February 2005 Hunting Stories

Thursday February 3, 2005 at 11:30 A.M.  I've been down and out most of the week with a cold, sore throat, acheing muscles, feeling basically BLAH! Today was no different as the headache remained. I wasn't going to do much of anything and was waiting around for Chris Miller to show up with a couple puppies to play with in my starting pen. Chris showed up around 9:15 with a pair of "PATCH" bred pups who were 4 1/2 months old. The snow is pretty deep and it was about eighteen degrees out. Tough recipe for puppies to deal with their first time out. But they played around as puppies do and the experience certainly did them good. After he left I decided I could live with a headache just as easy in the woods as I could moping around the house, so I got Sophie and headed out.
When I got to where I was going to hunt, the air temp was at 30 degrees but the snow at ground level felt pretty cold. One thing for sure however, it was still pretty deep, reaching up to my knee cap. YYYUK! The last time I hunted here there were a number of hare sign in a little swamp not far from the truck but the deep snow had driven them into a thick alder run on the back side of a pond. It took about thirty minutes for her to get a start, and she struggled getting it going at first. After a few minutes the hare was on the move and she handled it pretty good but her forward progress was radically effected by the depth of the snow. In this alder swamp, where grasses and water bushes flourished, the fourteen inches of snow had accumulated on top of the grass and bushes, causing it to be somewhat suspended in the air. This was great for the hare as he just skimmed along this topping, but the hound got mired in the bottomless mass. But she worked real hard to press on and put the hare by me twenty minutes into the run but I only saw glimpses of the critter. On and on she went until finally I got another look at the bunny sneaking through the alders, oblivious to my presence. The twenty guage opened with a blast of thunder, sending the hare flipping around in an oft seen death dancing flip flop after being struck by some number four's. Sophie kept coming and reached the kill site with blood all over the place. She grabbed the hare in her mouth, and walked over to me as I snapped her picture. She doesn't usually do this but it was neat to see. I sweet talked her a bit then off she went struggling through the snow to find some scent from another bunny to chase. MAN, THIS PROCESS IS SOME KIND OF A MIRACLE when you think about it. The Beagle can smell, as well as follow, the tracks of a hare that touches the ground for just a nano second, spaced anywhere from 4 to 12 feet apart on all types of terrains , temperatures, conditions, etc. etc. etc., and follow the trail at varying rates of speed, for long periods of time until shot by the hunter! For this achievement, some of us just look up and say, HALLELUJAH!

Saturday February 5, 2005 at 9:00 A.M.  It's twenty degrees out this morning, sunny and no wind. Should be a nice day to hunt HUH! Not so, as a thick crust covers the twelve inches of snow that doesn't support the weight of the dogs. Timmy and Pete have a hard time moving through the woods pushing forward on this stuff. Ten minutes into the woods Pete opens up and the hounds run on the slow side for some twenty minutes, definitely hindered by the crusty surface and deep snow beneath it. In a short while they were bogged down on a check and eventually lost the hare. They had a very difficult time with their mobility, but kept trying without much success. We have to quit early today because one of my grand kids has to be home in time for his Cub Scout pine wood derby competition. I'm in the woods with Reggie and the three kids Christopher, David and Daniel. We're hunting a place that's convenient, but doesn't hold much game either. So getting another start takes a while. Finally after an hour had passed by Timmy opens up and Pete honors him and we do get a short run of about a half an hour. The hare of course runs across the top of the snow without leaving a mark as the hounds push through the tough surface. Christopher cuts loose with two shots from his .410 and bags his ninth hare of the season. Daniel who is only eleven years old and just started hunting this year is all business and pays close attention like a real TROOPER waiting for his chance to get a whack at a hare. But today won't be the day. That's him in the photo, on alert waiting for the "Wascally Wabbit" to show up. "One of these days, One of these days, POW, right in the kisser", Daniel will get his first hare. After another hour or so of trying for another start we quit for the day. So it goes in the winter; not many good days!

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Saturday February 19, 2005 at 8:30 A.M.  It was four below zero this morning when I first got up, and it's nine above zero now as I pull into Reggie's driveway. The sun is out with a light wind of about ten miles an hour. The foot of snow is frozen hard enough to sustain our body weight and the surface is ice and frozen granular snow. Last week we couldn't hunt due to the rain we got that turned to snow by night fall which caused the snow to stick to every branch, on every tree, rendering the landscape a winter wonderland BUT a HAREHUNTER's nightmare. We couldn't see two feet into the woods let alone even hear a dog run. Conditions have alot to do with the hunters success at this time of year and many times we hunt knowing that things would be tough. This day was no exception as poor running got us again. The only positive thing I could say about this hunt is that we didn't need to wear snowshoes. We ran Ruth, Sophie and Pete, but the trio just couldn't keep a hare going. We had seasonably moderate temperatures a few days ago and the dogs ran well at the Beagle club but today is much different. We won't give up and the worm will turn one of these days.

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Friday February 25, 2005 at 9:00 A.M.  Tony was up from Esperance New York visiting with me for a two day hunt and we got a late start this morning because I had to stop by a friends house to breed a dog before we hunted. Got to Reggie's arout 9 :05 A.M. under sunny skies and temperature at 9 degrees. We had a dusting of snow during the night and had expectations for a good hunt. The three of us had a coffee and a few laughs. Always fun when Tony visits here with the "TROOPER" keeping you on your toes. I had Sophie and Tony brought Brunette (Bruno's sister), and Reggie would run the old warrior Pete. Finally we hit the woods and got into a long walk to where we would hunt. We call this place "THE HELL HOLE" due to the long walk in and the long walk out after a days hunt. This hunt would surely live up to it's name before the day would end. FINALLY we got to the foot of the cover we'd hunt and cast the hounds. Both Sophie and Brunette hit the woods hard and are both great starters. Pete hunts real good too but these two females are hunting FANATICS. It didn't take all that long to get things going as the girls opened in unison and the hunt was on. The snows of a few days ago had the small maples, birches, pine trees and hemlocks bent to the ground with their tops frozen to the surface of the snow. We were on a four inch topping of soft snow over a hard twelve inch base that supported your weight most of the time. Getting around in this maze of twisted and bent growth was a challenge. After a while the two females were joined by Pete and we had music filling the air. That sound was great to listen to bouncing of the mountain in the background. The hounds ran steady and got a couple circles in before we got ourselves clued in as to how this hare would run. I had worked my way to a pretty good crossing I knew about from years of hunting here. By now the hounds were running out of my hearing and only a call on the radio confirmed what was happening. Twenty minutes later I could barely hear the dogs putting it to that hare as the hunt was moving my way. I repositioned myself to gain a better view of the area I was watching given the direction the hounds were coming from. I noticed that the alligator clip that my two way radio mouth piece was hooked up to, was disconnected. So I momentarily blocked out the goings on with the dogs and was screwing around with the clip when the hare went by me to my right catching me by surprise, thus getting by without a shot being fired. I knew where the other two guys were and told them to watch it as the hare passed by me heading their way. In a few minutes the dogs ran by me and not long after that Reggie got a shot at the hare heading back to where they had originally started this sucker. However the "Super Duper Pooper Scooper Trooper" missed, so the hunt continued. I held my position which proved to be a bad guess as the hare circled nearly out of hearing close to where they originally jumped him and Reggie exhonerated himself by making the kill. We caught the hounds to regroup and I took the opportunity to take a picture of the critters I was hunting with, along with the dead bunny. Left to right the hounds are Sophie, Pete and Brunette.
    We headed into the area a bit deeper and let the hounds go once again. One of the girls got the start and the other two dogs were in on the run in short order. This hunt lasted nearly two hours before the hare died but to go along with some long steady drives there were some checks on this hare too. On one occasion the hounds checked for quite a while and I figure lost bunny but Sophie managed to get it up again and they drove it real well and real steady until I got a look at him and drilled him on a dead run with a shot that might be characterized as "LUCKY". Ya sure, Reggie and Tony would call it luck but I insist to call it skill! Then I whiped out my trusty digital camera to shoot the bunny again photo style, and snapped a picture of the dogs coming in on the kill.
So far the dogs had two good long runs, both ending up with the correct conclusion. A condition we refer to as DEAD bunny!
  We continue to work further into the bush and the females hit another one. There are a lot of fresh hare tracks and the making of another good run is in progress. The dogs swing our way and I expect to hear a shot. Tony calls to say he just saw a coyote! The hounds kept coming and turned away from us where Tony said he saw the coyote. The hounds continued to run steady and before long were out of hearing. WHAT NOW! I never ran a coyote in my life and figured they were on a hare that decided to high tailed it out of here, to a cover over a mountain? We put our"TRACKER" tracking device into action and got a read as to where the hounds had gone. We eventually found the dogs in a pretty good rabbit cover far from where we usually hunt and they had been circling in that cover for a while. A coyote I would think would've BEE LINED it out of there to parts unknown. A while later Tony caught the dogs still running. Did they run a coyote? Did they run a March hare? We shall never know! I figured we were about a half a mile from a main road but much further away from the truck. To walk the road all the way around this area with the dogs on a leash would take hours, so I decided to leave the group and bushwahck back to the truck and Reggie and Tony would walk out to the main road and wait for me. No sense leading three dogs back to the truck miles away. It took me an hour and a half to cut across the woods before I finally arrived at the truck Then I drove around to pick up Reggie, Tony and the hounds. A real good day sure turned into a hellish experience in the place we call "THE HELL HOLE".

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Saturday February 26, 2005 at 8:15 A.M.   Its very cold out this morning with early temperatures at four degrees below zero and a negative dew point also. The skies are clear with very little wind. Great day to hunt if the two hounds can cope with the cold snow. We have just two dogs today, Tony's Bruno and I have Timmy, my Buckshot male. We head for a cover that is a bit hilly in places but well known to Reggie and I. Tony can work off a tote road that disects the main cover and everything is lining up for a good hunt. Within minutes of being cast Bruno starts his cold trailing routine and Timmy offers just a few me too's. Off and on Bruno continues to sound off and pretty soon Timmy is doing a bit more with his mouth too. The tempo changes like turning on a switch and some driving is underway. Unless you hunt you can't appreciate what just happened. On a tough tough cold snow the dogs lifted a hare from scratch and into a run. Round and round they went and the hare crossed the tote road Tony was on a few times then he lined out for a pretty ominous hill nearby. Up and over the hounds went out of hearing again. This hill rose about 500 feet from the base we were on and dropped off pretty quick on the back side. Of course this put them out of hearing. I struggled to get up to the top of the steep hill, and got nearly to the top before I had to rest. I could hear them circling on the other side and radiod back that I could hear the dogs running. About five minutes later, Reggie called on the radio asking me to blow my horn so he would know where I was. I said O.K. and as I was reaching for the horn I saw the hare coming my way, so I lifted up the CHARLES DALY and let fly one round dropping the hare in his tracks. Instead of a blast out of my horn the guys got to hear a blast out of my gun. Both hounds came running right up to the dead hare but only Timmy took a couple mouth fulls of the fur-burger. Bruno could care less about a dead one and he was off once again to find another one. We got two more runs just like the one that I just described,with the hounds running well, and we killed them both. Run number four went well for over an hour before the dogs had a hard check and lost the thing. I knew Tony wanted to head home early if he could so it was decided to work the hounds back toward the truck and see if we couldn't get a short run and call it a day. We got another hare going alright but the run wasn't short. This one lasted for nearly two hours and NO DEAD BUNNY. Both hounds drove well and the checks were snatched up evenly and the drives continued. This rabbit indeed had lucky feet because he got by the three of us without dying for all the time. Tony called on the radio begging us to kill that critter so he could go home. Finally the hare made a big loop and crossed the tote road just out on my view and on by Reggie. BANG! BANG! but no hoot! Hey Reggie, did you kill the thing? NOPE he said, so I caught both hounds as they crossed by me with that hare track tucked between their legs. We had a great hunt and the hounds made it happen under very tough snow conditions. No doubt in my mind that BRUNO with his big nose made a difference today on those tough checks. So Mr. Clean (aka, Tony, Anthony, Tonio, Antny, Antwon, Fabian) got to hit the road early after a real fun day in the woods. How sweet it is....

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