March 4, 2006......Today Reggie and I were hunting with three of the kids; Joshua, Christopher and Daniel. It was 14 degrees when we hit the woods and the weather would reach the low thirties by afternoon. However the wind blew horrendously hard once again and the dry air made it feel very very cold. We knew we were in for a tough day; first to find a rabbit then hopefully have the dogs able to run in this tough wind. Reggie and I instructed Christopher and Daniel to go take a stand in a well known spot as Reggie and I, along with Josh would work the hounds. I would take a ridge on the far side and would leave Josh with Reggie for the shorter walk. It took two hours before we finally got a hare going. Timmy got the start and then Pete got in with him. In minutes they are out of my hearing but the kids on the radio told me they were running steady not far from them. Twenty minutes pass and I hear a shot. Daniel gets a whack at the bunny and misses. Later another shot as Josh who was with Reggie misses the hare. Now I can hear the hounds coming my way and then veer off in another direction. Another twenty minutes passes by and Daniel fires twice with the .410 pump. Christopher calls ten minutes later to say that the dogs caught the rabbit that had been hit by Danny. In all this run lasted nearly an hour and I heard very little of it.
Since I was up pretty high on this ridge I figured I'd work the dogs high and scan through some good cover that often goes untouched because of the tough walk up here. But it took another half an hour to get another start and "THE TOOLMAN" opened not far from me as I had inadvertently jumped a hare out a squat and didn't know it but Timmy crossed the line and we got another good run going that I could hear pretty well because of how high I was. And the wind BLEW HARD. The hare made a few small circles and ran into Reggie and Josh who had worked their way half way up the high ground. KA-POOooww..KA-POOoooww; two shots rang out as Joshua fired first and missed but the "TROOPER" didn't and that hunt ended.
With the wind screwing up the hunt we decided to work our way back to the truck. Along the way Pete jumps a hare and takes it a ways before Tim heard him and got into the chase. The hare ran up the hill we just left and then back down right in front of Reg and Josh. Two more shots are fired and the hunt continues. Reggie calls to say there was some blood drawn out of the hare where they shot and before long the hare had the hounds out of hearing. Christopher and Danny followed the hunt and got themselves positioned well about a half a mile away but couldn't get a shot at the hare. The rest of us; back where the hunt originally started couldn't hear a thing. We made radio contact with the kids and they said the dogs were driving steady! GREAT, BUT WHERE! I worked myself back up that painfully high hill where I could barely hear them running as the wind blew from them to me. They're a half a mile away but I got to go, so off I went. I double time it as best I could to where the hunt was and ran into the kids who were set up in a very good spot. I work around the boys so I didn't make noise and screw them up in case the rabbit came their way. Now the hare is running little small circles in some tight alder cover and I knew by this tactic that the hare was hurting and that they were going to catch him; and that's just what happened. Timmy got another lunch of fresh bunny meat before I got down to the kill site. Now the dogs were leashed and walked back to the truck nearly two miles away. Phew, what a tough day and the worst of it was the wind!

March 8, 2006......Just Reggie and I today and again we get a late start. Sometimes I have to watch my grand daughter get on the school bus before I can get hunting and this day was one of them. It was 28 degrees out when we hit the woods and it would warm up to about 38 degrees by afternoon. And once again the wind was still blowing. It took another agonizingly long walk to get a rabbit going and Pete jumped this one. Reggie called on the radio and we decided to let him run a while before we tried to make the kill. Nice guys weren't we. Fact is, we couldn't shoot this critter when we did want to. The hare ran big and he ran wild. I saw him once and that would be it. After a real good two hour run they lost the hare on a frozen over beaver flowage that had melted water over the ice inches deep in many areas. They ran the hare through this area earlier but this time they couldn't figure it out. It was time to quit so we picked up and headed to the "hot dog" stand. If I had the camera with me the only pictures we'd get today would be, of the hot dogs.

March 11, 2006......We were up quite early, as this hunt would take place a long way from home. Christopher and I picked up Josh at 4:15 A.M., then rolled northward to meet up with Neal and Wayne once again. Of course we had to stop in at Dunkin Donuts, just to make this an official hunting trip. It was 39 degrees out and the forecast was for clear skies, mid forties temperature and high winds. We just can't get away from this high wind thing we've had for weeks now. There's not much snow anywhere in Maine right now and we would hunt on ice, slush, bare ground, and water! At our rondezvous site we met the other guys who would hunt with us. Neal's friends Bob and Alec and Wayne had his son Jake. This trip would be our last big hunt of the year I guess, depending on what the weather does. More snow, more hunts!
We get to where we were gonna hunt, get ourselves ready and hit the woods with Timmy and Chase. Together I guess, they've yet to lose a rabbit. Both dogs hunt well, run together without banging heads, go where the rabbit goes and do it all day. And both handled extremely well. HANDLING; that's another one of those highly sought after characteristics that a hunter appreciates.
We're not in the woods very long before the dogs are up and running. And this began a series of "Run-n-Gun" chases that lasted until 3:45 P.M. The dogs found 'em, ran 'em and we shot 'em. On just about every chase the dogs encountered a variety of scenting conditions as they traversed bare ground spots, then slush covered snow, ice covered low ground and wind swept dry knolls all in one circle. In some places the waters flowed inches deep over the ice covered bogs. Nonetheless the dogs accounted for all the rabbits without a loss, and all the runs went about the same with steady running until the bunnies died. Some took longer than others to get dead and some alluded the guns for a while as shots fired didn't connect at first, but eventually all the hare were carried out of the woods by one hunter or another. EXCEPT for one!! The last bunny zigzagged around in some tight cover giving the dogs fits as they tried to push the "hary" thing in front of a hunter. The hounds hit a check in a place where the hunters had converged in and it was decided then to pick up and call it quits for the day. Because the hounds were close by it was a convenient quick way to get the hounds and us out of there. Was this a loos or not? We'll never know, but had that bunny encountered the hounds earlier in the day I trust he too would've made STEW!
See this face; this is not just another pretty face in the woods trying to flop a bunny. It's that of a lean mean rabbit killing machine, with a brain to boot. At Mickey-D's along the way where we stopped for breakfast to meet up with Neal and Wayne, we played around with a little trivia bulletin we were reading and one question was "Who founded the city of Rome"? Without hesitation Josh says Remus and Romulas like he was reading the answer sheet. WOW, guess some kids do learn something in school especially those who attend the Christian School that Josh attends.
But you must keep your guard up when Josh is around too as his mother found out the other day. It seems that Josh was having some discomfort on the side of his face and told his Mom he thought he had "DOG JAW" an ailment he learned about the other day from Reggie. As he held his hand on the side of his face he tells Mom that his jaw hurt and that he had "DOG JAW". He points to his jaw with a finger and tells Mom to touch the jaw at that spot. As her finger reached out to touch the afflicted area JOSH turns in a twinkling of an eye and snaps at her finger all the while growling and yapping with the likes of an angry Chihuahua. Mom jumps startled nearly out of her britches when she learns what "DOG JAW" is.
Josh might be a practical joker a little bit with his Mom, but a force to be reckoned with on a rabbit hunt when he racked up bunny number four on this trip. Christopher got into the Run-n-Gun act too as he shot his tenth rabbit of the season. Christopher is pretty experienced now and handles himself really well with gun safety and woodsmanship and is starting to do a lot of the work on a hunt catching hounds and working them for starts.
This is a photo of the crew as we quit for the day. Left to right is Bob, Jake, Wayne, Alec. Neal, Joshua, and Christopher.
This was for sure a real fun hunt but the wind once again was a big problem. Both dogs answered the call and performed really well and Chase, Neal's pup continues to impress. Don't know if we'll be hunting as a group again this year, but for sure we'll pencil in many more great hunts next year with Neal, Wayne and the dog he calls "CHASE"....

March 16, 2006......Today we thought we'd take a couple puppies out and try to shoot a bunny in front of them. Kenny brought his Jack pup "Billy" and I had a Jack pup out of a different bitch who I call Hannah. Billy is 20 months old and Hannah just 11 months. Both hounds have a big nose and have been progressing quite well. We stopped at Reggie's to see if he wanted to hunt and he figured that any kind of hunting was better than painting ceilings in his house. That said "A Hunting We Will Go"!
We don't have a lot of snow in the woods right now,and with the bunnies still white finding them is a tough thing to do since they hide very well in this condition. Their numbers aren't great around here anyway and with no snow starts will come slow sometimes . We'll hunt a small cover that usually holds a few rabbits but they will be hard to find. We have mostly bare ground here on a mixed hardwood and pine cover, with some snow spots, and some ice. AGAIN the WIND is blowing hard and steady at 25-30 MPH.
We walked the dogs around the place without any luck. Yesterday we got a dusting of snow from a fast moving squall and where the sun hadn't hit the ground we could see some old tracks on the dust that were made last night, so we knew there was at least one bunny around. We continued to move around hitting all the little thickets when Billy started cold trailing in a little spot we hadn't yet covered. Hannah got in with him some and the two kept it up with control and forward progress. Little by little the two dogs worked this old track in a positive fashion with Billy doing the more authoritative part of the work. But Hannah stuck with him and then wouldn't you know it they jumped the hare and we had a run going.
All the while the wind blew hard and the DRY negative degree dew point made for tough scenting. But the two pups stuck to it and moved the hare into it's normal circular pattern. We were quite a ways from the dogs and decided to head to the dirt road we drove in on and just let them run a while before shooting the rabbit. When we got to the road we discovered that the dogs have pushed the hare across the road and could barely be heard in the distance. We knew from years past that the hare would be back this way so we just waited. Thirty minutes later as we stood in the road talking we see the hare cross the road 70 yards away heading back to where the pups started him an hour earlier. In a short while both came down to the road crossing it and continued to push on out of hearing. We stood there talking some more and when they circled back near us we could hear the pups doing a heck of a nice job.
At this point the AARP mentality set in and we decided to leave the dogs running and head for the "hot dog stand". Reggie and I did the same thing here with Pete and Timmy last year while they were running. This cover is small and pretty safe so it wasn't that risky a thing to do with the two young dogs. They were collared with tracking devices too. Needless to say the only thing we were gonna kill today were a few HOT DOGS, since we had decided after the pups got running so well that we would just let them run.
Oscar Meyer Weiners would be the only thing we would bag along with some coffee and some chips. We funned around for quite a while at the store then later headed back to the woods and the hounds. When we got back to where we left them, we found out that they had crossed the road again and could be heard running steady way "over yonder" as Mel Stewart would say. They circled around on that side of the road for a long time not missing a beat. Eventually we saw the hare cross the road in the same spot he had crossed hours before and we walked down and caught the hounds on the dirt road. This hunt had lasted nearly 4 hours on what we considered a very tough day. These two pups did an excellent job and we were thrilled with their performance.

March 18, 2006.......The hunting season is about at an end for us now and this hunt could be the last of the season depending on conditions. I had the grandkids today; Christopher, David, Daniel and my friend Joshua. The hound we'd hunt would be Timmy my 10 year old Buckshot dog who is 100% deer proof and easy to handle and hunts pretty well. I'd like to have Sophie today but she's still nursing her puppy. It was 14 degrees out early this morning and the wind continued to blow hard as it has done for over two weeks now. We were headed for a great cover that is full of deer and it's the only place right now locally that I think we can find a hare or two. To make matters worse there will be a lot of ice in this spot 'cause at this time of year this "rabbit swamp" is just that a "swamp".
Timmy is cut loose and I instruct the team to spread out and walk straight away from the sun in unison and to key off the hollering I would do. If Timmy got a start they were to find a good spot and wait. The hare would not leave this cover I felt, therefore if "The Toolman" could do his job, somebody would get a shot at the hare. Half way through the cover Timmy does get a start and the guys are on alert. Tim is pretty consistent and usually will keep a hare going pretty well without losing. But today the cold, the wind and the ice would test him. He makes a couple small circles in the thicket then runs to the right nearly out of hearing. Back up not too far from where I was, a shot rings out and the hunt continues. David hoots to signal that he shot the rabbit, but I figure it was a stray given how far Timmy was from us. But not so, as the hare ran way ahead of the hound and it was indeed the critter he jumped early on. At this time of year, under these conditions the hare are apt to do just about anything.
We started to walk the cover again, when Timmy opens up not far from where he started the first one and gets into a drive. This hare did just about the same thing that the first one did and the whole scenario worked itself as a rerun of the first run. However, this time Joshua, who I set up on a stand would do the shooting and the "kid" with the single shot .410 bagged his 5th bunny of the year. Two hare killed in his cover was all I wanted to take, so next year we can do this hunt again with some degree of success. Plus it's a good way to teach the kids NOT to clean out an area.
Back to the truck we go and the four kids beat me there. I've been physically stressed lately and this is the second time this year that they beat me out of the woods. Need a little bit of prayer about now I guess. With the dilemma of figuring out where to go next, I figured "hot dog time" would be in order, and nobody complained. After a drink, a "dog" apiece and some chips we head for another cover. A cute little girl waited on us at the store so I got a chance to teach the kids to be polite and laid the ground work for a point in time when they'll hear my commercial as to how to treat the opposite sex. This next place was all high ground and the dry windy weather would be a problem I thought and indeed it was. Tim got lucky and walked into a rabbit and ran it 3/4 of a circle and lost it! I told the kids where to go stand and that I'd walk the dog. Tim got another start and ran straight away from us and just about out of hearing. He checked a time or two then got the run going again when David shot at the hare who was about 500 yards ahead of the dog. Crazy "WASCALLY WABBIT" was way ahead of the dog and it took ten minutes for him to make his way up the where the shots were fired. He checks at the spot where David shot, then regains the line again, pushes the hare another distance away, when Daniel cut loose with a shot. Missed rabbit and shortly after that, it was a lost rabbit. This whole cast lasted about an hour and a half and the wind was miserable still, so we picked up and called it a day. The kids are doing great and maturing into good little hunters and their gun handling is safe. Fun is the watch word, and they well know, "WE DON'T SHOOT PEOPLE AND WE DON'T SHOOT DOGS"! Safety first and a lot of laughs is the name of our game.

March 25, 2006......I had no intentions of hunting today, but Christopher kept nagging me to go out for a while. With white rabbits on bare ground and the scarcity of game here locally I wasn't too enthused about going out. Also I'm dealing with a few physical issues that are concerning. Anyway we went out with just Timmy as he's so user friendly to hunt with. Good starter, deer proof and a peach to handle via voice command. All the woods are dry, very dry and wind swept from weeks of heavy blowing winds; scenting is poor everywhere for everybody! So off we go where we lucked out with a start last week, and I figured we could start that same bunny once again. Just about in the same spot we jumped a rabbit last saturday, we jump a bunny this morning. Timmy pushes the rabbit straight away from us nearly out of hearing and circled the rabbit in some hemlock trees on the side of a hill. He does a real good job running in the distance as Christopher and I hold our positions figuring the rabbit would come back. At the 35 minute mark Tim checks on some ice in the swamp that has not melted much yet, due to the pretty cold nights we've had. He picks up the line again and moves the rabbit with authority to the same hemlock stand of trees he just ran in a while ago. Christopher and I move up to the chase as it was pretty evident that the hare wasn't coming back. He runs real well to the 50 minute mark, and checks once again after hitting the ice in the swamp a second time. But on this occasion he can't lift the rabbit and a total loss occurs. We walk around another hour and a half and I've had it, so we head out. To the "hot dog" stand we go, and then we head for home. On the way home we run into Kenny who has a friend visiting with him and they're heading for a hunt. We get together and chew the fat a while and we decide to hunt a place together. Ken has Jack and his friend has a Bruno X Sue male, heavy on BUCKSHOT MR BILL breeding both sides that I sold as a puppy. I decide to leave Timmy in the truck and not carry a gun myself. Those guys can do the shooting. The four of us hit the swamp with the understanding that only one rabbit would be shot here as I really didn't want to take another hare out of this place. "JACK" is a big tough athletic hound who covers alot of ground and is a terrific starter. True to form he jumps a hare out of a squat and the run begins. The other male harks in and a great driving run ensues. This place drains real well and there's not much ice here today and plenty of nice damp moss covers the ground to hold the scent. Both dogs run real well and steady driving with few short checks is realized. As it turned out Kenny's friend "Mitch" and I are together and we walk a bit deeper into the cover. All of a sudden this little bird flies right by the both of us and lands in a tree about 6 feet away. I tell "Mitch" that this creature was a Saw-Whet owl and I could tell he had never seen one before. The bird had landed with his body facing away from us but feathery critter had turned his head 180 degrees to watch us. The little guys eyes were as big as a dime and we got as close as 4 feet from him for a good look. All the while the run continued and "Mitch" was itchy to shoot the hare so as he moved the owl flew away. On the radio "Mitch" told Kenny it was time to shoot the hare. Kenny had passed up shooting the rabbit a couple times but Mitch was itchy!. Twenty minutes later a shot was fired and Christopher hooted signaling the fact that the bunny had died and thus ended a real nice forty five minute run and the end of our hunting season. The dogs drove to the dead ball of fur and that was it! .....

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