rabbit hunting methods

[PAPA SMIRF]

My oldest Basset ...slow but thorough..... great fun

[Mr. fingers]

I just don't trust my beagle to come back. He gets on a scent and he does not even know his name. So I always leave him on a lead which I know is defeating the purpose. He does get me on rabbits but I know it would be more effective if I could let him go.
How do I get over this. The main reason we got a beagle was for bunny hunting with our bows . But I have heard so many  sad stories where beagle are gone overnight or days and return frost bit or extremely exhausted or sometimes not at all.
No bunny is worth losing my best friend.
What to do?

[macbow]

It takes a awfully well trained beagle to be able to call them off a trail.
Just have to stick with them and when your ready to head home catch them as they trail or hunt all day till the dog is worn out.
When I was young had to run many down and,carry them out.

[tarponnut]

Corn Feeders,lol! We have several cottontails that visit our East Grove feeder morning and evening. I've killed two from the stand there.
They hang out until the hogs show up.

[bofish-IL]

We usually have a half dozen or more people with some pushing and others blocking brushy or grassy draws.

One person in the club usually shoots his limit with his bow. He tried showing me how to look for the shiny black eye to catch them while they are setting. Had one he tried to point out 8yds away and I never did see it until he finally shot it.

[96ssportsp]

Originally posted by Mr. fingers:
I just don't trust my beagle to come back. He gets on a scent and he does not even know his name. So I always leave him on a lead which I know is defeating the purpose. He does get me on rabbits but I know it would be more effective if I could let him go.
How do I get over this. The main reason we got a beagle was for bunny hunting with our bows . But I have heard so many  sad stories where beagle are gone overnight or days and return frost bit or extremely exhausted or sometimes not at all.
No bunny is worth losing my best friend.
What to do?

You are really missing out. I "love" running my Beagles. Invest in a good shock collar, learn how to use it, train the dog basic obedience and go run. I very seldom try to kill a rabbit, just like to enjoy hound music. Be smart about where you run, avoid any area with busy roads.Please let me know how you do, any pointers, I would be glad to help. Have fun, Scott.

[T Sunstone]

All I need is Mickey.

 

[Altiman94]

When I was a kid we used to hunt brushy areas and stop around the brush piles.  Sometimes you'd get them to run out and one of the hunters would get a shot.  Never hunted them with a dog, but that sounds fun too.

[buckeye_hunter]

A good slow working beagle is too much fun to miss!

[ishoot4thrills]

I have found that if you jump a cottontail and don't get a shot at it, come back the next morning to the same exact spot. Only this time, watch for him to be very near or in the same spot he was in yesterday. Now you can walk slowly and look for his eye(s) in the weeds/brush and there's a very good chance you can see him and shoot him before he jumps.

[reddogge]

They do have really good GPS systems for dogs now. They are a little pricey ($500) but what's a good hunting dog worth? Besides you get a nice Garmin handheld GPS with the collar.

[jrchambers]

I do a lot of bunny hunting here in ak, some times we do drives with 3-5 guys and push to creeks or large openings, it works well as one guy pushes a bunny and it usualy doubles back into some one else.
I have learned a lot about doing it by my self, and found it to work well.  I have a bit of a routine where I walk in large 20 yard zig zag patterns randomly switching directions.  I know they hear me and see me but they seem to hold tight when im not moving in a direct path.  Ill take three or four steps and look around real hard.  when I see one I try not to look at it and slowly meander my way to and then away until I see a lane to shoot.  When I do jump one ill just watch it run and slowly work my way in random zig zags in to the area.  90% of the time I will find it again.  I think that I sound like a moose to them and when they see me  I think that they feel like there camo is working.  they know when a predator sees them and if they think you don't know they are there they tend to just sit tight.
im sure it is different every were but here in the snow it works well.  when the pop was up I could get 4-10 in a couple hours and in maybe a three acre area.

[larry]

Mr. Fingers, get a shock collar for your beagle, mine has just a tone warning and 5 different levels. Beagles aren't able to have their nose and ears work at the same time.  

[ChuckC]

I think a single or maybe as many as two slow working beagle(s) is perfect for bowhunters.  It will push the rabbit, but not run it (unless it gets very close).  This gives you a better chance at shots.

ChuckC

About 25 years back I had a basset hound. Not a nice dog at all. It would try to kill you if you sat on the couch with her. It would growl at anyone that looked at her food. I am surprized she never bit the kids. She loved retrieving out of water. But man that dog could hunt. One day I was going to take her out I grabbed my heavy Hill bunny bow, opened the back door of my car, she jumped in. Before I could get in the car she pooped in the back seat. On that day she ran over 20 rabbits, I got 5 of them. On that same day, the day after pheasant season closed, she locked up and pointed two cock pheasants, they were 12 feet from me and two feet from her. On the way back to the car she sniffed the wind and took off. A quarter mile across a field, she jumped a jack rabbit and ran it past me twice. On the second pass, she looked at me not shooting and gave a "what the hell?" look. Jack rabbit season was not open. When I finally got back to the car she would not go in. There were hen pheasants nearby. Finally, I got her to go in the car. Before I could even sit down, once again, she pooped in the back seat. She got run over one day running a rabbit that took off in a straight away run. She was not even a year old when she died.