At least they did on this day. But let's give credit where it's really due. The dogs upstaged us all.

Rocky (left) and Gal on the final point of the day.

Not too surprising, actually. For in addition to being named the 2005 Orvis Wingshooting Lodge of the Year, Wynfield Plantation is also an integral part of the Orvis Endorsed Dog Breeding and Training Program, accommodating over one hundred of the finest bird dogs in the world, from classic English pointers and English setters to German shorthairs, English cockers, Brittanys, springer spaniels and of course their signature Wynfield Labrador retrievers.

The care and training put into these dogs is simply as good as it gets. And Wynfield's recently completed state-of- the-art Whelping Center assures any gunner and their family of some of the finest bred and best cared for puppies available anywhere in the world. Evidence of the quality of these dogs and their care and training continued to impress us that day, and as we indulged ourselves with dinner at the Main Lodge that evening, we eagerly looked forward to the next day's hunt, wondering if anything could top what we had already experienced.

If only we had known.

The kennels at Wynfield Plantation are roomy, well-ventilated and immaculate. The smaller building at right is the new state-of-the-art Whelping Center.

The next morning, following a classic Southern breakfast with thick-sliced bacon, two kinds of sausage and eggs, biscuits, fruit, grits and homemade peach preserves, we were back out on the Plantation.

This time our guide was Matt Dollar, a tall, soft-spoken gentleman, and he had chosen a beautiful pair of English setters for us this morning--Rocky, a veteran who, coincidentally, graces the cover of Wynfield's catalog, and Gal, a young trainee who at two years old is already more impressive than any dog I had ever hunted with before I first came to Wynfield.

These Lab pups were produced within the plantation's signature breeding program.

These two setters performed their duets like virtuosos, each steady to wing and shot, honoring the other's points to perfection and never failing to find our downed birds. Even when I nicked a beautiful hen just as she disappeared behind an inconveniently placed pine bough, Rocky stayed with that bird and found her for us minutes later and nearly 70 yards away.

But the final act was a performance which none of us will ever forget. With the day waning and our limits nearly filled, Gal suddenly locked up hard on point just as she and Rocky crossed paths while quartering back and forth through a small pine thicket.

Rocky froze immediately as he backed her, mere inches off her right flank. Rick, with his camera still in hand, groaned in frustration, for he was out of film, and he knew that I had long since stashed my digital camera away, all its memory cards full. So we just stood there gazing in admiration and amazement at this Osthaus painting come to life, until Tom quietly asked, "Mike, can you clear any of the images off your digital camera?"