Location: Lowell
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 33 °F (Start) 5 4°F (End)
Companions: Logan Abell
Dogs of mine: Bailey & Remi
Running Partner: Logan
# of Rabbits Ran: 6
# of Rabbits shot: 2
Wow, what a great hunt! I woke up at 4:40 and went and woke up Logan. He was the only one going with me and stayed the night at the house. We were out the door a 5:20, about 20 minutes later than I wanted to be. Legal shooting time was at 6:12am and it was an hour drive ahead of us. Logan fell asleep on the way there and it was past legal shooting time when we pulled on to Robtoy Road. The chain down to the NC camp was down so I figured they were there, and that changed my game plan of the hunt. I was going to walk down the logging road towards the beaver pond, but parked at the log landing instead and worked down from there. When we let the dogs out we worked down the edge of the 4 wheeler trail (opposite side from the power lines). Bailey started barking on some scent within 2 minutes. She worked it slowly for about 10 minutes. She really started in hot and took off on the run real fast. Remi came in from a good distance out and joined Bailey on the run. I was really happy to see her pack! The rabbit made a turn towards the 4 wheeler trail that I was standing on and it quickly popped out on the road and ran up it for a ways. I told Logan that I saw it and I tried to set him up in position to get a shot if it crosses again. The dogs kept running it really hard and fast and quickly brought the rabbit back across the road right in front of Logan. He got really excited and started yelling "here it is, the rabbits right here!". He was too excited to get a shot off. The dogs ran it back up near the truck and lost it. It was a good run to start the morning and I was excited to see such a good run on hare again. It was really good to see that Remi packed with Bailey. I went back up to truck to grab some food and called in the dogs to start again. We worked back down below the truck and swung over to the log road down to the old clear cuts. Remi got the start on this one. She had already crossed the log road ahead of Logan and I where she pick up her first start of the day. Bailey quickly caught up with Remi and they were off on another fast run. They ran two decent sized circles above us, but below the road. There was a short check before they picked it up again and ran it really fast again down in our direction. Come to find out they ran it down the opposite side of the log road then where we were. The rabbit made a turn out across the log road and the dogs missed to the corner. They checked for about a minute and then picked it up again. Logan and I were ready, with Logan being a position to see it first. The rabbit skirted around him and then turned back in towards me. The first chance I had to shot he was already about 10 yards from me. I get nervous at that close of a distance, I hate to blow the rabbit apart so I don't aim so well. I aimed low and it took off again. I pumped and shot again, this time it was closer and again I just didn't aim at the body, or head. I clipped its back foot. I pumped again and shot again. I hit the rear legs again and it started to squeal. Remi and Bailey were closing in and Remi was able to finish off the rabbit. After the kill they wanted nothing more to do with it and started looking for some more scent. Logan was pumped! He was praising the dogs as much as I was. We worked down through the woods towards the first clear cut and Remi got the next start again. Bailey ran by Logan and I at full speed to catch up with her and off they went again. Logan and I set up where Remi started the rabbit and waited. They ran it hard for a quite a while. Twice that brought it down near us but it never came back down in where we were. They ended up loosing it near the bottom of the log road. I called in the dogs after a long check to try and work the clump of softwoods in the center of the clearing. Remi started the next rabbit within a minute of us getting in the thicket. Bailey joined in and their barks quickly changed from a working bark to a hot bark. They ran it fast in a tight circle, staying in the thick stuff. Logan made the comment that it will be hard to get a shot in the cover and we tried to set up in what we thought would be the best place possible. Logan made his way out towards were Remi started the 3rd start to find a stump to stand on. I had found a 6 in diameter downed tree to stand on and balanced myself on it to wait. Logan was just starting to stand on his stump when the rabbit came and stopped about 10 feet from me. I pulled up and actually closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger. It became really apparent that I didn't want to see how destructive a .410 would be at that close. I shot low, and did open up the rabbit a lot. Logan hollard in a disbelief, "you got it?"; "yeah"; "really?"; "yeah"; "already?"; "yeah". He came over and was really excited. He kept talking about how great the day was, and how well the dogs were doing. We talked for a bit about the hunt and Bailey opened up where Remi had got the start on the 3rd rabbit. They both ran the rabbit hard and Logan and I set up in the same spot where we stood before on the 3rd rabbit. The rabbit ran the exact same line as it did before. It had to have been the same rabbit as before. We moved to where the rabbit had crossed a couple of times and set up for the time it came through. This time the dogs made the turn with the rabbit and headed back up past where we shot the 1st rabbit and it turn above us. The dogs ended up losing it just beyond where we shot the last rabbit. At that point we started hearing cow bells and saw a couple of dogs skirting through the trees, with a couple of hunters close behind. I figured it was the owner of the NC camp. We worked down below where we shot the last rabbit and ran in to the hunters. It was Bruce and Bob. Bruce is the owner of the camp and Bob was from VT. We talked for a while and discussed the area, the camp, the differences between bird hunting and rabbit hunting and the Garmin Astro. A very nice piece of equipment! Bruce asked what he could do to not interupt my hunt and I asked the same. We both found that we really wouldn't effect each other in any way. So we parted ways and Logan and I ventured towards the NC camp. Bailey picked up here and there with nothing solid for a run. I called them in and started to head back up near the camp in hopes of running the rabbit that lives near the bottom of the NC camp meadow. Bailey all of a sudden started barking and took off with her hot bark. Remi came in from a good distance away and ran with her. Come to find out we were just below the camp and we set up where I had seen the rabbit run through before. The dogs ran the rabbit counter clockwise around the camp and then the rabbit turned a tight circle up above the camp. They camp back down the same side of the woods as they went up and turned again out towards the log road. The rabbit ran back up along side the camp and above it. It turned again and ran the same line back down through the woods towards Logan and I. It turned again before it got to us and the dogs followed it back up again, this time loosing it up above the camp. We made our way back up towards the dogs and finally got them gathered up. We worked our way back down towards the clear cut and picked up the rabbit we had left behind. We made our way back up to the truck and were pretty worn out when we got there. The dogs were very thirsty and drank for a good minute in the first water hole we came across. Logan kept commenting on how great a day he had and how it was the best hunt he had ever been on. I was very happy with the day and I am excited to invite others along for a hunt some time. Overall, a great day!!
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