Quail Hunting in Maryland, a look back

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

I lived for twenty three years in the area Kevin refers to. I only saw two pheasants in all that time. I was hunting with Jeff Mulliken and we got one of them. Jeff’s yellow lab Luke grabbed the pheasant for the retrieve and Stoney the English setter, not to be outdone, grabbed the bird also and they came back to us with both dogs holding on to the pheasant. Jeff and I laughed like hell. I wish I had a picture of it.

My hunting as a kid was mostly out my back door for grouse. I was lucky in that I had my grandfather’s VH 20 bore for the grouse and woodcock. But at times my mother would drop me off a couple of miles away for pheasants. There were large numbers of pheasants which I would take with my grandfather’s 12 bore DHE. The land, being a large estate, was never developed to this day. There are still many wild pheasants but nowhere near the numbers when I was a kid.




Three pictures….one of Jeff and I hunting quail and another of my childhood back porch. The other picture is of me planting sorghum for the pheasants. We manage the property closely to ensure good pheasant feed and cover.

Those photos are real treasures.

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Joe Dreisch

In the 80s we hunted a lot of farms east of Rte.50 along Rte.16 east and points south. Secretary, Hurlock, Eldorado and the entire area. Wonderful memories of Brittanies with the intense points which only a covey of wild quail can trigger!! Little did I fully realize how good I had it back then!
Tom, Stoney was quite a beautiful dog!

Thanks Joe. I have always had "small" setters because I believed that they lived longer. My current setter is the smallest I have ever seen. I believe the large setters such as the Ryman and others are the prettiest of dogs. I would have loved to own one, but right or wrong, I always felt the small setters lived longer. I hunted Stoney when he was fifteen years old. He died when he was sixteen.

[Kevin McCormack]

The only setter I ever owned was a male orange and blue belton that came out of Grouse Ridge Kennels above Norwich NY. When I got him he was 5 1/2 years old and in fighting trim, weight hovering around 55 pounds. His owner had field-trialed him and completely trained him, but had been molested by the GSP mystique and had come to neglect him, so he gave him up for adoption. I knew nothing about upland bird dogs but had raised and trained 2 Labs, both of which turned out to be excellent waterfowl dogs. So,........

I would call him a "small" setter, but then I don't know what I'm talking about, except that he was only about 21 inches from his front feet to his withers (shoulder at the backbone). He was lean, trim and muscular (think cage fighter physique) and his personality was quite aloof (his donor warned me, "He's not unaffectionate, but he's no Lab!").

I soon learned that what he lacked in affection he more than made up for in a Hell-on Wheels drive in the field. His previous owner said he was a hell of a grouse dog and invoked the "rule of the tens" in rating him: out of 10 good upland bird dogs, you'll get five that are worthy grouse dogs, out of that 5 you'll get 2 that are very good, and one that's exceptional.

"Smoke" turned out to be that one in ten. He would crash through brush, stab his snout through thorny hedges and briars, and whine and snarl when he had to back out of an impenetrable hedge or cover. He would hold a grouse on point at 5 or 20 feet, never budging after the shot until I sent him. He didn't like to retrieve; I think his former owner force-broke him; his version of retrieving to hand was to slow down to a trot while he passed me and spit the bird out at my feet. To keep up his "edge", friends and I would train nearly every week in the off season with live pigeons and chukars and the occasional quail using hand cage traps and remote release controls.

We had almost 8 more years together in the field. When he was 12, he ate some sort of whiffle ball-type crap in the woods that convoluted his stomach-intestine interface and he stopped eating and almost died. I opted for surgery with the vet telling me he might die due to his age and the stress of the operation. I decided to risk it for the both of us.

Smoke survived and we hunted together for another year and a half. In September of 2015, he developed a massive inoperable malignant tumor at the juncture of his foreleg and his shoulder and I had to let him go. He taught me a hell of a lot more about upland bird dogs than I ever taught him, and I miss him to this day.

So much for "small" English Setters!

[Tom Flanigan]

The rule of ten is very interesting Kevin. I’ve heard a lot of theories about how rare excellent grouse dogs are. Based only on my fifty six years of hunting grouse, as a rule, I believe they aren’t rare, at least where grouse are in abundance. The key is experience, in my opinion. If you take a well trained bird dog and shoot a lot of grouse over the dog, it should become wise to grouse and learn to handle them well. I’ve had bird dogs since I was fourteen and I have only had to give two away who didn’t come up to my standards on grouse.

The exception to the rule was Stoney, perhaps my second best grouse dog. I’ve had many dogs that have had more grouse shot over them than Stoney, but still he excelled. I certainly wasn’t averaging my former usual seventy grouse a year when I shot over him (I pull a tail feather from each bird and put them in an envelope for the annual tally). The grouse brought to bag after 1990 or so dropped significantly even though my grouse cover was selectively logged every ten years.

My grandfather used to tell me it took about 25 birds before a dog became proficient on grouse. He had many excellent English setters, but he shot at a time where grouse were super abundant. His grouse dog trainer was "Old Man Smalley". I'll have to find the old picture I have of Old Man Smalley and my grandfather posing with a bunch of grouse on the hood of a Model A Ford.

[Harry Schlott]

Beautiful Setter Tom. I have a setter on the small size also. She has Grouse ridge and long gone setters blood line. she runs about 38 -44 pounds. a real fire cracker

[Tom King]

Great looking dog and nice pictures!

[Dean Romig]

I remember Jeff from the first time I met him and you Tom, at Pintail Point, and Jeff had his big old yellow lab with him that day- was that Luke?... Is Jeff still with us?





.

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

I remember Jeff from the first time I met him and you Tom, at Pintail Point, and Jeff had his big old yellow lab with him that day- was that Luke?... Is Jeff still with us?

.

I missed this earlier Dean. You have a good memory. His yellow lab was Luke and he was a great dog. We hunted often together and Jeff kept Luke at heel until he ordered him to retrieve. He used to try to beat Stoney to the bird. Jeff and I used to enjoy the antics of those two dogs.

Jeff is still with us. He is living in New Hampshire now and he makes wonderful maple syrup in the spring. Luke was Jeff's last lab.

This is Jeff walking in for the flush with Luke at heel and Stoney on point.

[Jeff Christie]

I remember hunting quail in Prince Georges county in the later 50s with my dad’s Weimaraner. One of the places I hunted with a friend was on his parents tobacco farm which was in the VFR traffic pattern for Andrews Air Force Base. We always got a bird or two but rarely anymore. But it was a lot of fun for kids in the seventh grade in Surratsville Jr-Sr High School. Long ago and far away.