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The first one
"The runnin and gunnin crew had their first hunt this past Saturday. It sure was warm and dry. we had 8 dogs on the ground in a small area and the dogs had made 2 passes with the rabbit when a deer decided to get up and leave. you couldn't make me believe a deer had held that tight. Anyway we jumped 6 and killed 4 and had an evening full of muscle cramps. Guess the dogs aren't the only ones who need to get into shape. Good luck. "

and the second
"How are things on your end??? We had a rough day on Friday. Hunted all day, jumped and bagged 3. Well killed 3 the dogs beat us to one so we only bagged 2. Hunted again on Sunday and it was great hunting weather. We went 7 for 7 and had some really good runs. We hunted hard, but the rabbits are getting scarce. I sure hope it picks up because I hate those days when there is a considerable amount of time between jumps cause I’m afraid they will jump on the first thing going the opposite direction. Been lucky so far. Well hope you’re having better luck on your end. Drop a line when u get a chance and rest assured the runnin and gunnin gang will keep things rolling on this end."]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1313 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:03:58 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1311
This is the reply

"We at extenddeerseason.com do not wish to take any days away from the small game hunters. The majority of those hunters who have responded to our initiative actually suggested splitting deer season and taking ten days from December by closing it for the stalk or still hunters at that time. Deer hunting with dogs would be allowed during that period on a permit basis only. All small game hunting would continue the entire time the deer season would be closed in December. Currently small game hunters have a 151 day hunting season. If opossum or raccoon are included it is a 181 day season. Deer hunters, to include bow hunters, have a 108 day season. Based on these numbers, small game hunters already have a much longer season than deer hunters. On private or leased land, what one hunts is decided by the owner or lessee. On public land, in the south Alabama area, the small game hunter has as many or more opportunities to hunt small game as the deer hunter has to hunt deer. In closing, I personally think there would be little impact on the small game hunter in south Alabama if deer hunting season is extended. Everything seems to be working well in Florida and Mississippi where deer season extends into February. So actually you wouldn't be loosing any days in this scenario. "

Want to take a guess on how many leases would let you on the property during the ten day shutdown?]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1311 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:00:27 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1309 The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board will hold its first scheduled meeting of 2012 on Saturday, February 4, in the State Capitol Auditorium in Montgomery, Ala.

Yeah, I know, all of us small game hunters will be in the woods. I fussed about the date before, but the general attitude was "tough"

If the weather is to bad to hunt, try to make it. The deer hunters will be there in droves demanding a February deer season, permission to shoot over corn and other perks]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1309 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:57:08 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1307
]]> Rabbit Hunts 11-12 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1307 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:05:59 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1304 Yellow line on the left
When your host tells you that, you might want to ask “when going in what direction?”

Or, file it away with other excuses like, “my dogs don't run deer, they just got lost”, “ I don't know where that last sausage biscuit went”, “my gun jammed” or “Sorry, I wasn't cutting you off, I didn't see you standing there.

We hunted in Pittsview off of Lewis Grocery road.

In attendance was Middle Boy, who's gun jammed, explaining his zero performance. See above


Dilla, the armadilla killa who, shock of shocks, didn't fire a shot. His dad's wallet should be very happy since he usually burns up a box of shells to get one rabbit.

Dusty1 who got one rabbit and an assist on another by kicking it as it went by.


Brag, who had nothing to brag about today, as he went 1 ½ for nine shots today. The ½ came as he cleaned up Dusty1's rabbit with the broke ribs. I don't plan to get between Brag and a rabbit on our next hunt.


Dusty1's dad who killed 2 and shot at another one at about 75 yards. I was looking way off in the distance trying to see the rabbit shot at unaware that the rabbit was racing by me much much closer. Dusty1's dad, of course, didn't see me in position to kill the rabbit. See above.



Plunker supplied the stew for our hunt and disappeared in the early afternoon after blowing a tire. I've told him and told him about wearing tennis shoes while rabbit hunting


And what is a rabbit hunting lunch without souse meat


All told, we went 6 for 9 with your host killing the first rabbit he shot at and missing the next 3.


We even had a good excuse for one of the rabbits that got away


Dusty1's dad 2
Dusty1 1 ½
Brag 1 ½
rimfire 1

Next up
Tuskegee ]]> Rabbit Hunts 11-12 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1304 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:08:16 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1303
Myself and most of the dogmen I know will sell out and quit hunting if the season is extended. It doesn't make sense to maintain a pack of rabbit dogs to hunt 2 weeks a year

Alabama’s deer hunting season currently opens in mid-October and ends on January 31
each year. Some Alabama hunters have requested an extension of deer season into part or
all of February.]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1303 Mon, 9 Jan 2012 20:30:55 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1301 I'm changing hosting and I was beginning to wonder if all the old content was lost forever

Now, do I set the therabbitjournal .com/journal as a archive and use therabbitjournal .com as my main page using a new content management system

Any thoughts?]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1301 Mon, 9 Jan 2012 18:20:03 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1299 Brother and I, three old dogs, three hours, six rabbits, shooting my homade all brass .410 shells converted from British 303's in my Winchester Model 9410 Packer Lever Action, and got one with my 6 shooter 22lr Heritage RoughRider.



The Long: for info on how I loaded brass .410's http://www.endtimesreport.com/410reloading.html

I've not been around for a while, working too much, and building a 22ft wooden boat I hope to have done before the year anniversary date of starting it in February. After a morning of working on the boat Kyacker and I decide we'd let the dogs out. I'm down to two of my original 6 of "Team Tombstone" plus one that is a unknown amount older that I picked up after mine were two years old. Josie, Ellie (named after Tombstone Characters) and Molly. Out of the truck at Grandmothers, the last private land available to hunt as there has been a mass dry up of hunting land DDS (during deer season). 100yards and Kyacker calls Tally-Ho which lets team Tombstone know that a rabbit has been positively spotted; they come eagerly awaiting a point to the trail. We'll call this one Wascally Wabbit, he crossed a stream immediately after jump, the girl were wise to that move and is didn't phase them a bit, heading to the back toward the swamp they cross back over again. Then immediately cross the water again and a field road. We change position to the field road and Kyacker blasts a rabbit very shortly afterward, but WAIT! It is not Wascally Wabbit, this one is an obviously larger cotton tail! We'd switched rabbits in mid race. Satisfied with our immediate take I approach a brush pile of broken crab apple tops 50ft out in the bus hogged open. I climb upon the brush pile and I announce I saw something come out the other side. Bam, Bam, Kyacker's Mossberg .410 pump reports. Kyacker, "Dang I'm rusty he's still going. Team Tombstone sounds the charge and run off crossing the stream immediately, then in the woods just out of sight and barely in hearing range. Silence, we're awaiting the check work through, and I see the girls coming back. "I can't believe that they are giving up on that rabbit!"......."HEY YOU GOT HIM!, Ellie is toting him back to us!".....Big praise and two rabbits in the sack what a day. Kyacker says, "I want to hear your gun bark now, I want to see your homemade brass shells work." I tell him, "When I see one you'll hear it bark." Being on the grown up wet weather stream side of the gathered soybean field and having already worked it back to the edge of the wooded swamp, we decide to cut back at an angle to the opposite corner of the field and work the grown up fence row side back up to the swamp on that side, then cover the swamp and come back out at the brush pile and go to the truck. On our about face Molly fires up...Its Wascally Wabbit again for sure. Another sighting is made way back from us he darts out in the open bare soybean field briefly and back in, crossing the stream. The girls were on him crossing the stream for probably the fourth time on Wascally Wabbit several short circles in the thick never coming out and possibly but not for sure two more crossings of the stream there was a big lose, and we pulled the dogs off at next chance eager to hunt the rest of the place. Wascally Wabbit is sharp and there is no need wasting too much day on him when we can easily take other and possibly swampers in the back, Wascally isn't very large at all, we've seen him twice now. Finally the crossing of the field is made and we hunt our way back to the swamp. Not a rabbit all along the fence row, then on a slight high spot in the low swamp I see a cotton fuzz sneaking into a thicket around a fallen tree. Tally-ho I call, but no need Josie saw it too and it is on. This small thicket is kind of alone with open all around , well as open as in the woods gets. I take a high stump position and watch for him to come out the other side. The dogs go in mark all around in it, and backtrack from where I saw him go in back out to the fencerow corner. This back and forth was repeated four or five times and we never saw it again. That one might have holed immediately in the thicket and the dogs tracked it from an unknown slow jump ahead of us coming down the fencerow. Working down the swamp I tell Kyacker which is ahead with three dogs between us, what would you think if I took this 6 shooter Heritage 22 and executed one behind the head? I'd be impressed but only if you quick draw. Well, I am not going to do that, but get ready cause he's pointed at you if I miss. Kyacker, "YOUR SERIOUS!", I thought you were just joshing!....I cock the single action 3 times to get past my rat shot to a real bullet....POP the rabbit kicks twice and I pick him up showing to Kyacker another cotton tail. He let Kyacker and three dogs walk all over him and in three steps I'd have passed him. That’s three rabbits in the sack. 20 feet more and the dogs sound the alarm, Kyacker spots it barreling out and says, "We know how this game is played, that’s the same track every hear where it goes all the way out front and then loops the rim of the swamp woods headed North, cut him off at the old truck front end!". Following Kyacker's intuition the girls run him hard without a single check for about 5 minutes and BAM...Dead rabbit with my homemade converted British 303's to 2.5 inch .410's number 6. Back to the swamp water edge continuing south another is jumped and taken quickly, a good cotton tail, for some reason no swampers. Kyacker says, we've had a great day, let’s cut back toward the truck and we'll probably jump one more on the way. As we break out of the woods, pass the brush pile, Molly strikes again. We spread out and Wascally Wabbit breaks into the open for a short piece coming to me, as he turns in the briars I give him a dose through the edge of the briars. He can be heard moving on, I spot him in another opening finally I've got him, fizz....a dud!...Dangit! I rack another and he is gone, and I can't find my precious brass shell. Kyacker crosses the water with the race, hollers they've crossed the field road, come help me cover it! When I find this shell! I hear the dogs make the turn around and I abandon the shell. As I make eye contact with the curved field road, here comes Wascally wide open. Like a scene in a Rambo movie, Wascally is rounding the curve in the road, seemingly in slow motion a circle of dirt jumps up 6 inches behind him, I'm drawing my Winchester, another circle of dirt jumps up 6 inches behind him. He is now completely around my side of the curve and coming straight to me....Fizz...ANOTHER DUD! Wascally darts back into the briars as I draw my 6 gun as my shotgun is empty. No shot is given nor taken. Kyacker catches up and asks where he is, I tell him in the briars last seen pointed toward the brush pile. As I speak, the girls cross the stream hot on the trail and as I'm reloading my gun Wascally crosses the open into the brush pile, Kyacker can't shoot cause I'm in the way and I'm well...reloading. Wascally is completely surrounded and an open 50ft dash for his best escape route. He endured the girls in there with him for at least 15 minutes when I say, "Kyacker, you can handle this I need to pick up my last shell." I retrieve my last all brass homemade shell and as I turn around BAM...Kyacker shooting from the hip says, "THAT ONE WAS IN SELF DEFENSE"! Wascally charged him, Ellie being first to the crime scene picked up Wascally and brought him the rest of the way to us. We jumped one more that crossed the bean field completely out of range as the girls put heat on him and he was apparently abducted by a UFO at the other side. We loaded up and I bought the girls Vienne's at the local store when we went by for the great performance they'd put up today.
]]> Rabbit Hunts 11-12 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1299 Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:26:06 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1297
And what made it worse was Plunker informed me that all BBQ fundraisers will now be limited to the spring.
One Dawg missed the last one.

It may have been the last East Alabama Rabbit Hunters & Souse Eaters Social Club Invitational morning hunt followed by the Ridge Grove BBQ Ridge Grove Volunteer Fire Department "All you can eat BBQ" fundraiser, but it won't be the last time that we hunt Plunker's property.



The members of the EARH&SESC in attendance were Middle Boy, Brag, Dilla, Steve and myself, rimfire.
Djmed said he felt to rough to attend. That's what happens when you live in a University town and your pushing 40

One Dawg, I've already explained.

Plunker was cooking the stew.

Cuz has pretty well quit hunting.

Dusty1, well, he broke up with his GF and since he attends Auburn, well,..........

The most important ones in attendance were The Rabbit Journal pack. The Guys stayed home along with Hammering Kate.
I brought Penny Sue, Sally Mae, Debra Kay, Lucy Lu (one of these days I'll run out of gf's to name the hounds after) Sister Sissy and Lil Bit.
They preformed outstandingly all morning long.
We had five races with three kills. If I remember right it took a single shot on all three. Our first race ended where it usually does when we start at the trash pile.... in a hole at the creek bed

First up was Steve with a running shot with a single shot .410,



followed by Brag. Then Dilla killed a big buck.



The luck didn't hold out on the last rabbit as Dilla and Brag cut loose with multiple shots. That rabbit is probably still running.

I'm hoping I can hold out the whole season. I'm having a epidural on Friday.
There is a recommendation that I have shoulder surgery on both shoulders.
Sigh......



]]> Rabbit Hunts 11-12 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1297 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:41:35 -0700 http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1295 East Alabama Rabbit Hunters & Souse Eaters Social Club Invitational morning hunt followed by the Ridge Grove BBQ Ridge Grove Volunteer Fire Department "All you can eat BBQ" fundraiser followed by the couch and the Auburn/Georgia football game]]> General http://www.therabbitjournal.com/journal/index.php?itemid=1295 Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:51:41 -0700