Well there won't be many rabbit hunting stories in this segment of the season with deer hunting now upon us. YUK YUK and double YUK....I used to be a deer hunter as well as a rabbit hunter years ago. Now I'm a rabbit hunter who occasionally goes deer hunting. I've got to get these kids to experience the thrill of a deer hunt; the kind I once experienced years ago. So for them I hit the trail in November with Reggie and his sons to chase the "WILY WHITETAIL".
Early into the season Christopher got a look at 4 deer on the run during a short push through a piece of cover where we hunt, and with Reggie not far away the two nimrods got together to figure out a strategy to get the deer. Reggie told Christopher to move to a good crossing a little ways away and Reggie would try to move the deer in that direction. Sure enough as luck would have it the deer cut back with Reggie's move and the deer passed by Christopher who shot the deer on the run with one shot. After the shot the two hunters tried to find the deer but only managed to find a little bit of blood and the two hunters managed to follow a very stingy blood trail for nearly two hours before jumping the downed deer. It took off and ran by Dennis, one of Reggie's son who finished off the deer. A button buck it was, but a trophy for Christopher as he bagged his first deer after a long slow tracking ordeal.

The following weekend Joshua got a look at a nice doe that Dennis could've shot but passed up. We all hunt with walkie talkie's so after the doe left Dennis he radioed to Joshua that the deer was coming his way. Five minutes later you hear this little voice over the radio whispering, "I see a deer it's coming my way in the tall pines"; so I jump on the radio and say Joshua "SHUT UP"! could be a bit of "buck fever" here it looks like. Of course he later got the word from on high (ME) that you don't talk on the phone when a deer is coming your way. "You know Josh they tend to hear you conversing on the phone and run the other way!!!!! The next day Daniel got a clean shot at a nice doe and missed. Wow those boys got their share of the "willy's" I guess but they won't forget these times for a long while; maybe forever?

NOVEMBER 23, 2006.....THANKSGIVING DAY

We thank you this day Lord for the abundant supply we enjoy
and we pray that You will continue to BLESS AMERICA

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2006.....We're up at 3 A.M. this morning to get ready to drive north for our first serious hunt of the year. Christopher, Daniel, Joshua, the 3 kids; will join Kenny, Neal, Wayne and myself for the big hunt. Deer season is still on but where we are going it should be safe to put dogs in the woods. I'll have Hannah and Ruth; Kenny will have Billy and Jazzie and Neal will bring Chase and Nynah. All the dogs are related with their common denominator being the BUCKSHOT MR BILL bloodline. Hannah and Nynah are young hounds with this being their first hunting season. Both have trained really well and are running great. But new obsticals are ahead of them, like the cold temperatures and deep snows that will surely come. Ruth and Jazzie are seasoned dogs and run really well together. Ruth has struggled with a serious back problem for 2 years now but the last 4 months or so she's moved well and has gained a bit more of her natural mobility. Chase and Billy are going into their second season on snow and both run well and can handle some tough scenting situations. The name of the game for us as serious hunters is simple.

FIND THE RABBIT!..... Hounds are expected to hunt with an eagerness to work hard looking for a bunny from the "git go".
RUN THE RABBIT!...... Pursue the rabbit in an energetic manner with an intent to catch it for as long as it takes the hunters to get the "dang blasted thing dead". "DO NOT LOSE THE RABBIT"
DO IT ALL DAY....... Run and hunt as long as the hunters wish to hunt!

The weather was good with a 38 degree temperature, clear skies, but with an obnoxious wind. Always seems to be an aggravating wind. Anyway we chose to run three dogs on the first cast matching up Ruth and Jazzie with CHASE. Chase is a forward motion 15 inch control dog with a no nonesense style who gets a lot done. Ruth is 13 inch and has the big nose, is a hard hunter and is now moving well after a long bout with back problems. Jazzie, also 13 inch is a hard working, grubbing style of hound who is also accomplishment oriented. On a day like today there will be NO LOST RABBITS with these three. The dogs are cast and the wind continues to harrass us. After a short while in the woods Jazzie and Chase find a bunny in unison and off they go. Ruth doesn't hear them from where she was so the brace move the rabbit with authority without her. Fifteen minutes later Ruth hits the line behind the other two while Chase and Jazzie are cranking forward. A while later the rabbit gets by me and I holler to Joshua to watch it. He fires twice at the fleeing hare and the run continues. Then Daniel gets into the act with three shots of his own and the run continues. Then Christopher gets his oar in the fray with FOUR shots fired and the bunny dies! Great shooting kids; lets see 9 shots fired and one dead bunny. How sweet it is!
WE caught the dogs and moved up the road a ways and the dogs got going again and the three ran in unison, steady as a clock and pushed rabbits here there and everywhere all morning. White rabbits on bare ground are more of a challenge than what people might think. In the wild; away from the Beagle clubs many of the rabbits seek the toughest cover there is in the area or run real big and I mean BIG. Out of hearing in one direction then out of hearing in the opposite direction is very common with hounds that stay on a line and still run with authority. We hunted the three dogs "run n gun" style about four hours then headed back to the trucks to change dogs.
The next trio would be Nynah and Hannah, two littermates who would match up with their half brother Billy. All three dogs are fifteen inchers and are sired by "JACK" the dog that can be seen under STUD DOGS elsewhere on this website. We hit a different cover just a short ways away from where we just hunted the first group and it didn't take long to get a hunt underway. BAD NEWS was that the cover was really tight and though the dogs ran steady seeing the bunny was indeed a challenge. I had Joshua tagging along with me all the time so I got slowed down some and the other kids tagged along with the other guys. But I did manage to get Joshua in some good spots and he got to bust a few bunnies with his new 20 guage pump 870. Christopher did the same bunny busting with his new Benelli 20 guage pump. Danny killed one rabbit and got shots fired at others with his 20 guage Mossberg pump. I'll tell ya those kids can handle a pump action pretty darned good!
Hannah, Nyhah and Billy ran end zone to end zone in big circular patterns with each end zone being out of hearing if you know what I mean. All three dogs have the big nose and an accomplishment style that can get a bunny pretty dead most of the time! We had non stop running with these three all afternoon just like we had in the morning with the other three. But when the sun got to hitting the edge of the horizon, I was thinking about catching hounds. This late afternoon run was a rip snorter and relentless; so if we could get this critter in the tomb, we could catch the dogs and bushwhack out of the mess of cedars we were engulfed in. I put Joshua on a stand, then I moved into a really tough to see in entanglement where the bunny had crossed several times before, and I waited. Of course now I can't hear a thing because of the wind and the fact that the bunny took the dogs off for a run to the end of the world somewhere! So while I waited I took my trusty folding saw I always carry and cutout a few branches to help me see. I got on the radio and called the guys to get the scoop if anybody could hear the dogs. AFFIRMATIVE was the reply, "their still going steady". But I couldn't hear a thing so I sat back and smelled the cedars. Man that smells good! Minutes ticked off the clock and the sun was lowering below the tree tops now so I put my GPS on line and found out we were six tenths of a mile away from the trucks in cover so tight that you couldnt see your boots in most of it. FINALLY; here they come! Louder and louder their song could be heard in that melody that houndmen everywhere just love to hear. Soon the dogs are into us pretty close, as the bunny scurries around in the tight cover in a patternless fashion zig zgging around. He ran big most of this long chase but now he was in the thick stuff snaking around trying to shake the three dogs. All of a sudden I see him cross the little lane I had cut out with the saw and let fly two quickies out of the CHARLES DALY O/U. The dogs came through where I shot and the hunt continued. A couple minutes passed and I heard a squeal. Then the run continued followed in another few minutes by another squeal not too far from me. The dogs caught the rabbit again but this time they didn't let him go. All three dogs were in on the kill and the fur was flying. We got them leashed and headed out. As we walked through the woods toward the car I said a short Prayer of Thanks for the good day we had. All six dogs performed at the high level we expect and everybody in the group had fun. The kids did great!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2006..... We got up about 5:30 A.M. after a good nights sleep and found the thermometer locked in at 19 degrees F. A sure turn around in the weather after a fairly mild fall. The frost was heavy on the windshield and everything else was white as snow. See Josh and Neal standing on the heavy frost and the white stuff clinging to the trees. We would run the same groups as we did yesterday and in that same order. We moved up the road a ways from where we were yesterday and cast the hounds. The cover was once again ungodly thick; but that's where rabbits live. "CHASE" did a bit of cold trailing here and there and in a few moments "RUTH" and "JAZZIE" did their own "picking" routines. The dogs worked some old night lines and only the "TRUE RABBIT" hunters understand the value of "cold nosed" dogs. In a short time the hounds are working the line a bit steadier and all of a sudden they erupt into a driving affair. The three dogs drive "RELENTLESSLY" a term we use often with the hounds we currently have. Round and round that thick cover they go and all the while the hunters look for a slit in the tight cover to see in. The rabbit runs by all of us, real close several times, but sooner or later the bunny will die. Sure enough Joshua gets a whack at the hare from a spot I set him up on and bre'r rabbit gasps his last breath as the #4's puts him in the bag. The dogs ran quite a while before the first rabbit died so the dogs now start their cold trailing and picking routines once again. The initial run moved some other rabbits in this vicinity and the cold nosed hounds picked and grubbed on those old lines until they burst into another driving affair. RUTH has a BIG nose and she can work up a very faint smeeling track and into a run as good as any. Plus she's a die hard hunter. Fact is these three hounds all have these same attributes, which spell disaster for Mr.Bunny. Once again were in a "run n gun" format and everybody is getting in some shooting. Though the air temperature has moderated under clear skies and no wind, the ground temperature remains cold and the frost clings to everything where the sun doesn't hit. It stayed frosty like that all day long. We catch the hounds after one of the kills and head back to the trucks to change dogs. "CHASE" gets picked up and carried down the road a ways and gets a chance to give his buddy Neal a pretty wet kiss on the face. YUK! Dog breath!
It was decided to try another cover not far away and this turned out not to be a good move. HANNAH, NYNAH, and BILLY get collared up and down the road we go and walk up a tote road a pretty long ways. The dogs are cast and it takes ten minutes or so to get a start. Billy opens up and as the two bitches hark to him they jump a hare. Can't find one, then find two at the same time. Now we have a split going but the two bitches are taking their rabbit toward an area we don't want to hunt as there is a big ravine that drops off sharply some 200 feet. Hard to hunt and you can't hear them from the other side. We catch the two dogs finally but by now Billy is almost out of hearing. We walk the dogs closer to him and the two females hark his way and after a fashion they're together and pounding. Bad thing is they pound right on out of hearing. OHHHhhhhh Rats!. Here we go again with wild running rabbits and that's how it went all afternoon. The dogs finally headed back our way and got by all the hunters without a shot being fired and back on up to where the creature was originally started, and down over and into that ravine where we caught the two females earlier. But from where we were we couldn't hear them AGAIN!
Kenny hoots and says he has a stray rabbit sitting in front of him so I said for him to hold his place until we could find out what was up with the three hounds. After quite a while Neal radios to say that the dogs were running steady in the ravine. Neal said he'd go down and catch the dogs which he did. After getting them out of that hole he radioed for Kenny to hoot his position so we could drop the dogs on that other rabbit. However when Kenny hooted earlier that scared the rabbit he was watching and he moved off to somewhere. The dogs were worked in the general direction of where the rabbit went and all three started their picking routines. And finally they jumped the hare and drove him on out of hearing again where the other one had gone earlier. OOHHHhhhhh NOOoooo not again. We pull up our britches and romp away toward where the hunt went. The hare later just got by Joshua and I and headed back to the ravine area a half a mile away. Sure enough down into the ravine this hare went too. Daniel called to tell us where the hare was, so I said well lets all move into there and shoot the darned thing. It took a while to get there so when I got to the edge of this sharp drop off I left Joshua on the edge and some of the other guys had the rim covered. I dropped down into the hole and saw that Kenny was down in there too. Round and round the dogs went and were running that white rabbit hard. I saw him heading back toward the rim of the ravine and cut loose a snap shot but never touched a hair. A few minutes later a shot rang out from atop of the rim and that was a miss too. NOT GOOD; as we spent the next hour trying to get ahead of that rabbit before dark settled in. At 3:45 P.M. Neal had a chance to catch the dogs and did so ending a chase on a very wild running WHITE HARE.
Over all we had a great hunt with super running. Every body got some shooting in and every body killed at least on hare. GREAT HUNT; KIDS DID SUPER!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006.....It's about thirty five degrees out at 8 A.M. with cloudy skies and no wind. My nephew Matthew is about to pull into the driveway to make a hunt locally with Kenny and myself. So about ten minutes late he pulls in and I'm ready to go with "TIM THE TOOLMAN" aboard. Thirty minutes later I pick up Kenny at his place and he puts on board "JACK" who'll couple up with Tim for the days hunt. Both are nearly eleven years old now and their best days are behind them. They can still run a line without losing rabbits, it's just that they do it a bit slower than once before.
This is a local hunt so finding rabbits will be the challenge. Running the things is a "gimme" for these two dogs.
We get to where we're going and hoof it in a tote road ALL DOWN HILL into some well covered low ground of pines and hemlocks. I tell Matt to head for a known crossing down the road a ways as Kenny and I would work the dogs. We hadn't gone off the road two minutes when we jump a rabbit and this hunt gets going. THAT WAS THE GOOD PART! About this time some big logging equipment gets fired up about a quarter of a mile away and the noise of the machinery made hearing exceedingly poor. A near perfect day screwed up by this logging operation! NO LUCK AT ALL.
THE GOOD PART IS THAT THE TWO DOGS RAN STEADY! The two "Old Timers" put that rabbit around the wood lot a steady forty five minutes until it ran into a load of number 4"s fired out of MATT's Benelli auto.
This rabbit was just about completely brown but other bunnies we ran had a lot of white on them. It's interesting to see how nature provides protection for the species. Not all bunnies convert to white in the fall at the same time and the same thing happens in the spring as they change back to brown.
Both hounds ran well but the loud noise from the machinery was awful. We got lucky as we found some more bunnies OK and great running continued during this whole hunt. As it was getting after 3 P.M. the cloudy weather was darkening the woods early, plus a misty rain was setting in. After a pretty long run Kenny and I decided that when this rabbit got dead we would pick up the hounds. Twenty minutes later the bunny, driven by the hounds on a dead run passed by Kenny who blasted twice at the critter without a hit. At this time the hounds were picked up running and that bunny survived to give us another chase later this year; and we'll see if he can dodge another bullet or two then! After running over five hours in pretty rugged terrain the old dogs did big never losing the rabbits they found and our streak of no lost rabbits continues.
Now we have to walk out of this place and it's ALL UP HILL! YUK!