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Chased some bunnies today

Nice work GT. Just caught up with the last few pages of this thread. What an awesome thread. I have honestly been avoiding this thread. I knew reading it would make me want to take our family pet, Izzy Bea, out rabbit hunting. Just not sure I can swing it with my wife and daughter fighting my requests to take her hunting.
 
Heading out in the morning with Sam and FredT too chase some bunnies and should be a decent day weather wise a little colder then I'd of liked but should be a good day nonetheless..... Hope too put some live pictures of our progress so stay tuned lol.....
 
Thanks guys!!!! Good luck tomorrow ''J''!!! Im also going in the morning and cant wait TOO burn off all the cookies and great food that i have ate the past week!!! Its just a ton of fun rabbit hunting.I do more hunting than killing and just getting one is good for me. Hicks i know what you mean about taking the family dog. My lab has the heart and drive to rabbit hunt but she just isn't built to hunt thick weeds and when the wife and daughter start pulling thorns out of her i get a ear full lol!!!
 
"J" said:
Heading out in the morning with Sam and FredT too chase some bunnies and should be a decent day weather wise a little colder then I'd of liked but should be a good day nonetheless..... Hope too put some live pictures of our progress so stay tuned lol.....
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Good luck this morning Jay! Seen some tracks about an hr ago when I pulled into the mill.
 
We got out hunting today. I have pictures in my regular camera so it will be a couple days until I can get them on to my computer. We ended up having 9 dogs out. 7 of the 9 packed up nicely. I could not stop smiling or laughing listening to the sound of all 7 on a track. There were 3 of us with guns (myself, my husband and 1 other) and 3 other people along that just helped watch the dogs. Each one of us that carried a gun shot one rabbit. 5 chases total. Full story and pics later. We may get together again on Saturday.
 
I'm really enjoying reading everyone's stories of getting out after those rabbits. I'm finally back home after spending the holidays with relatives in southeastern Ohio on their farm along the Ohio River. I have two very sleepy dogs right now. I was able to get them out to run rabbits 4 days in a row, sometimes just the two of them and sometimes as part of the annual rabbit hunt. Thursday was the only day that any rabbits were shot. I'm still smiling about listening to the sound of 7 beagles together on a rabbit track. I think this picture is the only decent one where I was able to get all 7 of the dogs that packed up together in one view. LOL! That was hard to do. The story of the hunt is in my blog over on the Dumbassville site. (I tried to link to it, but it seems that function is blocked. Really. You guys are making it really hard for me to enjoy sharing stories with other rabbit hunters here. I am biting my tongue very hard right now. Nevermind, I found a working solution.)

The Great 2013 Holiday Rabbit Hunt


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Today was my last day of vacation and I got the dogs out for about 2 hours. I've only carried a gun a couple times this year and have only shot one rabbit on my farm ( and a couple on public land and the one at my in-laws). So I figured I should start thinning out the produce loving vermin a bit. Well the weirdest thing happened while I was waiting for the dogs to find the first rabbit of the day to chase. I was on one side of the thicket and they were on the other. Next thing I know I hear high pitched squealing so I walk around to find my male with a live rabbit in his mouth. It was injured and couldn't run so I finished it off and put it in my game pouch. I'm not sure what the heck happened, but I was thinking that was a good way to save on ammo to have the beagles just catch the rabbits. LOL! It wasn't even chewed up too badly.

The dogs had three runs, but they all ended relatively quickly in holes. The sudden change in weather from this weekend was brutal on my face. We had about an inch of fresh snow on the ground. One of the holed up rabbits must have been in a fairly shallow hole because when I caught up with the dogs, my male was digging frantically. I had to laugh though as he was digging not right at the hole opening, but just a bit away from it. He put forth good effort, but his technique needs work. :)

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Looks like my rabbit hunting (or rather I should say productive rabbit hunting) is going to come to a screeching halt. 4-8" of snow forecast for tomorrow and then again the same on Wednesday. We'll still go out some in deep snow, but it makes it much harder to get a rabbit to show itself.
 
Had a guy show me a trick a long time ago for holed up rabbits.... Take a stick with a small fork on the end stick it down the hole and start twistin it and it'll grab any fur and skin and you can just pull the bunny out o the hole.... Works really good on a wounded one that makes it down a hole.....
 
Have heard the same thing about the stick!!!! Went out this morning with hand warmers in the gloves and ended up getting one!!! Had to walk the last hundred yards to the truck backwards because of the wind chill on my face LOL!!! That makes seven so far for this season and i'm glad we still have two months TOO go!!!!! Bluedog that had to be a riot huntin with all those dogs and i love the pick of the one digging lol!!!
 
I never heard the stick thing before. Thanks! I wouldn't do it for an uninjured bunny, but a good tip for getting one out that has been injured.

I am thawing out a rabbit from last year that the dogs caught. We were hunting in deep snow and this was definitely one of those where it zigged when it should have zagged. It was heading toward safety when it made a quick turn to the left and literally ran right into the side of my male dog. He was so shocked he didn't know what to do, but the two girls saw what happened and they were on top of the rabbit in a heartbeat. So I'm going to cook it up with the one that was caught the other day. Won't have to worry about biting down on any shot for a change.

(I appear to be stuttering. Sorry for the double post)
 
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I never heard the stick thing before. Thanks! I wouldn't do it for an uninjured bunny, but a good tip for getting one out that has been injured.

I am thawing out a rabbit from last year that the dogs caught. We were hunting in deep snow and this was definitely one of those where it zigged when it should have zagged. It was heading toward safety when it made a quick turn to the left and literally ran right into the side of my male dog. He was so shocked he didn't know what to do, but the two girls saw what happened and they were on top of the rabbit in a heartbeat. So I'm going to cook it up with the one that was caught the other day. Won't have to worry about biting down on any shot for a change.
 
"J" said:
Had a guy show me a trick a long time ago for holed up rabbits.... Take a stick with a small fork on the end stick it down the hole and start twistin it and it'll grab any fur and skin and you can just pull the bunny out o the hole.... Works really good on a wounded one that makes it down a hole.....
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That's a new one on me TOO J. Thanks for sharing the idea.

How long a stick would you usually use for that? I don't know how deep the hole can be. 3,4,6 foot long?
 
CJD3 said:
That's a new one on me TOO J. Thanks for sharing the idea.

How long a stick would you usually use for that? I don't know how deep the hole can be. 3,4,6 foot long?
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Jim I usually cut a sapling 4-5' and find one that has a well defined fork too it..... Make sure it's pliable so it'll make any angle down there.... Where ever it binds start spinning it.....
 
I got the dogs out for 2 1/2 hours of running today. Did not carry a gun. The dogs got a rabbit up and running so I was just standing there looking around and spied this little fella about 10 foot up in a wild growing apple tree. He had one of those dried out apples clenched in one of his feet. I walk right up to him, said hello and took his picture. He did not look thrilled.

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