Now we're getting somewhere. The guys around the hunting campfire are a salty bunch of dogs who sometimes sound as if they needed a little more socializing on the playground (I'm taking my ball and leaving-good, go back where you came from--- kind of nonsense). Rick: I'd rather carry a 16 in the field than just about anything else. I have an odd addiction. I love old "hardware store" guns. I enjoy scraping up cruddy old Higgins and Crescent arms double guns, get them working correctly (I'm no gunsmith however) and give them a second run. If they could talk, I like to think about the midwestern families that these guns fed. Prairie chicken, dove, duck and small game. I too run a springer. Trained him myself, in my own odd way. After 7 years of terrorizing, bold flushes, I figured I couldn't possibly create a blinker, he loves to hunt to much. So I trained him to Honor and even back my wirehair. What a hoot. He looks and works like a typical springer, and will flush if another dog isn't pointing his track, but if he comes up on a pointer who is locked, he tightens up. It is quite a sight and something I don't recommend any flushing trainer attempt to do. I'm just blessed with a good dog and got lucky with his trainability .<BR> John, birddog, lady grouse. What do you say we adopt this as the forum that we were used to at A/O?
