(By the way, for you guys that are used to cottontail dogs, these aint that kind of beagle. They're more like 15" Julys
)Had a good hunt Saturday night. I brought 8 dogs out to the fire pit and turned loose about dark. A couple pups, June and Joy haven’t been off the yard much and were just along to learn the country. I carried a couple old dogs along, Traveler 9, and Slimmer 10. I had Dusty and Love, both young and tough as nails. Hornet was along but he hasn’t been getting much work and is soft.
I also had my regular hunting partner, Pete’s dog Maybell. She is one of the best, but she’s soft and heavy right now. Pete’s wife, Maynette has been battling cancer so Pete’s hunting has been cut back lately. Just got the good news that her cancer is gone. Maynette is like a second mother to Lisa and I so we were happy for her.
Anyway, the weather was cool for this time of year, and the temp started dropping fast after dark. There were a few mosquitoes out early and then they went away when it got too cold for them. When I dropped the dogs they all melted into the brush hunting. The pup, June was racing around, running the other dogs. She is full of desire to chase something, she just doesn’t know what. Heard a little cold trailing from the old dogs, but nothing came of it.
It took a while to get a jump. Hornet finally got one up and the rest packed in to him, all but Traveler. They sounded good as they made 3 or 4 small loops, then trailed it out north, then east across the trail and away out of hearing. While this was going on, Traveler jumped his own rabbit way north. I waited a long time for the main pack to come back. Thought I could hear them once in a while, but then nothing. There is a steep bank down to some bottom land over where they were and you can’t hear them when they go over it.
I decided to drive around closer to see what was going on. Stopped once and heard them running closer to the north side. Almost sounded like they were crossing that open stuff, but the rabbits hardly ever run there. Then they went east down into a little draw that the rabbits like and I started to relax, until they went clean through it and out into the pines on the east side.
This didn’t sound like any rabbit chase I had ever run in this spot. It was too slow and too many twists and turns for a deer. I drove up along the river, close to the dogs and let out a whoooooop. They all quit and came right in (except the two pups). Don’t know what that was, fox maybe? The dogs knew it wasn’t right.
The two pups were still out there, June was barking lost so I went back over by Traveler. Old Trav was running pretty steady, his deep rough bawl was rolling out over the woods. I figured the pups would come in to him when they stopped long enough to think.
Traveler was heading for the crossing, kind of a bottle neck the hare liked to use to cross the trail so I pulled up and put Lovey down with him when he crossed. When they got running I put Maybell in behind and listened to them work. The track broke down when they got over by the Leaf River, but they managed to keep it going. First one dog would pick up the check, then another, until they got it up and running good again. Maybell kind of took over, Traveler isn’t fast enough to keep up with her and he doesn’t say much if he gets behind.
The two pups came in and I put them in the box. I fed the rest of the dogs into the race one by one and soon had a good loud race going. From that point on the running just got better and better. There was a good heavy dew by now and the scent must have been good as the dogs couldn’t seem to do any wrong at this point.
I pulled up close to where the race was and just sat in the truck and listened to the roar going back and forth, up down and around. I doesn’t get any better. The longer they ran they better they got. Along about 1:00 AM I decided they had had enough. I started at 9:00, some of the hounds were out of shape, and I wanted to exercise them, not kill them. Still, I usually wait for a break in the action to call them in, and there just wasn’t any!
I got as close as I could on one pass and called. Maybell came in and I watered her and put her in the box. My calling threw them off and split them up, but they just wouldn’t quit. Hornet and Dusty brought one close by and I laid into them, Hornet quit and came in, but Dusty was trying his best to catch that hare and paid me no mind. All I heard was OOOWWWWWAAA … OOOWWWWAAA fading off into the distance.
To make a long story short, after some help from tri-tronics I got them all in at 5 minutes after 2:00. 10 year old Slimmer was the last to give up and I had to hike deep into the brush to talk her into it! The older dogs were all stiff and sore and beat up looking next morning, but they were happy!
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