We’ve switched completely over from all hunting to just rabbit hunting this month. Surprisingly the weather has been ideal for rabbit hunting this February. Seems like the last 2 or so years it’s been HOT all February. This year it’s actually felt like February is supposed to, COLD!
Hunt #1
We joined up with Gary Smith and crew for a local hunt in Rankin Co. We’ve hunted with Gary and his family/camp for the past few years and it has become a planned annual event for at least one, if not more hunts at their camp. For the past 3 years Gary’s hunting partner, Allen, has been talking about this ‘other’ place we need to hunt. Allen seemed to think the rabbits would be plentiful in there. This year we finally made it to the new part of the property for a morning hunt.
Upon arrival I noticed it was a swampy area. It also had good looking cover and showed promising signs of being a good swamp rabbit place. We turned the dogs loose and a hunting we went. It didn’t take long for a dog to strike and off the race went. Man it was a fine sounding race too. The older dogs were pouring it on, except BG who is getting some age on her. Figured they were running it too strong for her and we kept setting up to cut off the rabbit. Seemed like we could never get set up in the right spot. The rabbit would seem to slip between us and continue to another patch of thicket. This race went on for about an hour before we finally saw the rab…….DEER!!!!!!!! I thought my young dog had come into her arrival and was showing signs of being the jam up rabbit dog I had hoped for and here she was being the lead deer dog on the race. Well, Dogtra shut that junk down quickly. We regrouped and started a new drive. Didn’t take too long till we jumped a rabbit. We knew this one was a rabbit because we actually saw this one. The race was on! Gary bagged the first rabbit and it seemed after that they just started popping out one after another. We had rabbit races going pretty much steady the whole morning after that. Didn’t get a group shot because the rain came in pretty hard at 12 and we loaded up pretty quickly. I think we finished the hunt with half a dozen or so big swamp rabbits.
Terry, Allen’s son, with his first rabbit on the hunt.
Even I was able to get in on the action this round!
Classic tailgate shot! SWAMPER STYLE!
Hunt #2
Greg Smith, Not Gary Smith above, different Smith and different first name in case you missed it, has been hitting me up about hunting his old grandparents’ place down in Prentiss the past couple years. This year with 4 kids, sports, the weather, and life just in so many directions I haven’t booked/obligated many dates to a hunt. Mostly because I can’t promise I’ll be available for that date when it gets here. This worked out good because Greg and I put together a hunt kinda last minute because I noticed a few days ahead of time I would be free and we could go. Now here’s the funny part, Greg, not Gary, brought his hunting partner along too……..Allen! Both Greg and Gary share the same main hunting partner, or at least by name anyway. No, this wasn’t Gary’s hunting buddy Allen, this was Greg’s hunting partner Allen. You still with me? Well we showed up and Greg also had his son, Noah, along for the hunt. Just so happens I brought my son too. No, my son’s name isn’t Noah, so this isn’t fixing to get overly complicated, unless you’re already confused at who’s who and who we were hunting with. Well Greg had a beautiful place. We walked yelling up the dogs and trying to kick up a bunny. We did this for about 3 1/2 hours and never could find one for the dogs to run. Now I’ve been on a lot of rabbit hunts over the years but this was the first rabbit hunt I’d had where we didn’t even jump a rabbit to run. Don’t worry, we reminded Greg multiple times about this issue and how he would go down in our books as the first, and hopefully only, rabbit hunt where not only did we not kill a rabbit, not shoot at a rabbit, but not even jump a rabbit to run! But here’s where the lemonade part comes in. My son had a BLAST on this hunt. Allen walked with the boys, Noah and Tray, talking and listening to them. My son had so much fun on this rabbit-less rabbit hunt that he asked if we could go back to hunt there again……Yea, odd how sometimes what we perceive as not a great hunt to some may be so much fun. Once we realized there were no rabbits that wanted to run we did break out some skeet and fired the boom sticks a few times. We let the boys shoot their guns and they had a blast!
Noah and Tray enjoying the no rabbits rabbit hunt…
When life gives you lemons…..Shoot Skeet!
Hope you didn’t get the wrong idea about Hunt #2, it may have been one of the best this year. Not so much for the adult hunters but the youth involved seemed to have a blast. I’ll call that a great hunt every time!
Remember the next time you head outdoors to take someone new with you. You may not realize it but just taking them along, even on what you think is a bad hunt, maybe a blast to them.
Share our passion, be safe, have fun, and enjoy the outdoors!
