On March 7, 2020 we held our 5th Top Gun Competition on a beautiful Saturday morning on the West Grounds of the Des Plaines SFWA. We had 17 individuals that handled their dogs in either the One Dog One Man division (12 entries) and/or the Two Man One Dog division (13 entries).
With an expanded bird field for both groups we saw some great field work by the dogs entered. Of the 25 entries, 20 of them had 4 bird contacts during their maximum 20-minute run and 19 of the entries pointed all 4 birds successfully. The average time in the field was 12 minutes in the One Man and 13 minutes in the Two Man divisions. From my observations, the difference in time between the two divisions was the extra time it took to position the second gunner.
Congratulations to our winners:
Two Man One Dog Division
1st Dave Sandei/Nick Urban with Kloe
2nd Chuck Peterson/Bob Palmer with Lark
3rd Frank Susi/Connie Susi with Jazz
One Man One Dog Division
1st Chuck Horvath with Zoey *
2nd Paul Kosowski with Angel
3rd Rodger Roback with Lucy
*The difference between 1st and 2nd was a time difference of 8 seconds.
Thank you to all the members that made this event possible by participating in running their dogs and the many individuals who contributed their time in bird handling, judging, marshalling, and chairing the event.
Event Chairs: Tony Mattingly, Frank Susi and Chuck Horvath
Judges: Dave June and Matthew Dlugie
Field Support: Marty Kyes, Dave Wolfe, Al Haseman and Ivan Bivolarov