Most beaglers in this country think of rabbit hunting as shooting rabbits in front of the dogs. Asking some of you to try to catch rabbits instead of shooting them is like asking a democrat to cut taxes, it will never sink in. In England, Ireland, and France, shooting a rabbit in front of the hounds would be like poaching deer at night with a spotlight. They believe the only way a hare should die while hunting is when the hounds run it down and catch it fairly. "Chopping" rabbits, like Ohlinger described so well, will get a hound culled very quickly over there.
There are some good books on hunting with hounds written by people who live in places where hound hunting is much older than the USA. Here's a good one you can read for free on Google:
http://books.google.com/books?id=22UCAA ... q=&f=false
It is mostly about fox hunting but has a whole chapter on hare hunting. Here's a few highlights:
"There is no sport in shooting a hare—or I might say more than one—and no skill is required"
"My argument is that if twelve-inch beagles can kill a hare in reasonable time, it is manifestly unfair to pursue her with a hound nearly twice the size. A good pack of harriers over eighteen inches, that have been carefully bred, ought never to miss killing their brace of hares every day they go out, but they must not string, and the proverbial sheet should always cover them. A scratch pack that have been collected from the rubbish of other kennels may occasionally chop a hare, but they will very seldom hunt her to death."
"When it is almost a certainty that hounds will have one kill or more each day they hunt, it is impossible to feel that keenness for blood which is the spirit of hunting. No one who is really fond of hounds will rest content until he has his pack almost perfect, and I say that a perfect pack of harriers should kill every hare they find, so that a man after years of trouble and labour in breeding to a certain perfection, sees all his toil wasted in trying to accomplish an end which brings no satisfaction when attained."
"I do not wish to dogmatise or lay down the law, but in my opinion the only sporting way of hunting the hare is to follow her on foot—that is, in a moderately level country and with a fair amount of grass. Then with a pack of hounds not exceeding fourteen inches, the odds are about the same as in fox-hunting—three to one on the hare."
"Condition is of course the most important thing with small beagles, and does not always get the attention it deserves from young masters. I must refer you to what I have already written on the subject in the chapter dealing with the foxhound, and remind you that if you wish your beagles to run well, they must be fit. When you see a hare get up in front of a small pack of beagles and leave them behind at every stride, the idea of them catching her seems absurd. The only chance they have of succeeding is by being in such hard condition that they wear the hare down, and by having such good noses that they practically never stop. A slow hound that is always on the line gives a hare very little time to get her wind, and if you can only keep her going, you will soon tire her out."
"The most frequent cause of failure in the pursuit of a hare is changing. Just when the one you are hunting is getting tired, up jumps another fresh from her form, and away go the pack in full view. There is very little hope of stopping them, and when you do succeed the chances are you will not be able to recover your original quarry, either that the lapse of time has allowed the scent to disappear or puss stole away when her enemies' backs were turned."
"My little pack are only twelve and a half inches, but they have this season killed thirteen brace of hares out of fifty hunting days; so that when I plead for small hounds in a grass country, you will see that I do not ask you to undertake an impossible task."
John Otho Paget
42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
