Upland Hunting, Bird Dog and Shotgun BS Thread

My last setter was a Grouse Ridge dog. Best bird dog I've ever owned and it had nothing to do with my training him. It was all breeding and instinct. Grouse Ridge have a fantastic breeding program.

I'm in the market for another pup but can't afford the $2K they want for their pups these days.

 

The Gordons are exclusively black and tan (entire body and face). There are plenty of English setters with black and tan faces then a tri-colored body. I've owned a couple myself.

 

Check out Prairie Drifter Kennels in Kansas. Those dogs have a lot of the Grouse Ridge blood in them. Lady is out of his dogs and she's great, very natural. Troy produces really fine hunting dogs at a very reasonable price.

 

Thanks for the tip! I most definitely will. I love the smaller framed dogs like yours. A real joy to watch in the coverts.

 

She's my first setter and she's a really fun dog! Weighs 40lbs and has lots of bird sense, she hunted within 75yds in the grouse woods and punched out 300-500 while hunting chukar. I hardly trained her at all and was able to shoot 8 species over her points in her first hunting season!

 

Wow! That's quite an accomplishment in her first season! Sounds like you spend quite some time afield. Life got in the way and I spend a fraction of the time I used to in the woods. I'm working on changing that and getting a pup will be one of the first steps.

 

Yeah, I hunt a lot normally but I really make an effort to put my dogs on a lot of birds in their puppy season. It's not about shooting lots of birds, just putting a lot of them in front of their nose.

 

Quite familiar with setters...3 Gordon's of my own, lived with 4 others, about 8 Irish and 3 English of which one Llewellyn. But I seem to recall a Gordon strain of Gordon head on English marked body...lemme go dig. I'll report back if I find anything, if I don't, considers this my mea culpa

 

It's the old saying "Birds make dogs". Unfortunately here in Virginia birds are not exactly thick on the ground. The quail are about gone and the Grouse are having a really tough time. The woods are way too mature and there isn't enough successional forest. They need to start cutting the hell out of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

 

I know that the field bred Gordons we suffering from a lack of fresh blood lines (thanks to the AKC and intensive breeding of show dogs) so they brought in some English setter blood to cross out. Maybe it's from that evolution.

A little like what happened with the Irish setter bloodlines which evolved into Red & White setters.

 

Found this, it's .org so at least it's not porno lol...but there is reference to tri colour Gordon's

https://gordonsetterexpert.org/2016/07/06/musings-on-color/

 

Unfortunately, just having ideal habitat won't bring back the grouse if they are already gone.......they won't migrate long distances.......we have tons of recently cut over woods in NE Ohio, but it is rare to bump a grouse anymore. In the Alleghenies of NW Pa. it is a better situation as the habitat (harvesting) was always nearby as other woods matured. I bump a few each year on opening day of deer gun season walking around/doing a one man drive. Mostly in the hemlock drainages and bottom lands. One January - late season - we averaged 30 flushes a day for a week with 6 guys and 1 dog. We only killed 11, but everyone had lots of shooting every day. This was around 20-25 years ago. Those were the good old days!!!

 

Interesting reading!

 

Gordon Setter...Brains of the Bird dogs...mine used to watch planes fly over in the pattern at YYZ

 

My first bird dog was a Ryman out of DeCoverly Setters in Pa. back in the early 80's. Was one of the few Ryman breeders around at the time.

In the Midwest Setters are cheaper than back on the East coast, for the most part. Although I expect to pay and do somewhere ~$2k for my Tollers now. And wouldn't blink at an English Setter with good lines at that price. A lot more Llewellin out here but the prairies are big so covering a lot of ground is usually desired. But there are some that breed smaller size for the grouse woods, range can be trained. Up to a degree. A trial dog washout that will not range far enough is usually reasonably priced and already started. And make a good real world hunter as long as the only reason for washout was lack of range.

I don't think Berg Brothers Setters in Mn. need any introduction. Great program and great dogs. Greg and Carla have High Fly'n Kennels and have taken 9 dogs to National Llewellin Gun Dog Club Champion titles. I know Greg and Carla and can highly recommend them and their dogs. Of course there are plenty of others but these are 2 that jump out off the top of my head.

 

We've still got birds here in Western Va. but you have to work really hard for them. If they do something radical with cutting the forest the population will rebound. But the land managers need to do it before it's too late!

And that's a hell of a late season stretch! Those were the good old days. It's numbers like those that had me going to Northern Michigan for 14 years straight.

 

My first setter was a horseback trial washout because of lack of range. A beautiful tri color with muscular shoulders and a deep chest. That SOB would hunt the next county if it was up to him! Lack of range...yeah right!!! Thank god he knew how to hold a point. It would sometimes a while for me to catch up with him and he'd be standing like a statue with a look on his face as if to say "About time! Where the hell have you been?!".

But you're right, I've known a few washouts that made great foot hunting dogs.

 

Some other notable Kennels are Beirl setters and Jornada setters. They produce some very fine dogs but if you know what to look for in a pedigree there are a lot if folks producing quality dogs at a price that fits most budgets.

 

Like the content here...hope ya don't mind if I lurk a bit.

 

Please share as well if you don't mind. I bet you have some incredible grouse and woodcock hunting up there in Ontario! One of my dream hunts is sharptails and huns in Saskatchewan.