THOM 13 | Fall / Winter 2019

Millennial gun-dog trainer Durrell Smith
embraces a diverse, complex history
with an open, and curious, mind
EVERY YEAR SINCE 1981, THE THREE DOZEN MEMBERS OF
the Georgia-Florida Shooting Dog Handlers Club gather in late
winter on a plantation in the Red Hills region of South Georgia
to participate in a quail-hunting field trial. Consistent with
hunting culture, the competition is steeped in tradition. Skills
have been passed down over generations, bird dogs are bred
from the finest lines, and most guns even have provenance.
With a small gallery following on all-terrain vehicles, men
on horseback depart early, trailing their dogs across the
landscape, awaiting the point, which signals the precise
location of quail hidden in the cover.
Home to about 150 private quail plantations spread across
300,000 acres, the Red Hills region is a hot spot for field trials
that judge the skills of wingshooters and their highly trained
bird dogs. And the field trial organized by the Georgia-Florida
Shooting Dog Handlers Club looks different than many other
clubs in only one way: Its members are African-American.
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