ScarySouthernMan
07-15-2007, 09:49 PM
So I went up to Northern Virginia to pick up a boat from Paul Cupka yesterday. When I get there he and his buddy Hal are sittin' on his porch with an air compressor and a bag full of water balloons.
I sort of scratched my head for a second and said "Paul, what the @#$% ya doin'?"
He just grinned and asked if I brought my shotgun. I knew it was going to be an interesting Saturday.
So Paul has this contraption (or rather set of contraptions) that are stationary dog dummy launchers that fire little Bluebill dummies up in the air for dog work. I think he had two that launched 8 in a single direction and one unit that fired four in multi direction...one at a time. They also have remote controlled bird calls on 'em for the dogs' training exercises.
Enter the balloons...
We clipped the balloons (that were filled with air and a liberal amount of construction chalk powder...available at any hardware store) to the duck dummies and walked out into Paul's yard. After we set the machines up, Paul points to a Finisher blind laying up at the top of the yard, HANDS ME A SHOTGUN, and says "Go lay down".
He yells "Ready?", and the fun level officially went through the friggin' roof.
When you hit the dummies, they explode chalk everywhere! The cool thing that makes it WAY neater than shooting clays is that the left-over pieces of a clay pigeon can't be retrieved!
So then he goes and gets his dog King and that's when it hit another level of awesome.
Picture this;
Me in a Finisher blind with a loaded shotgun, Paul and King in their respectful blinds, the sounds of wild birds calling in the background, duck dummies rifling through the air, BANGS, exploding chalk impacts, and Paul sending his dog out to retrieve the dummies in different orders everytime.
If you could fry those duck dummies, I'd sell all of my hunting gear and go live in Paul's yard... Seriously.
So I assumed that this was just another one of Cupka's neat dog training innovations, but he let me in on the reason (aside from it being like an arcade for duck hunters) behind the insanity.
Apparently this is a practice episode for the Ohio Waterfowl Boot Camp! Paul told me there's going to be a retriever competition up there that is similar to what he was doing in his back yard. Now me, I'm a simple man. I had so much fun there in the yard that I wasn't really thinking of anything that could make it any more fun than it already was but the rumor is, in Ohio, they are going to have the whole thing happen at waterside with TWO guys and you have to call and shoot and send the dogs in a realistic mock-up of a real hunt!!!
In addition to being a simple man, I'm also a broke man, but you can bet YOUR bottom dollar that if I could make it up to Ohio, that I'd have ringside seats to that little bam-boozle.
I think I'd have incorporated live chickens some how though... I mean, ya might as well get some meat out of the deal too... HA!
But seriously, that sounds like a RIDICULOUS amount of fun for those of you able to get up to Ohio for the Waterfowl Boot Camp. I'm WAY jealous.
The highlight of the evening were the dummies that were heading dead into the blinds... For SURE... It was like landing geese!
It was like playing "defend the castle". If you shoot those dummies at 7 yards with high-brass 6's, they flip end over end and Paul laughs a lot...
It's a sporty ordeal.
Thanks to Paul for the wicked fun time in the yard. I WANT ONE!
Take care, go support Paul and the other guys in Ohio,
- Scary -
I sort of scratched my head for a second and said "Paul, what the @#$% ya doin'?"
He just grinned and asked if I brought my shotgun. I knew it was going to be an interesting Saturday.
So Paul has this contraption (or rather set of contraptions) that are stationary dog dummy launchers that fire little Bluebill dummies up in the air for dog work. I think he had two that launched 8 in a single direction and one unit that fired four in multi direction...one at a time. They also have remote controlled bird calls on 'em for the dogs' training exercises.
Enter the balloons...
We clipped the balloons (that were filled with air and a liberal amount of construction chalk powder...available at any hardware store) to the duck dummies and walked out into Paul's yard. After we set the machines up, Paul points to a Finisher blind laying up at the top of the yard, HANDS ME A SHOTGUN, and says "Go lay down".
He yells "Ready?", and the fun level officially went through the friggin' roof.
When you hit the dummies, they explode chalk everywhere! The cool thing that makes it WAY neater than shooting clays is that the left-over pieces of a clay pigeon can't be retrieved!
So then he goes and gets his dog King and that's when it hit another level of awesome.
Picture this;
Me in a Finisher blind with a loaded shotgun, Paul and King in their respectful blinds, the sounds of wild birds calling in the background, duck dummies rifling through the air, BANGS, exploding chalk impacts, and Paul sending his dog out to retrieve the dummies in different orders everytime.
If you could fry those duck dummies, I'd sell all of my hunting gear and go live in Paul's yard... Seriously.
So I assumed that this was just another one of Cupka's neat dog training innovations, but he let me in on the reason (aside from it being like an arcade for duck hunters) behind the insanity.
Apparently this is a practice episode for the Ohio Waterfowl Boot Camp! Paul told me there's going to be a retriever competition up there that is similar to what he was doing in his back yard. Now me, I'm a simple man. I had so much fun there in the yard that I wasn't really thinking of anything that could make it any more fun than it already was but the rumor is, in Ohio, they are going to have the whole thing happen at waterside with TWO guys and you have to call and shoot and send the dogs in a realistic mock-up of a real hunt!!!
In addition to being a simple man, I'm also a broke man, but you can bet YOUR bottom dollar that if I could make it up to Ohio, that I'd have ringside seats to that little bam-boozle.
I think I'd have incorporated live chickens some how though... I mean, ya might as well get some meat out of the deal too... HA!
But seriously, that sounds like a RIDICULOUS amount of fun for those of you able to get up to Ohio for the Waterfowl Boot Camp. I'm WAY jealous.
The highlight of the evening were the dummies that were heading dead into the blinds... For SURE... It was like landing geese!
It was like playing "defend the castle". If you shoot those dummies at 7 yards with high-brass 6's, they flip end over end and Paul laughs a lot...
It's a sporty ordeal.
Thanks to Paul for the wicked fun time in the yard. I WANT ONE!
Take care, go support Paul and the other guys in Ohio,
- Scary -