Winter Rabbit Hunting, Making the Most Out of Winter
January 2, 2012
The snow falls as does the temperature. After a stretch of several months with a revolving door of human activity, the fields and forests now more closely resemble a ghost town. There’s no reason to go out there anymore. This is the perception of those that do not seek out the cottontail rabbit. They sit huddled in their warm homes, left to reflect on their exploits in October and November. Their guns and bows have been put away in storage, and their attention has shifted to football, shoveling snow, and maybe the occasional trip to ice fish or snowmobile.
For me and others like me that follow beagle dogs in snow after the ubiquitous cottontail rabbit, this is the season that we live for. There was a time when small game like rabbits were the object of all hunters young and old alike, but the proliferation of the white-tailed deer has changed the focus of the American hunter. I hunt deer too, but secretly I relish having the winter to myself, or seemingly so, to run my beagles after cottontails. After months of sitting quietly in a tree or in a blind waiting for luck to chance my way, I’m ready to get out into the stillness of a frozen world and listen to a chorus of excited hounds in full chase, ready bust the brush to make something happen, ready to holler and laugh with a companion at a shot made or missed on a returning rabbit. The season is mine.
Perhaps it is the seeming loneliness of the cold winter landscape that adds to the bond felt between my hunting companions, mostly close family members, and myself. We are out there, the only humans within sight partaking in a unified goal. An effort we take very seriously and attempt with great intensity, yet at the same time one we address with the light-heartedness and total enjoyment that makes undertaking such a task in relatively harsh conditions fully enjoyable. Our faces get beaten red from the chaffing winds and the bright sun bouncing off the snow-covered ground. If the snow gets too deep, the legs throb from lifting and setting back down of tall heavy boots. We work up a sweat that soon chills the body in an attempt to roust our quarry from their hiding places. But the broad smiles we share cannot be hidden, even as our lips crack and bleed in doing so. Like minded hunters make for a fun hunt even when the rabbits are not running. The season is ours.
And then there are the beagles, the true stars of the show. For those that have never hunted behind beagles, ones that come from hunting lines that have been raised to hunt, you simply cannot realize the drive of these little hounds. Pound for pound, I’d put a beagle against any other hunter, man or beast, for pure drive after game. I see what these dogs run through time and time again, never ceasing, never giving up, and I am filled with love and admiration at a fellow living thing that not only feels the passion for the chase as I do, but one that exceeds it. The effort I put into hunting rabbits pales in comparison to that put forth by the beagles. Similarly, the great pleasure that I derive from hunting rabbits also pales in comparison to that which my beagles get. I don’t know if dogs can technically smile, but one look into my beagles’ eyes after running a rabbit tells me that they’ve achieved a happiness that the human spirit, burdened with our responsibilities and troubles, can never hope to reach. To hear a brace of beagles running a rabbit in a frozen swamp, the music of their voices piercing the crisp air and knowing that they will circle that wily critter back to you, is to know heaven. One cannot feel cold when he knows that as that distant howling gets louder and closer, the object of the chase is coming your way and you need to start scanning for the little brown jet through the brush. The moment of truth approaches and the heart begins pounding as the realization of the coming shot approaches. The season is theirs.
And I would be remiss in failing to mention the cottontail rabbit, a creature which is prey for so many hunters, man and beast. Such a simple creature that lives a simple life, eating and breeding as much as it can in a short amount of time, as if knowing more than any other creature that its time on this earth is short. No game animal so closely matches the tenacity and drive of its pursuers as the cottontail rabbit does to the beagle. So closely matched are the two that the existence of one without the other seems like it would put the universe out of balance. And while the cottontail seemingly has the world against it, Nature takes care of her own. Don’t pity the rabbit, for it will quickly make a fool out of you if you think twice about pulling the trigger on one. I’ve emptied a 12 gauge autoloader at racing rabbits only to see them waving that cotton-ball tail at me as if giving me the middle finger as they ran off laughing. You bet I feel respect and admiration for those rabbits we chase, and it’s probably not a stretch to say I feel a love for them too. This season is all of ours.
Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Winter Rabbit Hunting, Making the Most Out of Winter
Starting Out Young
May 24, 2010
by Mac Moad
Tanner Colten Moad, 5 years old, is one of the coolest kids I know. The youngest of 4 children of mine, Tanner never stops moving.
Before gun season in central eastern Oklahoma, the traditional bow season usually takes priority. I had taken the first week of bow season off from work in an attempt to tag out early at the request of my wife Lori. In her mind, if I was to tag out early, my deer season would then be “dear” season, with lots of additional chores getting done that get overlooked during each year’s deer season. Read more
Bow Hunting Grand Slam 2007
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The first week of October was finally here. The first three days were spent in my favorite stand watching 3 raccoons in which I had named Larry, Curly, and Moe. The mother raccoon was slightly bigger than the two younger ones, and seemed curious to every movement surrounding them. The days here in eastern Oklahoma in October were still in the 80’s with mosquitoes buzzing everywhere. I was wondering if it were still to hot to hunt and questioned myself again over and over. Each day so far, I had hunted morning and evening with only a few does showing up.
Read more
Calling Elk Bow Close
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Whether hunting public or privateland, the fundamentals of calling elk remain the same.
By Michael Waddell
We heard the bull bugle at first light and snuck into his core area. When I hit a lick on my bugle, the bull simply came unglued and stormed our position like a tank, crashing through brush and small lodgepole pines like they were atchsticks. Before we could react he was in our lap and we were pinned down, myself hiding behind a camera, too afraid to even touch the tripod for fear of my shaking hands would run the footage. All I could see of my partner edged against a stunted pine was the tip of his undrawn arrow shaking uncontrollably on the rest. Before a shot presented itself, the bull smelled a rat and disappeared as quickly as he arrived.
A Warning To Outdoor Users About Echinococcus, From Worms
December 18, 2009
This is a warning to outdoor users about a potentially deadly biological event that could result from one’s curiosity to poke at and kick through scat from wolves, coyotes and foxes. Of course not everyone knowingly does this but many hunters, trappers and simply the curious, want to know what these animals have been eating.
Wisconsin’s Bear Population 3 Times Bigger Than Thought
July 10, 2009
Or so says the results of a recent study completed last year by Timothy R. Van Deelen, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate student David MacFarland. Their study claims the state’s bear population running at 33,657, whereas the Department of Natural Resources estimate was 13,000. Ooooops! Something ain’t right.
According to the Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee, there are two reasons why the black bear population is that high and growing; Increased habitat and not enough bears taken during the hunting season.
It’s time for hunters to “git-r-done”. The DNR has increased bear permits by 60%.
Western Great Lakes Gray Wolf Population Goes Back On Endangered List
June 30, 2009
In a move that is becoming extremely nauseating and utterly ridiculous, void of any science that President Obama promised would return to decisions like this, the government reached an agreement with those groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, who had sued to stop delisting, the gray wolf was returned to government protection. It appears the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not exactly follow the legal steps before they could declare a removal from the Endangered Species Act list.
Before a move such as delisting, the USFWS must provide a 60-day public comment period and evidently this was not done. Because of that, the U.S. Government and the HSUS, et. al., reached an agreement that puts the wolves in Minnesota back under a “threatened” status and the rest of the wolves return as endangered. Wolves in Idaho and Montana that have be removed from the list, are not affected. Read more
Woodhaven Custom Calls – Diaphragms
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Produced out of Heflin Alabama these calls are hand stretched one at a time. They are used by many callers across the nation for competitive turkey calling and in the field. I tried several of the different models and amazingly enough they all were easy to blow and attained good turkey tone and rasp. There size and shape seemed suitable to fit the roof of most anyone’s mouth. Read more
Did Feds Address Court Rulings For Wolf Delisting?
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Yesterday Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett announced the intentions of the Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the gray wolf from protection of the Endangered Species Act in the Western Great Lakes region and portions of the Northern Rocky Mountains. Following legal procedures, the USFWS will post the Final Rule in the Federal Registry next week and then 30 days thereafter, the rule takes effect.
The process of attempting to get the wolf delisted has been a confusing mess, mired in lawsuits, twisted out of shape by frustrating and puzzling rulings by judges and just as disturbing was the direction or seemingly lack thereof, the Feds took in dealing with the issue. Read more
Death By Wolves And Misleading Advocacy. The Kenton Carnegie Tragedy
December 31, 2008
Reprinted with permission from the author.
On November 8th 2005 a 22-year-old honors and scholarship student in Geological Engineering, Kenton Joel Carnegie, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, was killed in northern Saskatchewan by a pack of wolves. While he was almost certainly not the only victim of wolf predation in North America in the past century, judging from conversations with native people, and a closer review of case histories, this was the best-investigated case to date . In the process of that investigation matters were uncovered that need to be discussed as they have significant policy implications for wildlife conservation and human safety. However, we need to review what happened to Kenton Carnegie, as it is relevant to considerations following. Read more
