February 13, 2006........Hunted today on a real cold powdered snow of about three inches deep. We were suppose to get a bigger storm here locally but thank God the bulk of it got delivered about a hundred miles south of us. Real cold early though, at 5 degrees with a harrassing wind all day. I hunted with Kenny and his dog Jazzie and I brought Sophie who hasn't been out for a while. This year Sophie has done just great and those highly sought after traits of nose and desire sure are paying off. Her dad Bruno, sure puts a couple things in his babies; a better nose and more hunt than the bitch he's bred to. None have to be encouraged TO HUNT. Got some more good pups of his coming along too, but now back to the hunt.
Local hunts are a bit unpredictable in that you never know how you'll do finding rabbits. With the fresh snow of yesterday any track is relatively fresh. We cast the dogs and got lucky as not too far in from the truck we found some tracks and worked our way and the hounds through them. The dogs had split up hunting, and they each started a rabbit several hundred yards apart and thus began the day on a split. This is new cover to me, but Kenny is familiar with the area and knows the crossings. The place was very hilly too, so with the wind, coupled with the hills, the hounds got out of hearing a lot. Both ran real steady and Kenny stayed with Jazzy and I favored staying close to Sophie. They ran this way for nearly an hour with Kenny seeing the one that Jazzy was chasing a couple times without getting a shot and I hadn't seen Sophies at all. The WASCALLY WABBIT kept me guessing for a long time. Then we got a break as the two hounds ran their respective rabbits close to one another and here they got together. The pair ran with great authority and with Ken and I focusing on the same rabbit It didn't take long to get this critter dead. Kenny dumped him with a great shot from a long distance. We didn't have to work the hounds very long for another bunny as Sophie found the other rabbit that had been run earlier and another great run by the two dogs ensued. I got to "sick" the "grim reaper" on this bunny and made a pretty good shot of my own after another lenghty run.
That was it for a while as finding another bunny was indeed a big chore. Walked up and down those stupid hills for quite a while, until we decided to try the other side of the road we had driven in on. But it was still a pretty long walk out to the road up and down these "cussed hills". Jazzie got the start on the other side of the road and the dogs braced up quickly and put some heat on this bunny. Wouldn't you know it, after a fashion the hare crossed the road and headed back to where we were in the morning to run "THE HILLS". Round and round they went with not many checks. I moved around a bit trying to figure out where the hare would go, but kept guessing wrong. A while later the hare offered me a quick shot as his ears were pinned back getting "pushed" by the two dogs. I didn't connect and the run continued. It took a whole lot more guessing on my part as to where the rabbit would go and I wasn't guessing too good! FINALLY...FINALLY I saw him coming and it took another "pyrotechnic shooting" display of mine to kill the thing, as I filled the air with bird shot and let the rabbit run into the wall of lead. Hmmmmmm, I think I did that the other day with Neil, Reggie and Wayne. Hey! Get 'em dead any way you can! Thank God for automatics! I was beat from walking those hills so we picked up and quit for the day. Once again NO LOST RABBIT!

February 14, 2006......Well after seven days of going over her due date Sophie gave birth to one female puppy in the kennel. As you just read she was hunted yesterday (see picture above her on left after the hunt) and gave no indication of being in whelp other than being slightly over weight from getting extra feed in anticipation of having puppies. Another unique experience to put on that long list of "learning the hard way"! Puppy is doing well and we'll see how this all turns out.

February 15, 2006.......Hunted with Reggie today on that same 3 inches of snow and the temperatures slated to reach the forties. Our experience these last 15 years or so on this wet snow running has not been good. As we walked into the woods we noticed the snow starting to get get soft and I mentioned to Reggie that I bet they run the in the beginning better than they do later. Man am I good, for that's exactly what happened. We had Ruth ,Tim, and Pete. We got a start right off and the first 35 minutes went pretty well with some great drives and few checks. Then the hare shifted area and ran into a marsh alder run where the sun had been penetrating and here the run got jerky. Pick and go and run and check! Earlier Reggie managed to get a shot off at the hare and the scenario went like this. He was carrying his over and under Red Label 20, He puts a 3" magnum in the top barrel and a regular 2 3/4" in the bottom. He saw the hare coming from a distance and fired, the hare made it to some little pines heading toward the road Reggie was standing on. "REG" thought he could break open the O/U and reload the empty barrel before the hare hit the road but did not have time to do this. The hare hit the road and stopped! The "AARP" snapped the Ruger shut, picked up the gun and pulled the trigger. C-L-I-C-K was all he heard. When you break open when of these guns the barrel selector resets the gun to fire in the order it was set for. And that was the barrel that was empty from that first shot. Life of an "ARRP" never ceases to amaze!
Eventually the rabbit was lost and the not so good news is that we were able to get 2 more starts with some running but all ending up with a LOST RABBIT! YUK!

February 22, 2006.....Took the three grandkids out today for a hunt as they are all out of school for a weeks vacation. Left to right...Daniel 12, Christopher 14, David 14, all lean mean rabbit killing machines. Took Bruno and Timmy to hunt on a hard as a brick snow and ice cover with not a lot of bare ground. It was pretty cold as we got to the hunting area at 10 degrees and not too much wind. Not many hare around here so it'll be a chore to get one going. In the woods the hounds take off looking for a bunny and Bruno starts his tongueing around a bit. He's also a tough dog to keep with you given the way he was trained as a puppy. Not my style of hunting dog but it is what it is. After a long time Bruno is long gone and I locate him on the "TRACKER" and move his way and eventually catch him. I decide not to hunt him as I didn't want to spend the day hunting for him and not with the kids. So in the truck he went and we worked Timmy alone through a bit of good cover and a hare was jumped. Ten minutes into the run David lets go a shot at the hare but misses. Timmy runs up to the point of where the action was and checks. David isn't sure just where the hare went so we let Tim work the check. A while later Tim recovers the line and takes the hare across a snowmobile trail and gets nearly out of hearing. I regroup the three kids and we move in to set up where we figure the hare will go. The boys are set up pretty good but the run is a long ways away. I tell the boys to hold their position as I was going to move up to Timmy to keep an eye on him. Tim is having a hard time on the ice and is just picking on the faint scent. Fifteen minutes pass and a shot rings out followed by another. Then another volley of two more shots. It seemed unlikely to me that this was the rabbit that Tim had and I thought it possibly was a different hare just trying to get out of the way from where Timmy was running. I needed to check the boys out so I caught Tim and moved up to where the shots were fired. The boys were pretty excited as they told their story of shooting at the hare. After figuring out where the rabbit went I worked Tim in a likely direction and pretty soon he worked up the old line into a drive. Everybody remained on their intial stands as the hound pushed pretty steady. After a fashion the dog started coming our way and Christopher opened up with two shots followed by a belated third short. He let out a sick sounding hoot to let us know he shot the hare. Tim came running down to the dead bunny and took a few munches of fur.
We did a lot of walking after this kill and about an hour later I tell Danny to go take a stand where some tall pines could been seen about a quarter of a mile away. I would work Timmy in a circular pattern and work back toward him that I knew was a good crossing and if we got lucky he could get a shot at a bunny. The other two kids moved up not far from Dan. About thirty minutes later I hear a shot. Hmmmmmmm I wonder what that is? I call the kids on the radio and get the scoopp! As Danny stood there he could see this bit of white near an old log. And after looking at it a long time his curiosity got the best of him so he moved up to take a look. Sure enough it was a bunny and he did what any good twelve year old hare hunter would do, he BLASTED IT. After getting together and listening to his tall tale of the kill I softly and tenderly verbalized the fact that we usually don't shoot strays and that killing them ahead of the dogs is more to our liking. If he shoots another stray some day that's OK and he'll eventuallly grow out of it. Heck when I was twelve; let me at 'em, give me a machine gun! Kids are kids, and it's got to be fun!

February 24, 2006......We're up early this morning prep'ing for a two day hunt up north. The temperature is 28 degrees and the forecast favorable with just some intermittent light snow squalls predicted. Christopher, Reggie and I will trek north and meet up with Neal Smith, Cliff Belland and Wayne Mathews at Dysarts truck stop off Interstate 95 about 180 miles away.
Well, the snow squalls began around the Portland area and never let up the entire trip north and accumulated to a depth of about 5 inches. We were a bit late meeting up with the guys at the truck stop due to the bad driving weather and but we did get to view numerous cars/trucks off the highway and into the woods. Finally got to Dysart's and had a great breakfast there as usual, then headed out once again to our destination. After more driving, we turn on to a dirt road and drive some more to the place we had decided to hunt.
Once at the hunt site things did not look good. The snow was still falling to the ground and the five inches of it had settled upon the fir trees and rendered them heavy laden and tough to see in. But visibility would be only the half of it as hearing the dogs would prove to be a great hinderance too. As luck would have it a logging operation had been set up a hundred yards away from where we were going to hunt and the equipment they'd use was very noisy and diminished once again the ability to hear the hounds.
We had three dogs, the old reliables Pete and Timmy and Neal had his pup "Chase". This pup by the way has been EXTREMELY capable every time I've seen him run this year. The temperature was stuck at 28 degrees so the only factors affecting us was seeing and hearing. That's all!!! Can't see and can't hear!! So with these handicaps, the hounds were released and a hunt got underway in no time. Of course we got to hear just bits and pieces of the run and once and a while saw the dogs when they circled right near us. We did have a pretty good tote road to hunt off and when we did hear the chase we had to be ready and did manage to shoot a few bunnies crossing the road. After a while we picked up the dogs and walked them further in, away from the logging operation and got a start once again. But the cover was really thick and the new snow still made it impossible to see and hear much of anything. About 2 P.M. the loggers shut down their equipment so we caught the dogs and headed back to where we first hunted. After cutting the dogs loose and another run started the logging operation began once again. BAHHUMBUG!
We had everything needed for a great hunt; good equipment, guns, clothes, boots,etc. Good guys and skilled hounds with plenty of bunnies to run. What we didn't have was LUCK! Life of a HARE HUNTER, NEVER EASY!
We quit a bit early and headed for Cliff's home not far from Dysart's where we would spend the night. Cliff has a real nice place on a secluded parcel of property where wildlife abounds. Cliff is a Registered Maine guide who is an avid fly fisherman and bird hunter. It was a real treat to have stayed at his place for the night and we are surely thankful for this hospitality. We ate supper at Dysart's and shared some good fellowship together until we turned in for the night.

February 25, 2006.......Reveille was held a bit early at 5 A.M. and nobody stirred around much with any degree of zip and zoom. Yesterday had been a tough day overall. It was 10 degrees out with a little bit of a steady wind, and five inches of artic dry snow. Neal asked me if I thought they'd run today and I said "yes they would". I got a bit of an over your glasses kinda look back from Neal when I said that, but I did figure that the dogs would run. For sure LADY LUCK had not been on our side given the snow sticking to the trees thing and the very poor hearing/seeing it caused. We got the dogs watered, the trucks loaded and ourselves driven to Dysart's for another breakfast. We hit the trail and drove to the home of Brian the guy we hunted with a couple weeks ago.
The first place we tried early this morning had some nice cover and a few tracks were seen in the fresh snow just about right off. Chase got a start and the other two dogs harked in. This rabbit was a real jerk to run and he ran like that of a March hare. Straight out of hearing with a small circle thrown in just to line out once again out of hearing. Able to follow their tracks we moved with the hunt up a steep hill that was tough to climb given the blow downs etc. After two hours or so of trying to figure this bunny out so we could get him dead, we decided to just catch the hounds and move. I got real lucky and was able to cut off the hounds as they came screaming back over the hill heading toward the area where he had been started earlier by the truck. I caught the three hounds and Neal was right there close by and we marched ourselves back to the vehicle. What a chase this had been!
The next area we elected to try, ushered forth a somewhat precarious feeling for the little juant we would take walking across a pretty rickitty snowmobile bridge, that towered high over a sizeable river that had a total span of probably a 100 feet or so. We walked up to the intimidating looking structure and when Chase and Timmy hit the beginning of the bridge they put the brakes on. Timmy looked up with a funny look on his face indicating that NO WAY was he walking across that thing. Snow, sleet, rain, ice, coyotes, deer, moose, porcupines, shooting guns, etc. etc. that Timmy put up with for over the last ten years was one thing, BUT NO DANG WAY WAS HE GONNA WALK ACROSS THAT ERECTOR SET suspended sixty feet over a raging river. OK Tim close your eyes, here we go, we're gonna carry you, and that we did. Let me tell you that was one horrendous 100 foot walk!!!!
The other side of the river provided great fir cover for the hare but I hate to sound like a broken record here, stateing once again how it hindered our ability to hear and to see. With new terrain to hunt on two days in a row we didn't know where the crossings might be or where to stand once game was up. Just move as the hunt moves and try to guess right.
Though we had ZERO LUCK with the weather we sure did have dogs capable of handling these tough conditions. Round and round they went without a lost rabbit the entire day. We shot AT some rabbits and SHOT some rabbits and on every occasion the hounds never faltered the entire hunt. We ended up catching the dogs at 4 P.M. on a hare they'd run for nearly two hours. Just an awesome performance by the three hounds. We couldn't shoot this hare because he had our number in a way, in that he ran very very large circles that basically kept us all in the center of the circle and none of us were able to get on the outer edges to cut him off. We'll forget many of the hare we've shot over the years but this days performance won't be forgoten for a long long time!

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