The American Beagler Forum

Are patch beagles to fast to run on cotton tail rabbits?

NO!

no, they are not all super duper speedy rockets. i have a patch bred male and all i run is cottontails he does just fine. right now around me this snow is so bad i dont know if anything can run good on it. i live north of lapeer.

later, dave

look at walters dog on main screan make your own mind up

NOPE Come run

i have had patch dogs for years and most of what i run is cottontails. ever now and again i get me a swamp rabbit trip up ,, now thats runnin.

There are lots of people running cottontail with patch hounds.In fact, they seem to be more popular in the south than up here ware they were developed .

2 of the best cottontail running to catch beagles i ever had was patch breed. i have a half patch now and he is the real deal. patch is a good line

That is just a myth. My Patch Hounds run cottontail just fine but if you get them on a Hare as tsa la gi, swampman ,
jim bonner would agree, it's heads up running with the rpm's maxed out. They just have the brains to slow it down when they need to. dave g , and sidexside only run cottontail and there dogs do just fine. Although I think that they are afraid to come to the Island and put their dogs to the test
I run cottontail most of the time and I have found that it's really up to the rabbit not the hound. I have had runs that have lasted for a couple of hrs. and I hve had runs that have lasted for a couple of min. and I mostly run in the same spot so I'm sure that I have ran the same rabbit on more than one occasion. If it feels like running it does,and if it doesn't it finds cover.
I am not an expert and I don't claim to be but I know what I see and I can only go by that

here is a vid from this last fall with my patch and sidebyside's patch. the bunny is quite a bit ahead of the dogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjbIAeJSyE

later, dave

My Patch dogs will hit the briars and run all day. The white dogs will come in after a hard days hunt and be red all over. They don't slow down for nothing.

Thanks for your in put guy's

I guess I was the only guy who has had a patch hound in Michigan, that wasn't worth two cents. If it got cold and the snow got tough she couldn't run to save her live. she hunted her butt off but didn't have the nose to run in the cold or bad snow. If it was over 32 degree she would run the hair off a cottontail. just couldn't do much under that temp. she was out of somewhere in the thumb. her sire was something hammerin patch. can't remember now it has been a while. But I have seen five or six that were the same way. I'm not saying anything bad about anyones dogs. all i'm saying is in my experience the ones I have seen don't have the nose for hunting every winter weekend in michigan. would love to see some go, that do. because speed wise they are my kinda dog.

jwagner, i can honestly say my dog has ran many rabbits under 32 degrees with no problems. last winter he would slow down to about brace dog speed quite a few times when needed during high single digits and low teens. i hate to say this winter i have not been running much as i am just sick of not finding any rabbits out in all this snow we have had. i think the best running i had this winter was before all the snow started falling and it was a cold 17 degree day. we ran one rabbit for almost 2 hours with 2 patch dogs.

later, dave

I had a long slow run on a cotton tail last weekend with my 1/2 patch and patch hounds. It was a little frustrating at first as they would begin to really pound it and then go quiet, but they kept the rabbit moving and brought it around to the gun. I have noticed that as mine matured they have gotten smarter about this. I remember though when they would blow right by a turn and then not be able to pick it up again. I am not sayign those days are over but I am confident when they start a rabbit it is usually up to the rabbit if it will be circled or not. Being in MI I have ran in some pretty tough stuff this year and had a good season. The rabbits are up on the state land I have been to and the dogs seemed to be dialed in to running on the snow. I have also ran them on the Island with reddog1 and believe it when he tells you what a blast it is. His dogs ended up wiping my dog out, but not before I got to see him run with the pack on a few hare. It was awesome. I will be sticking with patch hounds for my rabbit hunting.