Rambling About a Successful Rabbit Hunt

I was sitting in my big chair this morning reading over some of Scott's recent articles, and my mind started thinking back to some of our old rabbit hunts. This rabbit hunting tale happened in either 2005 or 2006. It sticks in my mind because of several things that happened during the day that will come clear to you as the tale unfolds. 

This story begins as most hunting trips begin for us do, at 6 am on a Tuesday morning. We really couldn't find anyone else to go hunting with us, so Scott and I hunted as a twosome. As usual we stopped to eat breakfast on the way to a little spot near Greenwood that was full of rabbits. The odd thing about the little place we had to rabbit hunt was that it was divided by a dirt road. The left side of the road seemed to be full of cottontails, the right side full of blue tails, and if you've ever hunted blue tails, you know the two don't run the same. Cottontails seem to run bigger and straighter, while blue tails (for the most part) run smaller with a lot more twisting and turning. 

The timeline on this hunt was before Scott and I were partners, so I asked Scott the night before what dogs he wanted me to bring. He told me to be sure I brought some of my old bitches so that he could run some of his derbies. At that time I probably had seven or eight 3-7 year-old dogs that you couldn't melt down and pour on off-game. They were perfect to run with derbies because they all hunted and handled well. A key element in having an old, trained dog in with young dogs on a rabbit hunt is the ability to tally ho the dogs to a rabbit when you as the hunter have jumped it. The second key to having the old trained dog is when the young dog is running and the old dog doesn't put in, it gives you a great opportunity to teach the young dog about off-game with the help of Tri-Tronics. 

If memory serves, we had 12-15 dogs between us, and our hunt started by turning out five dogs: three of my old dogs and two of Scott's derbies. We were walking down the dirt road and the dogs went in the pine thicket on the right hand side, and they jumped a rabbit in just a couple of minutes. Now the spot we were hunting in was really thick, therefore seeing a rabbit and killing a rabbit with only two hunters takes some skill and a good bit of luck. The scenting conditions were perfect. This first pack of dogs ran this little twisting, turning blue tail rabbit for close to 3 hours. This was not a check free run, but it was a good run, and Scott finally killed the rabbit. With so many dogs that we wanted to look at for the day, we put the first five up and turned out five more. This second combination was 2 old dogs and 3 derbies, and we had almost identical results as the first race, i.e. we jumped another blue tail, had a good run for about 3 hours, and I ended up killing the rabbit. Which leads to the best part of the day- the third race.

The third pack of the day consisted of 4 dogs: FC Covington's Cocoa Star, FC Tate's Lady Bear, FC Shaul's Oopsy Daisy, and field placer Murray's Roy Hobbs. Now at the time of this run, Daisy and Lady Bear had not finished for their Field Champion titles, and I'm not sure if Roy Hobb's  had ever been in a field trial, but Scott needed to get the bitches some work because he was taking them to a trial that coming weekend. Needless to say, when we turned these four hounds out, we had a lot of talent on the ground, and they did not disappoint. We jumped another blue tail on the right side of the road. This race had fewer checks, and the pace that they moved the rabbit was quicker than any other run of the day. Scott and I just sat and listened for probably an hour. Those four dogs were relentless. As the race continued, you could tell that the rabbit twisted, turned, and used every trick at his disposal to lose the dogs. Well, that wasn't happening. After about 2 hours, we started working our way into the briar patches trying to cut this rabbit off since the sun was starting to dip down in the sky, and the only way we were going to catch these dogs was to kill the rabbit. That aggravating rabbit ran all around Scott and me just out of sight so that we couldn't get a shot at him. The only good thing about that was we got to see the dogs and saw some pretty good hound work. Finally the tricky rabbit made a mistake, and Scott killed him. We caught the dogs and headed for the truck. 

The reason this day sticks in my mind is you don't have to kill 20 rabbits to have a successful hunt. We jumped 3, we ran 3, we killed 3. We spent a wonderful day outdoors, watched young dogs with potential, old dogs that were steady, and 4 dogs that ended up being masters at their craft. What more could you ask for?