The American Beagler Forum

Everything else aside, how many rabbits does it take for you to say it was a good day?
For me it's not many. Today was my best day of the season. Jumped 3 shot 1 that ran pretty good and one of the others that I didn't shoot ran for about an hour.

First one I've killed since November, and it's not been from lack of effort, just haven't jumped many bunnies. Maybe it's gonna get better from here on out.

10 or more

I like to kill my limit if my dogs show me enough rabbits. I don't go looking for rabbits for the dogs, I've got good enough hunting dogs that they can find their own. A real good day when they caught more than I shot.

I should have stated the size of the property 2weeks ago we hunted a 20 acre spot and we got 9 bunnies and a pheasant and that was a real good day.

My last 2 hunts have probably been the best hunts I've ever had since I've had dogs (about 11 years now) and I never fired a shot. They were terrible days on paper. Cold, windy, blue bird skies and when the frost melted dry as powder. The dogs ran like they were tied to em and when they did lose one they jumped another in very short order. Kills don't really affect my opinion of a hunt really. If I my dogs perform at a high level and we get really good running, throw in a few good friends and I'm grinning like a possum even if we don't fire a shot.

Can't measure it in bunnies, measure it in down time, we are after the chase right? I expect to be running most of the day, for a good day. If I ran 10 rabbits straight to hole, it would not have been a good day, This could be far less than 30 minutes of running all day, those ten bunnies would then equal a poor day of running! On the other hand I have had some darn good days with half that amount of bunnies ran!

If I had a pack that would get 80 percent of the rabbits back to the gun. I happy.

Zero.most of the time I don't even put a shell in the gun.As long as I am able to get out there with the dogs,It`s a good day.killing rabbits means nothing to me.

A good day for me is just being out with the dogs and great friends. We have had some of the most outstanding running back in late November and early December here in Ohio. Just plain knock down, one after the other, all out, leave it all in the woods pounding. How can a person ask for more than this.........So in answer to your question......THAT WOULD BE A BIG ZERO!!!!

I for one love killing rabbits and I also love eating em and u can't eat em of there still running

If my dogs hunt up to my expectations and run what they jump until it holes, I've had a great day. I went out today and turned loose at Noon. They jumped four rabbits. Three went to a hole after few circles. The last one was a rabbit that made big circles that ran about forty minutes, running almost out of hearing before it headed back. I called them off a check at 3:00 PM and came home. He ran so good, I didn't want them to catch him. I may run him again tomorrow if the rain quits in time. If not I hope he is still there Sunday afternoon. If I had a gun I could have killed all four, if I could shoot straight.

I,m more of an pleasure runner,but seems like hare numbers are up here and I make a mean rabbit stew killed4 so far missed twice as many,i personally don't think you have to kill a lot for the dogs,but if you live were you can heavy kill without wrecking a good hunting spot and like eating rabbit more power to you

I'll be 63 years old tomorrow and have been doing this houndogging for the past 50 years.In the first 20 or so years it was all about kills and numbers.Otherwise how could I prove to others that I really was a bigtime hunter with top caliber dogs???
Over the past 30 years I find I kill less and less game,enjoy it more than I ever have and have the best running dogs now that I've ever had.
For me it's not the numbers of dead rabbits that dictate whether I had a good hunt or not.It's the hound's performance.
I get more satisfaction shooting one rabbit off a blistering,check free,hour long run than some I see who will jump shoot,shoot after half a circle,shoot side kickers/strays,shoot a sneaking/tip toeing rabbit as he sneaks away from the dog's lose at a check,etc.
I jumped 5 rabbits today and saw and probably could have killed them all and never fired a shot. Don't know the reason but my dogs ran poorly today and I couldn't get excited about killing a rabbit for them!!!

ID MUCH RATHER CATCH ONE THAN SHOOT ONE WHEN I WAS YOUNG BOY I LOADED UP ON THEM BUT NOW ALL ABOUT THE HOUNDS AND HOW THEY PERFORM AND NOT EVER DAY IS A GOOD DAY TODAY WAS AVERY GOOD DAY

bigdogpace wrote:ID MUCH RATHER CATCH ONE THAN SHOOT ONE WHEN I WAS YOUNG BOY I LOADED UP ON THEM BUT NOW ALL ABOUT THE HOUNDS AND HOW THEY PERFORM AND NOT EVER DAY IS A GOOD DAY TODAY WAS AVERY GOOD DAY

Go Barry. Spoken like a true x fox hunter. Me too. But since the correct answer is to each his own I admit I like running em, catching em, and sometimes shooting and eating em. Bobby