TN Swampers

[Briarhoppers]

Here are a couple pics from this past Sat. Dana Robinson (Shady Grove) and I took a trip to west TN and hunted in the TN River bottoms for swampers. Even though the temps were unseasonably warm we had a great hunt and the dogs adjusted nicely to wet terrain and we had some excellent races. Those swampers will get up and go 500 - 600 yards before heading back. And if they get too much pressure they will go to the deep water. We managed to get a few of the big rabbits but found it difficult to get in the right spot to head them off! I wish we had more pics. of the dogs....we had 6 dogs on the ground and they did a fine job.

[PREACHERS,KENNEL]

why heck thems babies ,, went to ga to run swampers with chuckr and hillbilly now we saw some huge swampers .....as big as my littlest dog .

[brush_hog]

Dang. You're lucky they didn't take at the dogs. It might have gotten ugly. Those are some nice rabbits.

[Briarhoppers]

Ricky - I've hunted in GA a number of times and seen some mighty big rabbits....commented to my cousin down one time when I saw a huge rabbit pass in the distance, I think we are going to need some buckshot!! But, these are the biggest I've seen and gotten in TN! My guess is the further south you go, the bigger they get. Dana's been down to Mississippi and he said those were some bigger down there too.
-Pete

[Tsa la gi]

Briarhopper,
Those are nice lookin rabbits. Good lookin dogs,would like to run in Tenn myself. Is that private prop,or state owned?
If ya want come on down to my place and run.Love to run swampers, they run similar to hare,and will put your hounds to the test. Shucks the way the Preacher told me I thought my dogs went to Tenn on some checks.

[Ky. Hunter]

Those swampers will get up and go 500 - 600 yards before heading back. And if they get too much pressure they will go to the deep water.

I have been there and done that and they are fun to hunt and will stretch the dogs out. I go down to Mississippi to hunt them and we have killed quiet a few bigger than those but those are some nice rabbits.

[PREACHERS,KENNEL]

those still are some nice rabbits pete ,,,, yea i been to ga a few times running swampers there just bigger down there for some reason ......i also ran some in ala that was monsters too ,,,,
now this is hard to believe but ,i acutally followed a blood trail ,to a hole on a swamper in ala my buddy wounded ,,,i was wide eyed ...

i am planning to find swampers here in tenn also ,,, a friend of mine says he knows where some are closer than where yall went ..

[dave g]

nice rabbits. i am more jealous of hunting in t-shirts though . why dont you guys send some of that warm weather up here.

later, dave

[haroldbwill]

My friends and i got these out of the hatchie, had a great time!

[PREACHERS,KENNEL]

thats a nice rabbit harold..

[Briarhoppers]

haroldbwill - we had planned to go out to the Hatchie, but the area we were headed was under water so we changed plans and headed down to the TN river.

Someone asked if we were hunting public or private land. It was private land although there are quite a few WMA's in the area that hold swampers.

The warm weather here lasted only 2 days! It is back in the low 20's here tonight.

Ricky let me know if you find swampers closer than the TN River....I've aways heard there use to be some down around Chattanooga area.

-Pete

[PREACHERS,KENNEL]

will do pete

[Shady Grove Beagles]

That's one of the beauties of living in the south is that you can have one of those days in Jan.---Feb. where it gets up in the 50's or 60's and you're hunting in a T-shirt.Gotta love that !Especially when my buddies in New Hampshire and Maine are calling me and telling me that it was 4 degrees and 3 feet of snow on the ground when they hunted last weekend.Man I don't miss having to tramp around on a pair of snowshoes all day in a thick cedar swamp or fir-balsam stand.If you've never hunted in deep snow in the northern woods wearing snow shoes it's a LOT of work!My back aches just remembering it.
On the other hand hunting swamp rabbits in the bottoms can be it's own kind of tough too as slogging through water,negotiating your way around sloughs that are too deep to get across,plenty of mud and some thick cover make it a workout.
About the size of swamp rabbits----------this seems to be a subject of MUCH discussion and no small amount of some folks exaggeration.In the 14 years I've lived in the south and have hunted swamp rabbits I have heard this same discription so many times it's like it was written in stone and I quote " We 've killed swampers that when you hung one from your belt their heads dragged on the ground". Well, I ain't saying it's not true okay? BUT I haven't seen any like that .I've hunted swampers in Tn. in several spots along the Tn. River,Hatchie River and along the Mississippi River in Dyer and Lauderdale counties and I've got a bunch of pictures of hunters,dogs and swampers we killed.Several years ago four of us went to Louisiana to the Southern Large Pack Championship Trial at Mel Faust's and ran for two days and saw half a dozen swampers caught during the running.We left there and spent 5 days hunting swampers in the Mississippi Delta where we killed a bunch of big rabbits and I've got the pictures of us showing them off too.The following year a buddy and I went out to Arkansas to a trial at Buddy Whitehead's farm and again saw half a dozen swampers that were killed and also many live ones running.Now maybe my dogs can only run and jump the smaller half-grown swampers or maybe I've just never got to where those "monster"rabbits live [LOL ] BUT, I have yet to see one of those that "hang to the ground". I'm not saying that they don't exist and if you've got pics of one like that I'd like to see it.The swampers we killed in the Delta were a little bigger than the ones here in Tn. but not hugely so.I weighed the biggest of the rabbits that Pete is holding with a fish scale and it was 4 3/4 lbs.
All that being said I will say that swampers are considerably bigger then any cottontail and are also bigger than any hare I've ever shot [hare are mostly legs and feet ].But hang to the ground????? Camera angles can make them look bigger than life.