Cottontails

[Keelebilly]

The season is nearly over in Tennessee. It closes last day of February, but it’s an open invitation to come hunt we me as well. Anyone is welcome to come hang out at a training session too. We try to run year round to keep em in shape

 

[Hunt anything]

With very few exceptions there’s an open invitation for any of the AH brethren to hunt over my hounds

The season is nearly over in Tennessee. It closes last day of February, but it’s an open invitation to come hunt we me as well. Anyone is welcome to come hang out at a training session too. We try to run year round to keep em in shape

Next winter I may try and take up one of y’all’s invites!! A good dog makes a hunting exercise so much better, after I lost my last Chessie waterfowl hunting lost a lot of its luster.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

The season is nearly over in Tennessee. It closes last day of February, but it’s an open invitation to come hunt we me as well. Anyone is welcome to come hang out at a training session too. We try to run year round to keep em in shape

Same here in Nova Scotia November 15 to the last day of February

 

[HankBuck]

Anybody still enjoying the lost art of rabbit hunting over hounds? We had a big day yesterday. 16 on the tailgate in a 3 hour afternoon hunt. Had continuous races from the time we dropped the hounds until we called it quits for the day. One heck of a way to spend an afternoon.

@Keelebilly - that’s GREAT, I love rabbit hunting with or w/out Beagles. One of your Beagles pictured (white gray face) looks like it has a few years on it. Do you run all 4 dogs as a pack or drop down 2 at a time and rotate them? Also, are you in an area of Tennessee that has Swamp rabbits? If so and you hunt them - how do they run for your dogs compared to cottontails? I’ve only hunted cottontails and snowshoe hares and found that the snowshoes really require beagles but cottontails - in a good area - we don’t need dogs and can jump shoot as many or more….but dogs always make the hunt more fun and you don’t need to walk as much or get cut up thru the briars.
Good rabbit places are hard to find around my area and why I no longer keep beagles. We early only have one good spot to hunt them and it’s 150 miles away…but worth the drive. If we get started hunting 8:00am we usually have our limits (4 each) in 2 to 3 hours on good days but usually takes til 1-2pm on average and we “walk” a lot of miles and kick many brush piles to get them (good exercise). I sold my Beagles 5 years ago….because we don’t have any place to hunt them close to where we live…miss those dogs as they add to the joy of the hunt. With the Snow & ice storm this year we had our best season - easy to see the rabbits, the first few days after the storm they ran “slower” and we passed up many because it was Too Easy “Not sporting” - three of us had our limits in under an hour so we just walked around kicking up rabbits and watching them run. Rabbits are by far my favorite small upland game - and we love cooking/eating them too. Enjoyed your post & photos - Thanks

 

[Altitude sickness]

We often hear how bird hunting is great Dangerous Game hunting practice for the double gun user. Loading, Sight picture, swinging, moving finger from front to rear triggers.

A Running rabbit shot is much more similar to running DG shots. Closer to a DG shoulder mount, plane of the barrels while swinging and animals running through brush. Birds are good, but for my money the lowly rabbit gives some great sport, DG practice and table fare.

 

[HankBuck]

In my area of middle Tennessee, the main problem is habitat loss. Old overgrown cattle pastures are either turned into housing developments or row crop fields. All the fence rows are dozed out to make huge fields for the planters and combines. During the growing season, there’s lots of cover, but once they harvest it’s a desert with no place for wildlife to live. The WMA’s only care about deer. There’s no management for small game. You have to get lucky and find small pockets of habitat where there are still some rabbits left.

@Keelebilly - I agree with you that loss of Habitat is the main reason, predators have always been around and although Coyotes & hawks have increased in the East & Northeast the Gray Fox is greatly reduced and the hawks don’t kill anywhere near the rabbits that fox and other ground predators do. The property I’ve been able to hunt the past 10 years is over 800 contiguous acres and privately owned and managed for waterfowl - the rabbits are just an incidental by product and some of the habitat management practices actually work against rabbit cover (they mow & cut down some briars and burn/remove some brush piles. Also, the Red Fox population is very high - they hire a local trapper and he catches 90 to 120 Red Fox each Nov. & Dec. (year after year) and even stops trapping after Jan. 1st. They also are covered up in hawks — they don’t make a dent in the rabbit population and Niether do the rabbit hunters shooting 200+ rabbits off the palace each Winter. I had a property of 200 acres in NJ that looked very similar in cover - at least to me it look the same and was rarely hunted. But for some reason it just didn’t hold many rabbits - even with beagles we never killed more then 2 rabbits in a day and less then 5-6 in a season…they just weren’t there despite briars and thick cover?? Why, I have No Idea.
Any rabbit hunter/beagle owner with a good rabbit spot should feel “lucky”…it seems to be rare. We will only take a couple of close friends hunting to our spot - not because we’re concerned that the rabbit population will be reduced but because we don’t own the property and can’t risk someone aggravating the owner - driving on a crop field, leaving a gate opened etc.. that could ruin it for the rest of us. We treat that land owner like a Valued Family Member —- a “Favorite Uncle” and realize we are fortunate he allows us access to such a special place.

 

[steve white]

@Keelebilly - that’s GREAT, I love rabbit hunting with or w/out Beagles. One of your Beagles pictured (white gray face) looks like it has a few years on it. Do you run all 4 dogs as a pack or drop down 2 at a time and rotate them? Also, are you in an area of Tennessee that has Swamp rabbits? If so and you hunt them - how do they run for your dogs compared to cottontails? I’ve only hunted cottontails and snowshoe hares and found that the snowshoes really require beagles but cottontails - in a good area - we don’t need dogs and can jump shoot as many or more….but dogs always make the hunt more fun and you don’t need to walk as much or get cut up thru the briars.
Good rabbit places are hard to find around my area and why I no longer keep beagles. We early only have one good spot to hunt them and it’s 150 miles away…but worth the drive. If we get started hunting 8:00am we usually have our limits (4 each) in 2 to 3 hours on good days but usually takes til 1-2pm on average and we “walk” a lot of miles and kick many brush piles to get them (good exercise). I sold my Beagles 5 years ago….because we don’t have any place to hunt them close to where we live…miss those dogs as they add to the joy of the hunt. With the Snow & ice storm this year we had our best season - easy to see the rabbits, the first few days after the storm they ran “slower” and we passed up many because it was Too Easy “Not sporting” - three of us had our limits in under an hour so we just walked around kicking up rabbits and watching them run. Rabbits are by far my favorite small upland game - and we love cooking/eating them too. Enjoyed your post & photos - Thanks

"Cut up through the briars" brings back GOOD memories. If you go into the briars, the rabbits run into the open/if you walk in the open, they run into the briars!
You and Altitude Sickness nail it on table fare. The French cookbooks have lots of rabbit recipes. My wife will gladly eat rabbit, but looks down at squirrel for no good reason and has never tried it.

 

[HankBuck]

"Cut up through the briars" brings back GOOD memories. If you go into the briars, the rabbits run into the open/if you walk in the open, they run into the briars!
You and Altitude Sickness nail it on table fare. The French cookbooks have lots of rabbit recipes. My wife will gladly eat rabbit, but looks down at squirrel for no good reason and has never tried it.

@steve white - when we hunt rabbits, mostly without beagles now, anyone that’s NOT bleeding isn’t really trying to Bust Cover…and we get on that guy fast ! My Son use to always walk the outside edge of thick cover and I would be “in the briars” — he got the easy shots and I got “bloody”….now that we’re both older - he started huntin harder and now “Dad” gets some easy shots and on some hunts - doesn’t bleed at all ! It’s easy to spot a Good “jump dog” and a good rabbit hunter —- they’re “Bloody”

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

You won’t get too cut up rabbit hunting here, I ruin a pair of insulated coveralls every year and have to relearn every year how to use snowshoes though.

 

[Wyfox]

I went and dug up some old photos from 30 years ago. Lots of great memories running beagles.

 

[HankBuck]

You won’t get too cut up rabbit hunting here, I ruin a pair of insulated coveralls every year and have to relearn every year how to use snowshoes though.

@Tubby’s Canteen - you’re lucky to get to hunt snowshoe hares on a regular basis — I had to drive to NY Adirondacks or Maine, Vermont, & New Hampshire to hunt them with a Guide —-but loved it. I like the cold and those hares ran some very long chases—-much longer then cottontails. I’ve never had a chance to hunt snowshoe hares when they are “white” and running on bare ground but have been told that’s much easier….I guess like running cottontails on snow helps them show up easy.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

@Tubby’s Canteen - you’re lucky to get to hunt snowshoe hares on a regular basis — I had to drive to NY Adirondacks or Maine, Vermont, & New Hampshire to hunt them with a Guide —-but loved it. I like the cold and those hares ran some very long chases—-much longer then cottontails. I’ve never had a chance to hunt snowshoe hares when they are “white” and running on bare ground but have been told that’s much easier….I guess like running cottontails on snow helps them show up easy.

I’ve got a spare shotgun and a spare bedroom any winter you want to scratch that off your hunting bucket list

 

[Keelebilly]

We usually drop all the dogs out at one time and they run for the entire hunt. We actually had 11 dogs on the ground for this hunt. All of them from a bloodline that I’ve been breeding for 25 years. We don’t have any swamp rabbits in my area, only cottontails. The swampers are further south or west.

 

[steve white]

Do the snow shoe hares run a big circle but end up pretty much where they started?
My brother had beagles when he was stationed in NH and put them to work!

 

[Ridge Runner]

In the late 70s I hunted a 100 acre tract in Mansfield, Tx. Could walk up 6-12 rabbits every time I went, and they were ALWAYS in virtually the same places, like a bass taking over a stump. Now it's large public park.

If anyone REALLY wants rabbits, go to the cornfields near Gardens-City Kansas after harvest. Hunted one huge field with an irrigation canal pock marked with rabbit holes. I swear on a Bible we saw 300 cotton tails and 75 jackrabbits, but we were hunting pheasants. You could have filled a pickup truck, but how could you even carry them? As much as those rabbits had to be eating you would think farmers would welcome rabbit hunters!

BTW, anyone like rabbit stew?

Never had nor made rabbit stew. But had a lot of rabbit grilled, roasted, and fried.

Gotta say one of the best meals was seasoned rabbit over an open campfire.

 

[Ridge Runner]

The season is nearly over in Tennessee. It closes last day of February, but it’s an open invitation to come hunt we me as well. Anyone is welcome to come hang out at a training session too. We try to run year round to keep em in shape

Where are you located in Tennessee?

I live near Johnson City area, but generally travel regularly across Tennessee to Nashville area.

I would great appreciate a rabbit hunt with dogs; for the rabbits.....but also for the retro memories of the many rabbit races hunting with dogs.

 

[Keelebilly]

I’m in Manchester. Half way between Nashville and Chattanooga on I24. Let me know when you’re ready to go

 

[typilotguy]

One of my favorite hunts growing up. I was fortunate in the fact that all of our buddies ran beagles, and one of the had some field trial champs. Spent many winter days chasing cottontails, and for a spell, we had an annual trip to Drummond Island for snowshoes.

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I was talking with my brother earlier about hunting, fishing, and trapping together with our dad, but man how I miss those days! Funny I’m seeing this post after that discussion.

I don’t know why, but it seems like small game hunting has trailed off in general. You can bet that as soon as my daughter is old enough, she’ll be chasing squirrels, rabbits, and the like with mom and dad!

Thanks for sharing and sparking memories.

 

[Ridge Runner]

@Keelebilly - I agree with you that loss of Habitat is the main reason, predators have always been around and although Coyotes & hawks have increased in the East & Northeast the Gray Fox is greatly reduced and the hawks don’t kill anywhere near the rabbits that fox and other ground predators do. The property I’ve been able to hunt the past 10 years is over 800 contiguous acres and privately owned and managed for waterfowl - the rabbits are just an incidental by product and some of the habitat management practices actually work against rabbit cover (they mow & cut down some briars and burn/remove some brush piles. Also, the Red Fox population is very high - they hire a local trapper and he catches 90 to 120 Red Fox each Nov. & Dec. (year after year) and even stops trapping after Jan. 1st. They also are covered up in hawks — they don’t make a dent in the rabbit population and Niether do the rabbit hunters shooting 200+ rabbits off the palace each Winter. I had a property of 200 acres in NJ that looked very similar in cover - at least to me it look the same and was rarely hunted. But for some reason it just didn’t hold many rabbits - even with beagles we never killed more then 2 rabbits in a day and less then 5-6 in a season…they just weren’t there despite briars and thick cover?? Why, I have No Idea.
Any rabbit hunter/beagle owner with a good rabbit spot should feel “lucky”…it seems to be rare. We will only take a couple of close friends hunting to our spot - not because we’re concerned that the rabbit population will be reduced but because we don’t own the property and can’t risk someone aggravating the owner - driving on a crop field, leaving a gate opened etc.. that could ruin it for the rest of us. We treat that land owner like a Valued Family Member —- a “Favorite Uncle” and realize we are fortunate he allows us access to such a special place.

You just stated why a lot of established hunters have lost their privileges to hunting on other's properties.

Because they brought "friends" onto the property, and those "friends" brought other friends, without you or your knowledge, and the property was "trashed"; ie gates left open, landowner disrespected, other hunter's being disrespectful to the land owner, etc.

Short Version:
In 2 instances money talked, supposed friends offered the land owner a hunting lease behind my back. After the first year the land owners refused to renew the hunting leases and posted their respective properties, and stopped all hunting on their respective properties.

It took awhile, and the assistance of a mutual friend/neighbor, but I was able to negotiate to hunt one property, providing I wasn't allowed to bring anyone else.

 

[Ridge Runner]

@steve white - when we hunt rabbits, mostly without beagles now, anyone that’s NOT bleeding isn’t really trying to Bust Cover…and we get on that guy fast ! My Son use to always walk the outside edge of thick cover and I would be “in the briars” — he got the easy shots and I got “bloody”….now that we’re both older - he started huntin harder and now “Dad” gets some easy shots and on some hunts - doesn’t bleed at all ! It’s easy to spot a Good “jump dog” and a good rabbit hunter —- they’re “Bloody”

Yep, I learned quickly rotate the "new guy".

It had been a long standing joke that the regulars of the group would "sucker" the "new guy" to "beat the thick stuff" while they shot the rabbits as they came out.

As an accepted member of the group at various gatherings, I had heard the "memories" and laughs stories long before my first hunt with these guys of their previous hunts. BTW; Not just for rabbits.

So I didn't go in "blindsided". In the end we had some great and not so great hunts, especially as some of the much older guys past away.

Great memories of those long ago days.