The American Beagler Forum

Just got back from a week of running / gunning cottontails here in Tennessee and swampers down in Alabama. Was joined by my good friend Bob Ferranti from New Hampshire and his son Ryan from Vermont. They brought five beagles with them who left running in two feet of snow to running in the swamps with the temps 65-70 degrees. They didn't miss a beat ! Two of them are 10 months old out of my Fly female and those two females are tough. They ran every track, deer everywhere and they never trashed and took swimming water after the rabbits with no hesitation.
Here's a pic of my Shady Grove's Tn. High Test. At 11 years old she can still get it done on a big swamp rabbit. Also a pic of her 10 month old grand daughter Olive.

Sounds like a lot of fun. Our season went out the 15th. Was able to get our limit of cottontails on our last hunt. Only the second time we managed that. Not many swampers around here in southern Illinois but did get after a few and bagged 2. Sure makes for some impressive runing getting after one of the those. The one wasn't much smaller than my little male! Currently sitting and listening to two dogs brace. Once my oldest daughters basket ball season is up may try and hit a trial or two again to to see what else is out there and how these pot kickers match up.

................SURE WOULD BE NICE TO GET THIS OLD MACHINE TO REACHING OUR TO ALL MY GOOD FRIENDS ON THE WEB SIGHT!! HERE IS HOPING SOMEONE HAPPENS TO SEE THIS AND SHOOTS ME A REPLY OF BETTER STILL GIVE ME A CALL AT 1-706-245-5391.
kEEP lOOKING Up!!
Aubrey Holcombe, Daddy Rabbit, Royston Ga.30662~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~







































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DR hope you are doing well and had a great year running those dogs. I sent you a text message short time ago , I sent it to 0296 and bet I sent it to the house phone and you didn't get it, I wished you all a healthy, happy, New Year and outstanding rabbit season. Preacherman

Just posting a pic of my old girls.
Had a total knee replacement 5 weeks ago and making progress but still not ready to go out and tackle the woods yet. Two weeks pushing a walker,two weeks using a cane and now getting around on my own but still being careful. Not ready for climbing fences,crossing creeks or leading four dogs yet.
The hounds and I are both getting restless. In 50 years of keeping hounds I think this is about the longest I've ever gone without running them.
Hate to miss March and April as that's some of the best running of the year. Those breeding bucks will give you some big running.

Dana, take your time and don't push it. Those dogs will be there when you get able . Ken

Thanks for the encouragement Ken. Appreciate it
What does it take for some other beaglers besides you and me to participate in some beagle ,hunting,trialing, pleasure running,pup starting, conversations?

I don't know! You realize when things are kinda slow like now , it is a perfect time to tell about some of those far- fetched tales we experienced back during hunting season. You know those things that sounds too crazy to be true , but really happened. Like the day we were having one of those burn it up gonna catch it races, all of a sudden they turn into a big canebreak on the creek bank and 3 or 4 rabbits came out and there goes the dogs in all directions sight racing. It took awhile to get the dogs settled down and back together. My buddy that was on the other side of the creek and behind the cane thicket couldn't see and he ask what was going on the dogs sounded crazy. I told him never mind he would not believe it anyway. He said they sound like they are all running different directions and I told him he was right.

Hey Dana this is Ron , I sure hope you recover well and are able to get back at what we all love so much hearing those hounds come and go . And yes March and April are differently the best months to chase them Buck rabbits, big runs that last 1 to 2 hours . Hang in there buddy

Good to hear from you Ron and thanks for reaching out.
Boredom was settling in for both me and the hounds. They've been getting noisy in the pen and I've read about a dozen books.
My wife volunteered to go with me if I wanted to turn the dogs out for a while. She must really love me cause she doesn't care for the hounds much.....
I knew I needed a place where the dogs couldn't get out of pocket on me as I sure couldn't go after them.
Turned em loose and they soon had a rabbit going. We'd brought my wife's bicycle and she was riding around the general area while I listened to the dogs.
Long story short is that I walked a lot more than I should have and payed for it the next couple days. Not ready for prime time yet but getting there slowly. They say by the hunting season I'll be good or better than new.

Dana,
Hang in there and get well soon.

Appreciate it Rowdy. Spring finally arrive up there in Wisconsin?

Dana every time I come by I have to think who you are. I have gotten accustomed to knowing Shady Grove. I don't understand why they could not get you signed back by your handle. How are things going? You getting back to being fit as a fiddle? It has heated up so much down here we are taking a break and maybe it's not the heat as much as my old age. lol!!! Or my laziness.. Hope everyone is doing well.

Hey Ken. Good to hear from you.
I don't know why I had so much problem for a while trying to log on and post on this forum. I'd posted on here for years as Shady Grove Beagles and then all of a sudden it started telling me that my user name was wrong. Had to open a new account and used my own name.
Over the years of this post I had posted quite a few pictures and at one point most of those pics just disappeared from the posts. I reached out to Bev who owns the site and she tried to help but i don't know how involved she is with it anymore.
Recovery from my knee replacement has been an experience that stretches my patience.Frustrating when you can't do what you want to do.
I've taken the dogs out twice in the past 8 weeks to give them some running and take the edge off them. They loved it and had some good races but even the little bit of walking I did had me paying for it the next day or two. Not ready for prime time yet.
I complained to my Dr. about it. He said "you don't have the knee you were born with anymore. Now it's all titanium, plastic and glue. It will take a bit to get use to". Trying to be patient but it kinda sucks.....
'Bout the time I'll be ready to hit it the weather will turn off so hot it won't be enjoyable.Waiting for Fall and should be better than new by then.
Take Care.

Haven't been on here in quite a while. See not too much has changed or if it has they're not talking about it.I see where several of the other Beagle sites I take a look at stay pretty constant with hound chat. Some pretty interesting and some other not so much.Wonder why this forum doesn't get much traffic? It was the first and probably the oldest.
I had to say good-bye to just a fine little rabbit dog recently. Shady Grove's Tn. High Test [ Tess }. Tess was coming 12 years old and had a lot of miles on her and they had caught up.She had several health issues going on that she wasn't going to overcome .
Raised her from a pup and as good a hunting companion as I've had.
Thanks for the memories Tess.