Run to catch

[Rabbithoundjb]

You as well Dana. Diva is coming along very nice buddy.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Mr. "Spit" is still spitting out them rabbit track, like a Machine Gun. on a Hot Day! Since this Ga. Weather has got down in the 20's at day break this old Red Neck, chooses. to stay inside until, it gets up to 40 degrees. Been about noon time last few days, before I let him out He loves this Cold weather?

Thanks for the nice Christmas Card, keep an eye on the mail box something coming you and wife can use All year.

D.|R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>

[Shady Grove Beagles]

SIGN OF THE TIMES
Yesterday was raining hard all day so decided to do something I've been meaning to do for a while now - go looking for some new hunting spots.
Met a guy recently that has a 100 acres and he told me I could run/gun rabbits anytime I wanted.I was excited so took a ride to check it out but was quickly disappointed upon getting there.Mostly mowed hay fields,not much in the way of hedge rows or cover,deer and turkey woods. Not much for rabbit habitat.I'll give it a try but it didn't look promising.
Stopped at a farm that I'd been by before.This is one of the largest dairy farmers in our county and he's probably got 100's of acres if not 1,000's.Owner was very polite,friendly and we talked for a while.Bottom line was NO. He said he didn't let people hunt because of the liability.I told him I'd gladly sign a waiver but he wasn't listening.
Next farm I stopped at looked very promising with some really good cover seen from the road.Again the owner was polite and friendly but told me that he has it all leased out to deer and turkey hunters and they won't let anybody hunt it.
I hunt on a lot of T.V.A. land and on the way to one of the places I'd seen a farm that had what looked like about 50 acres of pasture that looked like it hadn't been mowed/bush hogged for several years.Looked like rabbit heaven to me.
Stopped at the farm house and talked at length with the owner.Told him it looked like it should be full of rabbits. He said it was full of rabbits.
Turns out there is a group of guys that have beagles and they come out to his place a couple of times a season for a big rabbit hunt - bunch of guys and a bunch of beagles and he said they always kill a big bunch of rabbits.BUMMER !
He asked me if I was looking to hunt rabbits or just run them. I told him either way as for me I like to shoot but basically it was about the dogs and not so much the kill.
He told me that it would be okay for me to come out later in the season after these guys had taken their hunts. Guess that's better than nothing.........
Next place I stopped looked super promising with a hillside that was brush and brier covered with some openings and a small creek.
This land owner wasn't nice at all.In fact I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him to back-off as he proceeded to condemn me and all other hunters in general.
It seems he has a legitimate gripe though.He'd let some guys in there last season and after they left he'd found where they'd cleaned their game and left guts,heads,hides hanging on his fence and dumped in his pasture.Somebody had also dumped an old recliner and a busted commode on his property.
I assured him I wasn't that kind of hunter but he wasn't listening.
On the way home took a back road and saw some really good looking cover ---- only problem was the land owner had about "bullet proofed" his boundary with POSTED signs.Feeling pretty bummed out I figured why bother?
Don't get me wrong. I still have places where I can go and run a rabbit bout anytime I want to but I'm feeling the squeeze as I'm sure many other houndsmen are.

[warddog]

Shady Grove, I can relate to exactly what you have just outlined in your post as it is the same around here. We do have some state ground close by BUT every other hunter in the state has the same problems with finding hunting places in their immediate areas so they all converge upon the state grounds. These properties are not maintained for small game as they are for deer and turkeys and small game is not stocked that I know of. There is a place of state ground that is closed to actual hunting but open and maintained by a local beagle club BUT even that one nearly has to draw a number and wait in line to just run dogs. Another thing I see prominent in my area is that a lot of the hunting ground is handled by a leasing agent and it is leased and therefore not open to anyone else. We used to belong to a hunting club that leased around 1500 acres from a mine BUT they sold the entire property to a private owner that also leases it but at a price that most of us can not afford. I bought 106 acres that has a couple three acre ponds on it that I used to allow several to hunt and fish until I ran into the same thing as the guy you spoke of mentioned. I allowed a guy I knew who had a couple young sons and an elderly gentlemen who loved to fish to come and fish the ponds as they are easy accessible for the young and elderly. The ONY stipulations were that they not leave waste and NO MINNOWS, period. He agreed and they fished several times. I happened out there to see how they were doing one day as I never bothered them previously and stumbled upon a minnow bucket. I inquired about it and he said he bought them at the bait shop and was guaranteed they were bluegill minnows. YEP, that put the end to that and most everyone else as this guy had done a lot of drywall work for me on our home and I thought I could trust him at his word. I also had to stop all the coon hunters but a couple as I found holes cut into the property line fence where guys had cut it to let their dogs through, I guess. Good fence with holes cut at a corner post about shin high and big enough for the dogs. Never in my life have a ever put one of my coon dogs over a fence and my beagles either for that matter. Here in this part of the country boundary fences are common place so they better learn to find their way through, over or around. I have been making this statement for years that hunting will become more and more difficult and one will eventually have to own, lease or hunt state property to be able to do so. The farmers plow fields right up to the edges of the wood lines as well as the roads and even clear off ditch banks as more farms are Corporations not mom and pop farms. Society has changed in that those old farmers liked to eat game as well and sharing one's harvest with them made them happy to get a little something for their hospitality. One of the biggest things that I have noticed is that the town people have ventured out into what we used to call the country and building new homes on those ole mine properties and even leveling those old strip mine knobs to do so. It's kind of like the ole grey mare, she ain't what she used to be.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

In today's society / culture it's not enough just to obey the rules / laws,that beyond seasons and bag limits,appearances count.
At this point in time,with most of this country's population on the fence about whether to approve or disapprove of our harvesting wildlife,appearances perhaps count more than anything.
And the majority is reacting unfavorably,not so much to the fact that we occasionally take home some meat for the table,but to the way we go about it.
They see road hunters.They see poachers and game hogs and slob hunters.We now more than ever need to be policing ourselves and the sport before we lose it to those folks,especially those urban people who are far removed from providing their own food ,yet more than able to vote that what we love right out of existence.
Today the need to hunt is seldom for survival any more.Yet just because we "don't have to" to stay alive doesn't mean we shouldn't.
The hunting pursuit is primal. It is not passive.
Once you have killed or attempted to kill -- you are involved in a way that you'll never be picking blueberries,skiing the slopes,watching the birds,trekking the forest trails or climbing the big one just because it's there.
I have no problem with folks that don't hunt. That's their choice.I do have a problem with folks that through ignorance or their lifestyle that is so far removed from the natural world and where food actually comes from that they blindly condemn what they don't know.
My entire adult life I have hunted. I have also raised pigs,chickens,sheep and a beef and butchered them all myself right in the back yard. I've also skinned hundreds of raccoons and sold their pelts.
I find nothing wrong with hunting or raising and butchering my own food. The Bible tells me that God created and gave man dominion over everything that flies in the air,swims in the sea or crawls on the land.
God also expects us to be good stewards over all that He has given us.
Let's all enjoy our hunts and respect the animals we pursue and the sport we love.

[warddog]

Society and culture is a far distance from when we were kids. It seemed that we were all born with the primal instinct of hunting as back then it was a means of subsistence. Most of the families we knew used hunting and foraging as a means to augment their diner tables and even those that didn't were quite happy to rap what others had sewn. I know of many back then that sold and or bartered wild game, berries and mushrooms for other staples. Those generations of yesterday are about gone and so goes with it that environment in which younger generations learned by association. Now it is hunting for the newest items on a grocery store shelf, that is fast and easy to prepare so that households can have both parents working. I can remember when my Mom got her first job and had to leave the home. We had 5 children in the family at that point and I remember my dad saying my Mom worked just to get out of the house because after paying a baby sitter she made no money. I still hear that today and I do not doubt it to be true. YES, the times are changing and I am grateful that I had an opportunity to enjoy the good things in life when life was so much simpler but harder to make ends meet. We sure learned to value a lot of things especially that of a dollar and one of the best hounds my expanded family ever witnessed cost $35.00 that my dad and brother had to go together to even buy.

[Beagle Huntsman]

Interesting posts Wardog and Shady Grove! I have the same issues here in Ohio. 20 years ago I heard an old fox hunter say “Things will never get better than they are today”, speaking of hunting access, laws, public opinion, etc. I knew at the time he was right, and he certainly was.

In the last 15 years, I have lost most of my hunting territory, largely as a result of deer leases and increased posting of land by owners, and some to development. Fortunately for me, I have had the means to purchase some land, but not everyone can do that. We have some public land, but like you said, it’s not managed well for small game.

When I got into beagles 40 years ago, we hunted everywhere. Seldom was that a problem and we usually didn’t even have to ask permission. But there were no deer or turkeys then. Farmers had a very different attitude toward hunters. My how times have changed. It’s no wonder there are so few new beaglers today.

I am contemplating where I want to spend my last 20-25 years with hounds. Maybe there is better hunting elsewhere? Is it better to “go west young man” and deal with the wind and cold of some place like Kansas? Is anyone else considering such a drastic move?

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Great posts Warddog and Beagle Huntsmen!
Times sure are changing and I'm glad I've grown up and lived in an era where hunting was an accepted and cherished past time of many folks I knew.
When I was 15 in 1965 and had just got my Hunter's Safety card I used to ride my bicycle through our subdivision with an old single shot 12 ga. across my handle bars on my way to a nearby farm to hunt pheasants and nobody gave me a single thought. Now-a days they be calling the police on me suspecting me of a school attack or something else outrageous.
When I was 15 my mother used to wait for me after school outside of our high school during deer season with all my hunting clothes and my shotgun. I'd change in the back seat while she drove and she'd drop me off at a section of woods near the reservoir and then pick me up at dark.Now-a-days we'd probably be arrested for having a gun on school property.
As a teen hunting we basically could hunt anywhere we wanted and I can't ever recall a thing such as a posted sign -- and that was in Massachusetts!!
Living in New Hampshire I coon hunted for 21 years and again we pretty much could hunt anywhere we wanted without any hassle.
Here in east Tn. I too have lost a couple of places this year that I've run regularly for the past 10 years -- both to development.Lost another one to deer hunting lease.
I'm very fortunate that I live 12 miles away from an 800 acre W.M.A. that basically is closed to hunting -- only open for beagle and bird dog training and trialing.Plenty of rabbits to run there but like Warddog mentioned it gets run pretty heavy and sometimes it gets too crowded for me to want to turn out there.
We also are fortunate that there is a fair amount of T.V.A. land that is open to the public for hunting and I run on it a lot Spring,Summer and Fall but come gun season there's guys coming from 50 miles away and they pound the pee out of those places until the close of the season and harvest every rabbit that crosses their gun sights.
I have several places that I can go run a rabbit bout any day but in all honesty if you were coming to gun hunt with me I don't have any places where I could take you or where I'd want to kill those rabbits.I have a few friends that have access to some private land where we can go and have a real good hunt and harvest some bunnies for us and the dogs but they are few.
I feel fortunate that I'm able to travel north semi-regularly and hunt with old friends in northern New Hampshire,northern Vermont and Maine where there are still 1,ooo's of acres open to a houndsmen to hunt his hounds without hassle. Same goes for places down in the Mississippi Delta country where I've hunted several times.
Beagle Huntsmen. Northern Maine and the Delta are super places to hunt but I wouldn't want to live in either of them. I find them to be remote,fairly desolate,economically very depressed and scarce on many of the amenities many of us take for granted.Plus the winters in Maine are brutal and same goes for summers in the Delta.
I'll be 69 next week and I pray that I'll continue to be able to continue running my hounds for the foreseeable future.

[warddog]

I can remember the day I saw my very first deer and I had been hunting for about 5 years at the time. My dad and I were squirrel hunting and we both just sat and watched in awe of it. As for the turkeys we never saw them either and in fact have just gotten them around me since I have owned this property. I can remember seeing them miles to the south of me where the DNR had stocked some and they eventually made their way to my property. We used to see tons of pheasants and today not a single one but they do stock them in the northern part of the state and allow hunting them called a put and take area. Quail became pretty scarce as well but of course they breed and stock them I suspect because of the bird hunters and their very high priced dogs. The rabbit population is another one that has faltered over the years and because of ALL the things we have mentioned.; Of course the DNR does nothing about that small game but raise the cost of hunting licenses that one MUST have to merely run their dogs. OH how I often long for those yesteryears where a young kid and their dog could just go be a kid.

[Rabbithoundjb]

Sadly guys I think that's the situation in most places now. I have stayed in a hunting club now for a couple of decades just to insure having a place to run when all else fails. I do have some private land but everybody in the area hunts and runs it and finding land owners that will allow you to run is getting harder and harder.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Can't help myself folks.

NEVER FEAR -- UNDER DOG IS HERE !
GO TENNESSEE TITANS !

You gave it a good run Tennessee -- see you next season.

[Aubrey Holcombe]

All ready to Attend The House,, OF The Lord !

Good Post. Dana me and Spit had an excellent, gun hunt a few days ago. that pup Never seas to Amaze me.

Keep Looking Up!

D.,R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rabbit Town, USA~~~>

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Made the 150 mile ride over to middle Tennessee to hunt with Blake Grosch and friends today.
Temp. was 18 degrees when we turned loose and only 22 when we picked up 4 1/2 hours later and it spit snow all morning. Now I know all my northern hare hunting friends are laughing thinking that sounds pretty mild for January. Well for the five of us Tennesseans it felt pretty darn cold!
Blake's friend Archie took us to his old home place where his mom still lives and he has about 75 acres.
Had no problem getting rabbits up and they ran big and the eight dogs we had down did a real nice job bringing them around to the gun.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Blake Grosch with 3 year old U.K.C.Hunting Beagle Champion,A.R.H.A, Little Pack Champion Danger Ranger and Dana Robinson with Shady Grove's Tn. High Test.
Mother and son and they ran good together. Tess still getting it done at 8 years old taking no back seat.

[Rabbithoundjb]

Tess is a looker Dana. I know you like Queenie, I love Dan and Ranger seems to be a nice one too, She is a producer as well as a rabbit dog. I hope to breed Dan to my Sissy female this year. I am looking forward to that cross as I love those 2 dogs and they are off of nice ones as well.