Where have all the rabbit hunters gone?

[twoheartedale]

We hunted all day Saturday with 16 head. Good times. Headed out this weekend ss well. Got a bunch of them around screven co.

 

[cotton top]

I have hunted and raised beagles nearly all my life. Not having a hunting companion leaves a void at present.

 

[cotton top]

Have ran beagles and hounds all my life, but had to quit.M old legs give out on me. Still love to hear my sons dogs though.

 

[Mack in N.C.]

we hunted yesterday 1030am -2.................had 4 good runs.........killed 3 of 4.
video out soon.............

 

[ArmyTaco]

The issue with deer hunters are many houndsmen are willing to pay to play. I don't mind paying my dues and even waiting til after deer season to run my coondogs, but as soon as you join a hunting club to hunt it and they find out you are running a dog on it even outside of deer season everyone loses their minds. Add to the fact that just because a 2000 acre club is a large area, it doesn't mean 2000 acres of small game habitat. You'd think having a member willing to pay his part then not even be someone hunting those antlers everyone is obsessed with would be a positive thing. Your 6 man lease just essentially became 5. Plus you're no longer feeding 10 coons at every protein feeder. Someone brought up logic, but if that was used they'd realize there are entire areas of GA that are hammered with deer dogs all season long for years on end and those deer never leave. Logic would be showing them the study a university did on the effects of deer patterns before and after being ran by a DEER DOG and how that deer still lived right there. Logic is knowing the last thing I will have as a coon hunter is a dog that chases deer anyway. Logic would show deer have a home range and live on the same small area of land basically their entire lives as well. Thankfully I am blessed with a great friend who let's me hunt their large farm from end of deer season right up until bow season. I can go every night and last year I hunted as hard as ever all over that property. A property that they grew up running coondogs, squirrel dogs, and beagles on yet killed several walls full of trophy bucks. Even this year a 162" net buck was taken mere weeks after I stopped hunting it. Many deer hunters are the last to use logic when they want coons shot out but the members are too worried the dogs being in the woods 3-4 weekends between Jan and Feb 28 will run their deer off and ruin the upcoming season that is still 7-8 months away. That's a true story that came from here. They were sick of feeding dozens of coons and we came to agreement of not joining but just killing everything we treed for those 3-4 weekends. When the club president took it before the members, that is what the majority of them said. If that's logic then I guess everything else that is going on in this country these days is logical as well. Its fine because one day when all the small game hunters have been picked off because deer hunters don't think they matter, they'll find that target on them. Same way you eat an entire cow, one bite at a time. That's all I'm saying so don't even bother expecting any response from me later. I'm tired of playing chess with pigeons.

 

[twoheartedale]

We killed 5 Sunday.

 

[Beagle Stace]

Well said Army Taco you my friend define true logic. I agree totally with you but I quit arguing with deer hunters also long ago. AS dedicated small game hunters it is not worth the wasted effort.

 

[Tye]

As most of the houndsmen know, a place to train year round is becoming harder to find. Sadly, this has forced quite a few out of the sport. I am a beagler and keeping a place to run has become difficult, so recently myself and a few of my fellow beaglers managed to get a lease. Short of buying property, this was the only solution for guaranteeing a good place to run/train hounds. We are managing to maintain a good rabbit population, so we don't do any gun hunting at the lease but it does provide the year round opportunity to train and pleasure run. Sort of expensive, but all part of the sport these days.