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Nevertoomanyguns: Sorry about your dog. That would have done the same to me.
I had a Springer in the 60s that was very good on woodcock and not bad on grouse. I had to give her away due to a child's asthma condition. That was very painful!! After my son grew up, he got two springers, but neither was really great on grouse. We got just as many grouse without dogs and did okay on woodcock, but don't seem to have the energy to hunt that hard anymore.
Regarding groundsweeping, I had that rule until I turned 55 or so. Now they're fair game. We live in Central Maine and grouse hunting here is very spotty and birds often flush beyond sight or shot. I saw one yesterday along the edge of one of our fields, but didn't have a shotgun.
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Thanks he was the last of a good line that my father and I both owned. I lost Ike's Father last year just before the season to old age and then I lost Ike to coyotes right near the homestead this spring.
I was raised hunting with dogs so it just doesn't feel right for me to chase them without a dog. However, I'm not one of those hunters that looked down at others for hunting them their way. Get them however you want as long as you enjoy it.
Ike's father Bert was a really good duck dog and woodcock dog. He did good on Grouse too, but for some reason he keyed in on woodcock the most.
Ike was a great woodcock, Grouse and an alright duck dog. After awhile I could tell that when he went on point whether it was going to be a woodcock or grouse just by the way he worked it before he locked up. This is the only picture I have of the two together and it isn't even a hunting picture.
IKE IS ON THE RIGHT AND BERT IS ON THE LEFT
This is a picture of Bert the father pointing a grouse wing on a fly rod.
This is an old picture with Bert and my father when I got back from the service. We got a 2 man limit of woodcock in 40 minutes hunting thick alders. It was quick snap shooting through the thickets.
I just realized that we had a lot of great hunts with these dogs and we never broke the camera out to record them. What a shame! should have taken more pictures!