A few words of advice to those of you new to my beloved South. If you’re not going to go back to your native land anytime soon (don't let this stop you and take a friend), you can add to the general comfort of your day by adding some baby powder to your underwear after every bath. Not the type made out of cornstarch. That just rolls up into icky little balls between the cheeks. I recommend using talc powder.

The "chiggar" / "chigger" / "redbug" search string is not being used as much as last year. The weather could have something to do with it and I've noticed on my pre-season exercises that I'm not getting the little s#!ts like I did last season. Still, if you itching and want to see what you can do about it, visit Natural History Biologist, Nina Bicknese who will tell you there ain't "nothing" that you really can do. The bug is long dead.

and says that the turkey hunters are reporting a bumper crop of snakes at Seale, Alabama this year. They, the turkey hunters, are like me and know that there is only one type of snake in Alabama and that's the deadly copper-headed water rattler.

Cuz says he had a gobbler working his way to a hen near Cuz when the hen was spooked by some house dogs. I had the same problem last deer season. The dogs showed up every morning and worked their way through the area.
Now, I don't shoot dogs unless there is a clear need, but still people need to get their dogs under control. I think many of the owners don't really realize the havoc that their dogs do.

Rabbit Season starts this Saturday though the weather doesn’t match the season or my mood. I’m still in fishing mode while some of my Georgia friends have been primitive weapon hunting for four weeks or so. No. lol. Not now, djmed. I’m saving my annual primitive weapon rant for a couple more weeks .
I’m just not in the killing mood….yet.
Maybe it’s the thought of sitting in a tree, 94*, mosquitoes and no see’ums raising welts on my exposed sweaty flesh and actually killing a deer.
Then I have to find him. You know, with a bow, he heads into the next bottom with the steepest slope and the meanest briars before falling. Gut him, Drag him, Process him. No, there’s plenty of time for that yet when the weather cools down and I have a kid along.

What got me on this subject tonight is that I was getting my rabbit hunting gear together. The 16ga 1929 Fox double barrel is safely in the gun safe. If you want it, you going to have to work for it.

Wasn’t much packing involved. The soft $5 camo packback that I bought a few years ago at some clearance sale had all of last years gear still in place.

my friends.
I've been after deer with a recurve since the 15 of October. I have some news on Sugar and it's not good. It's going to be a hard post to write.

I went in with Uncle NoPass’s grandson, Brag when he called last year to say he had found four good rabbit dogs and did I want to go in since he couldn’t afford but two of them.
That’s the short sweet version of how Sugar, Mazie, Julie and Dixie came to occupy my pen. Sugar was a problem from the start and I developed a strong dislike and constantly urged Brag to take her back or get rid of her. She didn’t travel well and was skittish as all get out. She didn’t want anyone to touch her. But over the course of this summer she seemed to come around. She became a fairly happy dog in the pen and ran the cabin rabbits well. But sometimes you’d see this look come in her eye like “What’s he doing? He’s gonna hurt me I just know it” No amount of coaching would get her to come to me or anyone else.

On the last run, with just Maizie, Julie and Dixie, I looked down and ther she was. I reached down and scratched her ear before slipping the electric pine limb from around her neck. She continued to hunt and they ran a short race before losing the rabbit. A few minutes later, Sugar jumped a deer and was off and running with Mazie, Julie and Dixie in tow.

They split up with Dixie and Sugar running one deer off out of hearing. Julie and Mazie ran short loop. I watched the doe bound by a scant 15 yards from me. Only Julie had her collar on and I knocked her in a ditch with it. She tried to scramble up and I knocked her back in to it again. I repeated once more before letting her climb out.
I found Sugar and Dixie over at the Shady Grove Church but as before, she refused to come.

She had been out a month and members of the club would get a glimpse of her as she got camp scraps and such. I tried two days running to get her last week. I knew it was time for a decision. At the end of the second day, I could still see the look in her eye. There was nothing left to do. I reached for a shell

I ran 4
I came home with 2
sigh

Sigh!
"Don't miss the ride home"
That should be Rule #2 for Rabbit Dogs. . Rule #1 is "Don't run deer"
They had been doing so good to. Not even a glance up a hot deer trail. Then....

I was sowing a winter feed plot while Sugar, Dixie, Julie and Mazie nosed around a old log pile down the firebreak from me. I heard Julie and Sugar's excited squeals as the track got hot.
they raced parallel to the firebreak towards the Jeep before curling back higher on the hill. Sugar and Dixie had on the "electric pine limbs" (shock collars). I won't use them unless I'm 100% certain that they are running a deer. The race curled back towards the jeep near the top of a ridge. The woods through there were thick with overplanted pines. The dogs dropped over to the opposite side of the ridge before turning and racing straight away. I ran trying to get to the top before they topped the next hill. To late, they were gone chasing a whitetail.

I caught up with them a hour later near the Shady Grove Church on Green Burt. Mazie, Julie and Dixie ran over to me and turned belly up. They knew they had done wrong. I put them in their box and went to get Sugar. I said "Come here, Sugar!" she looked at me and I saw the change come over her. "Oh my God What is he going to do to me. He's going to .... I just know it" and she was off into the woods. Most of my readers will remember we went through this exact same thing in the same area last May " Sugar, besides not traveling well, is also something of a mental case. Someone somehow ruined her.

Now, like I told you in “Sugar’s back Dang it” I wouldn’t see much need in looking for Sugar except…..she has on a expensive collar. I hope when I see her again, she comes to me, otherwise, I’ll have to bring the collar back alone.

Tenn game tonight.
War Damn Eagle

I'm loading 2's utility trailor with my deer stands and camping gear. The camping gear is packed in plastic tubs with the tops duct taped down. White gas stove and lantern, oil lamp, weather box, toliet and all the rest of the creature comforts I've come to expect for my deer hunting trip on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama.

My hunting clothes have been packed with pine boughs for the last few weeks. The arrows are scattering in a wide area around the target, the more likely for me to get a hit when he jumps the string.
heh

I'm going to run Julie, Mazie, Sugar and Dixie in the morning. I'll cache my gear then, in advance of my camping trip which will start on the 14 of October until .......

Well, not really.
But I did have to jerk my leg out of the path of the onrushing rabbit and in the process tumble backwards into some blackberry briars. Seeing the trail now completely blocked by the thrashing human, the rabbit turned and raced around a impenetrable wood pile straight into Rye who was doubled over slapping his knees. Seeing the rabbit bearing down, Rye did a quick three step backwards to get out of the charging bunny’s way where he stepped onto the edge of the horseshoe pit. Rye hung there for a moment, arms wind milling. Later, he told me, all he could think of was the iron stake and the position he was falling. Personally, I told him, I thought the conversation in the emergency room would be interesting. “Get the extra large vice grips”

this morning, if we can get in the gate.
If we can't, we'll run the same area Brag and I did last weekend. I'll walk the paved road while watching for crossing deer with some wayward shortlegged beagles in tow.

Pine limb extension

Brag and I pulled into Cuz’s yard to pick up his rabbit dog, Judy, about 6:45 this morning. She took one look at who had arrived and started yelping excitedly. She knew what was up and approved at the top of her voice.
The lights were out in Cuz’s house and in Rye’s across road. And they stayed out. Turns out, they had had a long night at the dog track over at Shorter, Alabama.

Brag, Uncle NoPass's grandson and my main rabbit hunting partner and I are going to exercise the dogs in the morning at our club on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama.

Some of the younger bucks are staying at the "cabin" tonight, so they'll probably be throwing rocks at us at daylight when we turn our dogs out to run the cabin rabbits. Nothing's better for a rough hangover than then sound of a pack of rabbit dog's racing around the "yard" in full cry.
heh

Sugar got introduced to the electric pine limb last evening.
And she found it to be a shocking experience.
Heh

She’s worn the shock collar before but has never experienced its effect till yesterday afternoon. See, Sugar has turned into a howler along with her other quirks and neurosis. And the bad thing is she fires up Julie, Maizie and Dixie. The sounds, the four happy @$$holes make in their pen when the neighbors cat decides to take a sloooooow evening stroll past, are pretty much the sounds they make when they run a rabbit. And that sound, my friends, is music to my ears. Except for Julies squeal on an extremely hot track. That sounds more like a guy with his privates caught in a pair of vise grips and explains some of my finest shots. I was shuddering so bad I sprayed the rabbit rather than shot at him. But alas not all my neighbors have the fine cultured taste that I have in music and this isn’t that music, anyway. But it is a truly and awesome sound when you have four beagles reaching for the high notes, cascading over each other reaching ever higher.

in the morning. Sugar and Dixie have the electric pine limb s on and I'm daring Sugar to run a deer. Cuz told us to pick up Judy, his rabbit dog. One of the finest in these parts, she truely won't run nothing but a rabbit. I've always wondered how Cuz beat Uncle NoPass out of her.

I wore my snake leggin's all day. They were warm but not unbearable and while I was aware of the extra weight, they didn't tire me out.
and when I saw this at the end of the day, it made the heat and extra weight suddenly seem worthwile.

Once again I apologize for sending you over to another one of my sites. I'll fix it, I swear.

Oh, and remember to hang fly paper around the dog pen to help control flies

I wore my snake leggin's all day. They were warm but not unbearable and while I was aware of the extra weight, they didn't tire me out. Especially
Sorry about having to leave the page, I have to do some repair and setup to the media directory