for Saturday’s hunt in the wilds of Opelika, Alabama where Brag, Plunker and myself, Rimfire, the current members of the East Alabama Rabbit Hunters and Souse Eaters Social Club met Will and Jordan, our hosts.

Now MarkTippins is a good ol boy who happens to be a lawyer as well as quality of life giver to Ruby, his beagle companion. You needn’t hold the lawyer part against him though if you just wing him you might want to finish him off before the lawsuits start to fly. Anyway, MarkTippins is going through a nickname adjustment. I was telling Cuz we were going on a hunt arranged by MarkTippins, he, Cuz, kept saying “who?”. Finally it dawned on Cuz, who said “Oh you mean One Dog”.
MarkTippins, you may as well get used to your new nickname, “One Dog” even if you get a whole pack.

Our three vehicle caravan pulled up to Will and Jordan’s house with Will outside. Will told us he was a little surprised but Jordan was ready to. Neither had really been on a good rabbit hunt before and Brag and I were ready to show them how much fun they had been missing.
Sigh!
The “girls” turned sorry. We pulled onto the couple of hundred acre back yard, parked and started walking the hillside we chose to start on. It was relatively clean, but the dogs started cold trailing. Lucy was the instigator and as I’ve mentioned several time before, has a good cold nose. Sometimes to good. This time, Julie joined in. Julie Doesn’t have a super cold nose. Nope, the track has to be pretty warm for her to start her high pitched squall.
Up and over the next hillside, back down into the creek bottom. Back up the hillside they started on down the spine of the ridge, all with just enough noise for us to expect the dogs to take off on a jumped rabbit….for the better part of a hour.
We finally pulled them off and moved to another place that Will thought we would get a rabbit going.
He was right, theing is the dogs didn’t want to cooperate. Brag jumped and called the dogs. The rabbit was seen twice more by both Will and Jordan, but the dogs couldn’t get the trail going. It was absolutely embarrassing, that the “girls”, who I’ve been bragging on most of the year, couldn’t find a blazingly hot scent.

Pills were everywhere in that thick briar patch that the “boys” pointed out to us, but the “girls” just couldn’t seem to find a rabbit. I was beginning to suspect that they were bsing us and just ignoring the scents in order to keep from having to run when Lucy hit a super hot track.
The race was on.
It was thick, so I didn’t move much from the slight opening I was watching. The rabbit circled right back to Brag where a single shot from his 20 ga. double barrel put him down.

The next race came shortly after on the edge of the bottom. The rabbit circled a couple of time. I was in a good place but decided to shift my position. And as usual, picked the wrong time.

Plunker who was on the other side of the small creek said as I ducked to move under a bent sweet gum sapling, the rabbit popped out of some brush and darted down into the creek bed. Plunker snapped off his safety, ready to take the shot when the bunny climbed up his side of the bank. The rabbit neve showed. Eveidently he ran up or down the creek. Or maybe even angled away thoruhg some nearby brush. The dogs being ontheir D- game couldn’t find the trail again.

The last race of the morning came near a larger creek.
Will saw the rabbit and called out. I called the dogs to the trail. As we waited, Will asked if I wanted him to shoot the rabbit. Turned out the rabbit had just squatted during all the comotion. I think that Will just wanted to hear the dogs run.
Good lad, I did to.

The rabbit, when put to flight, ran straight down into a nearby bottom. Brag and I told Will to hang tight where the rabbit was jumped since most times they came right back to that spot. We wanted Will to make the kill.

The dogs stayed with him for several minutes until they lost him. Brag and I walked in to see what the problem was this time.
Sheets of water. The bottom on the edge of the creek was covered in large patches of water only inches deep. The dogs were looking, but the trail was hopelessly lost.

Ruby and the Rabbit Journal pack were getting covered in mud and muck from the swampy stinking area. Ruby, being a somewhat pampered if deprived beagle (at least in the things that matter to hunting dogs) seemed to relish the smell. I was thinking that One Dog was going to like the thought of putting her into his shinny polished very very white vehicle. Especially, since Ruby rode shotgun.

We had to call it a day. It was 1 o’clock. Will and Jordan had to be at a wedding. Will said they were already running late and his GF was going to be ticked since she didn’t want him to go hunting this morning in the first place. Will is showing some good instincts. Best to let “them” know what has top priority to start with, eh djmed? And as I told Will, “running late” was something that ran hand in hand especially with hunting and clashing appointments.
We enjoyed the hunt with Will and Jordan. We’re going to try to have them go with us, one more time, before the rapidly approaching end to this season arrives.

We decided to move over to Plunkers place in Chambers County.
There we picked up two more rabbits but the “girls” weren’t showing any interest unless we jumped the rabbit for them.
Brag and I were together when he asked me if that was a rabbit that had just darted away. We were on top of a hill on our way back to the green fields having gave up on the area we were walking. I couldn’t tell him what it was. I saw a flash that could have been anything. Lucy came over and confirmed it was what Brag thought it was.
Once again Brag made the shot.

The final rabbit of the day came as we walked a really thick area between a green field and a creek.
I had stalled out against a particulary thick stand of green cane briars that were just starting to bud when I heard something skurry away from my feet. It seems that you had to kick the rabbits out of their beds on that day. I don’t know if I jumped it or the dogs, but Lucy, in the bush next to me said it was a burning hot track.

I waited for the rabbit to circle back till Plunker called out that they had crossed the creek. I moved to a small clearing and stood near the creek watching in the vague direction of the dogs when I saw the rabbit started down a small line of brush on the opposite side, about as far out as I could shoot the old Fox 16ga. Two shots and he was down.
We made one more fruitless walk with the dogs trailing behind me before calling it a day

Final Score
Brag 2
Rimfire 1

And a final note about how sorry the pack was Saturday. Brag left word that they had ran a lot better on the Sunday Capp’s hunt while I was in Church.
Figures.