Ed a friend of mine trains his setters there on sharptails. There is a limited season

As far as not shooting Woodcock, we try to hit the flight in Michigan every year. When the timing works out you can often get 50 to 200 contacts in a day. Have had times in the right cover, that you seem to go from one point or flush into the next. Great for the Dogs and we shoot very few. Like maybe 10 total in a week for two of us.

The trip is for training a new Dog or tuning up a veteran and not shooting. Get into Grouse and things change. Even then we have passed thru the numbers game.

These Tennessee guys didn't by any chance have the last name "Clampett", did they?? :rolleyes:

This thread just popped up again for me, and I read it with a smile. As Bruce points out, in the South and Mid-West (at least in Southern Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas) you will see field trails often advertised and talked about as "foot trials" to distinguish them from horseback trials. Two distinctly different trials in terms of what is sought after by the participants. Range and speed, along with "style on point" (read as: high head and tail) were the winning combination among the horseback set, while the foot trialers wanted dogs that worked to the front and that pointed (with style), but were within a comfortable range for a person on foot. Except for the Shoot-to-Retrieve crowd, many foot trialers really wanted their dogs to range and run like horseback, All Age dogs.
It often seemed to me that they were horseback trial "wannabes."

There was also a term that was used for a dog that found lots of birds, but did not run out of sight or point with the rigid high tail. Those were called "meat dogs." It was frequently used in reference to any non-English Pointer/Setter. In the trial circles, those dogs were held is disdain, but on the side, guys would ask if they could hunt with their owners.

The eye of the beholder is sometimes fickle, but a dog that loves his business and produces birds for his master is a jewell, and if his looks meet his master's aesthetic sensibility, he's a winner in my book.

Deans "chair dogs" look like how I feel after getting my Covid shots!

Maybe so!

FYI if anyone can watch the YouTube channel on their internet TV you can search for "grouse hunting" or any other type of hunting I imagine, and find show after show of hunters in the grouse woods.

Well said Garry!

Reggie:

I did view a couple of Maine Grouse hunt videos on YouTube last night, filmed by a two-man team (no dogs).

Nice camera work, beautiful country, and a variety of game was depicted.

Right off, I noticed that the camera was not showing birds getting up -- that is, until the first shots were fired. And the guns were usually angled down and held steadily and aimed toward the brush like a rifle at the first shot, maybe raised or swung for the second. The occasional wing-shot was duly-noted.

Being out there, harvesting for the daily limit, cooking and enjoying the fare at the end of the day, and sharing the experience, was the object. The punctilio of how the shooting was accomplished was absent.

Not much point, for those who seek to acquire guns specifically built for shooting on the wing, and practice on moving clay targets with them in the off-season, to culminate in a test of gun and skill on flying birds. Different strokes.

Russell, are you saying they were shooting grouse in any presentation, be it on the ground or in the air?






.

Dean:

Yes. As soon as the Grouse was seen, be it on the ground or in a tree, it was shot at. If missed and thereupon flying, it was shot at again.