WOW 2 A.M. and Chris and I are up and about readying ourselves for a day trip north to kick off the season. We'll be joined in a short while by Steve Mayo and his brother Brian and his friend Jay.   No sir, we're not nuts to be up so early to make the long round trip ride for a hunt of this sort, we're just a bit different we'll just say.  I train and run hounds all year inside a fenced perimeter, training and preping for exactly this, HUNTING.Under fair skies and plenty of anticipation we get underway for the 4 hour ride up country. The ride went uneventfully well as we arrived at our favorite country store for a breakfast of plenty of coffee and a couple bacon McMuffins.
Before long we've parked (pronounced paaked) the trucks, collared the hounds and cast us all into the bush. Sophie does a bit of cold trailing and within a few minutes a run is underway. She's joind by two BUCKSHOT bred dogs Timmy and Leah. The hounds are hot after it, a couple short circles ensue and a "thunder stick" roars ending the first chase of the season. Brian nailed the first hare of the season and we work the hounds further into the bush. Guess we got lucky on the first hare as another one came hard. It took an hour for Sophie to find a hare and this hunt lasted over an hour. The three hounds never let go of the chase, that was fast and furious at times, and slow and picky at other times. But "DON'T LOSE THE RABBIT" is our expectation as we believe that only darkness, or the death of the bunny should end the chase. KKKAAAAPOOOOOWW, Steve cleans this hare's clock ending the run. Only problem with this kill is that it caused us to walk around another hour or so without a bark looking for another victim.  PICK 'EM UP and let's move out of here I said, and that we did.
A bit more driving time takes us to another cover to try out. This time of year rabbits can be scattered all over the place and it sometimes takes the foliage to drop and some "nippy" mornings to get them moving into the thicker conifers.
"Release the hounds" I said and off they go. Sophie starts working an old line and carries it by the two "new guys" and they scratch their heads wondering what this "fool dog" is doing with this barking where they've been standing a while? Thirty yards behind them she jumps the hare and a rip snorter of a run takes shape. Round and round they go in the thick cover but nobody can get off a shot at this "GHOST" in the cedars. Thirty minutes later the hare cuts by me at a sonic speed and I ruffle up the ground behind him four times in four seconds without cutting a hair. Two minutes later he doubles back for some reason across a path near me, and I do it again with a single volley. Same results...nothing, and the hounds pass by me, off for another jaunt behind the rodent before Jay eventually shoots it thirty minutes later for his first kill.  We get two more runs similar to this one and both hare are killed by Brian.  I decide to work out of this thick jungle, but the dogs start yet another hare here and this run lasts over an hour and a half. We,ve been in the woods since seven fifteen this morning and it's approaching 4 o'clock P.M. This hare we're on now has been tough to see as he's kept to the thick evergreens and changing his pattern every 10-15 minutes or so. If he ever heads for the high hill near us it'll be a long chase before he dies or darkness saves his life. I gave Chris a bit of libery moving here and there on his own and he decided to cover a well known crossing that the hare have historically used to head for the mountain. POOOOWWW! a shot rings out at 3:58 P.M. followed by the familiar hoot of the young nimrod. CHRIS "did big" nailing this bunny in his tracks saving us a much longer chase up the mountain. I guess CHRISTOPHER is the NEW ROAD MAN we've been looking for? Great hunt.

Wednesday October 6, 2004, at 11:00 A.M.  About this time Steve Mayo and myself are getting a four hour trip underway heading north to hunt around in the area where I just purchased some land. The idea is to build a camp up there and make all our hunts a bit more fun and much the more convenient. We'll try out different covers and see if we can find some bunnies on this trip. After a long and uneventfull drive we arrive at the camp site and find the work done by the excavator in good order. The guy did a great job and could not have been done any better. Next year at this time we should have a structure here to base our hunts from. It's nearly 4: P.M. now so with the little daylight left we opt to cast a couple of the dogs and see if we could get a run. We cast two old dogs Tim and his older sister Leah into the cedars and within minutes got a hunt going. The dogs ran real well and I got a shot at the hare but didn't connect and Steve got to see the critter a couple times but couldn't get off a shot in the thick cover. Nearly six o'clock now and we have to pick up. In the heavy Cedar and fir stands it gets dark quicker than it does in more open ground. We catch the hounds running and head for the truck.

Thursday October 7, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.   The day is crisp and crystal clear with very little wind. It's suppose to get warm today, up into the high 70's they're saying. We head for a very nice little Country restaurant along the way and fill up on bacon & eggs, home fries and all the coffee you can drink. Before long we're collaring up the three hounds we brought along; Sophie,Timmy and Leah. All are Buckshot Mr Bill bred with Tim and Leah directly out of Bill. Man that dog was a hunting dog!  At a few minutes after seven we cast the hounds into the same cover we hunted yesterday afternoon and in a very short period of time Leah opens to get the hunt underway. This hare ran a different pattern than the one we ran yesterday and he took us to cover very difficult to see in. All you can do is move around and try to find a place that offers a little opening to shoot into and hope that the hare pops into view, sooner or later. After nearly and hour and a half the hare gives me a shot and I connect with a snap shot. First hare killed "up the camp" and we look forward to many many more runs and kills such as this one over the years to come, "LORD WILLING". We shoot a couple more hare with runs just like the one we just had and decide to catch the hounds to give them water and to head to the store a few miles away and a drink for ourselves. It's very very dry here for this time of year and we couldn't find any standing water anywhere, even the little brooks were dry as a bone.

It was refreshing in it's own way to see the sign in front of the store saying "TAKE A KID TRAPPING". Some people would think this to be a strange choice of words but it's not for the people who have lived off the land in these parts, as their ancestors have for centuries. Hunting, fishing, trapping, cutting timber, etc. etc. NOW these people as well as "WE" Sportsman in Maine are facing the prospects of many forms of hunting being banned. In November there will be a vote sponsored by the "ANTI'S" to stop bear hunting up here as we know it. If they prevail then someday they'll be after us who hunt hare/cottontails/coons/cats/deer with our hounds, or work dogs on quail,pheasants, or shoot doves, ducks, geese etc. etc. MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!
It's about 11:00 A.M. now and we're off to try another cover. We look at the map and find a place that looks good and cast the hounds once again. And once again a hare is started quickly. This is a short run of 20 minutes and he ends up in the game bag. Sophie displays her great hunt and pretty soon is off and running yet another one. Tim and Leah hark in and the beginning of a two and a half hour runs begins. Time after time the hare comes by Steve and I close enough to hear running by on the dry leaves but without being seen. We adjust our position and re-adjust our position over and over until finally Steve gets the drop on the critter and it dies. Real hot out now at nearly 80 degrees and no water, so we pick up and head for the truck to water the dogs. I think we should try the other side of the road I tell Steve so after a short rest for the dogs we cast the hounds and in a short while we have a hunt going. The three dogs swing toward Steve and he gets on the radio to say that they're running a cat. I think BOBCAT then he says a big black and white cat just ran by me, "PICK 'EM UP" I yelled over the phone. In over fifty years of rabbit hunting I have NEVER run a cat. Man there's always something different that happens, YUK! We recast the hounds and the cover on this side of the road looks lousy and the hounds don't hit anything so we head back to the truck. It's getting late so we decide to find another place and just hunt Sohpie alone. After a short drive we find a likely place and let her go. This was the best run of the day as it went steady and quick and with a great deal of authority. Sophie did well at the trials this past season with 3 wins a 3rd and a 4th for her championship. Now she was running the way a Champion should and her performance lived up to the ideals of what a true AKC FIELD CHAMPION is. I missed the rabbit with a couple of shots and after a sixty four minute run the hare expired. This finished the day of a great hunt.

Friday October 8, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.  Up and at 'em early again today and we were joined by my nephew Matt. We got breakfast at the same great little restaurant, then off to the woods for more of the same hunting we had yesterday. And again we picked an unknown spot to hunt and Sophie got a start right off. This run lasted about an hour and all three dogs ran well. With thick cover and unknown crossings, kills can come slow but as long as the dogs are running well, no one really cares as the chase is the thing that makes a hunt successful. The next rabbit was something else as a great run got underway with a chase that lasted nearly three hours. The weather was warm again and the ground dry. The hare crossed the road we drove in on and took us to parts unknown. Everybody got a glimpse of the critter once or twice and Matt missed the hare a couple times. Hunkered down in thick cedars I saw the rabbit coming at me and got lucky with one shot and put an end to this long long chase. It took a while to bushwhack out to the truck to water the dogs and get a sip or two for ourselves. We moved to another spot and got two nice runs and shot both hare. Tim and Leah were feeling a bit of fatigue so we decided to kennel them and run Sophie solo in yet another place. It was nearly 4 o'clock so we didn't have a lot of time left and hoped for a short run before we called it quits for the day. In the woods she went, and typical to her genetic make up hunted hard and found a hare in short order. Certainly this hunt comes from her dad F.C. FAM'S MOUNTAIN VIEW BRUNO. There were plenty of moose in this place and a fair amount of deer sign were readily viewed too. She moved the hare with authority round and round a few times then on out pretty far and could barely be heard. Steve called on the phone stating, "what is she running anyway"?  With the pressure she was applying to that line you could say it was a bear, a moose, a deer or even a house cat I guess, but she indeed was running "LEPUS AMERICANUS" the snowshoe hare. An hour passed by and the shadows were darkening in the thickets. Minute by minute you could sense the day coming quickly to an end. The hare swung my way and passed just out of sight. I noted that he passed in the same place twice thus far in this chase, so I decided to take a stand there and hope for the best. But pretty soon if we didn't kill this thing we'd have to pick up because of darkness. As it turned out Matt made the same observation as I did and had selected a place to stand where the hare had crossed a couple times before some hundred yards up from me. Sophie was out of my hearing so I called Steve on the phone and he said he could still hear her. I put the tracking device on her and got a read on just where she was. Pretty soon I could hear her coming back. I could hear her louder and louder and sure enough he was going to come back to this spot I was on. I got on guard and made ready as she drew nearer and nearer. POOOOOOWWW a shot rang out shortly followed by a hoot from Matt, and that declared the end of a great run. The hound was caught, given a few hugs, and carried out of the woods in my arms most of the way 'cause it was too thick to maneuver a lead in the near darkness. Sophie couldn't have run any better and I sure was a happy camper.

Saturday October 9, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.  The troops roll out of the sack a bit slower this morning, but we've got to get up and at 'em as we'll hunt only until noon or so, before we start the 4 hour plus drive back to home. Weather has been in our favor on this trip with no bad winds and no rain. Today is no different and only the unseasonably warm dry weather has a marginal effect on the dogs. For us, we've sweated golf balls roaming the woods in pursuit of the fur balls. After breakfast we head for one of the covers we hunted yesterday as there were a lot of sign there and visibility in places was much much better. We collar the hounds and cast them into the woods. In a minute Sophie exclaims the find once again and a hunt gets underway. One circle and Matt nails the rabbit on a dead run. Sophie starts again and this time the run lasts a bit longer but the end comes to this bunny as it did for the previous bunny. In the bag! Indeed this cover had some rabbits in it. We got another start and a long run took us across a brook into some thicker cover but the results for this bunny was the same; dead. We decided to go to the truck and shed some clothes and to get a drink. We kenneled Tim and headed back out with Leah and Sophie. Back in the woods Sophie does a bit of cold trailing and works up a bunny from scratch and into a drive. She and Leah ran this hare nearly three hours in some very thick cover and it took this long a time to get the critter dead. Steve got a whack at the hare in a small opening and got lucky with a connection and our trip north came to an end. Sure was a great hunt and the hounds couldn't have done better. "WE'LL BE BACK".

Wednesday October 20, 2004, at 1:00 P.M.  Tony Famiano pulls into the driveway after his ride to my house from New York. After a while we take a trip to the "CANDY STORE" as I call it to pick up some shotgun shells. This place is a high quality facility that offers for sale some of the best hunting/fishing/camping gear you can buy. This trip will be made many miles to the north where we'll camp in with John Waldron our host for this trip. John has a place up there and this will make our second trip to his home away from home. Making the trip along with Tony and myself is Christopher my grandson, Reggie Cram, Steve Mayo, and John. We have to wait for Chris who is in school and as soon as the school bus arrives we'll hit the trail. Around 3 P.M. Steve rolls into the driveway and shortly after that the school bus arrives. We move out with two vehicles for the trip and head to West Newfields to pick up Reggie. The dogs making the trip are Tony's two Bruno and his younger sister CraftyII who we call "Brunette". I will take Bruno's daughter Sophie. Steve has a "Buckshot" bitch named Leah and Reggie will run Leah's older brother Pete. John will run his "Buckshot" bitch Sarah as well as her son Matt who is sired by Pete. We have plenty of NOMAD'S BUCKSHOT MR BILL blood in our kennels.
We make a stop for a bite to eat in Newport and pick up some supplies for the three days. Finally we arrive at John's place about the fourth inning of the seventh game of the AMERICAN league playoff game between the NEW YORK YANKEES and the BOSTON RED SOX.

NOW ABOUT THE YANKEES AND THE RED SOX  Tony, a life long Yankee fan was pretty shaken up by the tenacity of the Red Sox and how the "BRONX BOMBERS couldn't finish them off in game four, nor game five, nor game six, of the best of seven series. With his confidence shaken to the core Tony annunciated these words, "If the Yankees lose to the Red Sox tonight (game six) I hope they lose the series"!   "REVERSE THE CURSE" was at work and some of the mighty Yankee fans of yesteryear were losing their cool and doing a reversal of their own. And now it's history, the "CURSE" that has befallen the Red Sox these many years has been exorcized, and we welcome Tony as one of our supporters.

With a two car caravan traversing north to our hunting camp, Tony rode with Steve in his truck and Reggie and Chris drove in mine. Needlees to say the radio was on and tuned into "THE GAME"; game seven of the series. Before you know it Johnny Damon is up with the bases loaded and KAPOW, out of the ball park goes the ball and the Sox have a 4 run lead. I flicker my headlights on and off and get a similar response back from Steve's vehicle. Tony was getting his wish as the RED SOX went on to defeat the "EVIL EMPIRE". A while later we arrive at John's place and had some laughs then went to bed.

(DAY 1)   Thursday October 21, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.    John's up early getting coffee going in his brand new stainless coffee pot. Bacon is cooking, eggs get going, toasts are toasting and breakfast is on. Before you know it we have a hound in the truck to hit the woods with. Tony wants to run Bruno a short while solo so we start the day with him. Minutes after hitting the woods he starts to work a night line and after 5-6 minutes he jumps the hare and the chase is on. Straight out of hearing and back again. Chris almost got a whack at the hare and John and I who were talking turned the hare costing Chris a shot. Up the other end he went again and on his return trip got shot at several times by Tony but he misses. The hare cuts a hard left and crossed a "wood road" into some real thick green stuff. It takes a while but the hare died. In fact over the next few hours 3 more hare bit the dust as Bruno ran well. We decided to pick him up and run some other dogs. Back to camp we got a coffee and loaded up 5 hounds. Sophie, Brunette, Leah, Sarah and Pete, later John swapped Sarah with a pup named Matt who is sired by Pete and out of Sarah. All Buckshot blood in these dogs with three directly out of Bill". Within minutes the dogs have two hare going and they ran quick, steady and long the balance of the afternoon. Everybody got some shooting and indeed the "runners" did a much better job than the "shooters". Plenty of lead was cast about and when the sun went down we had taken a fair amount of the critters. The weather couldn't have been any nicer with cool air and no wind. GREAT GREAT day. Thank you LORD.
Tony gives Chris a hand on tending with one of the rabbits Chris shot and you'd think looking at them in the picture that they had bunny on their minds! Not so! Both, native New Yorkers were still smarting from the DEFEAT suffered by their beloved YANKEES last night. Ain't they cute these little Yankee die hards mumbling words of consolation to one another. Here's something they can say, "WAIT 'TILL NEXT YEAR".

(DAY 2)   Friday October 22, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.    Once again we awake to a nice clear day, a bit on the cool side at 25 degrees with ice on the puddles of water. No wind and the forecast for daytime temps to be in the mid forties. As usual John is up early and another great breakfast gets into the construction stages. French Toast with bacon, donuts from you know where (hint,dunkin)and coffee. Shortly after hitting the road we saw three moose work their way across a large opening and we spent a few minutes enjoying their company as they walked by not far away. It's decided to Run Leah, Pete, Sarah and her son Matt together as we begin this day's hunt. We drive some 10 miles or so west of the lake and put down in some likeable cover. In a short while a hunt is underway and the hounds are out of hearing in minutes. We move up a bit deeper into the cover but before we get into it too far we hear the dogs coming back. Down the gauntlet runs the rabbit with hounds in close pursuit. Our fire power was put into action and a barrage ensued! Bang-Bang, KAPOW, POW-POW, the different firearms went a singing and nary a hair was cut. So it goes in the midst of some heavy cover. The dogs check and get going again, but a split developed. Back and forth, round and round the turns of the fleeing hare went and gunfire rang out from time to time.
The "RUNNERS" ran better than the "SHOOTERS" shot but nonetheless some bunnies died. This is the way it went for about 5 hours with no let up by the hounds. About noon, DECISION time was at hand, so we picked up to give Sophie and Brunette some run time to finish off the day. The two girls as we refer to them did not disappoint. Moments after hitting the ground they were off and running. Steady and fast from one end of our hearing range on out the other end of our hearing range. The tough cover didn't allow a shot for a while and before we could muster up some banging, the hounds split. Brunette's rabbit stayed in our general area and the bunny that Sophie had, blistered itself out of hearing somewhere. I took a reading on Sophie's wherabouts on my "TRACKER" and knew where she was and about how far. They ran this way for about forty five minutes before Sophie's rabbit headed back to us. About that time Brunettes rabbit was shot by John and Brunette was held up to hark to Sophie who was now within hearing. The pair locked on and a GREAT chase followed. Round and round they went with hunters BANGING at the bunny with no results. That pair of hounds continued for over two hours before CHRISTOPHER did a great job with his .410 finishing off a great chase with one clean shot. Must've been 10-12 rounds fired at that bunny before it finally got killed. We ran that pair 'till nearly dark and shot a bunch more hare. With just enough light to see a bit we stopped by a little brook to clean and pack the bunnies. A great hunt, a perfect day and with good friends, HOW SWEET IT IS.

(DAY 3)   Saturday October 23, 2004, at 5:00 A.M.     We all get up with dispatch and make haste to get breakfast put together, fill up on John's great cooking, pack up our gear so we could hit the road where we would hunt a great cover that's on our way home. Since we have to travel home in this direction anyway, a hunt at one of our favorite places made sense. As we drove out of camp not too far from John's place, three moose fed along the roadside allowing us to pass by just feet away. In their own way these creatures are majestic when you see them this close. Man that was a treat!
By 8;00 A.M. we're at our selected hunting site and we cast Pete, Sophie and Brunette into some very thick cover. For some reason there weren't many rabbits where we dropped them and didn't get a start until we moved about a quarter of a mile deeper into the bush. Sophie hit a line and drove it a short ways and the hare ran right by Pete who was harking into Sophie and he took over with a sight chase. Needless to say the two girls got separated for a short while before they caught up to Pete and then they "TURNED IT UP A NOTCH" "BAM" as Emeril Lagasse would say. The bunny ran down to where we first cast them and made a couple hurried circles, then he turned back toward us and headed for the hills. LITERALLY! Right up the side of a mountain and on over to the other side. We've hunted here before and we knew the drill. Get up to the top and blast the bunny up there where the circling would take place. And true to historic hunts we've had before up there, that's exactly what happened. KAPOOOOoooooowwwwww, Tonio connected with one shot. Up top, we got 3 more great runs all ending up with the rabbit running into the bullet after eluding some lead a time or two, or three?? Once again the "runners" performed a bit better than the "shooters".  About noon we wrapped up this trio and bushwhacked back to the truck. We pulled out Leah, Sarah, and Bruno to finish the day's hunt.
Not long out of the box on the opposite side of the road from whence we started the day, a bunny gets lifted and off they go. He crosses the dirt road we drove in on and went into some very thick cover. We all hustled back from where we were heading only to get to the road a half a minute after the hare crossed back again. But our "ROADMAN" Christopher had held his position, and the hare came blistering at him with the three hounds in close touch. POW the little .410 let out a bark of it's own and the fur ball went tumbling down. The trio of hounds were on that dead bunny like a "TURKEY ON A JUNEBUG" in "A JIFFY". Christopher climbed into the fracass and rescued the corpse from being dog food. That's rabbit #4 for Chris on this trip! Good job.   A while later the two girls get a hare going about the same time that Bruno gets one going. Now we have a split underway and the music comes from two directions. This continues quite a while with a Kapow here, a Kapow there, and sometimes everywhere a POW POW! And the "RUNNERS" run better than the "SHOOTERS" shoot; one more time. What else is knew! But both bunnies eventually "bite the bullet" and pretty soon the hunt of the day gets going. Here, there, and everywhere that bunny went, the hounds were sure to go. This is an understatement as that bunny really stunk!  We won't forget this sucker for a while as the run was fast, the circles big, and the chase long. In the end though, as what usually happens before darkness falls, the bunny dies and another GREAT HUNT comes to an end.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PREVIOUS HUNTS

Home Page