2-27-13 Wed.

2-27-2013 Wed 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM
Weather:
(1215) N14 G22, light snow, 32 ˚, 29.71 falling, 8 – 12” snow cover
Location:
La Farge, WI
Bagged:
two cottontails
Partners:
Dick and (Tom - PM), Dogs: Roxy, Lacey, (Dirt – PM)

Comments:

It was Lacey’s test day, and she shined! Dick has been looking for a good beagle, and I found one for him.
We started out at our first spot early in the morning and we never left it till until quitting time late in the afternoon. It took about twenty minutes for Roxy and Lacey to get started, but once they did, they never looked back. Lacey was definitely the jump dog, but once a rabbit was up and running, Roxy was a big contributor to the chase. We had chases going on all morning. Not many rabbits were killed, mostly on account of them being so slippery. What I mean by that is these rabbits covered some ground and seemed to be quite intelligent and we seldom caught a glimpse of them. In fact these cottontails had the running characteristics of hares.
The last couple of hours Tom and his dog Dirt met up with us. I know Dirt is not the most flattering name, but I did not name him. After Tom and Dirt joined us it took about a half hour to get a rabbit moving, but once the dogs jumped one the action was quite awesome. The first rabbit they chased the run lasted for about one hour and must have covered about two miles of ground. I had never seen a cottontail cross such a large expanse of open ground, but this one crossed an open stretch that was at least three hundred yard wide, and it did it twice! I t was an awesome run and one that will never leave my memory. It did not end with the rabbit in a game bag; it ended with a rabbit in a log pile. Lacey tried her best to grub it out, but she was unable to. We figured she was able to see the rabbit on account of all the screaming and howling she was doing. I think the rabbit was too tired to run anymore, and it decided it would take its chances with sitting tight in the logs.
We ran a couple more rabbits, but never added any to the game bag. At the end of the day Roxy was so tired she could no longer run, she just walked from track to track and howled.

Observations:

Today was one of my top days for rabbit hunting, the conditions were good, the rabbits were fairly plentiful and the dogs were great. I cannot say enough good things about Lacey: she is a good jump dog, excellent trailer, minds well, and seems to be pretty smart. Lacey came from Ron Stayton’s kennel, and I have to say he raises some good rabbit dogs. Roxy is an excellent trailer, but her search and jumping ability are very poor. It definitely is better to have several beagles running so they can complement each other.