Drummond Island Hunt: Pictures Added
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:30 pm
Well, I debated on whether to open a discussion on our recent trip to the Island for a while, so here goes...
There were 5 of us, including my 13 year old son who I took out of school for a couple of days of snowshoe hunting. Three of us got to the island later Thursday evening and were completely dismayed to find 12-18 inches of snow on the ground, with more forecast. The other two of our party strolled in about 1am and we were complete for a morning of futility.
We turned out in a pretty decent area and had a hare up and running in about 20 min, which I would have lost a bet on since I didnt think we would run a darn thing the whole time on the island. After about a half hour of spotty running, that hare was shot and retreived by one of our older hounds. Unfortunately that was the only hare that was killed that day. The evening hunt was even worse with NO hare being ran and our hounds scattering to the four corners for a wild time getting the pack back into the trucks. One of our guys (Chad) decided to try and stalk one near the house we rented, and he was successful in killing a hare without the hounds....GO FIGURE
Day two started out much the same as day one, with a little more snow on the ground, some falling as we hunted. We did learn however that it was futile to put a pack of 5 or 6 on the ground when only the lead hound was getting any scent at all, so we put three down in the morning. They did jump 1 hare and ran him for a while, one of our guys hunting jumped two by himself, but none killed. Packed up to get a bite. While we waited for the lasagna to cook, we decided to let out 2 hounds to try and get one up around the house...good idea since it was loaded with hare and no one was hunting around us at all....we had two or three ran with one more getting killed, so we are up to three for the party so far. The rest of the guys, minus myself, went out to hunt the evening and Chad killed another one in an area that I was told was literally covered in snowshoe tracks. If we had not had to run in 18 inches of snow we could have killed a lot more rabbits, I am sure. My little Ranger Dan female had had enough and decided to sit out, so our Striker bitch and Casey bitch did the rest of the running...
All in all, we had a good time being together hunting but the actual running was pretty lousy. We booked this trip at this time of year because we expected better weather and little or no snow. Boy, were we WRONG on that one. According to the locals, it was quite a snowfall for this time of the year, not unheard of but a little unusual just the same.
I am currently downloading some pictures into the comp, and I will try and post them as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading.........
Tony
There were 5 of us, including my 13 year old son who I took out of school for a couple of days of snowshoe hunting. Three of us got to the island later Thursday evening and were completely dismayed to find 12-18 inches of snow on the ground, with more forecast. The other two of our party strolled in about 1am and we were complete for a morning of futility.
We turned out in a pretty decent area and had a hare up and running in about 20 min, which I would have lost a bet on since I didnt think we would run a darn thing the whole time on the island. After about a half hour of spotty running, that hare was shot and retreived by one of our older hounds. Unfortunately that was the only hare that was killed that day. The evening hunt was even worse with NO hare being ran and our hounds scattering to the four corners for a wild time getting the pack back into the trucks. One of our guys (Chad) decided to try and stalk one near the house we rented, and he was successful in killing a hare without the hounds....GO FIGURE
Day two started out much the same as day one, with a little more snow on the ground, some falling as we hunted. We did learn however that it was futile to put a pack of 5 or 6 on the ground when only the lead hound was getting any scent at all, so we put three down in the morning. They did jump 1 hare and ran him for a while, one of our guys hunting jumped two by himself, but none killed. Packed up to get a bite. While we waited for the lasagna to cook, we decided to let out 2 hounds to try and get one up around the house...good idea since it was loaded with hare and no one was hunting around us at all....we had two or three ran with one more getting killed, so we are up to three for the party so far. The rest of the guys, minus myself, went out to hunt the evening and Chad killed another one in an area that I was told was literally covered in snowshoe tracks. If we had not had to run in 18 inches of snow we could have killed a lot more rabbits, I am sure. My little Ranger Dan female had had enough and decided to sit out, so our Striker bitch and Casey bitch did the rest of the running...
All in all, we had a good time being together hunting but the actual running was pretty lousy. We booked this trip at this time of year because we expected better weather and little or no snow. Boy, were we WRONG on that one. According to the locals, it was quite a snowfall for this time of the year, not unheard of but a little unusual just the same.
I am currently downloading some pictures into the comp, and I will try and post them as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading.........
Tony
... he about ate us out of house and home tho, so all was not lost... 
