, then it was obviously not a very good preserve.

I used to think like you until I went on a preserve hunt on Saturday to get my dog and my friend's dog some good field work in. I figured to go there and in half an hour we would have our limit of 6 birds. Not even close,these birds ran ahead of our pointers and flew just as good as the wild birds I have hunted. It was a good day and I missed these birds just as easy as those wild ones. It took awhile to get the swing back in the gun.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting.

Field trialers make a great contribution to this sport. Because of competition, trialers generally are more knowledgeable on gundogs and breeding. They will breed litters of puppies and pick what they think will have a chance to win and the rest to the hunting public. We benefit greatly for it. All the CH's MH's etc. in your dogs pedigree comes from alot of research from trialers and careful breeding.

I agree with mite about how much everybody benefits from the work of trialers. I have also had an opportunity to hunt on a perserve for a youth hunt a few years ago, and maskell is right. They do act like any wild bird, but i think this has a lot to do on how big the flight pen is that they were raised in, because I have heard stories of pen raised birds not flying as well. At the moment, I have about 100 pen raised quail that I have to trian my puppy and a friend of mines pup.
Then again, I agree with Jumpshootin, but not the extreme of calling it a bastardization. I go to some of the trials around here and the guys around here do it for their dog. They aren't in it for the money. It is also a lot of fun to watch their dogs work, but I always find joy in that.