Chased some bunnies today

cotty16 said:

J, might as well keep this thread going through the remaining cold months and then start it over next season. We still got running to do! Until tick season anyway. Lol

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:smiley_clap: :smiley_clap: :smiley_clap:

I too really enjoyed reading all the rabbit hunting tales this season. It made being holed up on those cold snowy days a little more bearable. And J, your welcome. I have fun participating here with you all.

My male beagle has had a chronic abscess in his neck since December. As long as he stayed on antibiotics, he was perfectly fine. But every time I tried to take him off within 1-2 weeks the swelling would come back. I knew it was going to need surgery but I hated doing it during the season. And so I was able to get him through the season and last week he had surgery. He is doing just fine, but can't run rabbits until his stitches come out. Even though it was quite cold today (12 degrees with wind chill of 0), I had to get my female out for a bit as she was driving me nuts in the house. We only had an inch of snow last night, but it is so cold the snow is the consistency of sugar. I've only had this female dog a little over a year and have never run her solo. She acted confused at first, but finally got a rabbit up and running. It was a really good run too. I had to help her out a couple times, but she did way better tracking by herself then I thought she would given the conditions. The rabbit made a couple loops through the pasture and adjacent field and then ran over 300 yards to the creek bottom behind the house. The dog lost the trail shortly after crossing the creek and we had been out an hour so I called her and we went back to the house. My husband told me the male beagle sat on the rug by the front door and whined the whole time. LOL! He'll be able to get his stitches out next weekend.

The rabbit running continues.

Wow! Just got in from 2 hours of running rabbits. I was a little dubious about the conditions since we are in the middle of getting some fresh snow, but the dogs got on a rabbit in the pasture and it took a good hour before it went in a hole. It crossed over to my neighbor's pasture and took a loop through his equipment shed. Twice! LOL! The first time was early and I was out in my barn collecting eggs. I was listening to the beagles and all of a sudden their barks were all hollow sounding and echoing. I knew immediately they were over in that shed. Ha! After the second round through the shed, I was done with chores so I just went down and watched the show. The rabbit made three more rounds through my pasture and field before ending in a groundhog hole finally. So we moved over to the other side of the pasture and they got another one going. Or two or three. I'm not quite sure because several times two rabbits would pass me and the dogs would head off in a different direction. So I'd watch them for a bit and they'd be chasing a different rabbit. Finally made them stop as it was getting darker. I think I got some good video clip of one of the rabbits. I'm uploading it to my YouTube channel now and if it turns out, I'll post it on here. I took it on my cell phone so sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn't. Great fun though!

Heck yeah!!! Sounds like fun!!!

OK let's see if this works. Got the video on my YouTube channel. This is the same rabbit that took two trips through my neighbor's equipment shed. I am standing by a tree on a slight rise overlooking a fairly wide flood plain to the creek below. The creek is small but partially open and flowing with some snow bridges. The fence line in front of me separates my pasture from my neighbor's pasture. The rabbit made a very long run through an open area and got well ahead of the dogs. It crossed the creek by the fence and then had time to sit there for almost 2 minutes. During that time it was washing its face with its paws. LOL! The rabbit comes right up the fence line toward me. If it had turned to my right, it would have gone toward my neighbor's shed, but it turns to my left and continues along the low rise I am standing on before heading back across the creek on down the way.

[video=youtube;yGWWVLCWp2Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGWWVLCWp2Y[/video]

Awesome!!!! Now thats the shot you want when hunting them with the bow!!!

No pictures or anything like that, but the rabbit running continues. Lots of good runs in the month of March. Seems like the rabbits are more prone to extra long runs in March. Don't know if it is the lack of cover and snow melt that fills hidey holes that keeps them going, but I noticed the same last year too.

Had a three day weekend last weekend so we did runs Saturday through Monday of 2 hours, 5 hours and 2 hours. They were tired puppies on Tuesday. It was nice, but only lasted one day before they started pestering me in the evenings again. LOL

Ran them 45 minutes after work on Friday. That is what I LOVE about Daylight Saving time. My female poked a stick or something in her eye. I swear I am going to make these dogs start wearing goggles. Took her to the clinic on Saturday morning but everything looked fine. She was better by Saturday evening. Took them for a 2 mile leashed road walk on Saturday instead of running them. Today I ran them 2 hours. I was trying to shed hunt at the same time. Got one section done, but the rabbits kept taking the dogs nearly out of hearing range and I just am too paranoid to let them go on their own. One run in particular today was quite awesome. Perfect circle. Well out of hearing range at one point then back around. Did not find any sheds. I'm going to have to go out on my own without the dogs I guess.

Still running, but not as much as I would like. Weather, work, blah blah blah. Early spring seems to be when there are a lot of long runs. I haven't had a repeat performance (yet) of last year's chasing the dogs 1/2 mile down the road as they ran the creek bottom through 4 different neighbor's backyards and saw the rabbit cross the road just before the dogs got there. That was kind of crazy. I did have one run the other day though that ended with the dogs circling around the neighbor's garage. So glad I have good neighbor's. I try not to let that happen, but sometimes the rabbit goes where the rabbit wants to go.

Yesterday we went out for about 3 hours, maybe a little more. It was kind of slow at first. After a couple brief runs of no consequence, I decided to head toward the back of the farm. The dogs were getting kind of bored and that is always trouble at least when it comes to the beagle I rescued from the dog pound. The dogs were fairly far ahead when I heard the pound dog start barking. I knew it wasn't rabbit because my other dog was not barking. Since I'm just in this for fun, I don't get real picky about Miss pound doggie barking at other stuff unless it's deer. That is expressly forbidden. When I got to the woods, it was as I thought. She was tracking squirrel and I started laughing because she followed the track right up a downed top of an aspen tree as far as she could go. She's about 8 feet up in the air in the picture. This is not the first time she has done this either. Silly girl.



We moved on and finally got a good running rabbit back in a spot we call the "swampy area". It was REALLY we back there and hard for the dogs to track with so much standing water. They did good though and didn't start losing it until the third or fourth circle. When that point came, I rounded them up and we headed back to the house. About 1/2 way there they got another rabbit up and running. That was good running rabbit too and it gave me a chance to make a couple out and back loops through the adjacent field looking for sheds. Didn't find any. Finally headed home as the sun was getting low in the sky. The dogs were a muddy mess and really tired. The tired part is a very good thing.

LOL thats a awesome pic!!!! Crazy dogs lol!!!

Every spring and before the new baby bunnies are out and about, the dogs seem to find a rabbit that puts together a really long run. Last Sunday was a really nice daily and so I wandered out to our blueberry bushes for their annual pruning. (This usually happens in March but it was way too cold out!). It's a good time to let the beagles run rabbits. The blueberries are near the pasture and my neighbor next door has a small spit of woods nearby as well as part of my farm we call "the old meadow" plus the creek bottom is close as well. I was happily pruning blueberries and the dogs were happily running a rabbit. Mostly they stayed on my own property with short spells over in the neighbors' woods (the neighbors are ok with this). After a couple hours, I was so focused on the pruning that I didn't immediately notice that their BahOOOs were getting farther away and toward the road. When I finally did realize, I stopped and then knew that they had crossed the creek, went through a small bit of woods and were now over at my other neighbor's farm across the road. I put all my tools down, had to cross the creek (it would have taken way longer to go down to the culvert) and then across my yard and over to my neighbor's. I knocked on the door to let him know I was going after my dogs. He was laughing. I am SO thankful I have great neighbors. I went trudging through the field behind his house to catch up to the hounds that were now half way through his overgrown brushy field toward his back woods. The dogs traversed the brushy field from one property line to the other side at about the halfway point and I caught up with them just as they were making the turn to head back from where they had come. I stopped the chase, marched them back across the road and put them in the house before returning to the blueberries. Not the longest chase I have ever had, but it was a good one. I measured 0.44 miles from the blueberries to where they had made the turn. I was not expecting them to cross the road from where we were. My bad. Fortunately all ended well and the dogs slept well that night.

The rabbit running continues because it really never ends. Yesterday I ran the dogs early (about 10am) since it was suppose to be up in the 70's later in the day. I try not to run them too often if it is over 70, but I will make exceptions depending. Anyway, Saturday I turned them loose in the pasture. I thought I would do some barn chores while they ran, but the rabbit decided it liked my neighbor's pasture too and so I mostly just stood and watched (rabbits have been known to cross the road when they run to my neighbor's place). It was a fine run that include a trip around and through the shed where my neighbor stores his tractors which is about 50 or so yards across the fence line from my place. Then back over to my place and the rabbit took the dogs on a loop through our vegetable field. Then back through our pasture before running back over to my neighbor's place and under some oil well tanks about 40 yards across the property line. Nice long run so I called it quits so I could get some work done.

Decided to run them this evening, but limited to an hour since it was over 70 degrees. It was cloudy though and the wind was blowing so that helped keep it cooler. I turned them loose in the creek bottom behind the house. They had one good run before they split up and I had to chase after my female that was running by herself and getting out of hearing range. She came running back to join my male that had just found rabbit #2 back in the creek bottom. I let them take one more loop around before calling it quits. My male (from Ohio) had his tongue hanging out but was still in good shape. My female (born in Alabama) was in her glory. Hardly panting at all, LOL! I know she thinks all the snow we have up here is absurd. She LOVES the warm weather. Good fun today though and they are sleeping soundly tonight.

Awesome!!!! Going to look like rabbit hunting season here tuesday. Calling for 1-3 inches of snow lol!!!

That time is here. The time of year when bunny running takes a back seat to me chasing turkeys around the woods. I did manage to get the hound dogs out for a couple short runs this past weekend. They keep finding the rabbit that wants to run them over and through my neighbor's equipment shed. That is getting old. They have better runs over by the farm pond. The pond is only 1 year old and last week we bought some bluegills and bass to stock in it. It's also next to good bunny running ground. I've taken a couple trips to the pond since the fish stocking. I don't see any floating fish. I have however found some very cool looking egg masses (American Toad I think) along one bank. I got to see one bunny run up close and personal. The rabbit stopped 10 feet away from me and took 20 or 30 seconds or so to groom itself by washing its face with its front paws before it hopped off. They never seemed very stressed unless they hunker down long enough to cause a sight chase.

I've got some brush pile plans for this summer if I can find the time to make it happen. I just took an all day chainsaw safety class and have already started the job of clearing the creek bank of small trees. Those will be cut up to make brush piles. I have a fence line in the pasture where I want to do the same. We'll see how that goes.

I had to miss opening day of turkey season for the first time ever due to work. My first day in the woods chasing turkeys will be Thursday. I got my gun sighted in this past weekend. My shoulder is pretty well recovered. LOL! I've got a stock pile of rawhide chews ready too. The dogs will be driving me nuts here real soon. At least the first two weeks of the season, I'm forced to exit the woods at noon so I can run the dogs in the afternoons if it is not too warm.

I hope some of you hound folks are finding some time to get out with the four legged ones. Happy hound running to all!

Since Fat Molly lives in the house, I've shut her down with ticks getting bad. Just gotta play fetch with the ol' tennis ball now.

45 days.

I plan on going w/ you this year come hell or high water