The accumulated cost of a 10 year-old Springer Spaniel bitch: $6600
A classic bird hunting library: $1200 [Gene Hill, Spiller, Harden-Foster, Knight, Woolner etc.]
A custom stocked Beretta 20 gauge Sporting with 29 �� barrels: $2500
One 20 gauge shotgun shell: $.75

The exhilaration of shooting a ruffed grouse on the wing: priceless!

The thrill of it all coming together again in a nano-second after seven and a half hours of hunting this season with only one viable flush, in spite of the handicaps of age: bursitis at the shoulder, tendonitis at the elbow and carpel-tunnel at the wrists. The miracle of tumbling a hard flushing grouse after hours of pushing bush felt like the past twenty years had been lost in an instant. When I cracked that biddy with the first barrel and feathers drifted back to earth - time stood still.

I�m batting 1000 on grouse for the moment. Yeah!

The past winter was hard on our upland bird population; there are very few turkey, grouse and seemingly no woodcock in our woods this year. This may be the only bird I shoot if I don�t encounter a higher flush rate.

That's some expensive meat, right there.

Haven't had grouse in a long time, haven't hunted with a bird dog in far longer (25 years?). Miss them both, glad you got out and had some luck!

Took up my Savage 720 on Saturday in case I decided to do a bit of grouse hunting or saw some turkeys strutting their stuff. Never did get around to it, it was just too peaceful sitting in the deer blind with the crossbow hoping that a big old buck would come by.

A bad day hunting is far better than a good day working, right?

That winter was hard on our game over here in Maine too
though the grouse seam to have done well. our turkeys and deer did not.
I know the feeling of taking a partridge on the wing,its special
I've spent lots of time in the duck blind, but it pales in comparison.

good luck next time
plab

We've done better than expected in my part of northern Michigan. Grouse numbers seem like they're up a bit. Flight woodcock haven't seemed to start yet, but there's been enough local birds to make it interesting. I've been breaking in a year and a half old Brit pup named Aldo, and so far he's looking like a contender. He runs too fast to keep up with his nose, like a lot of young dogs, but when he gets it right he holds a steady point and he's already accounted for a couple of birds I might not have found without him. Most days I've been hunting with a 20 gauge Ruger Red Label, but next time I'll be taking my Savage / Fox Sterlingworth 16, and I'll try to post some photos to get this thread back into Savage stuff.

And by the way olgrouser, I'm batting WAY less than 1000% on birds this year!

I'm not near as eloquent as most here, but my Maggie and I seem to get the job done. She's not a year and a half old yet but every time she goes out she does better and better even if there isn't a point. So far we've hunted 5 outings and got 3 birds.

Give me the opportunity Rod and I'm sure that percentage will fall like lightning from heaven!

Thanks for the memories guys!! Of all the things I miss about northern Minnesota grouse hunting is at the top of the list! My mother could turn them into a meal fit for a king.

Don't see too many here in SoCal but we are helping a hatch of quail survive in the canyon behind us.

Nice to see some pheasants Steve. When I was a kid the October 20 pheasant opener was a bigger day than the deer opener. Now our pheasant population is down to almost nothing. I'm glad you've got some left.

Yay!! You guys must please, please, keep it up and keep reporting- for I am truly hunting vicariously through you all this year. Sitting here unable to jump into the bird hunting of Indian Summer is a cruelty unimagined by even the Marquis DeSade.

I'm actually a little teary-eyed with happiness seeing y'all posing with birds/dogs/and fine shotguns.

This was the time of year my old Pop's and I would set aside our differences and sally forth with shotguns in hand to shoot birds and mend fences. One of many reasons this weather fills me with sentimental longings.

Just promise me y'all won't take that sweet path toward Tinkhamtown anytime soon!

Shoot straight!!!

I wouldn't call a Remington 870 12 ga 3 1/2" super mag a "fine" shotgun. It does one helluva job on a woodcock when I connect.........

I know, I know. The bottom picture is an Ithaca SKB 20 ga. I put it away cause I got called a gentleman and if theys wun thing I ain't it's a gentleman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are plenty more ways to define a gentleman than by the shotgun he carries. You, my fine feathered friend, have it in spades whether you will admit it or not!

You'd better wake up and smell the coffee instead of that stuff the nurses have had you sniffin'!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grouse numbers down around here. I am busy with work so may not get much time this fall for them. And this dog is worthless. Flushes everything 100 yards out!

And that, Bert, is the reason that I make the 4,000 mile or so round trip to go bird hunting with my high school buds in Wisconsin every year. Traveling money was a bit short this year but that's a trip I'll never miss. Good friends, good food, good whisky and this year quite a few birds.

NO dog is worthless. ESPECIALLY one that will put up with the likes of you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey why don't you send me some of those meds that make you such a well adjusted cuss and we'll both be happy!

Naw............Then there'd be two of us and the world just isn't ready for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Besides. Look around you. You're surrounded by the perfect medication.

George, I was charmed by the writing of Burton Spiller. The Thunderbird is king! Pursuing ruffed grouse in our Carolinian forests in autumn colours thrills me like no other hunting.

A bottle of that famous Scotch whisky was cracked to toast the occasion and will serve as medicinal libation to lubricate these bones after the hunt. No other pharmaceuticals are needed.

Would you, perhaps, be speaking of "Famous Grouse?" Not a bad blended whisky. Good to see you out in the bird woods despite your infirmities. Are you aware that just after the kill you can stand on their spread wings and pull on their feed and they're gutted? If you pull on the feet hard enough all the guts and head pull through. Pretty much all you have to do after that is cut the wings off and you've got a cleaned grouse breast.

Did I hear Michigan game birds and Ruger Red Label 20's....those Skeet/Skeet guns work great on close flush's

Yup, mine is an older blued receiver gun, just like yours, choked skeet & skeet. Nice setup for early season.

Rod

23" Churchill 28 gauge choked IC/M for me.



Works for chukars and grouse, my two main interests.

"Are you aware that just after the kill you can stand on their spread wings and pull on their feed and they're gutted? If you pull on the feet hard enough all the guts and head pull through. Pretty much all you have to do after that is cut the wings off and you've got a cleaned grouse breast."

I could never defile a trophy game bird in that manner, it's unbecoming. Instead I eviscerate them immediately then hang them over night and prepare them for the table on the morrow.

I hunt a re-blued, pre-war 16 gauge Ithaca Model 37 with an opened barrel on rainy days. Got three flushes yesterday, one visible, an off balance poke while tangled in a dogwood swamp and a parting "Hail Mary" salute brought my percentages back down to earth.



A bird from last year for Gnoahhh.

A couple of you may know of my love affair with L.C.Smith doubles which are the perfect companion pieces to go with Savage lever guns (with a kindly nod to A.H.Foxes too, for Drew and Gary),but Hunter Arms never made a Smith gun chambered for 28 gauge shells. As a result, I'm forced (oh darn) to carry a little Anschutz (made by Miroku) 26" O/U 28 bore, on a 28 gauge-sized frame, choked skeet/skeet (no tubes). 5 3/4 pounds of magical lightning that for me defines the perfect grouse gun (not to mention doves and skeet).

There's a covert out in Alleghany County, Maryland, that will not echo from the reports of that little gun this year. That only means there will be twice as many birds there next year, right? Right?

I still have my Pop's old grouse/quail/pheasant medicine: a 1948 vintage Savage/Stevens 311 16 gauge wearing Tenite stocks. Its balance is woebegone, butt stock dimensions are all wrong, and it's choked a lot tighter than the M/F designation would have you believe, but for some dumb reason the old man could wipe your plate clean with it. He bought it new the year he graduated high school and it served as his primary shotgun 'til he died in '90. I rather dislike carrying/shooting it, but I trundle it out at least once a year (usually to a duck blind) to let the birds remember that once upon a time there lived a guy named Blair...

Gary alluded to Corey Ford's "Road to Tinkhamtown" earlier in this post. I hadn't read it in thirty years, but returned to it this evening. It's worth a look for those of you who haven't read it, and worth a second look for those of you who have:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/artic...-manuscript-corey-fords-road-tinkhamtown

Rod

Thanks Phil, Ford's column was always the first one I read when my dad's F&S came in the late 50s & early 60s. 1969 I was in SE Asia and never read the original. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

Thank you for that Rod. I have never read that story. I came down to the basement to busy myself with something else besides hospital shows on the tube.

I took that Ruger for a walk again today on the property where I grew up on that I now own. I had to, you see, I don't normally post this kind of stuff but I have had a tough week coming to the reality that my dad is only going in one direction and I needed to just get back to the woods even for just half an hour.

The Ruger has no sentimental value to me but it fits well and I wanted to give it another shot after the other day when I flushed a few woodcock. I could easily have borrowed my dads 311 but I am not sure how he would feel about it. The story I just read has me hoping that he is replaying all of the memories we had and his own just like that.

Dad was diagnosed at 58 last year with Pulmonary Fibrosis. Things have really escalated with his condition the last few weeks. It has been really tough, going from hunting for miles at a time to seeing him low enough on oxygen to pass out trying to walk to the bathroom is without words.

Sorry to hijack a perfectly good post about one of my favorite pastimes but I just wanted to say thanks for sharing that.

Ryan

I just finished a long-term project and am going bird hunting with it.

It is a Savage-imported Valmet Model 333 20 guage Skeet that was REALLY butchered by its previous owner. He/she put on a "custom" stock that was apparently his/her ideal.

It had a squared profile beavertail forend that was about 4" wide at the bottom (where your hand goes), with a profile like a 2x4". The buttstock had a very tight pistol grip with a heavy steel grip cap and a rather low comb. Buttstock wood is very fancy(and therefore very heavy)figured walnut. Grain is laid out well--figure is all in the back end away from the tang and grip.

Worse, because wood can be massaged, is that he/she disabled the auto safety and the ejectors by removing key parts. And then didn't keep 'em!

LONG story short, I whittled the wood back to decent field dimensions, found the ejector and safety parts (only took two years!) and then found a guy who could/would/did fit them (another year). Ahlman's checkered the finished stock with fairly coarse "skip-a-line" checkering that you can actually take hold of, and looks a little like the original checkering.

So now I got another "Savage" to hunt birds with. I CAN break clays with it, maybe I can kill birds. I'll know on the 18th with any luck; gotta quail and chukar date. Takin' my 12 guage 333 for backup.

This gun cost me about $400 for the gun and new parts, around $300 for gunsmithing/checkering, and a couple of hundred hours of searching and elbow grease. But it's "almost a Savage," and a beauty. Looks new (it was nearly unfired when I got it).

Rod Need to see some pics of the old 16 sterling with some "Pats" the only birds that I killed with that gun was Turkeys 3 of them! a few bunnys and squirels! I have seen a Few Grouse while bowhunting this year tho, and a hen Pheasant ran aross the road, the other day. Gary with that new Hip, you will be hell on the birds next year! I think my friend!

I shot a few woodcock and rabbits with that Sterlingworth last year John. It points well for me. I just need to have it in my hands on a day when the pats are cooperating.

Not to change the subject, but I have to get this picture up. The night before last we hunted some "over the head" high briers and golden rod. We flushed a hen, and dumped it DRT. We looked for half an hour but just couldn't find it. I couldn't get angry at Maggie. That was her first time facing that scenario. Not 20 minutes we did the same thing on a woodcock that she pointed perfectly. Not only that, but that was her FIRST woodcock point so far.

Fast forward to LAST night. It was POURING rain. My glasses kept fogging and were totally water spotted. The conditions didn't deter Maggie in the least. First point was the cock and that ended up being number 5 dead bird to go home with us. A half hour or so later, I saw Maggie scenting and walking. She was on the scent of a pheasant, no doubt about it. All of a sudden she's on point. She was in a small 20 foot clearing. I looked everywhere for the bird. There it was not 30 inches from her nose. I stamped the ground, it broke loose and flushed. Down it came. As I was running to where it landed, it half halfheartedly got back up and then back down. Maggie dove into the thick brush and pounced on it. She held it down trapped under her neck between her front legs and head. NEVER put a tooth mark on the bird!!!!!!!!!! But OTOH wasn't about to let it get away. Honest to God, I can NOT believe she's doing so well and still not a year and a half old.

Sounds like you've got a very promising young dog there Steve. Looks like the next ten years are going to involve a lot of pheasant dinners.

Rod

Only if I live that long. But she's WAY more than I thought she'd be. I keep stepping in a pile of sh*it and come up smelling like a rose.

Yes you do Steve. We will have to talk about a dog when we're on the island. It's time I find one to lead me around the woods. Not that Connecticut stocks anything for birds anymore and I can't remember when I last saw a ruffed grouse in Connecticut.

A dog will always be a companion. No questions asked.

I haven't hunted birds in a few years since both my English Setters passed on. I finally picked me up a new pup in early September of this year. He is a Llewellin Setter and will be 4 months old at the end of this month. He is showing all the signs of being bred to hunt. I have been spending most of the last 2 months working on obedience training. I have introduced him to the gun and he shows no signs of being gun shy. He sticks right with us when we are shooting clay pigeons and naps at my feet when I am shooting rifles and handguns.
Just wish we had some pheasants around to see how he would do on birds. May end up taking him to a shooting preserve later this fall to introduce him to birds.
Hopefully, next fall he will be ready for some Northern Michigan grouse and woodcock. And the Ruger Red Label 28 gauge is all set to go. I had some pretty good coverts to hunt with my other English Setters and hopefully they will still be productive.

That's a GREAT looking pup.

Rod

LBK- That sure is a beautiful dog you have. She sounds like she is a keeper.

Rod-I have a book written by Corey Ford, "The Trickiest Thing in Feathers." Another is, "The Best of Corey Ford" This book follows the escapades of the "Lower Forty" group. Both are excellent reading.
Another good read for anyone who loves bird hunting and gun dogs is "Jenny Willow" by Mike Gaddis.
Does anyone remember Gene Hill's "Hill Country" in Field and Stream?

Thanks Rod. He thinks he is a lap dog. That isn't all that bad right now but don't know what I'll do when he is fully grown. Probably get a bigger recliner!!!

Yep, pull up a chair and pass Uncle Perk's jug of "Old Stump Blower" and let the tales of the Lower Forty begin!

Another old writer who captured the spirit of upland hunting was Havilah Babcock. His book "My Health is Better in November" is one of my all time favorites.

If you haven't yet, dig up a copy of Ned Smith's "Gone for the Day". He wrote/illustrated for the "Pennsylvania Game News" for many years and was a kind soul who captured the essence of the outdoors with simple but eloquent prose.

"Drummer in the Woods" by Burton Spiller was my first taste of upland writing and the back story by Wm. Tapply, "Burt's Gun", confirmed the genuine character of the poet laureate of the game bird.

Never even seen a grouse, let alone shot one in Kansas. We get into our share of pheasants, and once in a while quail. Sure do miss the quail hunting we used to have, and I never saw it in its glory days.

THAT is ONE BEAUTIFUL DOG. Gotta make ya proud.

Thanks, LBK

Nothing like a real hunting breed to make the grouse more special...

shrapnel, reminds me of a friend of mine's poodle-pointer, or whatever you call them. It's a pretty good pointer and retriever.

Maybe next time you take your pal there to the doggy groomer salon, they can give it a hair style that looks more like one of these.

VERY nice pictures. What model Rem semi-auto shotgun are you holding. I have an 11-48 in 28 ga. 1950's gun. I just can't tell from the pictures. Damn cataracts.

I have the right dog available when you want the finer guns and accoutrements for thee gun dog magazines...

Longbeard, exact same gun, 1950's 11-48 also in 28 gauge. I mess around with it a bit. I mostly hunt with old side x sides but I like to take out the "machine guns" every once in a while.

Sharpnel, that's more like it.

Grousin' with my setter May and an 1890's London made damascus barreled 2 1/2" 12 bore.

That's the ONLY other one
I've ever seen.. It's a fun gun to shoot...........

I know where that picture was taken, I have been there hundreds of times. Looking the other direction not far from there...

Very nice guys! Great to see someone's getting out. Damn bone spurs have me stuck in the valley. At least I can go fishing! If I move carefully, that is.

Steve (Longbeardking)...

Pleased to read your young dog is doing so well. Youse guys are "tough" on those of us who have had some fine dogs.

I well-remember mine... "Murphy", an English Setter with a great "nose" for birds... she was a delight until some SOB stole her.

"Duke", a really smart German Shorthair, who would range out 50 yards or so which, when he first did it... I thought all-was-lost because he was gonna flush the birds outta range, but then, he got a "whiff-of-pheasant" and went a bit further out beyond the cock-bird, then turned and hunted BACK toward me, pushing the running bird in front of him and toward me until it flushed... not 10 feet away which made for an easy shot. We had some fine hunts together.

And then there was "Fred", the Brittany... liver & white... Gawd, I loved that dog! He was a true hunter without peer. That dog LIVED to hunt and no dog was ever a better "pointer"... and he would "flush-the-bird" on command. All I had to say was, "Get-'em-Fred" and he "rushed" in and flushed the pheasant or quail. When I came outta the house with a shotgun-in-hand, Fred would go WILD... jumping up and down at the kennel's gate, wild-eyed with excitement because he "knew" we were going bird-hunting. Fred lived to be 17 years old... and finally was so crippled up with arthritis that he struggled just to get up... and sadly, I could see in his eyes that he was in terrible pain, so I had to put him down... I sure didn't wanna, but I couldn't stand to see poor 'ol Fred in such pain.

I've never owned another dog... it was just "too much" having to put Fred "down".

Those three fine hunting dogs gave me a life-time of wonderful memories... never to be duplicated again.

"Treasure" those memories of those hunts with your dogs, my friends... I can tell you that they're gonna become some of your favorite and most wonderful memories.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Amen, Ron.

Wonderful post, Ron. Every word you spoke is true. I never thought I'd own another dog. To be honest, I'm not man enough to put a dog down. When it's time for that, my wife and or my son drives the last ride to the vets. I did that once with my Brittany Lady. Frankly, I've never gotten over it.

I do the same as you. My dog points the bird and I'll come up to her and tell her, "find it". She/they have usually jumped in for the flush. Everyone tells me I'm doing it all wrong, but that's how we have fun.

Well... Steve, let me be totally "honest" as well.

I just COULDN'T put Fred "down"... so my oldest son did the "dirty deed" FOR me... and so, I'm not nearly as "brave" as you thought, eh, my friend?

Sorry to "disappoint", but sometimes... some things are just "too hard"... or hurt too much.

Obviously, like you... I've never "gotten-over-it", either.

Ron

No better friend than a loyal dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!