Yes, the dogs did very well. Betty held up better than I had anticipated, and Fancy developed into a reliable, trustworthy grouse dog, pointing, backing, retrieving, and great range, and extremely bidable.
I worked the pups daily, but they are only 3 months old. Ihave had them on pigeons, but haven't shot over them yet. I would hide the dead grouse, and watch them use their nose to find them--they show great promise.
I didn't get up there until the 20th, so the weather had cooled down and the leaves had fallen. We actually had a lot of rainy days, and snow to hunt in. I stopped at Rich's in Channing for a couple of hours, and talked on the phone to Matt Valinsky who was hunting around Gwinn.
Didn't keep track of productive points, but there was several hundred. I avg around 30 flushes/day, but their were a lot of multiple flushes. On 3 occasions, 8 birds got up over a point . Couldn't shoot worth a damn the first week, and then shot out my arse the second week. Havent gone thru my log book yet, but believe I shot 30 grouse. The woodcock were simply not there, I moved only 4 in 2 weeks, and nobody I talked to was doing much better. Would love to go back up, but may try to get to Kansas in Jan.
Talked to a guy today who had chukars and quail, and will sell me a few to work the pups on.
I am still feeling about as tired as my dogs
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"How kind it is that most of us will never know when we have fired our last shot"--Nash Buckingham
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