2007/2008 HUNTING SEASON SUMMARY........Without a doubt this was by far the worst hunting season I ever experienced. Cold temperatures, deep powdered snow, Ice, Crust, Wind, and storm after storm blasted our area relentlessly....you name it, we got it, BIG TIME. Our October hunts were pretty good, but our Rangeley trip that month got rained on HARD! Bruce McNeilly and his friend Bill Donnan came up for a hunt and we had some real nice running. We did get some real good runs too as our encounter with the rabbit we refer to as the "GALLOPING GHOST" left some lasting memories. With HANNAH laid up with cut feet we had the pleasure to have LUKE the young dog give this rabbit his final run.
We did have a lot of days that the dogs just didn't perform well on the conditions we had so we'll keep training and look forward to the opening of the new hunting season ONLY 6 MONTHS AWAY!

Saturday March 29, 2008....The hunting season finished on another sour note for us today. We would've hunted on this the last Saturday of the season but we're getting high winds in the 30-40 MPH hour range with gusts higher than that. On days like this we generally spend more time looking for dogs that hunting for rabbits, given that you can't hear a thing. HANNAH is in heat, so I spent a little time in the morning getting her bred. I mated her to a male dog I bred a number of years ago and his dam was an inbred JOHN'S BUCK bitch with a great nose. This should make a good cross; I certainly hope.

Thursday March 27, 2008....Christopher had a half day off from school today so we decided to get out for a short hunt. It's 34 degrees out under cloudy sky and a hard crust of frozen corn snow on top. We still had to wear snowshoes but walking around was pretty easy. We picked up Reggie and headed for a cover not far from his house that was easy to hunt but didn't hold much game. We had just LUKE again as HANNAH is in heat so the pup would get another hard test today. LUKE hunts really well but it still took a long time to get a start. At this time of the day there's no cold tracking up an old line, you'd have to jump one out of a squat. Finally after a long walk he started a hare and ran it fairly well over the mostly frozen crust. He checked a lot but kept it going. I called Reggie and Christopher to see where they were and Reggie said they had a good spot to stand and we waited. Luke moved well at times and picked at times but in a determined fashion kept the hare going. About 30 minutes later Christopher got a shot at the hare and killed it in some thick pines. Though the hunt wasn't very long Christopher got to get a day out and that's always good. Luke did the best he could and the bunny died just like he's supposed to. We didn't have the camera so we couldn't snap a photo of Christopher and his dead bunny.

Saturday March 22, 2008....We were going to hunt just the pup Luke today, but the wind blew too strong for us to even attempt a hunt. We've been "snake bit" this winter with some horrid hunting conditions and based on the law of averages next year should be great for us.

Monday March 17, 2008....It was near zero last night but Reggie and I thought we'd hunt a while anyway. It was a nice crystal clear morning and we expected the air temperature to moderate some as the sun rose higher in the sky. We did run HANNAH at the EASTHAMPTON trial this last Friday and placed 5th (nbq). However all the dogs looked poor as far as I was concerned, with much reckless and uncontrolled movement and a few of them put on the worst display of backtracking imaginable. Rabbits came extremely slow and the judges were handcuffed trying to get something out of nothing.
This morning while putting HANNAH in the truck I noticed that she was bleeding and coming in heat, but since she handles good I didn't see much risk hunting her today, but this would be her last hunt as the season closes next week. Her left rear pad was also bleeding from an earlier cut, so today we would have to cut this hunt short again. It took a while to get a start but finally she did get her nose into one and got into a run. She ran this rabbit quite well and at the five minute mark I called Reggie on the walkie talkie to tell him that at this stage of the chase, she had run twice as long as any of the runs I witnessed at the trial the other day.
She continued to run this hare pretty well, but at the forty minute mark when she got the hare into some thick pines she started to check some and eventually lost the rabbit. We worked her back toward the truck and figured to pick her up if she didn't get a start because her left rear pad was bleeidng pretty good. However she did jump another hare and gave us a run similar to the first one we had and the rabbit managed to get lucky and got by both Reggie and me a couple times. Again in some thick pines where the snow was real cold and frozen, she had a hard time keeping the line moving in a contiguous way and I picked her up at the forty five minute mark. This finishes her season and though she had some real good outings, there were times when she didn't run as well as I thought she should have. One rabbit, the one we call the "GALLOPING GHOST" she ran several times exceedingly well and we'll remember her performances on that bunny for a long time.

Monday March 11, 2008....We got and inch and a half or rain last Saturday so needless to say we didn't hunt yet another weekend. It was cold yesterday and this morning early, it was zero degrees out. Reggie and I will hit it for a while and see what happens. The surface of the snow is hard and very abrasive and supports the dogs most everywhere. Mobility won't be a problem. I brought HANNAH and LUKE today so at least they'd get a bit of exercise. I had to keep an eye on HANNAH as she already has a pad that had a cut on her and I didn't want it to get too bad. But I knew she wouldn't last the day. The day was really nice with little wind and temperatures were forecasted to get in the low thirties by afternoon. But in the shade it would remain cold as it does after a very cold night.
The dogs got a start shortly after we hit the woods but they were all wound up and ran reckless in style and checked up right off. It took fives minutes or so to get it worked back into a run and then they ran pretty good going nearly out of hearing. They stayed out pretty far for a long time so I doubled timed it toward the dogs and headed for a crossing that is a great place to stand. With the hard surface it was really easy to snowshoe around and the first time this year that I didn't scold those webbed make believe feet I was lugging around! OH; I hate them things! Reggie hung back in case the bunny pulled a "wascally" maneuver on us. The dogs ran pretty good for a while then checked some and then did some grunt work in the shade of the pines, then pushed pretty well again at times, shade or no shade. I was in a great place and before long the run started coming my way. About 200 yards away the dogs checked for a short period of time then turned a hard left as Bre'r hare was pulling that "wascally" maneuver. POOOOooowww. The old "sweet sixteen" of Reggie's reached out and touched him at nearly fifty yards out. "The Trooper" had stayed back for just a situation like this and the hare nearly got by him as the pattern had changed. He saw a glimpse of the bunny way off but couldn't muster a shot. Then the "white ball of fur" slithered further through some small hemlocks and stopped. Though he was in a cluster of cover his one side that was exposed allowed Reggie to loft a round his way and flipped the bunny into the air. He must've driven a few pellets into the rabbits head 'cause he jumped and flipped around all over the place leaving a blood splatter at the kill site 10 yards around. The dogs finished the run by following the line right up to the dead bunny and both dogs took a good grab of the dead critter. We still don't harvest them bunnies as some do; we kill 'em!
I noticed HANNAH bleeding from two of her feet and decided to pick her up as I wanted to trial her at Easthampton this coming Friday. We walked out to the truck and headed for another place where we'd hunt just the pup LUKE. We got a start with him pretty quick as he hunts great and he ran this hare for forty five minutes before he eventually lost the bunny. We decided to call it quits before he got cut too. Been a tough year and we're nearly out of hunting days left. The season closes at the end of the month and by we'll only be 6 months away from the opening of the 2008 hunting season!. And so "The World Turns"!

Monday March 3, 2008....It was quite warm yesterday so the snow we got Saturday had a thin skim of crust over it that wouldn't support a dog anywhere, but in most places the hare wouldn't leave a mark. We've had about 16 inches of snow in less tan a week piled over the bunch of snow we already had. It was nice out at about 28 degrees when Reggie and I hit the woods, but after a couple of steps into the "pucker brush" with the snowshoes on I knew we were in trouble. The surface of the snow was a bit tight but the snow underneath was light and fluffy. Consequently the "shoes' sank down deep into the snow with each step. Then the light fluffy stuff underneath would fall on top of the "shoes" making lifting them out HARD! HANNAH was having a very difficult time handling the snow too. She would sink through the upper skin of the white stuff, then sink down to her chin in most places. We stayed the course and worked our way into the woods as best we could and it took HANNAH over an hour to get a start. She ran this rabbit for an hour and five minutes and had a hard time maneuvering over the bottomless surface where the rabbit had been jumped. In some places she sunk into holes like the one in the photo and as time passed the snow got to sticking to the snowshoes making walking exceedingly strenuous. I pushed myself to get near her and called her in when I got the chance and got the heck out of there. Every step I took getting out of there was agony! I cheated and bushwacked it to a road nearby instead of tracking my way out of there the way we came. OH! What a lousy year!

Saturday March 1, 2008.... The weather forecast was for ANOTHER heavy snow fall so I decided it best to stay home and get a jump on the plowing, shoveling etc etc. We've had record snowfalls here this winter and now finding a place to put the excess snow is a major issue. The kids are primed to hunt, so I told them that they can hunt right behind the house while I used the tractor to handle the snow. It started snowing late last night and it continued coming down hard during the morning and tapered off in the afternoon. In a situation like this finding a rabbit who has not moved at all during the night is not easy and I told the kids to let the dog run a while if you get a start before you shoot it. This strategy often times will move another hare during the initial run so the next find will come easier. I made sure that the boys had their radios on and I carried one in my shirt pocket to keep contact with them during their hunt. Since I didn't hunt I'll let Joshua tell the story....
Last night, Pappy picked up Chris and me from Church where we helped out with the AWANA youth group. I was spending the night over Pappy's house! We knew it was going to snow, so we didn't decide to go anywhere the next day but maybe behind the house. Chris and I got up to see about six inches of snow, so Pappy said we could try at our luck with Hannah behind the house. So we ate a good breakfast,and headed for the barn to grab Hannah and went out back. After about an hour we had a start, and we took a stand. "SO THERE I WAS" waiting as Hannah pounded torward me! Then powwwww,a one shot kill! Today we both found out that maybe Pappy wasn't just another pretty face in the woods.We should have listened to Pappy when he told us to let the dog run a little while and maybe she would stir up another rabbit! O well, we will learn our lesson. Another lesson to learn is that if you get cold out in the woods, there will be a nice roof to clean off when you get home and you will warm up then! Well even though it was cold and snowing, Hannah ran good and we had a good day.....Joshua
The boys had a good time and before they had a chance to settle in and get too cozy we had the both of them up on the roof to get that cleand off and then we did the porches. They said Hannah ran real good and though the hunt was short it was also SWEET!

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