Wednesday March 4, 2009.... Wow! We got another 12 inches of snow Monday, and the weather continues to be very unseasonably cold to boot. Shoveled all day Monday and had other chores to care of yesterday. Today I had a morning dentist appointment to make, thus I didn't figure on getting a hunt in again today! Got home around noon after running some errands and after getting the dentist thing done. The wind was blowing hard and the temperature out was 16 degrees. So after a while of hanging around I decided to check out a place not far from my house, that I hunted years ago. I'd just run one dog to see if anything is in this place and not really hunt. I put HANNAH in the truck 'cause she's so easy for an AARP to handle, even though she's a great starter and hunter. Another thing that a good hunting dog does, is hunt with the hunter. I decided to leave the TERMINATOR home and just take my .410 handgun that I carry once and a while 'cause it's pretty easy to lug around.
A little brook runs through this plot of land and the snows that dropped in it during the year melted off, leaving a deep gully with 4-5 feet of snow cover on each side. The brook runs shallow in most places, so I didn't see a big risk in running the dog here, but you best believe at this time of the year we stay away from places that have deep running water.
With the winds we've had lately, the snow settled quit a bit so pushing the packed powder wasn't a big detriment for the dog to maneuver in. It took quite a while for the dog to find a bunny, but when she did, she drove him hard right from the first bark. The hare made a big circle in mostly open hardwood, with a few scatterings of pines thickets. Fifteen minutes later I saw the hare running hard about 200 yards ahead of the dog. Too far to shoot at and I wasn't planning on killing one anyway. Out of hearing he goes as the wind quickly muffled the dogs sounds when she got downwind. I moved to the edge of one of these little thickets where I could watch a well beaten bunny trail that I found. Often times the hare will use these "runs" like little roads to run in. Sure enough I saw the hare coming right at me and the hound still way off, barely to be heard coming against the wind. I let bunny go by me unscathed as the hound came "hither" with her unbroken chant; Yeow..yeow..yeow steadily, steadily, steadily. I took a picture of her as she passed by totally focussed on that line between her feet. Later I saw the hare again at a distance. An hour and fifteen minutes into the run I get a bit "antsy", and decide that she deserved to have that hare shot, so I whip out the ".410 pea shooter" with it's 10 inch barrel and prepare for the kill! A while later she pushes the hare back toward me after I had readjusted my position and look ahead where I think he's gonna pass. But the hare had made a little readjustment of his own and I saw him to my left 15 yards away. He stopped for moment as I pointed the gun at him and let fly a round of number sixes his way. A clean miss??? How can you miss one this close? So the run continues and around she goes. Forty minutes later she's out of hearing somewhere across the the brook I figure. Ten minutes later and nothing!!! I think about the brook and you always think the worse, so I start heading toward where I heard her last. As I get near the brook I can just barely hear her way, way, off. There were a few older bunny tracks close to where I was standing going both ways across the brook, so as long as I could hear her from here I just waited and let her run. Then the hunt turns my way and in a little while I see the hare coming right where these older tracks were crossing the brook. I'm 20 feet from the edge of the brook and I quickly establish the plan of the killing of this hare. When he goes down into the gully by the brook I'll cock the gun, raise it up and be ready to end this great chase right here. I see the hare dip down into the gully and out of sight. Seconds later he pops up out of the gully in front of me 15 feet away and stops!!!! POOOooowwwww the single shot erupts and the "cute little bunny" hops slowly toward me and passes by the side of my leg two feet away and stops. No way could I reload and get another shot off at the buuny, so I just watch him evaporate into the surroundings. Can you miss one at 15 yards away? Well let me tell you; it's possible to miss one at 15 feet. Missing at 15 yards is easy!!!! I caught the dog after she crossed the gully by the brook and headed for home. Getting an outing like this to remember....; well.........

Thursday March 5, 2009.... Boy it was cold here early this morning and where Reggie and I would hunt for the day, it was 14 below zero during the night. However the weather is to change and warm air is supposed to creep in during the morning, getting up into the 30's by afternoon. WORKS FOR ME!
Taking just HANNAH alone again today and we'll hunt her again with LUKE Saturday. Snowshoeing in wasn't too bad as the snow settled into a packed powder of about 8-10 inches in most places. Where the wind hadn't been able to penetrate; the soft snow in the protected gullies was 12-18 inches deep. We hadn't been in this place but once before this year, when we found a fair amount of hare here. But today there wasn't a track to be found where we usually find some.
So we headed for a deep gully quite a ways away, where there are a lot of small pines and there we found some "buns". The dog jumped one out after a fashion and there she goes into a drive. HANNAH has a lot of mouth and she can spit out a lot of pretty "Spiffy" hound dog music; the kind that makes things exciting. It's a nice sunny day with not much wind, snow not obnoxiously too deep, very cold in the shade, but warming up in the sun. Pretty soon she's out of hearing and Reginald and me wait for the critter to come back. This is a very good strategy when they come back???? Wait, wait, wait, and nothing. So I head out in the direction she departed in, knowing there was a big drop off on the other side of this big hill we were hunting. When I hit the summit of "the mountain", I could hear her singing away with that heavenly music that only angels are better at. I headed for "THE BIG ROCK" where we always stand and waited for another hare to come by here to die. I called Reggie telling him where she was so he could readjust positions. But she kept circling down in the valley below so I decided to move. Twenty minutes later she heads back toward the "Big Rock" where I had been earlier and heard a shot. Then another shot, followed by another shot and followed by yet another. Finally the TROOPER hoots declaring the death of a bunny. Thank GOD for "sweet sixteens"; the fully loaded ones. However as the hound heads for Reginald she keeps on "steaming" on a line that angles off away from where the shots were fired. The bunny that Reggie dropped was a stray as it turned out, that just got in the wrong place at the wrong time. The hound continues to drive this hare all over the lot getting by Reggie and me more times that I care to write about. We almost got into a RUN-N-GUN mode except we got a lot more running than gunning; which is fine. The dog had a great day running and later the snow in the sun was "sticking " to our snowshoes, which made maneuvering for us AARPS... NOT EASY. In some places HANNAH had to work hard to push the now heavy snow. In the shade, things stayed real cold and the snow remained powdered, but the hound continued to persue with authority no matter where the hare went. We got nearly four hours of good running in and when the TROOPER drilled one after a long steady drive we called it quits. One thing for sure is; that AARPS,snowshoeing out of a cover, after a hunt, on sticky snow, going DOWN HILL....

Saturday March 7, 2009.... When I pulled out of the driveway this morning it was 47 degrees out, a big big difference from what it was just a few days ago. It would be interesting to see how HANNAH and LUKE would handle the wet snow that we'd run on today. LITTLE DID I KNOW!
I picked up Danny on the way to Reggie's house and there we had a cup of "joe" or a hot chocolate depending if you were, or were not a "yute"! We hit the woods not long after we finished our "talk show" time and wondered how we'd do today. Couldn't go without our trusty snowshoes, on stuff like this. As wet as the snow was the "shoeing" wasn't as bad as it was the other day. We worked the hounds here and there and everywhere we'd had success finding bunnies in this place for over 40 years, but today NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING!!!! We walked around these woods for nearly 3 hours without a start!!! Talk about disappointments....this was it....so we quit for the day!

Tuesday March 10, 2009.... We got about 4 inches of snow during the day yesterday and todays temps. are forecasted to get up into the low forties. MMmmmm...sounds good. Well, Crambo (Reggie) and me hit the woods with HANNAH late in the morning and the high sun had already started melting the snow on the trees. I figured that we'd find some tracks today and belt a couple bunnies in the kisser, after walking around for three hours the other day with no start at all. It was cold enough last night to freeze up the old snow under this new snow, so snowshoeing around was easy. After 20 minutes or so, HANNAH got a bunny going and she ran it with some difficulty for 35 minutes before losing the thing. I cut around all over the place looking for that bunnies track and eventually I found the line and got the dog on it again. She ran it pretty good for a circle and a half right to a dead loss!!!! Go figure; pound bunnies in 10 degree soft snow all over the place for hours and today the same dog on real wet slushy snow, ran poorly. The last two times out are making it hard for me to say.........

Saturday March 14, 2009.... It's been cold here the last several early mornings with temps. 3 below zero and 3 above zero respectively. Suppose to get up into the low forties by afternoon today. This would be another one of those unpredictable outings and hard to figure how scent works. Everybody has his/her own opinion but nobody really nose(oops) I mean KNOWS! We hit the same cover we hunted this past Tuesday and the day began like it did last Saturday. Walk, Walk, walk!!! We walked around all over the lot for an hour and a half without a start. We had just HANNAH again today as we didn't want to risk hitting one of the "March Hare"; you know, those wild running bunnies. Two AARPS with one dog is just about our "max" these days with snowshoes on. It was cold enough last night to support our weight without snowshoes, but by the afternoon the warm sun could weaken the top surface of the snow and then NOT support our weight. We've been there and done that long ago and learned our lesson well. Nice going walking in on cement like snow in the morning, but breaking through up to your waist in the afternoon. Not any more!!! Wear the snowshoes!
Finally; after a 90 minute walk HANNAH jumped a hare in a small patch of fir trees. This spot is usually pretty thick, with swale grass, a lot of tight alders and varying types of bushes all around a little fir thicket. But not today, as we found this place barren of cover. All the small trees that normally produced some real good cover, was laid down flat or bent over severely by all the snows we've received over the last 6 weeks or so. It looked like a big field. No wonder that the bunnies were scarce around here. With the sun up, the surface snow was a little soft, but in the shade it was frozen stiff. HANNAH took off on the hare OK, but after a short period of time the chase faltered and there was a lot of checking up. She circled the hare back toward Reggie, but the way things were going we went from kill the rabbit mode to let it run mode. The dog struggled a lot but hit pieces of it well enough to put it by Reggie, but he just watched the rabbit hop by. We like to shoot rabbits "better than anybody" but not if there isn't a good chase involved. Evidently the shade of these fir trees was enough to make scenting most difficult. This dog can run pretty well most times but not on this rabbit. After a 45 minute run, drop...loss thing we headed out!
We were in the woods pretty deep, so we'd hunt our way out and pack it in for the day and even maybe for the season. We headed for some small pine thickets scattered around a hardwood stand that might hold a hare, if the small trees hadn't been damaged by one of the heavy wet snows that we'd had weeks ago. After quite a bit more walking, HANNAH hit a track and off she went. Right off; her voice was different in that it had a lot of authority in it. You get to know your hound over time and you can tell by his/her voice just what is going on. This time it would be all driving. Go figure, same dog, same day, same everything but for a different rabbit??? She made a big circle up hill through some scattered hardwoods and back toward me among the small pines. The hunt passed about 100 yards from me, then back toward Reggie. We've run here before in years past at this time of the year, and have had the hare take off toward another cover a mile away!!!! This was rough hilly country where this run was taking place and I didn't want to risk a long haul on these snowshoes. As the hunt turned up hill again I called Reggie to tell him to drill the hare if he could. HANNAH drove well and Reggie called to say that the hare got by him and headed up the mountain! The dog kept pushing and pushing pretty hard in a steady fashion. I readjusted my position and moved to where the hare crossed earlier. By now the hunt is pretty far off but was turning back toward us. Great; I was set up in a good spot and this trip would be his last. Closer and closer the volume of the hounds voice got and I was ready. POOOOooowwww rang out some thunder from the mouth of Reggie's "sweet sixteen", followed in a nano moment a "hoot" from the hunter announcing the kill. HANNAH came down to the dead hare and that was it. Another hunt, finished off with another driving run........

Friday March 21, 2009....Today Reggie and I would hunt with Neal and Wayne, and the folks they brought along. Namely; Peter Brown of the "Kennebago Range Fame" and his friend Eric; Wayne brought his son Jake and Neal brought his friend Jeff with his knapsack full of goodies. ......... This in all probability is my last hunt this year as I head for Boston tomorrow to begin another one of those "clinical trial" treatments.
Today I figured we'd be traveling, northerly as well as westerly, for this hunt and I was correct. But I failed to anticipate that we'd be over an hour more northerly as well as more westerly than thought. Oh well; LIFE OF A HARE HUNTER; unpredictable! When we arrived at the place that Pete had selected for us to hunt, Reggie and I recognized it as the spot we hunted with Kim Klein about 15 years ago and his GREAT dog, Fd Ch Nomads Buckshot Mr Bill. That day turned out to be the coldest weather I have ever hunted on, with the temperature at minus 26 degrees. NOT FUN!!
Today wasn't that cold but nonetheless conditions would be a challenge to say the least. I left the house in 28 degree temperature and watched the temperature gage in the truck steadily drop to 14 degrees by the time we arrived up north. It was a nice blue sky day with little wind with very dry artic air. Needless to say that the 4-5 feet of snow we would walk on was frozen "hard as a brick".
We only brought two dogs along for this hunt, Neal brought his great hunting dog CHASE and I had LUKE. Both dogs are heavy in Buckshot Mr Bill breeding (both sides) and both hunt well and are no nonsense capable hunting dogs. We stepped into some heavy cover and found out right off quick that snowshoeing would not be easy. The icy, as well as mixed granular surface was extremely slippery and because of the fir cover we were in, the snows had built up between the trees into cone shaped mounds and we had to maneuver on a terrain similar to what a mogul skier would traverse.
It took about 20 minutes before LUKE jumped a hare and wouldn't you know it, CHASE jumped his own hare a half a minute later. Both hounds are independent self hunters, but are great pack hounds too. Right off the bat you knew that running would be difficult to say the least. After a few break downs by each dog, they eventually got themselves together and proceeded to do a pretty darn good job keeping the rabbit going. Because of the texture of the frozen snow, shoeing around was very very noisy. Consequently the hare got turned a great number of times as the hunters moved around adjusting their positions when the chase turned their way. The dogs ran together well and even though they had some breakdowns they manged to recover the line and kept the thing going pretty well. One time I was on a grown up tote road where I could see pretty good and Reggie was just beyound me, around a little bend on the same road. The hare was coming our way, but I could hear hunters walking around readjusting their positions. The dogs are coming right for me, then veer off toward Reggie. No shot??? So I crept toward the bend as quietly as I could and got to see Reggie looking the other way, down the road. Then the run takes a sharp turn toward the tote road and nothing was seen crossing the road but the dogs. Reggie had figured that the hare would cross further up the road where he was watching, but the hare got turned by a hunter moving around and the hare crossed 5 feet behind Reggie as he was watching the other way. About forty five minutes later Wayne put this bunny in the game bag. We lost two rabbits during the course of this hunt and I hate a lost rabbit, but today I was well pleased with the performance that LUKE turned in and I'm sure that Neal was equally pleased with the way CHASE went. Not many hounds around these parts that I know could've run as long and as well as these two did today.
Overall, we had many many good hunts this year and I look forward already for next year and hope to get a chance to live once again the LIFE OF A HARE HUNTER!!!

Friday March 21, 2009....Here's a nice picture snapped somewhere in New York State of the McNeilly/Donnan rabbit hunting clan. The guy in the middle of the photo is Bill Donnan and the guy snapping the picture is just the best FIELD TRIAL judge in the north; Bruce McNeilly. The hound looking up at the dead hare is Bruce's lean mean rabbit running machine who answers to the name of "TUPPER"! Tupper was on the receiving end of some bird shot last fall, but by God's Grace, Bruce was spared the anguish of having his friendly little beagle die in the accident. TUPPER has bounced back from his near death experience and has already developed into a great hunting dog. Though just a youngster the dog has performed well for Bruce since day one. The reddish colored dog is heavy in Nomads Buckshot Mr Bill breeding (both sides). His sire McGillivarys Cracker Jack was a big tough rabbit hunter directly out of Mr Bill and Tuppers dam "Brunette" has multiple crosses of the Mr Bill bloodline. If you happen to live in the Campbell New York area and are looking for a dog to breed to, consider TUPPER and do yourself a favor.

Saturday March 28, 2009....Christopher's Saturday project at Church is all over, so I asked him if he wanted to go hunting today or go to the trial at Kennebec. He said he'd like to go to the trial since we've had trouble finding game locally and he wanted to run HANNAH a time or two this year. With the physical issues I have he didn't know how many trials we could get to, so off to the trial we went. Kennebec is only a 2 hour drive from my house and they run big bitches on Saturday the same day they run little bitches. It makes sense to run same sexes at an SP or SPO trial, in that if they measure out your dog you can always run the dog in the other class. Kennebec also does a good job keeping their areas stocked with game and they run a pretty quality trial. Joshua came along with us and Christopher wanted him to be the official handler, though they both worked the dog in the field. I had a biopsy done on my leg just a few days ago that was stiched up and the doctor didn't want me doing much with it anyway, so that sequestered me to the gallery. This afforded me the opportunity to spend the best part of the trial talking dogs with Billy Petterutti and Carl Post. Carl owned a top notch field champion a few years ago by the name of INT. FD CH.COWBAY STRIKER, a dog that I judged a while back at an SPO trial. STRIKER placed 3rd under me that day and I vividly recall how well he performed on rabbit after years of running in Large Pack.
Billy is pretty well known in these parts and is a highly reguarded judge both on hare as well as cottontail. Billy has had the good fortune of having been tutored over the years by a couple of pillars of our sport who are themselves highly thought of HALL OF FAMER's. Namely Dick Doyle and Huck Rollman. Two of the best that New York has ever had to offer in the sport. And I suspect that Joe Hanlon added a few pointers here and there for Billy to consider during the learning years. Billy is a tough guy in the field stamina wise and works hard to see all that he can of the hounds through the course of the day. One thing for sure is; that if you run under Billy, your dog will get looked over very well and you'll get what you deserve.
When entries closed there were 16 dogs making up the class, with one pack of 6 and two packs of 5. We were drawn in the second pack and had to wait around a while as the judges gave the first group a real long look. I might add too, that the first pack sounded pretty good. Finally we got our chance and it didn't take very long to get a hare up and running. The judges were having a hard time staying with the hounds, as there was a lot of snow in some places and no snow in other places. You need snowshoes where there was snow and sneakers where there wasn't any. Nonetheless the two judges Jim Deschambeault and Adam Morse gave their all by working hard and giving these dogs a very long hard look. This pack ran very well and HANNAH did great.
We made winners pack and hit the field right after first series was over and we didn't have to put up with that stupid lunch break stuff like many clubs do. We cast the winners pack of 9 dogs and once again got a start quickly and this pack ran pretty well most of the time. The big girls got a good long run and when field trial was called HANNAH was among the final five. She has a peculiar voice, at least to me, and I heard her in there getting a lot done, but you never know how the places will be called. She ended up with a strong second place and that was it. Carl got a fourth place with his bitch and as I understand it she only needs a win to finish. We wish him the very best in getting his 3rd win. We all had a great day and Joshua not only got a good workout, but had his picture taken too as the handler of the dog.

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