RE: Breeds you have owned, own, and opinions
Oh wow, don't do that. Your lab that was half springer or setter wasn't a lab! I guess you could have as easily called it a springer or a setter and have been just as right. My guess is that it looked mostly like a lab so you called it a lab. When crosses like that happen they sometimes seem to work, in the odd pup. But what usually happens is that traits collide and other than visual likeness of one of the breeds, or even a mixture of visual likeness, they are rather useless as anything other than a buddy to share lunch with.
I discussed this pointing lab thing on another site and I'm quite sure someone is going to get the idea of crossing a chocolate lab with a solid liver shorthair, if it hasn't already happened. what do you have then? If it doesn't do anything well, you'll create a brown mongrol. If it suit's you, you still have a brown mongrol. Getting breeds to display certain traits we refer to as instincts, on a reliable basis takes many many generations of very selective and closely controled breeding.