Our Season In Reflection: Hunts with Ryman Folks

Mike and I have just wrapped up our hunting for the 2015-16 year. It was a good one that spanned the months of Sept-January and included 5 different states. My personal time afield was a bit restricted by a litter born in late November (I’m thinking these pups were worth it but I’m never doing a fall litter again!) but Mike put in about 120 days of bird hunting. But what surprises me in my reflection on the year was how many ryman people we hunted with and how valuable and fun those hunts were.

In total, we hunted with 7 different ryman owners, friends new and old, and about 15 of their dogs. We met dogs from 8 months to 13 years old from 4 different ryman kennels and I have to say that they were all beautiful with good temperaments, robust health (even at 13) and all made their owners happy in the field. Isn’t that what it’s all about? We each may have had our own small preferences for details like size, speed, tails, head shape, etc but at the end of the day all of the dogs were easy to be around and fun to hunt.

As I said, I was surprised at the number of different folks we had hunted with because I actually consider Mike and I to be rather solitary hunters. But this year has shown me the value to connecting with others with rymans. The friendships and fun alone are worth it, let alone the value of seeing other lines of dogs and how they may be the same or different than my own.

In closing, I will share a quick story and photo of the hunt we had the second to last day of the Kansas season. A father and his 17 year old son drove down from the Great Lakes region to pick up their puppy who will join an older ryman in their home. They had never hunted bobwhite quail and we wanted them to see our dogs work so we squeezed in a morning hunt. We offered them use of our 28 ga sxs’s, perfect for quail. We all had a whole lot of fun that morning. They were gentlemen to hunt with, we saw some good dogwork and they humbled us by shooting our guns as well as we do. The young man even dropped a bird on the very first covey rise he had ever seen. He is a young man to be proud of for many reasons.

So as I wrap up my gear and photos from this past year I realize how much I enjoy so many of the people in our ryman setter community. For now I’ll throw another log into the wood stove but I look forward to the upcoming year and the opportunity to spend time with friends new and old in the field.
– Lynn Dee Galey and Mike Sheffer