UP Grouse hunt
 

The UP delivered as promised this year. I am still trying to recover from 2 weeks of hard hunting. The little VHE 20 became my favorite gun to carry.
I cant seem to upload more than 3 pictures at a time, so there are more to come.

more pics

Any one know where this secret covert is located? We call it Gene's Love Shack. The grousemobile at an undisclosed location.

I don't recognize the "shack". But that rock looks familiar. :)

Looks like a lot of fun.

How old is the older dog... and what happened to his/her lower eyelid?

Harold,
Looks like you started putting the bell on their collar instead of suspending it on another strap. Did that solve the problem with skinned shins on the dogs?

That is Betty, she is actually out of Shiner my male who will be 13 in Dec.Betty is 9. Those are bloody scabs under her eyes that she gets every year while hunting. The shins on both dogs look the same as last year( good memory , Gary). Betty really dives into heavy cover, I tape the last 2-3 inches of her tail cause it generally isa bloody mess also--her dam, my past dog Speck had the same problems and Betty is a clone of Speck. You can see the silver duct tape on her tail tip. Despite feeding them all they can eat, both dogs look like marathon runners, skinny.

I think setters just have 'skinny' in their genes.

Yep, you can tell a hard hunting grouse setter - all torn up and skinny. None of my three have hair on the tip of their tail or much on the lower edge of their ears. Just yesterday my youngest (3 in March) came by to check in and was covered with blood on his front end. Cut tongue can sure throw a lot of blood around. EMT jell to the rescue.

Since you mentioned how skinny your dogs are I thought I'd share this story. I had to take my oldest to the vet during hunting season a few years back. While in the waiting room there was a woman with some lap dog sitting across the room staring at me. I thought maybe I should know her but did not. When she got called to the exam room she stopped in front of me and pretty much yelled at me for starving my dog - I should be arrested she says. The vet was watching all of this. I just told her my dog is a working dog, not a couch potato. Then the vet chimed in with "that dog is in absolutely perfect shape, you should take note". I suspect the vet lost a customer that day but I sure got a good chuckle out of it.

Yep, I give them the best food and all they will eat. I even cut up hot dogs into small pieces and bury it in their food to get them to eat more during field season. I don't think it works! They are a skinny rag-tag bunch but we sure do have fun.