I have been fortunate enough to hunt with and over many pointing breeds and all of them have their good and less great qualities. The story about EP being super fast is only true if they have not run against a hard running GSP, I own a bitch that runs just as hard as a EP and we still shoot more birds for her than the EP.
If you want a true all round dog that can be trained and handled without you losing your mind you will have to do homework, the single most important trait in any dog is not speed or will to hunt, it is the ability to be trained to do it in the way the handler wants it done. We have many GSP's that work in the snow after Ptarmigan and Capricalle, cold is not such a great issue with them. I have had my dog break ice to fetch a few ducks and they manage well. I have had GSP's in SA and I have seen both lines from the US and Europe work, the European lines are better all round dogs. There is just one species of bird I have not shot over my dogs here in Scandinavia, but it's not that common here anymore. Pheasants, Partridge, Ptarmigan, Capricalle, Grouse, Woodcock, Snipe and then Hare, Fox, Rabbits, Ducks and Geese on point too. I am fortunate in that I get too see and train many breeds of pointing dogs each year, last year I ran with around 160 other dogs and I won't trade my GSP's for any other. There are better runners, there are better retrieves and there are better trackers, but there is no better dog to do it all in every biotope in any weather any day of the year.
