About the same with us, my fat out of shape Drahthaar was pretty much done after a few hours. I will not run dogs in that kind of heat either, I ruined an old lab years ago in South Dakota doing exactly that. I think we fished more than we hunted, but next trip up in a couple of weeks should be much better.
Those hot days are hard on my liver also, I'm pretty much programmed to start drinking scotch once the dogs, guns and gear are taken care of at the end of the days hunt.
When all that is all done by noon or before, it makes for a rather early evening....

Where do you hunt in Michigan? Maybe we could touch base for lunch or a hunt... Also understand about quiting early, it can make for an early evening...:rotf:

Eric,
We stay in the Lewiston area, and typically hunt south of there and around the Atlanta area.

If you have to put the dogs up before noon on the weekend, stop over to Lewiston Sportsmen's Lodge for a round of clays on the prettiest course you will ever see, (particularly in the fall) then lunch at Tally's Bar.

I will be headed to northern Minnesota next week to audition three potential "Grouse Gun of the Year" candidates. The reigning champion is a customized Fox Sterlingworth with 28 inch barrels in skeet and IC. Challenging the champ will be a VHE recently restored by Brad B. The challenger is a "Skeet" model from 1937 with 26 inch barrels choked skeet and skeet. Finally, the long time backup is an AYA Model 2 with 29 inch barrels and thin wall choke tubes from Briley. All three are 16 gauge of course. I'll post complete results once the audition is complete.

Ill be taking my modern westley Richards 12 which handles like a 20, and my Parker gh 28gauge (which just heads up, I'm looking to trade for a light/handy westley, Rigby or H&H 12/16 if anyone's looking to swap)

Grouse season is something of a mess here in the Kentucky/Indiana area this year. Grouse and woodcock seasons have traditionally (as I remember) opened on October 1st in Indiana, with Kentucky's season opening shortly thereafter. Well, Indiana's DNR reportedly did a total of 12 roadside drumming surveys and heard no grouse, so are prepared to declare the bird extinct and have suspended the season indefinitely. Woodcock will open on the 15th, which should be fine with October's full moon occurring on the 27th, I believe. I have a number of excellent areas within thirty miles of home and had splendid luck last year.

Kentucky's seasons both open November 1st with grouse hunting suspended between the 13th and 16th for the modern gun deer season. Apparently, one can hunt woodcock right through this period. In Kentucky, our grouse zone covers the eastern third of the state with any of the nearest opportunities being about 100 miles from my house. I'm hoping gas prices remain somewhat low because there's going to be lots of driving this fall. I hope we all have some excellent days afield.

My primary grouse and woodcock gun is this old Parker Trojan 16 ga. built on the #1 frame. It's suffered at the hands of previous owners, as you'll note by the beavertail forend, replacement buttstock, buffed receiver, and so on. Still, I don't think money could buy the gun. I've often said that a week spent with H&H or Purdey could not produce a shotgun that fit me any better. It's one of those magical guns in that I have no recollection of sight picture, or even an awareness the gun was ever present and shouldered beyond the initial lifting of it.

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/q...pshnuw5zwc.jpg

We finally got some cooler weather and even though it had rained during the night and in the early morning I met a friend at the Haymarsh to run some of the summer off the dogs.

Daisy never missed a beat and did a wonderful job, Jamies setter Clara did well and made some nice points but still needs some retrieval work but Daisy always came to the rescue.

Daisy got into a bunch of Woodcock and as I'm not a shooter of these and it was hellishly wet and I had to cross a creek to get to her I leashed her and dragged here out to get back to the task before us which were the Pheasants.

The Grouse gun I used is a DH 16 with 26 inch Damascus barrels choked IC/F. With the typical early season's thick foliage it should prove useful next week in the Upper Peninsula.

You call those little things grouse guns?

Well here's a grouse gun! CH 10 ga original 26" barrels and cylinder bored .

And another. For those manly men.