Hunt - hare dogs vs cottontail dogs

[RiverBottom]

I hunt mostly hare. I like to read all these posts about hunt written by you guys that hunt cottontails, but I don't understand what you are talking about. Just what kind of hunt are you looking for?

When I think of hunt, I think of a dog that goes hunting when I turn it loose. I don't mean one that I can see all the time, or one that stays close by. I'm talking about a dog that gets in there and finds a hare. Any of you that have run coonhounds in the nite hunts knows what I am talking about. To me, a dog with lots of hunt is one that leaves fast, goes through deep snow 1/4 mile and jumps a hare before the other dogs know what is happening. One that will run hard all day through deep snow when it is below zero, and do it again the next day. The only time I want to see my dogs after I turn them loose is when they are pushing a rabbit my way (or when it's gettin dark and I'm trying to call them in ).

I've been told by lots of people, that isn't how you do it with beagles. You are supposed to walk with them till they jump. They are supposed to check in once in a while. To be sure, those hard hunting dogs can be a huge pain, like when they are deep in a swamp in deep snow, a long ways from any road, running a hare and you want to go home, or at least hear the dogs once in a while Sometimes I don't NEED all that hunt. Still, those kind of dogs ALWAYS make things happen, even in the worst of conditions.

But that's hare hunting.

So when I read about all you cottontail hunters saying you want your dogs to hunt with you and stay close by and what not, then in the next post you are saying how hunt is the most important thing, I get confused I see some of those SPO type dogs mentioned as having lots of hunt, and the ones I have tried look at me like I'm crazy when I put them out in swimming snow.
Just what does hunt mean to you?

[Joeyman]

I hunt strictly cottontails in Missouri. No hare around these parts so I don't know how it would be to hunt hare or where to even find them.

We hunt thickets ditches fence rows wood strips anything that is very thick filled with briars. Brush piles are hit hard too when we go looking for cottontails.

In my eyes what is hunt. A dog that once you turn it loose it will put it's nose down and wag its tail searching for a rabbit looking under brush go into brushpiles and keep on hunting and searching for a rabbit. Yes I like mine to stay nearby no need for the dog to be 300+ yards away looking for a rabbit. I want my pack nearby. When we hunt wood strips I send the dogs in the middle. They search thoroughly we stay on the outside or sometimes I stay behind them. Keep in mind the wood strips are very very thick fallen over trees and nasty briars. Cottontails most times sit tight. You can walk right past them and not even know. You can also put your foot on them before they jump. Need a dog that will root around under grass and dive into junk piles and big giant brush piles to get them on the run. So hunt to me is a dog that doesn't stand around waiting for another dog to jump the rabbit. The dog needs to be in the thickets looking for that rabbit and jump it bring it back around to the gun. Do that for 6 hours straight then turn around and do it again the next day. I have been hunting like this every weekend so far sometimes 3 days in a row 6hrs at a time back to back. Dogs better get in there and get me that rabbit out.

[jar242]

Hunt has a lot to do about experience and smarts when it comes to cottontails. I've never hunted hare but from what I understand and I could be wrong, they kind of roam around and are usually "sitting out". To "hunt" or "find" a cottontail is a lot different, most cottontails are not just sitting out, they are "sitting in" literally. The burrow down in brushpiles, nasty briars, under logs, clumps of grass, you need a dog that is willing to go into the nasty places to root the rabbit out and also smart enough to know that is where the rabbits hide, you don't jump too many just sitting out in the woods, they are usually hidden, the ones that are out have probably been flushed out while walking by or through some nasty cover. This is just a summary but is a start for what I would describe as hunt as it pertains to cottontails.

[Lance]

Some beagles hunt wide, some beagles hunt close. Some hunt on the run, some take their time and hunt thorough.

The LAST thing I want a dog to do when I cut him loose is to take off and make a quarter mile swarp around me. You hunt hare in pine forests, I hunt rabbits in brier patches. When I cut that dog loose I want him to hit the briers, nose down, heavy tail action lookin for a rabbit. He must use his eyes and his nose. The main thing is to stay in the cover until he is sure it has been hunted out. Too many dogs will blow through the thickets on a run just lookin for a track to strike...passing up rabbits that are sitting tight. I sure don't have to walk my beagles into the cover but I do expect them to hunt with me.

[rubline]

I agree with Joeyman. I think the big thing also is the size of the properties. I have to hunt and run on small tracts of land unless I'm on state land and if my dog is not hunting where I tell it to go then it would be going on land I don't have permission to be on. Now if the dog ran a rabbit and it goes on a different land owner I just have to wait and hope the rabbit runs a circle that brings it back. Small tracks of land are about all that's left for a lot of us here in central Indiana so I can't have a dog that just takes off once it's out of the truck. That's why I don't like killing lots of rabbits because I have to save those rabbits for the next time out. The places I hunt might be a couple of hundred acres but most of it's tilled and the rabbit cover is pretty small.

Anyhow, a dog that hunts hard to me is one that gets in every brush pile and cluster of briars that we can find and you have to make it quit when it's time to go home or move on to the next small briar patch on a different farm.

I just thing the measure of hunt in a hound is dictated buy the person's need.

[ANTHONY KERR]

Running mostly here is in cut timber. The over growth is blackberry, multiflora, and honeysuckle until the pines and sweet gum saplings start to choke it out with shade. It takes more than a dog hunting long and deep. I like to have them hunt just out of sight. If they run too far they have missed some good cover. We run mostly "Hare " bloodlines that have adaptded to hunting the heavy stuff. Hunt to me comes from desire and experience. I wish I had a picture of the thicket we hunted Saturday. The briars were like knee deep pasta in some areas with more vines than a Tarzan movie. Waking was more like playing foot ball.

[Dale L.]

I live in West Virginia and hunt only cottontails. Hunt to me is a dog that will search the thickets to jump a rabbit. Like some of you have already mentioned some of the areas I hunt are small. One in particular is a bunch of 20 to 25 acre fields divided on all four sides by strips of brush about 20 feet wide. When I hunt there I expect my dogs to hunt through those strips while I walk at the edges. The dogs stay pretty close. As mentioned cottontails will sit very tight at times and it takes alot of thrashing about in the briars sometimes to get one up. I happened to see one sitting this year while hunting as I walked by. I stopped and waited on the dogs to jump it on their own. My brothers female entered the brush pile and her front foot actually touched the rabbit before it jumped. Then the chase was on!!

[Joeyman]

[jim matuszewski]

I mostly hunt hares up here,but have a few cotton tails around the house,and go down state couple times ayear for UKC hunts on cotton tails.The differences I see is the cottontail dogs do hunt closer to hunter probably because they are hunted on smaller trecks of land more consistancy than hare hound.when training younger dogs I like to hunt smaller pockets to try and keep them from getting to rangey.And the personalitys of rabbit compared to hare would create adifference in style between dogs .Cottontail dog has learned that rabbits hold up in brushpiles and junk piles and probably wood work that area better than hare dog.guys down state also say that hare has more scent than rabbit,probably bigger animal,lot bigger feet!!I would guess cottontail dog could adjust to hare easyer than hare dog to cottontails. But I do think that a cotton tail dog and a hare dog on hare after awile haredog is going to have more foot by end of day.

[AlabamaSwamper]

Different dogs for different areas.

If my dogs need to go 1/4 of a mile to find a rabbit then I need new places to hunt. Most places, I expect to jump one within 100 yards of my truck. That's the difference I'm talking about. Different rabbits.

A 1/4 mile here and they'd be out of hearing in a lot of places. Thick and hilly.

As far as hunt goes, I don't want a dog that stands around my feet. As long as it stays busy and jumps it's share of rabbits that I'm good with it. Not every dog will be the best hunting dog while looking for rabbits but they darn better be looking. lol

[klrconcrete]

When I hunt I turn my dogs loose and start hunting, the way I want them to "hunt" is to work the cover around me, once they have worked through an area I want them to check in with me, not come stand by me, jump on my leg and want a head rub, merely come by and get a visual to see what way I am moving, when I have moved out of the area that they have already covered I will stop and they work the next area, and so on and so forth it typically dont take long and we are running. I have a close friend who puts his dogs down and waits until they jump and goes to them, maybe 100 yards maybe 2 miles what ever direction they are pointed when their feet touch the ground is the direction you can plan on heading! That can get real old real quick! Most times its not a problem, other times you spend the entire "hunt" actually getting involved in the "hunt". If I have heard " I'm not jumping rabbits for my dogs" once I have heard it a thousand times, but I have also heard "I wish I could get my dogs to check in like that" sometimes in the same hunt! I do not own a dog that I have to jump rabbits for if they are that lacking in that area I am lacking kennel space to keep them, but if they dont want to "hunt" with me I am lacking kennel space to keep them. Kurt Robinson

[Pike Ridge Beagles]

I let mine range within a reasonable distance and they hit the brush. As long as they jump rabbits, all is good in my world. I think I have a well above averge hunting pack and won't keep a track dog or one that stands at my feet or on a trail.
I have been working on training my pack to go and it is paying off. Brains comes into play here and the dogs seem to know where the boundaries are. I think once you have a pack you can trust not to run trash all is good...let them roll

[jim matuszewski]

Pike ridge, Hunting hare up here that is exactly how I like to hunt.The key to this style is trash breaking.Last few years I've been running with bells this really helps me out alot.Then you can tell if dog is working when you can't see them and before first hare is up.

[RiverBottom]

Nice pictures Joey. Kind of puts things in perspective. Here's a few pictures of one of my spots:





Kurt, there's times when I like a dog to hunt just like you described. Some of mine hunt that way. Long as there are lots of hare it works good.

When you hunt those spots that don't hold a lot of hare it can take hours to get one jumped that way. When I am just running dogs I like to hunt spots that make them work a little harder. Those dogs that stay close don't do so good when the hare are hard to come by until someone gets things going for them.

Pike Ridge, you touched on a good point. I trust my dogs to learn how to jump rabbits without my help. The good jump dogs do very well if you just leave them alone. I don't tell them where to look for rabbits and they don't tell me how to shoot (they do look at me kind of funny sometimes though).

[steve w]

The good jump dogs do very well if you just leave them alone. I don't tell them where to look for rabbits and they don't tell me how to shoot (they do look at me kind of funny sometimes though).

To me that is a good point, it never ceases to amaze me how much more my dogs know than me about what they do. If only they could talk.