toughest to run and why,hare cottontail,swampers?

[BB Beagles]

i have not had the chance to run hare yet, would love to go on a good hare hunt, and was thinking about the difference scent conditions myself. (Sod vs snow).
I will say in my area, cotton tails can be challenging at times. Lot twist, turns, and the terrain can play a major factor in the rabbits favor. At a LP trial one day the cast watched a cottontail hit a small creek and swim diagonal bout 50 yds.
We also run swampers in the river bottoms. I have hunted with some guys and they have found out that there dogs won't hit water, which that means game over for them. Swampers can give you them big long line chases, the ones that make you think( they better not be on a deer) Lol! Then you'll here hounds turning back, and swampers are like NINJAS. They'll come by you in the water, on logs, and even seen them get up in trees.
Couldn't really state which one is tougher running, cause seen good and hard running in both.

[outrider66]

I seriously doubt my dogs would hit the water on swampers ! I'm hunting hill country with more forest than traditional rabbit cover & not many rabbits ! many of these
rabbits jump & run way out in front of a dog . then they run very much like a fox ! ive found very few dogs that suit me ! for what I do ! in the winter & consistently
produce game !

[adirondackjoe]

I think your dog's have to be in better shape to run hare.

[Hare Chaser]

I think your dog's have to be in better shape to run hare.

Not so sure about that. I've never run swampers have you? My buddy Shadygrove has many times and he's told me about them when he's been here running hare with me. From what he describes sounds to me that the swampers are every bit as much a challenge. True, we can have deep snow and brutal cold but the water factor would be pretty tough on the dogs to.

Bottom line for me has always been that the truly great dogs will find a way to pursue their game wherever you put them down given the opportunity to adjust to conditions. I've always had a great deal of respect for the coon hounds that win the Purina race as they are hauled all over the country to compete. The winners of those events I hold in higher regard than those that finish out their titles within their local area. Truly great hunting dogs are the exception.

[adirondackjoe]

Snow is a factor but cold is huge.sure would love to try swamps tho...

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I've got the utmost respect for those folks that regularly hunt on deep snow,truck miles through the woods on a pair of snowshoes and have a beagle capable of keeping a hare circling on those days where the dog is trying to run in what I call "swimming" snow and single digit or colder temps.
You noticed that I did specify "hare on bare ground" in my initial post when I said I thought they were the over all easiest for my dogs to look real good on.
When you're talking about a top "snow hound" you are truely talking about a specialist.I get a major kick out of guys that say their dogs can run on snow and they are talking about 6 inches!! Heck, my Tn. pot lickers can do that.I'm talking about beagles that run in snow that is 2-3 times deeper than they are.Snow that's so soft and deep that when the beagle leaves the snowmobile trail he goes in over his head deep.
Takes a special type of beagle that will stick his nose in a hare's track,sniff,bawl,gather himself and leap forward in snow where he almost disappears and have to do that over and over and over again all day long to keep that hare moving.
I haven't hunted in conditions like that since I moved out of the north country 20 years ago and truth be known at 65 and a stiff back don't believe I'd last too long on a pair of snowshoes and I always did hate the cold.
Hunting swampers in January ain't no picnic either.We were hunting some flooded bottom land out in west Tn. years ago and when we turned the hounds loose it was in the high 20's.We headed in to the cover and almost immediately came to where we wanted to head and it was flooded with 10-12" inches of water with about 1/4 inch of ice covering it.We all were wearing knee high boots and started to bust our way across acting like ice breakers for the beagles that all fell in behind us.Some of them could still touch bottom but the smaller hounds were already having to swim.There were areas of higher ground that acted like islands among the flooded timber and that's where we were finding the swampers sitting.Hounds would jump them and the rabbits would go running and skidding off across the ice and the beagles would break through and try and chase and the ice was cutting them up across their chests and legs something wicked.
Temps. started to rise and the ice melted and we were finding lots of rabbits on these islands but the dogs were running all day long in icy water that ranged from several inches to canals and slews where they had to swim to cross and stay after the rabbit.
Time after time as we got deeper into the bottoms us hunters would find ourselves dead -ended coming up against deep water that we couldn't cross and the hounds pounding on the other side having already swum across.Then we'd have to parallel the slew for several hundred yards or more trying to find a way across.At one point my son then around 12-13 years old shucked off his boots and socks,pants and boxers,tied them around his neck and waded across !! By the time that boy got out of that water he was about as numb as a pounded thumb.
Later in the afternoon the temps. had warmed and were now in the 50's.We were all carrying walkie-talkie radios and I heard a shot not too far away but no dogs running.I called and asked who shot and at what. One of the boys radioed back that he had just killed a Cottonmouth laying on a log in the sun! I had no idea you'd find one out at that time of year.
By the end of the day we had a tailgate full of big swamp rabbits and a pack of beagles that looked pathetic.They'd been in and out of that cold water all day and looked like a bunch of drowned rats as they sat shivering in the dog boxes.Pretty tough on them for sure.
I didn't escape unscathed either.In the swamps you never can be sure where the "bottom"is.One moment I was on solid ground and next step I was up to my arm pits in the cold water and both of Steve Sweat's boys were laughing at me.I asked them if they though it was funny to watch an old man go down.They apologized and said they couldn't help it as it's happened to both of them before.
I love hunting the big cane cutters and they can and do stretch a beagle out at times like a hare.Where they live presents plenty of challenges for both the hounds and the hunters.

[WillyC]

Great thread Shady

I have nothing to compare cuz we hunt only shoes up here.......crazy weather, can never tell what kinda day we'll have

[bluemouse]

The toughest of them all is NO Rabbit!