http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/ http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1090 ain't dead yet

"We" got 9 at Rutherford today. A good hunt though we beat the bushes pretty hard trying to scare up the nonexistent rabbit that would have taken us into double digits.



Cuz 3 1/2
and in a stunning finish to tie
Plunker 3 1/2
Middle Boy 1
rimfire 1

Details later]]> Rabbit Hunts 09-10 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1090 Sat, 6 Feb 2010 18:21:31 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1088 At 7:30 he called back wanting to cancel the hunt because it was to dark and was going to rain sometime today and it was so far to Rutherford and.......

Some days I think about selling the dogs and quitting hunting all together. I have no real weekday hunting partners. Rye has quit hunting, Cuz has only been two-three times this year. Brag works and has taken up (shudder) "golf". The weekends are packed with people
Property is next to impossible to find during deer season. If it wasn't for Plunker and Middle Boy, we wouldn't have hunted all year. Even during February, you're at the mercy of deer hunters who hold the lease and an increasing number of them don't want you to look at the property as you pass by much less hunt it.

I hope the mood passes]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1088 Thu, 4 Feb 2010 06:03:14 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1086 Yeah right

Oh,by the way, GF, my snake chaps need replacing and since our anniversary is coming up.....

“We got 5” using The Rabbit Journal’s counting method. Now if I was the type to brag, I might mention that I killed three of them


while the other two hunters, Cuz



and his grandson, Dustin,



killed only one apiece, but then someone might comment that I also went through a good twenty shells. In my defense, I lost most of them from a hole in my vest pocket though I did burn a few killing two of the rabbits including one four round burst (bet you didn’t know you could fire a “burst” from a pump). I would have fired more, but that’s when I discovered the hole in my pocket. The rabbit was gone before I got a couple of rounds from the Judge.
Note to GF-Our anniversary is on the 14th. A box of shells and a new vest would be nice.

It’s been a wet year and Pittsview was sheets of water. Cuz asked if we were coming to a green field before he realized he was looking at the reflection of the pine tops above reflecting on sheets of water below.

The Girls (and Sammie P) ran well with Dustin’s dogs. The first race lasted a good hour and a half before the rabbit squatted in a pine lane in front of me.

Lucy Lu graced our presence today after sleeping in the previous two hunts. She made up for it in grand style. Lucy Lu jumped one rabbit and straightened out the trail several times on another race.
Top dog? Lucy Lu
Runner up? Penny Sue
Final Score
Rimfire 3
Cuz 1
Dustin 1

We have planned a Thursday hunt for Rutherford….if we don’t get rained out]]> Rabbit Hunts 09-10 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1086 Tue, 2 Feb 2010 19:20:59 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1084 Rabbit Hunts 09-10 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1084 Tue, 2 Feb 2010 19:00:48 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1082 General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1082 Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:12:19 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1081


The ridge that was the setting for Mortal Like Me. The lane where Uncle NoPass and I sat on what neither of us knew at the time was to be his last rabbit hunt. The bowl where the great possum hunt took place. The now overgrown road where Uncle NoPass where showed me his driving skills when we got stuck after telling me a time worn story about wanting to be a driver in the army but he was to good a shot for that.

Some wonder why I take picture after picture on our hunts. They are aids that jar the memories. When I’m gone someone will go through the pictures and it will dawn on them that I’m not in but a few….well someone has to work the camera.
Carry you a camera. The kids grow up, the hunts fade, your partners pass. You’ll be glad you did.

Lucy slept in….again. I loaded the dogs into the boxes on the trailer, but she never came out of the house. I let her sleep.

There were seven of us on todays hunt; Middle Boy, Only Boy, Steve, Donovan, a teat who has hunted with us a couple of times this year and seems to have taken a liking to rabbit hunting, Brag, Plunker and, of course, myself.



Only Boy doesn’t show the same rabbit hunting desire as Donovan. That might be a good thing. At least for my relations with my daughter in law. Donovan’s mother might be a different story, but I don’t have to listen to her.
Why should rabbit hunting cause a problem?
Cuz’s grandson, fell in love with rabbit hunting to. There were rumors that the names of Brag, Uncle NoPass and Chuck were being banned by his mother. It was bad enough, according to her, when all Dusty could think about was deer hunting, a fairly solitary sport. But now, not only was it, “All Rabbit, All the time“, he’d started talking with the very strong southern drawl and butchered sentences of Uncle NoPass and myself.
I think the final straw for his mother was when he announced at the dinner table one evening that he wanted a couple of bitches to run like Uncle NoPass

I brought some fire power this hunt. After missing so bad with the .410 pump on a hunt at Plunkers, I got out one of my .16ga sxs. I didn’t get to shoot it on the last hunt though I had two rabbits dead to right. Trouble was I would have killed Sister Sissy both times since she was right on the rabbit.

Middle Boy started us off with a small sager. The Girls (and Sammie P) had me fussing and threatening to trade them in on some real rabbit dogs, but by the end of the day, I was pretty happy with the way they had ran….especially Sister Sissy and Sallie Mae. Those two really shone. Brag saw Katie shortcut on a race when she was being out ran by the other dogs. She has maybe one more year.



Plunker finally killed a big buck after a long race. I don’t know how he gets them to come so close to him and then stop so he can shoot their heads off, but he does. Plunker cut out not two long after. He was going to sit in a tree in Chambers. Deer season is rapidly coming to an end, Thank goodness. And he, like myself is very short of meat



The final race of the day took place after Brag left. Middle Boy jumped and the race was on. The big buck went into the water filled bottom and ran back and forth till I got there. I saw him cross into some brush just out of range, then he doubled back and was, for me a long shot. I fired one barrel and he ran a few feet, seemingly not sure where I was. I fired the second barrel and he leapt straight up, two three feet in the air. I expected him to collapse when he hit the ground but instead took off. The Girls (and Sammie P) ran him one more tight circle before they shut up. Penny Sue came running down the trail to me, a little to quickly for a lost rabbit and I figured Katie had him.
She did.

]]> Rabbit Hunts 09-10 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1081 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:20:19 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1079
Now, she looks kinda squat and toady. She was the first pup in Brag and my “Rabbit Journal” pack. All she ever wanted to do was chase rabbits. She ran her first one by herself at the tender age of 12 weeks. Brag and I nearly burst the buttons off of our shirts. But as she grew older it became pretty evident that she wasn’t a full blooded beagle, but part basset. Maybe even part wiener dog. Little short legs, long body and barrel chest, she was just toooo slow to keep up with the pack.

Her best feature is her nose. She can smell on Tuesday where the rabbit on Monday was thinking about going on Wednesday. Lucy can find a rabbit when no one else can, but it just takes her awhile.
Right now, we let her run by herself while we hunt the pack. When Katie retires, I’ll probably start leaving Lucy Lu to keep Katie company. I just don’t have the heart to leave her alone.]]> Hounds http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1079 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:49:56 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1078
Hammering Kate: The grand old dame’ of the Rabbit Journal pack at 9 years old. She was Uncle NoPass’s last puppy. Brag inherited her and added her to our pack.
Katie hammers on a hot track with a constant BARK.
She has two bad traits.
Katie thinks that a rabbit hunt is supposed to only be a half day long. At 9, that’s understandable.
She’s fast and thinks that it is her birthright to be at the head of the pack. When she was younger and Dixie and Julie outran her, I saw her circle ahead of the race to get back into the lead. She cut that out after a year or so.
Now she often overruns the track, dragging the other hounds with her. Then there is the milling around and circling until they reacquire.]]> Hounds http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1078 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:03:21 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1077 improvement in the shot to rabbits taken ratio.



Attending yesterday's hunt were members, rimfire, Plunker, Brag, and Cuz. In addition were member candidates, Middle Boy and Dustin, Cuz's grandson who has graduated from teat status to "young buck". Also in attendance were Mark, and his son, Josh. We've hunted with them several times in the past.
Remember this fellow?



It's Cuz. He hasn't hunted with us all season till now. If Alabama was still playing football, we probably still wouldn't have seen him.

"We" (a useful way of counting rabbits) got 3 out of 10 shots fired. 11 shots if you count the possum on a half shell that was shot. Plunker's dad gets mad if he hears we saw one and didn't shoot it.
Brag made up for his poor performance the other day with 2. I figure it was the golfing that he had been doing. Plunker wanted to know if he was using a 7 iron.



Plunker killed one with five shots that brought down our group average a tad. Must have been a pretty slow rabbit since he reloaded after three shots and killed him on the fifth by shooting his head off. Go figure.


Looking at my shadow reminds me of my picture taking tips

We crossed the creek and started up the "mountain".



With a combined pack of fifteen hounds. Only Lucy of The Rabbit Journal pack didn’t make the trip since she decided to sleep in. Someone asked if I was taking pictures or video as they crossed the creek. Video, I replied. I don’t want to miss it if one of you fall in.

The dogs past on by the slender log and I reached out a foot to kick it just as a rabbit squirted out the other end. My gun flipped up but I couldn’t shoot for all the dogs around. That rabbit like all the rest on that hill side raced out into the clearcut covered by thick hip high brush. I saw him once again, but since he was headed to Brag standing a few yards further up a firebreak, I figured he was in the bag. Shot scattered the dust behind him and gave him a hitch to his step and he dove into the brush.

In the afternoon, I heard Brag scream as he jumped, “look out Rimfire. He’s headed right for you”. I snapped the gun to my shoulder as the rabbit appeared heading straight for me with Sister Sissy snapping at it’s tail.

Sigh!

Final score
Brag 2
Plunker1







]]> Rabbit Hunts 09-10 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1077 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:42:17 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1075 Martin Luther King Memorial Day Rabbit Hunt will be at Plunkers since we are bereft of hunting property this year.
It also looks like a sparse crowd though it won't be as bad as when Brag and I first started it and only he and I hunted]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1075 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:16:12 -0700