Location: Island Pond, VT
Weather: Wet/Raining
Tempearture: 38 (Start) 45 (End)
Dogs of mine: Flander's Ridic
Other dogs: Chuck, Casey, Star, Steel
# of Rabbits Ran: 2
# of Rabbits Shot: 2
Distance ran by Ridic: 7.1 miles
Saturday night brought rain and it was still raining when we woke up. The plan was to hunt out in front of camp this morning to cut down on the travel time back to camp to pack up later and head home. We worked all of the honey holes I remembered from the hunts with my Uncle Greg. They sure had grown a bit, but were still thick and looked promising. The hounds worked through thick spot after thick spot without anything. John jumped a hare as he stepped out of a thick spot into an opening. The dogs were right there and all took off together. What good music! They brought it out down in front of the camp meadow, out towards the old car and down along the West Meadow Road. They turned down towards the railroad tracks and then back towards us. John, Logan and I were all set up for the hare to come back by. The hounds were getting close, and we were ready. It sounded like the hare was going to come out near Logan, but it turned and jumped out in front of me. I got a shot from about 10 feet when the hare stopped to look back for the dogs. The dogs came in, smelt the hare and then took off looking for another.
We worked down through the woods to the edge of the brook, crossed the railroad tracks and then started to work back up the other side. Ridic got into a blow down and barked once. The other dogs came in, but nothing was started. They started to range out a bit and then Casey got a start. She took off out into the alders toward the river. The other dogs packed, but none of them barked. John came across the radio and told us it must be a moose. They ran out about 400 yards together and then Ridic broke off from the group and went back to the blow down that he barked in before. He got a start and started chasing the hare out towards the brook and then turned up towards the river. The other dogs were out by the river but were on their way to pack up with him. Halfway between the railroad tracks and the river the hare turned and headed towards us. We were ready but the rabbit turned back towards the railroad tracks before it came into sight. All the hounds were in on the run now and they went back down past the blow down where the run began. We told everyone at home that we would be back home from our weekend by 2 o'clock. It was now 11 and we still had to get back to camp, pack up and winterize it. We knew we had to end this race on its next circle to ensure a timely arrival back home.
We used the GPS to help pick our spots to stand. Logan and John were set up in a spot that should give them the first shot, I was setup in a back-up location. I could just see Logan's orange vest from where I was and it sounded like the dogs were barking at his feet. I thought the hare had snuck by them and I would soon see it. John's shot surprised me, and aparently it surprised him too. The hare came in on an odd angle and was 5 feet from him when he shot it. He looked up and Ridic was leading the pack and only 20 yards out. They were pounding on that hare!! I cannot believe that Ridic was leading that pack, and the pack was only 20 yards behind the hare. I was pumped!!
We got together and gathered up the dogs and were one dog short. Star was missing. John could hear her howling off in the distance and thought she must have her collar hung up on a branch. Logan and I took the rabbits and dogs back to camp and John went out after Star. He radio'd that he could see her, but couldn't get to her. She was on an island in the middle of the river. She must had got out there during the moose run and was too scared to come back across. John found a shallow spot that he was just below the top of his boots and worked his way towards her. Once he was part way there he was able to coax her back to him and got her to come back across the river and made their way back to camp.
Our weekend ended on a high note! We were very happy with the day and looked back at how much better the weekend could have been if the conditions were more favorable. If there wasn't such a drop in temperature from Friday to Saturday, or if it hadn't rain so hard Sunday morning, maybe the rabbits would had been on the move more, and resulted in more starts. However, we can't control the conditions, and we did manage to each shoot a hare. I guess it was a good weekend.
Vermont's deer rifle and muzzleloader seasons take up most of November and December which means I won't be out after rabbits until either late December or early January. Its not so much that I am a die hard deer hunter, because I'm not, but my concern towards deer hunters with rifles. Too many times I have heard of deer hunters shooting someone's hounds saying that "they were running deer". I can't afford to take that risk. Maybe if I got out in the remote areas of the NEK with less chance of meeting a hunter I might go, but we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment