Two firsts in a day
 

First grouse over my setter (started dog out of Decoverly 17 mos old) and first grouse with a Parker (VH 16g on 1 frame). Excuse the dog in the tree less than perfect perspective but can't get her to stay the !&#@ still so I put her lead on the tree. Next thing I know she's tangled and unable to move and so I placed the bird there. Also flushed 4 WC, got two, could NOT find the other one, which always bothers me. Not bad for an hour in the rain. Can't tell by my game bag, but my grouse flushes are up by 2x over the past two seasons in PA and NY, hour for hour boots on the ground. A lot of it is due to Raisin, she makes hunting fun again (as well as my first full season with a slew of Parkers of course).

what a good hunt...charlie

Congratulations

I'll be looking for your hunt records in the LODGH news letter at the end of the season. (Glad to know you're a member. I've been one for more years than I can remember, and I enjoyed your letter in a recent news letter.)

That is a beautiful pup...and Parker.

What is LODGH please?





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Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters -- Ken Szabo's newsletter.

https://grousetales.com

Thank you Garry. I think I'm on year two or three of that fine paper and I hope enough people continue to subscribe to it. I hope the bird numbers are on the upswing. My buddy in Western NY is having a banner season this year and he feels the numbers are rebounding both in PA and NY. Then again he is retired, hunts a LOT and has his son who is a bird finding machine and has access to a lot of private acreage through his job.

Been a LODGH member for over 30 yrs. Met Ken in the Ohio grouse woods back in the '80's, he took my adress and sent me a sample copy.
Oh, and congrats Andy!!

Thank you Harold. This dog has totally stolen my heart and soul. I have never met a more affectionate, kind, gentle dog who can turn it on in the woods and run until it makes ME tired watching her. Why the hell did I wait to get old before getting a Setter???? GRrrr.....

Ditto here Andy - I almost feel as though I’m going to let my wonderful setter down if I burn out before she does. I’m 74 and she’s 7…





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I’m not a member but a friend gave me the LODGH pin a couple of years ago and I wear it on my hunting hat.





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Hell Dean you got a good 30-40 years left ; )

Hey, better late than never guys. I've had setters for 35+ years.

Andy, just console yourself that as you age, you learn to appreciate things more (and more deeply).

I know this is probably sacrilege, but I, too, have been a setter lover as long as Harold...even if my setters are, shall we say, a bit on the dark side.:) Color them however you want, I love a setter's head and tail.

Well I had been on a waiting list for a long time and then got the "call" one was available. I visited her twice and committed to her while my wife and daughter were gone for a week in California. Yeah, that was some discussion over "How could you just buy a $@&ING dog when we already have THREE without asking me???!!" Fast forward and my wife is totally head over heels in love with this creature, so it all worked out.

Dogs have a way, don't they?:bowdown:

I've always said, lock a dog and your wife in the closet for three hours. The one that is happiest to see you when you let them out is the one to stick with.

I don’t know which area of PA the grouse are rebounding but around here they are still few and far between. Glad you had a chance to bag one, taking one local would make a season, and that’s just ONE!! Went last week looking for mudbat and the flight wasn’t in yet. Hope the rain/wind from this week moves them down.

Andy, when I read your letter to LODGH I was surprised! Didn’t know you were a member.

Mike, I suspect I find my PA grouse somewhere near where you find all your primers, powder and shot :bigbye::rotf: Keep in mind two PA grouse flushed this year is double last year. NY has more for sure and I don't get it because the habitat looks better in PA to me, but that's a sample size of one person. Yes, woodcock are getting here, put them up in NY and PA, but no appreciable numbers yet (Raisin has not quite figured them out). In 2020 I did NOT log my PA hunts as I wasn't sure if I should do multiple states in the same LODGH log sheet (I sure wish he would make it smaller...) I did log both states in 2019. I think all of this is relative to the absolutely shitty numbers of birds I've been seeing the past 5-10 years. Although still sparse, it's better than it was. But then again I'm not bothered walking 4-5 miles to flush 3-4 birds and a bird an hour is good compared to years past. BTW the grouse in the photo is a NY bird, not PA.

Mike I enjoy the LODGH newsletter. Simple reading but the theme of all the old guys giving up hunting due to age, dogs failing, or no birds is sad. I would rather carry a gun with a dog in empty cover any day than hit a damn golf ball.

Golf spelled backwards if flog!!

You are a lucky man, Andy. My wife quickly fell for my labs over the years. But labs are easy. At eighteen months old, my setter still has us (yes, both of us) on the verge of banishment.

-Victor

I have two Labs, and I call them the Honda Civics of dogs. They just go, and you hose them off and leave them out and they're fine. Sure is more maintenance with a setter, but their style makes me feel like one of those dudes in the old paintings that always has a setter on point. Just need a little tweed vest and one of those stylish chapeau's.