Please plan on meeting each Saturday at the Richard Bong State Recreation Area by 8:00 am and look for the gathering of vehicles on the runway or in a parking lot off the main paved road when you arrive.
This year’s training coordinators are Jim Broetzmann and Dave Pesch. Every attempt will be made to hold training every Saturday morning, but training may have to be canceled or moved to Sunday in the case of inclement weather.
Training Birds
• Hen pheasants will be used for upland training. The cost is $17.00 per bird. Money will be collected each Saturday at training. Please bring the correct cash amount, or a check made out to WISILL HRC for the correct amount.
• You must order your birds by 7:00 pm on Thursday of each week.
• To order birds, send an email to Jim Broetzmann at jbroetzmann70@gmail.com and include the number of birds you wish to reserve.
• If you order birds and cannot make training, please call or text Jim Broetzmann no later than 6:30 am Saturday morning at (262) 930-9367. Your birds will be canceled.
• If you order birds, do not show up for training, and have not contacted Jim, an attempt will be made to sell the birds, but if we cannot, we will need to charge you for them.
Safety in the Field
• Wear blaze orange. At a minimum, a blaze orange hat and 50% of your upper body should be covered by blaze orange.
• Please make sure you are familiar with basic gun safety rules prior to the first day of training. First and foremost, upland training must be safe for everyone involved.
• We will review gun safety with all participants the first week. If someone handles a gun in an unsafe manner, he or she will be asked not to gun for the rest of that training day.
Upland Training
• The standard we will be training to can be found at the following link: http://www.huntingretrieverclub.org/PDF/HRC_Upland_Guide.pdf.
• If you have a young dog, you may want to focus on quartering, hunting available cover, staying in gun range, and whistle sitting prior to introducing live birds.
• Bring a whistle! We teach our dogs to quarter in the field using a whistle command.
• If you would like to be a gunner, please provide your own shotgun; the club will provide 12 and 20 gauge ammunition.
• We will need bird planters. Please pitch in and help. If you are unsure of what you can do, please ask. We will be happy to train you, not just your dog!
Bong requires you to have a training permit, a runway pass, and a Wisconsin state park sticker. We begin training at 8:00 am each day, but the park office doesn’t open until 9:00 am. Please plan accordingly! You may want to purchase your park sticker online.