A general forum for the discussion of hunting with beagles, guns, clothing and other equipment and just talking dawgs! (Tall tales on hunting allowed, but remember, first liar doesn't stand a chance)
Is anyone else experiencing rabbits running huge? We saw it several times Thursday and I talked to a guy at work and and he said his dad saw the rabbit when his dog jumped it and they ran it straight out for 1.2 miles then turned it and brought it back.
I am going to have to have more patience I guess.
cya, Hunter
Same in the foothills of N.C. I thought they were running a fox after about an hour I finaly saw it at about fifty yards away stretched out running full speed. After another hour they brought it back again almost no checks at all two or three minutes at the most when I killed it my 14 month old patch male was 20 yards behind it . He almost had it in his mouth before it stoped turning flips.
A lot of it has to do w/ how pressured the rabbits are. I ran in Staunton VA last week and they ran real small, I mean a couple hundred yds. max. Prob. due to the fact that they're not pressured at all at the farm we hunted.
crazy bunny. i have seen more huge circle out of cotton tails then i have ever saw. also i have had a few make a circle then change direction looks like a figure 8...crazy
We noticed the same thing here in Indiana the last couple of days. If I hadn't seen the rabbitt, I would have bet we were running deer! Good races though!
We had a run yesterday where the dogs went out of hearing and then shut up. We looked for hours for them and finally my cousins dog we found at home which was adjacent to the 1300 acres we were hunting. My dog was gone ALL night and I found him the next morning on the next road over which is over a mile away. We thought they ran a deer but couldn't figure it out. They took off running pretty hot and smoked the track for several hundred yards which we didn't have a concern over. They then came out of the thicket and crossed a corn field into another thicket where we could just barely hear them but soon shut up. That was the last we saw them until one returned home and I found mine the next day. Never did see what they started or what they were running BUT we were trying to shock them in but they had gotten to far away for the collars to reach them. My cousin and I were pretty certain they bounced a deer but now that I read this I'm not so sure. I don't think I've ever seen a cottontail run that big but I suppose it's possible as they took the track initially where a lot of rabbits run when we hunt this area. It's also a corridor for the deer as it's a thick grown up ditch that just opens up into the corn field.
we hunted at glendale here in indiana yesterday and the 4 rabbits we jumped all ran huge circles, one coulda thought they were running deer a couple times but the dogs we had dont run deer and we bagged all 4 bunnys and they were bucks. this weather is crazy, could they be breeding early this year?
jon, my thoughts were the same about breeding early, here in eastern ky the last 2 days they have ran longer routes and jumped a couple together.
ran out of the fields and hit the timber.
Running out tis way has been very good we ran for 2 1/2 hours on Sat from 11AM until a little after 1PM we ran 7 different races it was a good day for us. Plus my pup opened for the 1st time Sat as well...
I have seen mostly long straight runs or BIG circles here too. Just got a shock collar and the way the runs have gone I have wondered if my dog was on a deer or what. I haven't shocked him though because I wasn't sure. Glad I didn't because I'm not the only one seeing this kind of running. I'm thinking it may buck rabbits, early breeding, warm weather related too.
It must be coming east, ran today and they were crossing 200 yard wide open hay fields. Running like bucks in the spring time, maybe it's the warm weather. We've been getting mostly does, but today we shot 4 rabbits and 3 were bucks. They're definitely running crazy though.
