Need advice on running Swampers.

[NC Beagler]

I'm planning to take a couple dogs to run swamp rabbits (canecutters) in GA. This will be the first time for both me and my dogs. Any advice from you who have experience running swamp rabbits would be much appreciated?? I've heard they are faster, more crafty and run bigger loops than cottontails. Thanks in advance for you thoughts!

Also, thought I'd add a poll. I'm interested in southern rabbits - that is why I didn't include hares as an option.

[bowhunter59]

i have ran both and i think swampers r faster and run farther but cottontails are trickier!u go agter swampers have tough dog rough territory everywhere i found them but it is fun!

[Alabama John]

N C Beagler, to see the rabbit, always get next to the water where you can see the bank and the water, be still and quiet. The rabbit will ease down the bank where it is a easy slope and silently get into the water, not jump off a bank. I like a place where there are high banks and one spot that slopes down like a natural crossing.
Watch for the rabbit to be swimming and it will look the size of a beaver with its side hair all floating out.
Sometimes they will crawl around for a while in thick stuff like a baby rabbit and when that doesn't work, will take off. This usually happens if you have just a few dogs.
I use number 4 shot.
Listen for the rabbit coming splashing through the shallow water as you will mistake it for a dog coming until you get used to the difference in the gait.
In a long lose, look for the rabbit in the water holding on to a piece of grass or twig with its mouth while its body floats and sways with the current.
Have a good time and I hope your dogs will swim. If they are not wanting to get in the water but running up and down the bank after the other dogs have crossed, go put them in the water and with a stick with a fork in it hooked in their collar push them out a ways toward the dogs on the other side and they usually will go on from there.
Have fun!
Leave your coat with the game bag at home, apologize, and some kind soul will volunteer to carry your rabbits. LOL

[Big Dog]

Make sure that you have some waterproof boots, and if you kill one anywhere near the vehicle make sure that you drop him off. If you get 2 or 3 of them rascals in your hunting coat it will be dragging the ground in the back and choking you around the neck up front. Those rascals are heavy. In my experience a lot of them will ease out before you or the dogs get real close to them. A long runner will sometimes make you second guess your dogs too.

Big Dog

[TonyT]

just be sure to trust your dogs cause some of em will take em plumb out of hearing look for the rabbit a long way in front . and I personally think the swampers is trickier we hunt in Big Sandy and Paris Tenn swamps and have a blast you can't mind walking either we've walked and walked and you just all of a sudden strike and there'll be a couple or three in that one spot email me if you ever git around Nashville and maybe we can run some p.s. don't take nothing you don't trust totally good luck and good hunting

[NC Beagler]

Thanks for the input fellows. I am looking forward to taking a crack at those swamp rabbits! I'll plan on picking up some 4 shot or at least some high brass 6's. I appreciate the warning about not second guessing what your dog's running. One big and fast dog I was thinking about taking I have to run w/ a shock collar b/c I don't fully trust him. I'd hate to make the mistake of bumping him as he trailed a swamper out of hearing.

Tony, thanks for the invite. My outlaws...I mean inlaws are in Murfreesboro so I am there several times a year. Maybe we can work something out.

[REBEL]

Here i have both cottontail and swampers-if you plan on running swampers first look at your hounds feet and make sure they are web footed so they can swim better oooooooorrrrrrrr make sure you have extremely hard hitting and fast beagles.The faster a beagle can push a swamper the less likely they are to go to water and for some reason they know if they are being pushed hard they will be caught on the river bank or in the water-Now a slow dog the swampers will slip and slid on them before going to water and burst out all of a sudden and gone to the other side of the river and the dogs never find the swamper again cause it will float down stream and not straight across from where it entered,also on real fast dogs the swamper will not head out cross country else he will be lunch for the beagles,what the swamper will do with fast hounds is stay clear of the river and cross country running and play in the wet areas and thick under brush with enough room to run large circles in an attempt to gain enough space between the swamper and the hounds so it can take refuge in the river and get to the other side,my hounds don't alow this to happen and keeps pressure on the swamper untill he is in the hunters bag.

[Alabama John]

Rebel, I love fast footed dogs. Can't be too fast rrrrunning a rabbit. I know you do also. Gets my heart rate up better than a stair master!

For my information, since I may have been all wrong in my thinkin, (I gauged their dogs speed from what I saw on a TV show and that wasn't fair to them). So, I'm asking, have you ever had any of your fastest Alabama swamp dogs in a UKC trial? Or, run against any of the UKC Champions outside a trial, just running with a friend or friends for fun?

I wonder how the UKC experienced "Big Boy" dogs running in one of their trials on a good scenting day, compare in foot speed to what we both run after Canecutters?

How would our type dogs do in UKC trials. Do our dogs have or not have enough Control or Closeness? I would like to know without having to drive way up there to see, if our dogs would have any chance if I wanted to compete in one of their trials, or would my dogs disrupt and be a hindrance to those in a cast that are seriously competing.

I have never been up North, so I do not know how the territory is to run in there. I understand that you have run way up there in Ohio. Run anywhere near Holmesville, (Hope I have that right) where the UKC Nationals are held?

Some of the dogs from up North that have come here for our Little Pack Trials would not run a Canecutter as it seems they think it is trash like a fox or deer. They would run the hillbillies though. Canecutters must have a different smell, I would think it is stronger.

I would appreciate your "from experience" comments on the comparison.

[TonyT]

Alabama John the first time I went swampin I carried a seasoned dog that had run cottontails all her life and she wouldn't run a swamp rabbit the dogs would get one up and she would cover only to come back like they were running trash till she got on a site chase for a little bit and thenshe was set to go I guess she just had to see for herself lol she has those womanly traits lol

[Big Dog]

2 years ago I had the distinct pleasure of introducing some NC boys to a GA swamper. When I first moved to NC we went down east to run some swampers here in NC, well they aint the same rabbit we call a swamper in AL and GA. These rabbits have a smaller powder puff that is bluish grey in color, boy was I disappointed. The boys here call them blue tails. Well in february we loaded up and went from NC down to South Ga, to one of my old honey holes. I heard a shot and heard all of this hollering, I ran up to see what was going on and my 4 buddies were standing their gazing in awe at a real swamper. They couldn't believe that he was that big. I had to laugh at them of course and I told them that this was a real swamper. Those boys did some hard hunting the rest of that day(.LOL),I know Ga, Al, and MS have canecutters what other states have them, and are their any biguns like that in NC?

[Ryan Stancill]

I hunted today in Virginia, and ran what we call swamp rabbits. Here, they are not much larger than a cottontail, but a lot darker in color, grey tail, with black legs. I hunted with three dogs. Two 4 yr old females, and a seven month old male pup sired by White River Tuff-E-Nuff. One of the rabbits was jumped on high ground. He ran about 75 yards with the dogs about 10 yards behind him. He ran across about a 30 yard stretch of water that was about 6" deep, before going under a blown over tree. After some searching through the tree limbs, the dogs got him out again, running him a large circle from the swamp to the high ground, when he went under an abandoned car, where he was originally jumped. They jumped him again, and he ran about 100 yards across the 6" deep water again, then climbed straight up into a hollow tree. The rabbit was in the tree about 4 feet off of the ground. I could see him through a hole in the side of the tree. When he came out of the tree, we had a very short sight chase before he was caught by the pup. I have no experience with the big swampers of the deep south, but the ones we have here seem to have the same traits you guys from Alabama and Georgia have mentioned. They are crafty, love to swim, climb trees, jump up on logs to watch the dogs circle around them, etc. All of my dogs came from up North(West Virginia), and they did have a hard time at first on these rabbits. But you can rest assured, they did adjust. I feel that a dog that works a close check will have the biggest problem, mainly due to the large spans of water these rabbits will cross. A dog must reach out across the water to keep the track going.

[Alabama John]

Ryan, you are right, all the good dogs are not in the South, even if we tend to think they are. LOL
Never seen a rabbit that looked like you describe, the actions are very familiar though. How did it get out of the hollow tree? Do you carry a fuzee to smoke him out, or use a brier to twist him out?

Sounds like you have some real good and fast learning dogs.

I agree with you, but, what you observed and stated about too close running dogs is hard to get across. Anyone would have to experience what you are describing, then they would agree.

I believe we all like and hunt the type of dog that performs best in our own particular hunting area and that sure varies across this USA.

Most people on this board would never know to cull a dog because it is DRY-FOOTED, but some of us have had to do just that.

Good comments Ryan, keep it up!