# Best rabbit hunting stories



## pgpn123 (May 9, 2016)

reddog1 said:


> Thank you.we have a 10 hound limit,regardless of how many guy's are at the camp.we also have a day or two where we just run young hounds.running hare can be a bit overwhelming on a young hound
> I am 6 week out from back surgery and I'm doing great.


10 hound limit. Impressive indeed. I only have 500 questions. They'll have to wait. Think the most we ever mustered was a pack of 5. It's great to see you're after em like you are. Continued good luck.


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## reddog1 (Jan 24, 2009)

pgpn123 said:


> 10 hound limit. Impressive indeed. I only have 500 questions. They'll have to wait. Think the most we ever mustered was a pack of 5. It's great to see you're after em like you are. Continued good luck.


Ask away, yo can message me if you want.we don't kill hare so we can run the same Hare day after day. You can't chase a dead hare. We are mostly at camp for the running, the food and, the evening beverages,and baseball.we always watch baseball.


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Took my 2 boys out rabbit hunting this year. My 4 year olds first bunny hunt.









The second was a local rabbit hunt where group of buds got together and limited in under 2 hours.


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## U.P.Grouse Chaser (Dec 27, 2018)

A buddy of mine used to trial beagles. He always had 6-8 beagles around the house. He had picked up a dual champion beagle. It had won titles in both the U.S. and Canada. He was really proud of the dog. It was early january the 1st time we ran him on Hare . We put the dogs down in a red pine plantation. We walked the dogs north thru a pine plantation down the next ridge into the swamp . We made it about 1/2 mile into the swamp When the field champ opened up. He found a deer and got on it . He took that deer back south thru the swamp up the ridge, thru pine plantation . They then turned east crossed the two track, crossed a clear cut, the next swamp,and another clear cut. 3 hours later we caught up with dogs on the far side of the 2nd swamp. Once we leashed the dogs , we started looking around and found a logging road but had no idea if it would bring us back to the truck. It was 20 minutes before dark . We decided to backtrack ourselves thru the snow . We arrived back at the truck about 7:30pm well after dark. I ended up ordering a garmin Gps from Cabelas the next day. I still give my buddy grief over his field champ Beagle.


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

One cold snowy day my friend and I took my dogs out. We jumped a rabbit and it zig zagged thru the brush and eventually popped out in the open woods. I pick up my gun and found an open spot and waited for the rabbit to get to it. It disappeared. The dogs followed the trail and ended up stopping at a tree. So we went over for a look. About 3 foot up there was a hole in that tree and the rabbit had hopped in.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

I have so many cherished memories of rabbit hunting, therefore many stories. Here is one that still puts a smile on my face even though it happened many decades ago. Unfortunately two of the group of 4 have already gone. Hopefully to heaven and the happy hunting ground.

Two brothers are 12 years apart along with one's brothers close friend. The youngest brother is my BIL and is 12 years older than myself. He took me hunting often in my youth, and this is just one of those times.

The close friend who is approximately 24 years older is a story in itself. His started coming home from Vietnam or service with just his left arm. He started back rabbit hunting which he loved with a pistol which shot an equivalent to a 410. Not effective long range but he shot many rabbits with it until his arm and hand became more independent and stronger. When it did he used a double barrel side by side. This is when he was using a pistol he also has/had a prosthetic right arm with a pincher.

The camp was a rustic using a small camper. Keep in mind it is during the winter and we had about 10/12 inches of snow. The site was on a steep bank or cliff overlooking a private lake. Breathtaking beauty at any time even with the lake frozen, a truly winter wonderland. The trailer not so much, wondered how 3 adults and a kid was going to fit let alone move around. Then again at my age I truly did not care, I was glad just to be brought along for the ride/ hunt.

We hunted several spots and at that time snowshoe hare were plentiful and sometimes we got a cottontail but majority were hare. Also jump shooting was frowned upon or prohibited, especially if you wanted to tag along again. I remember we had this last hare that continued to give us the slip and shooting hours was coming to an end when he shot or got it with that pistol. To this day it was the largest hare I have ever seen or witnessed it was the size or bigger than the beagles, it was huge. 

Anyway as we made it back to camp we were unloaded and walking back to camp. The only plus is the snow which seemed to allow light even with a slight overcast showing shadows from the poplar trees we breaking through to get to camp. As I explained it is rustic and we had a lot of rabbits but we also had 4 individuals to help clean them. The only problem is it's dark no light just what God gave us. We started cleaning and the oldest brother was talking and explaining about a new and quick way to clean rabbits. Now please remember we are all tired from an all day hunt from morning to dark and 3 different locations, even I was whipped being a kid, I thought my legs were going to fall off. Any way we all stood back and with what light we had, which was not much watched as he cut, talked and demonstrated this procedure. Well let's just say it did not work out, as well as he seemed to say. When he yanked blood and guts went everywhere and he must if got some in his mouth, because he started spitting and sputtering. He dropped the hare and started for the camper. Now you got to remember the three others are watching but also bent over and belly laughing. He grabbed the door of the camper and while he is opening it his brother or his friend says, " I think I will stay with the old method of cleaning them". I just thought I was laughing before because I busted a gut and for a long time I could not get it under control.

So now there is only three of us cleaning and we got a butt load of hare to clean, so back to work getting the job done. Then after a while the friend says don't move. We ask why, "he says he dropped his knife and the blade is open" you have to realize we are standing or working in about a foot of snow. So to understand the rest he holds the rabbit with his left and he uses the prosthetic right arm with the pincher to hold the knife. So all 3 of us are looking for a knife so we do not step on it with no artificial light and at night for quite some time. Then he says " l found it" he quickly brings it up in his pincher and is trying to cut the hare, with no luck. He brings it close to his face and say oh sh-t and throws it away. It was a frozen dog turd and we are bending over again but busting a gut laughing for a long long time. Eventually he found the knife and we finished cleaning or processing. It is a fond memory that lasts me to this day. It would not have happened if they did not take a youth along with them and I am forever thankful that they did.


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## kotimaki (Feb 13, 2009)

135.00 March Hare ….
Quite a few years ago ,on a brutally cold march day in the northern lower I headed out alone mid day. I hit a smaller pothole swamp (40 acres or so) surrounded by hardwood hills. Put four dogs on the ground and they had one going almost immediately....and going ...and going...right out of earshot. I hit the truck and headed to find a place to cut them off. I found where they had crossed through the hills , still on the hare , and into a much larger swamp about 2 miles from where we started this game. Within earshot now , I grabbed the snowshoes , and shotgun and took off racing daylight. About at dark now miles into the chase and this hare is coming my way. A flash of white through the cedars and BANG the chase is over. I stayed where I was to give Bo the retrieve...He delivered rabbits to hand. A few minutes pass I have the dogs , the rabbit and am out of daylight. We collectively head for the truck. Im tired...miles on snowshoes will do that to a guy...throw the dogs in the cab to keep them contained and start the truck to let it warm up a bit. As I am unstrapping snowshoes , I hear the unmistakable click of my truck doors locking. Long before the days of cell phones , 20 miles from nowhere , in the dark. Try as I might I couldn't get any of the dogs to step on that damn button again. Within a few minutes all four were curled up sleeping with the heat on high. Remember those little triangle windows in the old fords? The small ones.....yeah 135.00 dollar rabbit.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

We many times would make a day trip leave about 5am and be hunting by 8:30am then in the evening after the hunt, drive home. This one trip it was myself, my BIL his brothers friend and a friend from work who never hunted hare. We had an area that we always jumped them next to road with state land on both sides. Almost a two track because lucky if you seen another car on the road in the winter. Any way we set the friend from work on the road and that hare and hounds crossed in front of him three times and he never seen that hare. Eventually he spotted it running alongside or parallel to the road and bagged it. After that he was able to see or make out the white hare on snow.

We eventually moved to another spot of state land pocket that about 80 acres was timbered which we ended up getting a few cottontails as well. On one hare that was being circled there was a large tree that was wind sheared and he climbed up the leaning top to the top of the trunk. Being about 10 ft high and giving a birds eye view of the chase. For some reason I looked over at the exact time he brought his gun up, or the movement caused me to look that way. Heard the shot than watched both of his arms just start flailing air. Then he was airborne, no he was falling backward off that perch. Dang lucky he did not get hurt, jabbed, stabbed or eternal bleeding even though we had about 6-8 inches of snow. He did get the hare though.

Well later they took a hare way out and circled it about 3 times 1/2 mile away. I was in a cedar swamp adjacent to the 80 cutting. I started making my way to that destination just to get warm as well. Came to tag alder and started through that for several hundred yards until I came to a wire, private property, crap. Well I decided to head at an angle to reach the edge of the tag alder and the cutting hoping the hare may come along the edge. I was almost there I gather I am about 40 to 50 yards from my destination when the ice broke and I was falling. Not sure why but I threw the shotgun and grabbed for one of a cluster. It's the only thing that saved me, I felt no bottom and pulled myself up and out. I cautiously made it to my gun and realized I was wet up to my armpits. Sloshing at every step I came out and headed for the van. When we met up we drove about 15 minutes to the nearest public building it was a gas station and a restaurant next to it. I grabbed my extra clothes and waited about 10 minutes in the restroom waiting for the ice to thaw so I could maneuver out of my clothes. This was cold but many more stories I could share of being cold and rabbit/hare hunting in Michigan.


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## thundrst (Oct 7, 2007)

Went hare hunting at my buddies cabin near Mio in the late 70's. State land was only 10-15 yards from his cabin. We took my 2 beagles & started hunting like always, just walking out the front door onto the state land. This time the dogs jumped one about 80 yards from the cabin. They ran straight away almost out of hearing before starting to turn back. My buddy was about 60 yards from me & tells me he going back to the cabin to take a dump! I had to too, but stuck it out since the dogs were now headed our way. The dogs brought the hare close to where my buddy left from, then took it almost out of hearing again. OK, my buddy still hasn't come back from the cabin & now i really have to take a crap bad! So, I move a little way from where I was standing (for the last half hour), drop trow & squat. Of course I am still squatting as the dogs are getting closer & closer FAST, sight chasing. I start scrambling to get ready & I hear my buddy now returning from the cabin, running back to the spot he was at earlier. He just got there and BANG! He shot the hare while I still had my pants half way back up! Lucky SOB! I still had "paperwork" to finish! Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be dedicated!


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

We hunted hare near Mio as well. This one story comes to mind. My BIL picks me up after his work and my school on a Friday evening. The plan was to stop for dinner at Birch Run and meet his bothers friend who moved to the east side to find/get work. Now this like many trips were planned well before on having weekends off.

The temperature is plummeting the minute we left and back then news was local so was weather. A little before the bridge it started snowing and it became a white knuckle drive and a long two track drive because the temperature did nothing to remove snow even with the salt trucks out. Back then I will remind everyone the bridge was a drawbridge. The trip almost was cancelled because a vehicle behind us was coming sideways toward our rear bumper as we waited for the bridge to lower.

Lucky we had called the neighbor up there last week to open the drive back to camp. Even with the roadside snow plow wall removed we still was pushing fresh snow with the bumper. Still not sure how we got back in there.

Now camp was an old trailer not a camper. Like 8ft by 35 or 40ft but it had electric and therefore lights. Water was a pitcher pump well outside and the restroom was a outhouse, it had a fuel oil furnace/stove and a propane stove for cooking. We brought water to prime the pump. Tonight was get supplies inside and get the fuel oil going for heat. The wind was whistling through any small opening it could find outside it was roaring.

After about an hour we climbed in our sleeping bags and in our clothes, we could still see our breath it was that cold inside still. I am sure I had to have slept sometime during the night but I could not remember. To this day not sure if it was the whistling from the wind, the cold, or the sound made from my teeth chattering. In the morning found out it was 18 degrees below.

Well like I said it was planned so even with the cold (fine snow) but it came to over my knees and half way up my thigh. As we and the dogs floundered through the snow to get to the swamp, I was wondering if the dogs could even smell. Luckily the wind died by morning but everything was white from snow or frosted from the extreme cold temperature.

When we made it to the swamp a balsam thicket that was dang near impenetrable. You could not see where your feet let alone where you were heading in most of the swamp. Areas you could walk through dropped dead branches down the back of your neck that would itch for days. The best thing is there was hare and a lot of them. I was also pleasantly surprised the dogs could track and surprisingly well. Sam cold tracked for a few minutes and Susy opened up and the chase was on. We knew the few areas that were open and we also hunted the trails back to back for safety and had about 8 ft to identify and bring the shotgun up and if they were flying when crossing, you might as well forget it. I swear them hare can fly, not 100 ft in the air but just a few inches above the ground. You just think they are running if they see you pulling up, their high gear or speed is astonishing to say the least. Or maybe cause hunting them in such tight spots.

Anyway walking was hard to say the least but we had fun besides all the cold and we planned on leaving early Sunday afternoon to go home. What with the tiring snow and even higher drifts and the cold we unanimously decided to leave in the morning. As it worked out we ended up leaving early afternoon. Both vehicles would not start but one turned over ssslllooowww and varoom we got it started unfortunately we could not get the other jumped. So no cell phones in them days and the nearest phone and corner store is about 5 miles. Later that morning a tow truck arrives and 30 minutes later the other vehicle is running and in another 30 minutes we are heading home in finally a warm vehicle. This is another of my cold hunts. Oh where the snow depth was you could see by the pants frozen from condensation and the knee area was free or broken allowing to walk, this still did not help with sleeping it was cold, but better Saturday night than that Friday night I bet I came close to freezing.


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## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

The best thing for a cold camp if you have power is an electric blanket. Turn it on and throw a sleeping bag on top. That way you not warming up a frozen mattress. We did this for years at the cabins in the Keweenaw. Get there in the middle of the night turn on the blanket, light the stove, drag everything inside. Take off the wet stuff and go to bed. Twenty years of shoveling off roofs


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## shotgun12 (Jul 19, 2005)

we shoot rabbits all year round over here, we use ferrets, put them down the rabbit holes and shoot them when they bolt out great fun,


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

shotgun12 said:


> we shoot rabbits all year round over here, we use ferrets, put them down the rabbit holes and shoot them when they bolt out great fun,


You miss the best. Nothing beats hearing the chase and listening to which dog/bitch figures out the check. It's not only music to the ears but knowledge telling the story behind the chase/run. Best of all jump shooting allows mostly shooting at the best part or food the back end of a rabbit. The chase offers mostly broadside shots offering head, neck and front shoulder shots minimizing loss of meat or worse a toothache when biting down on shot. Besides here in the states the practice you use is illegal in Michigan.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

Martin Looker said:


> The best thing for a cold camp if you have power is an electric blanket. Turn it on and throw a sleeping bag on top. That way you not warming up a frozen mattress. We did this for years at the cabins in the Keweenaw. Get there in the middle of the night turn on the blanket, light the stove, drag everything inside. Take off the wet stuff and go to bed. Twenty years of shoveling off roofs


Back in the day about 1/2 a century I am not sure there were electric blankets. At my age at the time doubt I knew about it. To be honest the fuel oil burner worked fine before and after. I believe the extreme cold and with the high winds finding any place to blow that cold in was the main reason. It takes a few hours in normal temp's/wind to bring it to a comfortable inside temperature, just not that night.

I think using the electric blanket as you suggest is great. Unfortunately my days of a cold camp are over but good advice.


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## pgpn123 (May 9, 2016)

shotgun12 said:


> we shoot rabbits all year round over here, we use ferrets, put them down the rabbit holes and shoot them when they bolt out great fun,


That does sound like fun.
When the dogs go out of hearing and you start to hear them again, faintly at first, and then closer and closer, and you're looking for the rabbit, ahhh, it's hard to beat. Do that a few times a hunt...heaven.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

This brings another cold camp hunt to mind. I was older and could drive so 16 or 17. It was me and my cousin with our dogs and a trip to Atlanta using our grandfather's cabin.

The cabin is more like a ranch house sleeps 12 or more during deer season. It's heated with a propane stove in the center and a fireplace at one end for esthetics. I think the high was 10 that weekend if memory serves me correctly.

Anywho when we got there Friday night after school we were downtrodden to find out the 500lb propane tank was empty. So no stove to heat or stove to cook our frozen dinners we brought up.

So we got that fireplace smokin hot, dragged a mattress from one of the bedrooms. Placed it as close to the fireplace that night and threw our sleeping bags on it. We used the fireplace also to cook our frozen dinners. The following night keeping that fireplace going all day allowed us to move the mattress back to the bedroom.

I remember this hunt because of that cold night, and cooking frozen dinners in the fireplace. Later a heetilator was constructed and we ran duct work to the rear of the cabin with a blower circulating the warm air. Afterwards the wood stove was never needed to heat the cabin.

What I remember of this hunt as well was the high snow depth and hunting swamps close to dirt roads offering access and the cramps associated with trudging through the woods. Even in the swamp it was up to my crotch the muscle cramps were atrocious. We hung hare's up along our trail and walked our trails back out making it a little easier instead of breaking trail. To make the trail we took turns one would break or lead when he got tired the other would lead or break. Good thing we were young at the time.


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## pgpn123 (May 9, 2016)

Hunters Edge said:


> This brings another cold camp hunt to mind. I was older and could drive so 16 or 17. It was me and my cousin with our dogs and a trip to Atlanta using our grandfather's cabin.
> 
> The cabin is more like a ranch house sleeps 12 or more during deer season. It's heated with a propane stove in the center and a fireplace at one end for esthetics. I think the high was 10 that weekend if memory serves me correctly.
> 
> ...


1, I'm getting shivers reading these.
2, Good stuff.


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## pgpn123 (May 9, 2016)

One of my first dogs, Red, just him at the time, was hit and miss. He struggled a lot keepin it going. We're in Lapeer one day and he opens up. I mean he is on it. Further and further away, out of hearing, not missing a beat. I was thinking gee I hope it's not a deer. Pretty soon they're heading back, all the way to me. One shot and done. Good boy! Pick up the bunny and he's got the biggest set of ba**s I've ever seen to this day. Always wondered if that helped him on the track.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

We were die hard hunters and this day it was cold and blowing. For the life of me I can not remember the temperature but the parents said we were crazy. Again around 16 or 17 rabbit hunting (cottontail) around the farm/home/neighbors. It was me my cousin and my cousin friend. Well between the cold, wind and snow the dogs could not track in the open. They can track where the wind is subdued like in cattails or on the side of cattails. So we hunted high bank ditches allowing the dog to work the cattails inside and shooting the rabbit circling outside of the marshes or running over the high bank to either another marsh or section of cattails or a hole in the bank. As we were hunting my cousins friends gun froze and he could not shoot a rabbit because the gun would not fire. The dogs brought it by my cousin and he shot it laughing and teasing his good friend. So all our faces or masks were white from condensation freezing to ice even our eyebrows. It was comical then at the time, lucky we did not get frost bite and loose fingers.

Anyway we started back in the direction of home/farm because of his friend not able to shoot his gun. My cousin laughing and bragging about why he's should be using so and so like his gun oil. Every time or opportunity he would rub it in and we all were laughing. It's a good mile or two to get home. We decided to hunt a neighbor's property on the way home 52 acres but he had several cattail marshs on the property. One was large devided by a road and another marsh on the other side which that neighbor owned 36 acres. Anyway in the day we or the dogs put up dozens of pheasants. The only issue the rabbits were only giving us glimpses in this location. Eventually my cousin had another opportunity to shoot a rabbit. Wwwhhen his gun was frozen as well and would not fire. I finally shot the rabbit and we started home with one gun out of three that was not frozen and would fire. Ohhh to be young again.


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## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

The best one I can remember was just north of my house. We had a blue tick hound who was good on Jack's. There was two swamps with a ridge between them that was just over one hundred yards apart. Ike started a jack and it was game on. I think every jack in the swamps started moving. We shot rabbits until we ran out of shells and the last one was the first one he jumped. We ended up with 14 Jack's that day. We were hunting with 22s that day and I got more than Dad. Of course he was using a pistol and I had a rifle. Since I got the most jacks I got to clean all of them. Sure do wish he was still here to hunt with but he has been gone for 37 years now.


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