LEB CITY BEAGLES
HAREHUNTER.COM
DIARY OF A HAREHUNTER.....continued
Hunting stories of the 2003-2004 season:
These stories are an extension of the ones I wrote last year that were published in last fall's issues of "THE AMERICAN BEAGLER" magazine. We tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may. We don't claim to have the greatest hounds that ever lived but we do claim to reap as much fun and enjoyment with our hounds and from the guys we hunt with as anybody else could hope to have. Sit back and relax and join us from the comfort of your living room and share the experiences of our hunts. Meet the hounds and meet the hunters and above all ENJOY.
FEBRUARY STORIES 2004
February14, 2004 9:00 A.M. I traveled to Newfields for a hunt this morning but I didn't last ten minutes in the woods. For two weeks now we've been covered with an eight of an inch of ice over four to ten inches of soft snow. This spells doom for the hunter as conditions like this pose a danger to the hounds welfare. The dogs break through the ice and get their feet cut and nipples torn but the bunny just skims over the top of it all. Haven't killed a rabbit for some time now but things will change sooner or later. The days are getting longer and pretty soon some warmer weather will creep in. A good three or four inches of snow would be nice about now too. I had Sophie with me this morning and I gave it a try, but she broke through the ice right off and the snows are deeper here than they are at home twenty miles away. The ice coupled with the deeper snow will surely cut her nipples to shred and I won't risk hurting the dog so I headed home. I let Sophie ride up front in the passenger seat and she easily made herself at home riding "shotgun". We need some snow to get this this trend broken. Six weeks left to the hunting season, time is getting short.
February28, 2004 9:00 A.M. Nice day with clear skies and a hard frozen crust of a granular texture. We decide to hunt a place we call Jane's where the slope of the land faces the sun. Perhaps this would help us get better scenting early. We cast Sophie, Ruth and Pete. Sophie does a bit of tongueing on some old scent and messes around doing that a short while. Ruth then opens some too and the females move the line a bit. Then they open strong and Pete gets into it. Driving nicely the hounds are doing great. Reggie calls on the radio and remarks that finally we're getting some running. Sounded too good to be true to me considering what the running has been like lately! Five minutes pass and the hounds driving quite a ways out. Reggie called to let me know he found fresh deer tracks. YUP, it was too good to be true. I couldn't ZAP them with the shock collar 'cause they were too far out. So I headed cross country to try to cut them off but the snow was pretty deep for moving without snowshoes so I couldn't catch up. I called Reggie to take the truck around to a known crossing on the state road and cut them off there if that's where they would go. Got a bit of help from "ON HIGH" at this time as Reggie got to the crossing about the same time as the hounds. I finally made my way out of the woods and Reggie found me walking the road. We headed for Reggie's house to hunt behind his place and after a fashion we recast the hounds. Game was hard to find, but about an hour later in some thick pines I jumped a hare. Called the dogs over and they couldn't move it well. The snow cover, shaded by the trees never melted and was hard as a brick. Where the sun had hit the dogs broke through the crust to their chest and they had a hard time moving around on it. This rabbit they lost. Later we hit another rabbit and they ran this one pretty good for forty minutes and Reggie shot it. Dogs bleeding, rabbits hard to find and hunters discouraged we QUIT! Worst february hunting I've ever experienced. "TRIBULATION WORKETH PATIENCE; AND PATIENCE,EXPERIENCE; AND EXPERIENCE, HOPE" (romans 5)..."LORD GOD with regards to this dog thing of mine I'm plumb filled up on hope". Amen