I admit that I'm biased, but only after well over 40 years of chasing pheasants. We get invaded with pheasant hunters here. Opening weekend is a total fiasco. Hunters come from all over the west as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan. The motels and campgrounds are full every years. I see just about every gundog breed imaginable, of course, with more than a fair number of labs. Do people kill birds with the various breeds? Of course they do. In a good year around here you could shoot your limit with a toy poodle! In a poor year (like the last couple of years), you'd better have a very, very good dog or you're going to get skunked more often than not.
I can only speak about hunting where I hunt (northcentral Montana). Around here I hunt the river bottoms and creek bottoms. It's heavy, nasty cover....cattails, wildrose bushes, weed choked ditches, etc. A pointing breed may very well lock up on point in this cover, but how in the world do you get the bird to fly? Most of the time they will skulk away while the dog is on point. I have a Setter and he's outstanding on Huns and Sharptails, but when it comes to pheasants in heavy cover he's marginal at best. I have a friend who has an outstanding Setter and he kills a ton of pheasants over her, but he hunts more open country.... grassy coulees bordering grain fields, etc., but even then his dog is more of a semi-flusher. She locks up solid on point at times, but more often than not it's more like a creeping point.
Labs can't get through the heavy stuff like a Springer can. They just aren't designed for it. Some of the smaller labs I've seen do ok, but most are larger dogs. Many years ago a fellow moved to town who was bragging up his Lab. I played softball with him and got to know him well, so when pheasant season opened we went out. We hunted this large area of fireweeds that was about chest high. The place was crawling with pheasants, but it was so thick you could barely walk through it. To make a long story short, he and I and his brother shot 9 roosters and my Springer retrieved every single one. She'd weave in, around, and under the weeds and come back with a bird. His lab stared out busting the cover, but tired pretty quickly and after a while he was tagging along behind us. When we got back to the truck the friend pointed to my Springer and said, "My next dog is going to be one of those"!!!
George Hickox, a well known trainer who puts on training seminars, has DVD's on training, etc. says this. If you mostly hunt quail and woodcock, get a pointer. If you mostly hunt waterfowl, get a Lab. If you mostly hunt pheasants, get a Springer.
I've bred Springers for nearly 30 years now. I'm not trying to sell dogs with this post. I have a 2 year waiting list. I'm just saying that as a breed the Springer has no equal when it comes to pheasants... And yes, that's just my opinion.
