I’ll never forget the first time I took a friend from work on a grouse hunt with one of our Setters. He happened to have a little lab mix, which I liked very much and she naturally stayed quite close. And when it comes to flushing dogs, which is what he was used to hunting over, one that ranges well beyond the gun is useless. So when my little 38 pound Setter rocketed away from a whoa and ripped off about a hundred and fifty yard cast down a swamp edge rimmed with prime aged aspen, you can imagine the look of horror on my companions face. He was clearly unsettled and certain that something had gone wrong! With a look of pure confusion he hollered at me, “Where’s your dog going!?” She’s going to point you a grouse I calmly replied and by the end of her big cast that’s just what she did as the tracker beeped and my friend walked in on her point, emptying his pump gun and not touching a feather on the large red-phased Ruff. You should have seen the smile and shock on his face when he proclaimed, “That was awesome!”.
This vast expanse of upland bird country may offer bountiful harvests of both Sharptailed Grouse and Prairie Chicken, but it rewards the canine athlete that can adjust their range accordingly.
Just as I would not want a flushing dog that refuses to stay within a reasonable gun range, I also don’t prefer a pointing dog that always stays within gun range. I would simply ask, what’s the point? If a bird gets up at my feet or within gun range it’s not likely that I’ll need the dog to assist me with that endeavor, unless it’s retrieving or hunting dead. What I’m interested in are the birds that can’t be found without a dog, the ones that need to be dug up by a bird finder and can’t be walked up. I want my tracker to tell me she’s 175 yards down in that swamp and you better bust brush to get to her.
Few moments in the uplands are more thrilling than taking a long walk and finding a point and long distance honor in wide open prairie grouse country.
Everyone has an idea of what the proper range is for their pointing dog but as long as the dog is staunch and honest and has the birds pinned and well located, how far it goes beyond gun range should not really matter, within reason of course. There are extreme examples of range in the field trial world, dogs making casts of a mile or more in open prairie. Obviously gundog owners have no immediate use for this, other than the need for those animals to diversify and strengthen the gene pool. You can’t reasonably walk and hunt behind an all-age dog making prairie all-age moves. Yes you can bring that dog in and hunt over it and many all-age dogs are smart enough to know the difference between the two games, but a dog over a mile away while you’re on foot bird hunting is not widely considered a practical gundog.
Another long distance walk to a point and back that produced a healthy group of Prairie Chickens, well located and pinned for wingshooting.
At the same time a pointing dog under our feet isn’t fulfilling its sole purpose. I once had a different type of Setter. He was larger and moved much slower. He was very pretty and great to look at, in fact everyone that came to the house would gravitate toward him over the smaller Setters. He also hunted within gun range or closer… all the time. Wow, when they said “foot-hunting” Setter they weren’t kidding, sometimes you would trip over him! I had to go a different direction after that within the Setter world, a dog with a little more horsepower. But I still require an animal that is hunting and handling and under control. I’m an upland bird hunter first.
War Paint, her brace of Chickens and an Ithaca NID 16 bore from 1927. She made huge casts of 600 to 1000 yards, covering many miles to produce multiple groups of Prairie Chickens on this warm September morning.
People often ask, what’s the proper range. Just this week I walked more than two hundred yards to a point in the grouse woods. Yes it took me a few minutes to get there. But the birds were there when I went in to flush. Do I think most grouse hunters prefer a dog with that kind of range, probably not. But she stayed within bell range and dug up those birds, ran hard until her nose stopped her on scent and waited for me to get there and put them to wing. That’s the excitement of a good pointing dog! A dog that shows some independence, ranging out to locate birds that you would otherwise never encounter and holding them there on a staunch point until you step out front, poised for the explosion of feathers. The proper range for your pointing dog is exactly what you are comfortable with! You can’t put a number on it. I believe that’s the most honest answer you’ll hear to the question. But I would encourage pointing dog owners to consider letting Rover get a little further out there once in a while. As long as he’s staunch and honest on birds you might be surprised with what he produces for you at the end of a long cast. Relax… let them roll… they aren’t meant to be under foot or even within gun range if you ask me! If I want a dog within gun range, I’ll get one of the great flushing breeds. But I’m not in the market for one any time soon…