Oregon D.U. Member Becomes National Champion

Oregon D.U. Member Becomes National Champion

by Carla Hopp, Oregon Marketing & Communications Chair

This winter one of our own will be on his way to the World Championships of upland bird dog hunting. Jerry Rainwater (Newberg) and his Springer Spaniel “Sara” overcame pretty long odds to win the Tournament Hunters Players Championship “Flusher Division - Single Shooter” national title in Panora, Iowa last December. The tournament is divided into four categories: Flushers or Pointers with Single or Double Shooters. Rainwater and Sara’s competition consisted of the top 66 flushing dogs (80 percent of which were Labradors) from across the country. The entire tournament hosted over 320 dogs in the four categories . . . all by invitation only. Rainwater and Sara were invited to compete by qualifying as the “Western Regional High Point Flusher Champion.”

As I interviewed Mr. Rainwater (okay, so we were really just sitting in my kitchen drinking beer) it became apparent that this particular championship was quite the nail-biter. Being a pheasant hunter myself and enjoying that adrenaline rush every time a bird is jumped, I had a hard time staying in my seat as he told his tale, waving around his imaginary shotgun. I felt somewhat like the pheasant every time he swung my direction (that could have been the beer, though).

Rainwater and Sara’s category of 66 dogs was equally and randomly divided into three groups of 22, each group rotating fields during three days of shooting. The rules of tournament hunting are: each hunter/dog pair is given 20 minutes to find, flush, shoot, and retrieve three birds. Points are given for each bird taken, as well as for unused minutes. The points from the first two hunts are added together to determine ten finalists (the top three dogs from each of the three groups, plus one dog with the cleanest run). Group fields are rotated daily; no hunter/dog pair has the advantage of previously seeing a competition field unless they have won in more than one qualifying tourney and bring a second dog to compete in the same category as their first dog. That was only the case with one person, renown shooter Casey Powell. The rules also include allowing dogs to travel out of the ten-acre field boundaries to flush a bird , but the hunter must remain and shoot from within field boundaries; something Jerry had to take advantage on his very first day’s run.

“Shooters aren’t allowed to watch their competitors on Day One or Two, but we can hear their shots being fired from where we wait our turn in a blind (and hunters are individually sequestered at a lodge if they make the Day Three finals). I had the bad luck of drawing Field 6 on my first day, the toughest field in the tournament. You could tell the other hunters on Field 6 were going long, since the shots were coming in about every two minutes,” said Rainwater. “I went wide instead of long, and shot my first bird at 1:16 and my second at 3:12. But my third bird ‘flew the coop’ and left the field. It didn’t land anywhere that I could send Sara, so I was S.O.L. (Shooter Out of Luck...we run a clean paper here). Since I knew some of the previous shooters hadn’t taken their third shots (meaning they did not get all three birds in their 20 minute allotment), I was hoping Sara could flush out a left-over bird.” Rainwater took Sara to a ditch on the right boundary of the field and at nine minutes Sara trapped a bird 50 yards outside the field boundaries that Rainwater was able to shoot; he bagged that third bird at 12:08. Sound impressive? According to Rainwater it’s not great for tournament hunting, especially compared to Phil Henchmen’s 7:39. At that night’s banquet the day’s results were announced and Rainwater and Sara placed 4th, just out of the top three in his group that he needed to continue to the championships . . . unless he could pull off a miracle on his second hunt the next day.

On Day Two (second hunt) Phil Henchman shot just ahead of Rainwater and timed out about the same as his first day’s hunt (approximately 8:00) making his two hunts total 16 minutes. At that point Rainwater remembers thinking, “Let the miracles begin.”

When Rainwater and Sara stepped onto the field he had again decided to run Sara side to side(or wide) instead of long, and -- believe it or not -- Sara flushed two birds on one run at 38 seconds. Even more amazing was Rainwater calling “Time” after his third bagged bird at 2:29. Times are rounded to the previous minute if under 30 seconds and to the next minute if over 30 seconds, so Rainwater’s combined times came to 14 minutes . . . enough to pull him into second place in his group and ON TO THE CHAMPIONSHIPS !!!

Day Three, the championship, and finalists are sporting sweating palms, nervous laughter, and a lot of speculation whether or not Jerry Rainwater can pull out another miracle. “I wasn’t counting on it, the day before was pretty spectacular. But you never know. My wife prays a LOT.” And as luck would have it Rainwater drew the next-to-the-last hunt on championship day. He and his wife, Barbara --as were all hunters-- were completely sequestered (in order to eliminate hunters inadvertently giving out advantageous information), forcing him to wait the entire day before his turn to hunt without being able to hear shots as on Days One and Two. He was about as nervous as he’s ever been in his life.

Rainwater recalls, “That last day had terrible hunting conditions. We had a creek running the length of the field parallel to a horribly steep hill that covered the right third of the field, and a stiff, cold 15 mile-an-hour wind. Since they were filming the tournament for television, they wired me up (microphones) and out I went -- I was careful not to say bad words.” (I’ve NEVER heard a bad word out of Jerry’s mouth so I’m not believing that part of his story at all...) “I looked at the field and decided to completely eliminate that right third of the hunting field, the steep hillside beyond the creek. I had to hope there were still more than just my three birds out there in the other two-thirds of the field. I went up the middle of the remainder of the field, and again ran Sara side-to-side instead of long.”

With seven of the top ten finalist dogs being Labradors, and with the previous year’s World Champion Casey Powell as competition (not to mention Phil Henchman and his Boykin still in the running), Rainwater was taking some pretty big risks. But someone was watching over Rainwater again that day and the Shooting Gods helped him bag his first bird at 39 seconds and the second bird at 1:48. As he took that final third bird from Sara’s mouth he called for final time at 2:57.

“Wow,” one cameraman uttered.

“Great run, Jerry,” said the tournament scorekeeper.

“Am I in,” asked Rainwater?

“Well, there’s one more dog,” the scorekeeper replied, at which point Rainwater knew he was at least in the money.

The rest is history, Rainwater won the championship with two miracle hunt days. (He doesn’t like to think about that first day of 12:09.) Past World Champion Casey Powell placed second, coming in at 5:03 and Phil Henchman ended up in sixth place.

“This is what upland bird hunting is all about,” was Rainwater’s take on the tournament as a whole.

Rainwater began tournament hunting three years ago with AKC, but preferred MTHPC’s “point” scoring method over AKC’s “judging” for championship status. MTHPC is also designed to appeal to hunters by allowing the dog handler to participate by shooting the birds while running their dog(s).

Sara and Jerry’s impressive career includes the 2001 Washington State Shooting Dog (at 13 months old); 2002 California Open Pheasant Champion (at 24 months old); 2002 (at 17 months old) and 2004 National Bird Dog Challenge Association’s Western Region High Point Dog (and 2003 Runner-Up), and her current national title of 2004 Tournament Hunters Players Champion. Rainwater also shoots doubles tournaments with shooting partner Rob Barlow (Dallas), running a myriad of dogs that include Sara, Colby and Sandy (all Springers), Jag (a Springer belonging to national champion shooter and MTHPC President Don Sojka, winning the 2004 “Puppy” division under Rainwater’s handling/shooting), and Smoke (a Lab).

An outdoor television pilot is currently under production, featuring shooting tournaments and Rainwater’s experience of becoming a national champion. “Tournament Hunter: Road to the World Championships” will air on ESPN, OLN, and Fox Network. Rainwater will also air the program on his local cable channel.

Jerry and Barbara have lived in Newberg since 1994. Jerry is the owner/operator of JD Rainwater Excavation, Inc., and lived in Riddle (near Roseburg) and LaGrande before moving to Newberg. The Rainwaters are long-time committee members and Silver Sponsors in the Newberg D.U. Chapter.

It was only as Rainwater pointed to my refrigerator and commanded me to “fetch,” that I called the interview to an end (okay, the beer drinking). Jerry’s a great storyteller and, as you can see, an incredible bird hunter with great dogs. Congratulations, Jerry. We’re all proud of you. Now go fetch your own beer, Bucko.

[If you are interested in becoming a tournament hunter, or want information on tournament hunting, contact Jerry Rainwater at 503-349-1892, or go to www.whitewaterhunt.com and navigate to the tournament hunt page.]