A general forum for the discussion of hunting with beagles, guns, clothing and other equipment and just talking dawgs! (Tall tales on hunting allowed, but remember, first liar doesn't stand a chance)
Thanks Bossman for the photo of your females, they not only can Run a rabbit they good looking Gals. Might be them Turnip Greens that old Jerry Clower and you been Feeding your Gun Dogs..
D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>
ARHA Hall Of Fame, own "The Daddy Rabbit Kennels", Royston, Georgia
All summer long I cook up and feed my dogs vegetables from the garden and they love them.
I don't know if any of you beaglers have ever seen this before. There is a huge hickory tree that shades my dog kennels and dog lot.This time of year the Hickory nuts are covering the ground.Most of the nuts when they fall pop open from the hull or do so within a day or so of dropping ,exposing the white" nut" inside.
My beagles eat these Hickory nuts like they were dog treats! They'll clean up all the ones on the ground and then lay there waiting for others to fall.
Yeah, mine eat hickory nuts also. Sometimes they get the hull hung on a molar and can't close their mouth so I have to pry it off. Its surprising that their digestive system can digest those hulls. I've got a bitch that has been too fat all year. I'm running her and cutting her food but she eats the nuts.
Saw something today that I've seen probably a 100 times and I'm sure many of you houndsmen have also seen.
Beagles running a rabbit in an overgrown field and had put several circles on him without the rabbit leaving the area.They had a breakdown and were working the check.I started to move in on them to watch the work and 3 does popped up and went bounding off.
Those deer had been bedded right there and let those beagles run all around them without moving until I got too close. We ended up moving off from that area about 200-300 yards and the beagles jumped another rabbit and were putting it on him in pretty good shape.The rabbit streaked in to the hedgerow and I watched those same three does pop up out of their beds and go bounding off again.
This area is a WMA that was once a farm and is mostly open brushy fields where you can see a lot of the dog work.Very common occurrence to have deer lay right out in the field and have dogs circling rabbits all around them and not move until the dogs or I get too close.Have seen big bucks do the same thing.
We were hunting swamp rabbits down in the Mississippi Delta one time.We had about 10 dogs down and they were driving hard and coming right at me.Here come 7-8 deer in front of them and I thought" no way" as I had dogs in there I KNEW wouldn't trash.Deer went by me and here's a big swamper right behind them and and I killed him.We ran in that one bottom all morning and killed three more swampers and saw that group of deer half a dozen times.They just moved out of the way of the running dogs but never left.
When I had coon hounds we treed a coon in a big Oak on the edge of a open corn field.We were shining the tree and looking for an eye while four blueticks were treeing their hearts out and we were hollering"speak to em!". I happened to put my light out in the field and there were 4-5 deer standing there watching us. Guess they were curious but didn't appear nervous.
Another time my buddy Bob and I were coon hunting with my old Nite Champion Drum. He had treed and was really talking to him.As we walked in to the tree my light caught a full rack of horns sticking up behind a fallen log.This was within 100 feet of the tree.I showed Bob and decided to see how close I could get to him.I got within about 50 feet of him before this monster buck decided to get out of there.He'd lain right there all the while that hound had run that coon and treed him.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I've asked a land owner for permission to hunt and have them say "oh no,you'll run all the deer off",not until deer season is over as we don't want all the deer scared off." I have no interest in spoiling any man's deer hunt but the notion that running rabbits or treeing coon is going to drive all the deer out of an area is just misinformed.Heck,I've known of guys that shoot a deer out of a stand,gut him right there,go back the next day and kill another one in the same spot and maybe kill another one there too.The deer live there.Where do they think they are going to go to?
I relate the above accounts to illustrate my belief that the deer don't much care about the dogs as long as the dogs AREN'T CHASING THEM!
My friend Mike Grosch had someone bring him an orphaned fawn years ago that he raised on a bottle.That deer grew up around beagles and you can believe me or not but that deer would run with the beagles when they had a rabbit going and the dogs paid him no mind at all.I believe that deer thought he was a beagle until his second year and the rut came in and he disappeared.Once in awhile Mike said he'd see him down near the dog pens and figured he was just paying the beagles a visit.
Back years ago when I was lots younger man caught myself several young fawns, brought them here to my property and raised them. Once they go big enough they would go back to their natural life, I did that for several years, today 25 year later I have my place stocked, and my Grand kids, enjoy hunting them and they eat well also.
I have two starting pens and old does jump over inside them and have their fawns, ever year, one time there was tipplers, three of them little fools !
D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>
ARHA Hall Of Fame, own "The Daddy Rabbit Kennels", Royston, Georgia
I took some guys hunting yesterday that started hunting with me when they were in their early teens, they went off to the service and to wars and then came back and started families of there own now, I told them this is the first time I been out with the dogs in the light since Oct. 1st. They asked why and I told them I got tired of deer hunters long ago thinking we run the deer out of the county by being in the woods. Gun season ended Nov. 30th, Muzzle loader doesn't start for a few more days and most bow hunters are done now so it's kinda quite in the woods. The guys all hunt deer and one was here visiting from Alaska and had caribou and bear meat from this year and seemed surprised that I would have to run at night. They immediately recognized that like you describe Shady the deer are not worried about the dogs or even me for that matter, they just relocate when they see fit and in some cases come right back. If deer hunters would get over the notion that we ruin their hunt by being in the same woods I think they just might see more deer because we are there. When I tried to hunt in the daytime as soon as deer season started I noticed a big change in the deer, they would be harder to see more cautious and spooky. Occasionally I would run across a guy that would be glad we were there, he more often then not would have a rabbit hunting story and it would be a pleasurable experience, but most of the deer hunters would be mad we were there so rather then constantly trying to avoid them I just started running at night.
Shady G, several years ago me and three other hunters turned the dogs loose and started hunting, We hunted down a drainage ditch covered with thick briars and brush about twenty five ft wide. After hunting a few hours we came back to the truck following this ditch. When we got about fifty ft from where we had started in the morning, a couple of deer burst out of the cover. Deer IMO, act a lot like cottontails. Their survival instincts tell them to first stay hidden and undetected. I was surprised because I knew the dogs had hunted through that cover.
Took two of my females out this morning for some running.Haven't carried the shotgun with me in over a month. Already have several rabbits in the fridge for a feed so don't need to kill the ones where I run regularly.
Josie is 5 and Fly is 4 and I would say they are right in their prime as rabbit dogs.Took about 1/2 an hour to get a jump and then it was off to the races!
These girls are both a full 15" and are of the faster variety of beagle dogs.They locked on and ran em hard for 1 1/2 hours from super thick brush and thorn cover and out through the hardwoods and back.I saw the rabbit 6 times and they were right on him.
This rabbit was being pushed hard and I know he ran by several holes and a junk pile where I've had races end before.Why he never went in I don't know.
They ended up catching him.My 4 females have run down and caught 5 cotton tails and 1 hare this season.Sure like the way they are working!
What are your thoughts on why and when a cotton tail will go to refuge? That was the first and only time I've seen a hare run down in the open.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
My old time beagling friend told me once and I believe it to be true.....There are 3 types of rabbits.....Runners, Holers, and squatters. If you have dogs that can keep pressure on a rabbit without getting too far off line the runners and squatters are vulnerable. Few own dogs that consistently keep that much pressure on. From what I've noticed most "runners" are males. Leaving me to surmise Most squatters and Holers are female. My guess is males instinctually lead predators away from females in holes.
One thing for sure, animals were created for self preservation so their intrinsic instincts direct their actions.
Rob’s Ranger Rabbit Hunter (Lefty)
Rose City Quad King’s
DogPatch Fly
When the runners and squatters are gone, only the holers are left. There is one in a thicket beside my home that I run regularly with pups. Most of the time he will make a half circle and head for the hole. A couple days ago he ran for about an hour before going to ground.
It seems that on a bright sunny day the rabbits go to a hole quicker. If its foggy or cloudy they seem to stay up longer.
That's pretty interesting " runners,holers and squatters".I guess I'd have to agree with you.
I know that when we are carrying the shotguns that about 80% of the hard running cotton tails we shoot turn out to be males.
I don't know if I can be convinced that a male rabbit is so chivalrous and altruistic that he leads the beagles away from the females.
We all know that a buck deer always lets the does go out in to a field / open area first to get popped.LOL.
What is your take on what part weather plays in a rabbit holing quickly or not at all? How about how predator pressure affects holing or running?
Last edited by Shady Grove Beagles on Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It seems that on a bright sunny day the rabbits go to a hole quicker. If its foggy or cloudy they seem to stay up longer.
Newt
I 100pct agree on the sun vs cloudy/foggy days, also seems on real windy days they don’t wanna run like they do on a calm day around here. Deer movement seems to follow the same patterns
Home of
HOF GRHBCH Dizzy D's Kickin Up Dust
HOF GRHBCH Dizzy D's Ugly Sister
HOF GRHBCH Dizzy D's Top Notch Lacy
(aka UKC HBCH Red Oak Top Notch Lacy)
It seems that on a bright sunny day the rabbits go to a hole quicker. If its foggy or cloudy they seem to stay up longer.
Newt
I 100pct agree on the sun vs cloudy/foggy days, also seems on real windy days they don’t wanna run like they do on a calm day around here. Deer movement seems to follow the same patterns
+1 On a windy day they both seem to be real jittery and move towards safety more quickly.
Left the house this morning about 5:00 A.M. and made the 150 mile ride over to middle Tn.to hunt with Blake Grosch.Blake at 32 is less than half my age and I've known him since he was 9 years old.His dad Mike and I hunted and ran dogs together for many years before he lost his life falling out of his tree stand a couple of years ago
Blake has picked up the torch and has his own kennel now and has gotten in to trialing Little Pack in a big way and has some pretty decent dogs.Blake is a school teacher of 7'th and 8'th grade and today he brought along two boys 13 and 14 who are just eat up with the beagle dogs and hunting and trialing.Blake has already given them each a pup and they are helping him handling dogs at the trials and learning the ropes.
Seems all my hound dogging life I was always the young guy hunting with older men 20,30,40 years my senior.Bear hunting,cat hunting,coon hunting and beagling many of my hunting buddies were"old guys". Will say I learned a lot from them over the last 50 years.They've all passed on now and it's just memories and recalling stories.
And guess what? Now I'm the "old guy" as everyone I hunt / run with is younger than me---- and like today,some a lot younger!
It was windy and rainy today but the rabbits ran big and long and the 8 dogs pounded.We hunted all day and those boys never complained and we were able to take several.
Take a kid hunting!