Swamper/Cottontail

[jumpNrun]

it was a good long run and interesting to watch him run up a down tree and jump about 6 feet off of it too! we can run thr anytime its my g pas but itd be hard to find thart guy again

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I love to run the canecutters!After moving to Tn. 15 years ago from New Hampshire my hounds had only run snowshoe hare and I was used to some really long and hard pounding runs that would often go for several hours and sound like a deer or fox chase.The cottontails were very plentifull in the covers I was hunting and I usually could have good running but a lot of the races were of the 20-30 minute variety.If I had a cottontail race for an hour I really thought that was super but I found that with the dogs I was running that an hour was about all the cottontail could stand without going to ground or getting caught.I've seen some cottontails after an hour of pounding them literally lock up and get caught as they can't go anymore.
The cane cutters are a much larger rabbit that put out a lot of scent and the dogs can really drive them and the swampers will run a much larger circle than your average cottontail without as much dodging,squating and doubling.While I don't believe that the swamper has even close to the same stamina as a hare has what he does have and uses without a pause is the terrain he lives in.These rabbits will hit the water in a heartbeat and unless your beagles are swamper savvy that can end a race quick.I have walked through the bottoms many times and have seen a swamper launch himself off a 4' bank right into swimming water.Other times I have been walking in 6-8" of water in a flooded bottom only to hear a big splash behind me and there he goes! Here in Tn. I have to go out to the western part of the state to find them but it sure is worth it .They will really test your hounds.