The Original ABC Chukar Classic

The Original ABC Chukar Classic

By Ken Jacobson

In the late 50’s, The ABC Pheasant Classic was the closest thing the West Coast had to an ABC National event. Each year it was moved up and down the coast with a different sponsoring club.

 If you lived and competed on the West Coast the “Nationals” were the hallowed events that few from the West Coast attended.

Nicky Bissell had moved to Sherwood Oregon and was the  secretary of the ABC. Bill and Helen Brown of California  attended the Nationals at Carbondale annually, and Bill was  elected ABC president. Johnny Munson, also for California  would train daily with Linus Phillips in the rice fields of the Bay  Area and would take Dual Champion Tigar’s Jocko back and  win the National Amateur Championship. A couple years later,

he returned and won the National Futurity with Jocko’s Poker  Chip. In between Ted and Lois Hames would take Juchoir’s  Trooper Jill, bred by Nicky and win the National Futurity. Del  Foltz handled Jinx’s Jim Dandy for Curt Weir to win the Futurity  at Paducah. Ken & Erin Jacobson won the National  Championship and the National Specialty Show with Pacolet  Cheyenne Sam and Bob and Joan Donnell had won the National Championship with Casey’s Chickamin. The West  Coast was obsessed with the Dual Champion concept. Ejner  Lund would accumulate over 100 field trials wins with both Lund’s Trooper and Faulkner’s Reddy.

Amateur handled and trained britts were stiff competition for the Pros that included Stan Aeck, Dutch Morrill, Carl Purcell, Jack Brooks, Dave La Chance, Cliff Boggs, Dave Walker and Ron Neumann. The amateurs were all bird hunters. Hunting and training on wild birds conditioned and developed more competitive bird dogs for field trials.

In Washington State the pheasant populations moved from Ellensburg to the Columbia Basin in the 60’s then slowly started to dwindle. The chukar became the covey bird of choice for many of us who were willing to put up with the rigors and the challenge of hunting chukar. A stylish find was never a question on the spooky chukar. A typical day of hunting chukar started  at dawn and ended at sunset. If you were lucky, you would have six to eight covey finds and a couple flushed singles. Mostly, chukar fly down hill, so when they did (and you just climbed to the level you were at) it was hard to make yourself go back downhill.  

We were shocked when we learned that our “National Pheasant Classic” event was being moved back east - leaving us with nothing.  The rules of ABC Classics require that the game bird be a native wild bird. The Washington Brittany Club reasoned that since the Northwest and the West Coast had the majority of native chukar we could be reasonably assured that we would not loose the Chukar Classic the way we lost the Pheasant Classic,” moving it around”.

The original ABC National Chukar Classic was run in 1976 on the Yakima Ridge area just south of the Yakima Firing Range near the town of Yakima, Washington. Ken Jacobson and Fred Williams were co-chairmen of the event that included a pool tournament. Legendary trainers Stan Aeck and Dave McGinnis were judges. Ron Neumann was the trainer/hander of Yellowstone’s Gus the inaugural winner.  

I have often imagined the Ultimate Chukar Hunting Field Trial

When we started discussing putting on the Chukar Classic… I proposed running an hour on wild birds only on my hunting grounds in the Yakima Firing Range, then picking up: dogs, horses and people in trailers and moving to the next canyon a couple miles away. It’s the way we hunted (sans the horses) so why not?

There are easier birds to hunt, but none more rewarding after a full days hunt. During the endless hours climbing and chasing dogs, I conjured the evolution of the chukar hunter… He would have one huge long leg like that of Earl Campbell and a shorter muscular leg like Tony Dorsett to traverse the hillsides. He would have no upper body other than a huge cavity for lungs and a pea-sized brain.