INDIANA HUNT

[FastFeetHounds]

You WildCat fans!!!! Lol... If you all bow down and say Indiana Hoosiers are better ball players then I might just let you come up here and hunt with me... But you have to say that The Hoosiers are way better than the bluegrass wild cats.

[Pine Mt Beagles]

NOW THAT RIGHT THERE IS FUNNY-
PINE MT BEAGLES

[J. JUDE]

IT SURE IS LOL









JAMIE,

[FastFeetHounds]

Shouldn't be hard for you boyz to say it after a 20 point loss again the Hoosiers.... lol.. I'll have to invite you up here sometime...

[gap]

Everybody gets lucky sometimes. What is a hoosier any way.I guess after all those years of the wildcats domination they finaly got tired of winning.

[B.Trull]

I think TC is probably onto something with his post as I live in the middle of mine country and not far from the public state run wildlife areas. I can tell you that there is adjacent land that is privately owned AND a lot of the mine properties do NOT allow hunting of any kind on them. If hunters come from out of state and abide by the laws of this state then I say welcome folks. I don't hunt the state properties and only have done so a handfull of times as I bought some land and belong to a hunting lease as well. I'll tell you from the conversations at our meetings the hunting club members have thrown off more resident hunters trespassing than non-resident. I'll also say that the resident trespassers are pretty slick as they will park in state ground parking areas or adjacent private property and either ATV or walk onto the club lease property. That really pi$$es off the club members as they all decided that in order to enjoy hunting they were going to have to spend some money to lease property exclusively for that reason as the state properties are loaded with hunters and lack of game. Years ago we hunted Hillenbrand and Minnehaha several times without jumping a single wabbit and quit hunting. We were invited to join this hunting lease and paid the money to do what we like to do. This may be America but the good ole days of turning you and or your hounds loose anywhere you see fit are GONE. I saw several years ago the old hunting properties that my dad and I used to hunt built up in shopping malls, apartment complexes, housing divisions and just plain private houses and I stopped coon hunting for the very reason that I had no control over what property my dogs went onto. After several episodes with ticked off landowners and learning the FACT that a game warden has NO legal authority to make a land owner allow you with or without the officer to go onto their property to retrieve your dog or downed game and seeing friends charged with trespassing having to pay pretty good fines, I came to the realization that I'd have to buy or lease ground to continue to enjoy the sport of any kind of hunting. I bought, I lease and I hunt no where else and I normally go to the field with NO hassels what so ever.

Yes, this is why I got out of rabbit hunting 2x and I now have a strict budget and a limited amount of hounds I run with. In 1995-1998 I could hunt Hilderbrand and minnie in 2 or 3 spots all year with my medicore hounds and my poor shooting I could run during the week and never see another hunter at all. Then in 2000-2002 or so, I started seeing folks signed in from as far away as Fort wayne and as many 15 hunters during the week. Big packs of hunters and hounds wiped out the marginal rabbit population pretty quick. Now things are back like it was in 95 , except the rabbit population is very marginal. I walked 3 miles yesterday and didnt jump a rabbit till the 2 hr mark

Old days are long gone , and there are game hogs in every state not just Indiana. You would like to see the DNR step up to the plate and improve rabbitat some, but it aint going to happen. For years , I fed and salted the rabbits in certain spots at Hilderbrand , but I gave up when people came thru and wiped them out.

[Charles Philpot]

It isn't just that way in Indiana, it is here in KY. It makes it very hard on the working man when getting a day off, with very few places to hunt being already thinned out by people who have hunted everyday till they get the last one. It makes it very hard to jump even one rabbit. There are a lot of people here in my area who don't work and hunt everyday in season and don't even keep beagles during summer or if they do they don't even run them. I have hunted with lots of people in this area who don't even need a dog, because most of the rabbits they kill are jump shot anyway. The beagle doesn't even have to be running it or even in the same area. Often, the rabbits killed are just thrown away. I think they should lower the bag limit or cut back the season, or maybe even skip a season. This way the rabbit population can rebuild.

[Pine Mt Beagles]

CHARLES
I WOUL DGO FOR THE LOWER BAG LIMITS AS I DON'T CARRY A GUN ANYWAY MOST OF THE TIME SHORTER SEASONS MIGHT HELP I HOPE SOME THING CHANGES IT'S GETTING TO WHERE MY HOUNDS ARE JUST PET'S NOTHING TO RUN.
PINE MT BEALES

[jlboomer]

ill agree with you guys i used to be one of those that would kill as many as i could but about 10yrs ago i got a little smarter when we ruiend a good spot now im lucky to kill 15 or 20 a year to eat I just like to work with my dogs but it sucks when you hunt all day to just 3 or 4 rabbits sometimes your lucky to do that. and its getting harder to find hunting spots no one around here will let you hunt on there land and rufus seems to me mountain drive is getting hunted to death to. we went up there 2 weeks ago and there where people everywhere. talked to a few guys and theyve had no luck either. i hunted 5 straight days at the start of season we jumped 25 rabbits with no kills seems everything would hole up quick on us don't know why but been that way alot this season. i can't wait for the spring now so i can start running my dogs after work again going to work on some repopulation and some coyote control to see if that helps.