even if it is late in the day, just to tie you in numbers.
That’s what I told Brag.

We started out across the road in a water filled bottom. The pack split with Precious (jeeze what a name) and Penny trailing near me, when Kate, Lucy and Lacey opened up on a hot trail further down the long narrow bottom.
A few minutes later, both Precious and Penny gave up and ran to the rest of the pack to join the race. The rabbit moved up on the adjoining hillside dipping repeatedly into the bottom trying to shake the determined dogs in the water.

I had just finished crossing the narrow stream, trying to get to the edge before the rabbit dipped back down, when I heard splashing a few yards up.
Rabbit!
I spun and fired a shot that had the buck, fipping repeatedly in the air before dying. I stood there for a few minutes before realizing that I had shot a stray that was just trying to get out of the way.

The rabbit shifted to the other side of the bottom, where Rye and I took up positions, me on the top line where the pin oaks met the pines, Rye, 20 yards down in the bottom.
I saw the bunny a long way off and tracked him till he made a right angle turn between Rye and myself.
I didn’t realize that Rye had shifted up the hill and the rabbit was racing straight toward him, when I rolled my second buck of the race.
Not that I would intentionally cut off Rye.
Heh

Later in the morning, a third buck froze in place when I lifted my gun. I had all the time in the world to line up on his head before I gently squeezed the trigger.
Snap!
I started cussing the gunsmith for all I was worth as I tried to find the rabbit that had disappeared at the click of the firing pin. The 16ga Stevens had just came back for the gunsmith because the right firing pin was dropping hard enough on the shell to set it off. I opened the gun and sure enough I saw the dimple that the pin had made on the shell.
I removed the shell And found out that I had forgotten to reload after killing the second rabbit,

Sigh!
The lunch time score was
Rimfire 2
Brag 1
Cuz and Rye….well, you know that I don’t keep up with such.

Funny thing about the Rutherford property was one area had a ton of rabbits while across the road you had to walk long and hard to jump one.
Why you even had to sweep the pills off the stump if you wanted to sit down.

You have to be careful sitting on stumps here in the south. Fire ants in someone else's pants is pretty entertaining. In your pants....

Cuz finally did jump just before we got back to the trucks. The rabbit sailed down the cliff on the other side of the hill. I’m exaggerating about the cliff…a little bit. But I did notice that Cuz and Rye stayed at the top while Brag and I stumbled to the bottom hanging on to tree trunks to keep our balance.
As the rabbit, a small sager, made a loop, I checked to make sure that I had loaded my gun after lunch…with live shells. The rabbit appeared at my feet as I closed the gun. I shot at a distance of only fifteen feet and missed. The rabbit took off. I tracked him briefly and fired the left barrel just before he was to drop out of sight.
3 to 1

We moved back to the other property and as we parked at the property line that we shared with Green Fields, a pay to shoot quail operation, a rabbit bolted across the logging rode.

Then Brag got hot and killed a stray during that race and the rabbit being run to tie things up. Just before we moved to another spot, he killed one on the jump to go ahead by one.

After moving and a long walk, I jumped a small sager from underneath a debris pile.

Later, I told Brag, “I ain’t going to shoot a rabbit on the jump, even if it is late in the day, just to tie you in numbers.”
That’s what I told Brag.
But what I didn’t tell him was that I had a camera in one of my hands trying to get a picture of Kate walking a log, head down and smelling when I almost stepped on the rabbit in a patch of loggin debris. I wasn’t sharp enough to realize I couldn’t get a shot at the rabbit as it boiled past a startled Penny and should have just snapped a picture. But, alas, my picture taking abilities are web famous.

And I didn’t tie Brag. The rabbit survived to be hunted again, either by us or other predators.

Final score
We got 7
Brag 4
Rimfire 3