2014-2015 rabbit hunting thread

[Rastus]

Drove to Carroll Co. today to hunt with 3 good friends. We hunted 4 pups and my old dog today. It was sort of like the first day of Kindergarten. Hunted a nice old overgrown farm. Had a good short run off the bat to get them started. They packed up pretty well but ended up holed in a rockpile near the old farmhouse. As we moved into the bigger part of overgrown pastures, started to lose our unity a bit. Had quite a few split chases going at the same time. My old dog did her best to try and keep things straight but she doesn't have the gears anymore that the pups have. Several times 1 or 2 of the younguns would get a second rabbit going at the check. Pretty chaotic but good times had by all. Besides my two, none of the dogs had hunted together before. We ended the day nicely with one last chase that started close to where we parked the trucks. The 4 pups jumped the rabbit and had a close and rowdy site chase down the creek bottom before it circled high up on the hill thorough corn stubble. All 5 dogs ran this one back together. It was the only one we bothered to shoot today and the pups were allowed to give it a good chewing for their efforts. They actually sort of made a kind of "relay retrieve" as they took turns carrying it in our general direction. It was good to spend the day with old friends and the house is dead quiet tonight.

 

[hickslawns]

Very cool. Sounds like fun.

 

[Carpn]

I was looking for a way to get Kal outside yesterday aftenoon after going to a bday party midday and him loading up on sugar . Theres 10 acres of brushy woods behind the house that usually has a few rabbits. In 20 min I shot 3 , Bunny noodle soup today for us .

 

[cotty16]

Molly did great today! She had multiple runs and brought most back. My one gunner, Kody, connected on one and missed two. Lol
He had a blast the though.

 

[bluedog]

Is it still rabbit hunting if you have no intent to shoot one? I took the dogs out from 3-5pm this afternoon. I was going to take them toward the back side of the farm and I don't shoot many rabbits back there so I took a gun with me. We didn't make it that far. On the way the dogs got one going on the fenceline with my neighbors. Back and forth and back and forth across the property line. Always feel blessed to have a neighbor that doesn't care that the dogs run over on her place. Eventually they crossed the creek and were going up toward the road and houses. I called them off at a check and got them back down by me. OK now we will head to the back, but on the way through the creek bottom, my male jumped one and sight chased it a ways so I just let them run that one. It's too early in the season to shoot the ones behind the house because that's the easy spot I hit when the snow gets deep. Don't want to thin the herd out there. LOL! It was a great running rabbit and I saw it several times. I was guarding a hidey hole and one time it ran right by me. Scenting conditions were EXCELLENT today and the hounds were right on their game. The rabbit was still going and so were the hounds when the sun set around 5pm.

While the dogs were running the creek bottom rabbit, I was doing some nosing around and found this. Pretty darn fresh. The creek is small and seasonal and we only get giant rodent visitors when it has been really wet and the creek has been running for some time. Like it is now. The tree associated with this cutting was gone. I have no idea how far up the creek they are moving stuff. There is no dam on my property at all.

 

["J"]

Glad too see you making it out.... And I pass up way more then I shoot just too listen and watch the girls work them out..... When I was young it was about the #'s now it's about the quality....

 

[GoetsTalon]

Thats the truth^^^ Here is the one i got on Thanksgiving and it was plenty for me.

 

[bluedog]

Happy New Year everyone! I've been so busy. Work has been busy and barn chores take longer in the winter. The snow and cold have kept me from the woods though. The dogs are stir crazy and I am stir crazy. But I am totally smiling when I think back to December. What an awesome month for running rabbits. Hardly any snow to slow us down unlike most years. I was able to run the dogs multiple days per week for 2-4 hours at a time. The rabbits have been staying above ground for the most part and that has lead to many runs of one to two hours just on one rabbit. It was glorious.

The last Sunday of December the hounds and I headed out to the pasture. We actually started out on the side toward the house. My plan was just to skirt up the creek bank and then cross over the culvert and head to the woods. There is not a whole lot of brush on the house side but there are a few swamp rose bushes and lo and behold the dogs found a rabbit in one. The rabbit took off and tried to jump the rain swollen creek and made it about 2/3rds of the way across. Splash. It was quick about getting out of the water and ran to the overgrown side of the pasture. That is how we ended up in the pasture rather than going to the woods. So I let the dogs just run the rabbit. My barn cat that tags along with us sometimes was right with me. At one point the cat went partway up the slope of the pasture while I waited near the creek crossing. The dogs circled the rabbit round and I saw the rabbit coming straight down the slope of the pasture toward me. On its way, it ran smack dab right into the barn cat. One of the funniest things I have seen. The cat was startled and grabbed at the rabbit but wasn't quite sure what to do with a full grown rabbit on such short notice. The rabbit easily escaped the barn cat's grasp and continued on. The cat then had to jump off to the side when the dogs came past. I was laughing pretty hard at this point. Well that encounter cured the rabbit of coming around to that part of the pasture again so I had to move up yonder. The rabbit took the dogs on an up and back along an overgrown fenceline and then circled behind me before coming around to my left side where I was able to make a good shot.

I've now resorted to rabbit selfies. Oh dear.

The dogs were so hopped up on rabbit scent that they had no use for the dead rabbit laying in the grass. They ran past into the brush and just that fast were on another rabbit. The barn cat however did come over to investigate.

This is the second rabbit I've taken off the farm this year. I usually shoot somewhere in the 4-6 range for the year. I like to keep lots of rabbits for the dogs to run.

Oh and Santa brought each of the beagles a dog bed for Christmas. No more plain ol' blankets on the floor. The beds are a big hit.

Tomorrow I will get them out for a good run in the snow. They were out for a half hour while I did chores when the snow first came a week ago but its been too cold all this week. I'm looking forward to hunting in the snow. I'm just hoping we don't have issues with too many holed up rabbits.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Good update bluedog! The cold hasn't bothered our rabbits much around here. My hound has had a chase or two everyday in our little woods for the last week or two. One of our GSP got in on the act yesterday and they caught the poor bunny. That's the second one that I know of in the last month or so. They haven't figured out they aren't supposed to catch them...

 

[CJD3]

Great write-up bluedog! The barn cat certainly added to the story. I found it most enjoyable to read as I sit out here at work. Thanks for the update!

 

[bluedog]

Good update bluedog! The cold hasn't bothered our rabbits much around here. My hound has had a chase or two everyday in our little woods for the last week or two. One of our GSP got in on the act yesterday and they caught the poor bunny. That's the second one that I know of in the last month or so. They haven't figured out they aren't supposed to catch them...

Yeah the cold doesn't bother the rabbits but it does me. LOL! What happens up here as the snow piles up is that the cover starts getting matted down and sparse. If the dogs get a rabbit running, many times the rabbit runs right for a hole and there are a lot of deep dark groundhog holes to hide in. It can get frustrating at times. I haven't had a dog catch a rabbit this year but I had it happen twice last year. Yeah I try to tell mine not to catch them but they don't listen.

Great write-up bluedog! The barn cat certainly added to the story. I found it most enjoyable to read as I sit out here at work. Thanks for the update!

Thanks!

Just talked to my neighbor and I'll be heading down there later today with the hounds. We have been trying to get set up for him to get one with a bow. We tried last year (I think twice) with no luck (he did miss once). This will be our first attempt this year.

 

[Jamie]

Rabbit selfie, magnificent! rotflmao. nice story, Bluedog.

there are worse things to have than a dog that tries hard enough to actually catch what it supposed to be after.

 

[GoetsTalon]

Great job!!! I got to get my but back out there. I got soft through the holidays lol!!!

 

[lung buster]

We had a good hunt this am. We jumped 5 and fired 0 shots. I could of shot 3 of them on the jump but I don't carry a gun, only Andrew is the shooter, lol....Hunter ran decent but it is almost to thick to get a shot in there!

 

[brock ratcliff]

We had a good time today too! Our beagle lit one up while we were doing yard work. Mason and I grabbed a couple of bows and commenced to flinging arrows. I chucked 3 air balls, shamefully close though. Mason missed once. As far as I know, the rabbit is still alive and well. He refused to hole up and wore the beagle and GSP out! Good rabbit, glad we missed.

 

[blackhandbeagles]

I finally got out and did some running this past week. I went up to Charm on Monday and ran with my Amish buddy. We had a few good runs and only killed one for the dogs.

I went down to Perry County on Saturday and also had some good runs. We just left those rabbits there since all the dogs were old veterans. I hope to get some good running in between now and the end of season. I will try to get a few pics up also.

 

[cotty16]

Teamed Molly up with my buddy's two dogs yesterday. We had a few up and I shot one. Once she warmed up to the other dogs they ran well together. Loved hearing all three echo through the hollow.

 

[Ohiosam]

Yesterday (mlk day) CJD came down and met up with J and me at my place. An inch of fresh snow seemed promising. We first went to a place north of me that J and I have had good luck with. J's 3 dogs kept hitting tracks but losing them shortly. Finally they hit a good one, put the bunny right past CJD but he passed to let the dogs have a longer run. It circled J and came right to me and I shot it at about 25 feet. Couple hundred yards later in heavy cover they hit another hot trail, came around 3 times but we never saw the rabbit. To much cover to see.

By then is was getting lunch time so we decided to get lunch and go try another place about 15 miles away. During lunch another buddy (Roy) of mine met us with his 2 dogs. We get the dogs out an after a few minutes of butt sniffing by the 5 dogs everyone got busy. In less than an hour the dogs put out at least 6 bunnies but all holed up quickly and no good runs. The rest of the afternoon was slow.

Ended the the day about 5. Dogs and hunters were tired and hungry. I was very happy with the number of bunnies we saw. Bunnies are much smarter than they used to be, I guess all the dumb ones got eaten. It was a good day made better because of good friends.

 

[CJD3]

You and Jay were great company. It was nice to hunt in 36 degree weather instead of the usual 20+ chill factor. lol! The dogs worked hard and were a lot to keep track of in the brush!
Thank you both again for the great day afield. You local history knowledge was most enjoyable!

 

[Rastus]

The weekend hunts have been an exercise in patience for the most part this season. Getting these pups all on the same page had been a challenge when they are together. I headed down to Harrison County on Sunday with my 10 month old female. We had planned to hunt her and two of her litter mates. A couple other guys ended up joining the group, one with a 6 month old female and the other with a year old male. Started out at a nice overgrown farm in the morning. There was a thin glaze of ice on the ground cover and though we jumped a few, it was difficult for the dogs to keep them going. Add in the chaos of trying to keep all 5 out in front and headed in the same direction, it started to resemble a comedy. We got to the end of the cover just before noon and it thawed enough for us to have one pretty good chase. A young guy that was with us shot the rabbit after a long uninterrupted circle and 4 of the 5 hounds were close behind. The youngest pup hadn't figured out what all the excitement was about yet and didn't join in. I was pretty disgusted with outcome overall and thought about ending the day early on a high note. We decided to try one more place though. It had begun rain/snowing and I was skeptical as to how wise this was. I imagined the pack might be tired of trying to unravel the faint rabbit scent and decide that a deer might smell a whole lot more interesting. But off we went and cast them again at the bottom of a thick hollow near town. It was the tale of two halves and I am so glad I decided to stay. We walked up one side of the hollow and back down the other. Probably covered 500 yards at most. We had 4 really good long runs and the 4 pups ran in a tight pack, pushed the rabbits hard and worked very well at the checks. The day was completely redeemed at that stop. We got back to the trucks about 4:30 soaking wet and me with a 2 hour drive ahead in what was becoming some lousy road conditions. Really glad we pushed on though - has me looking forward to this weekend.