Powdery snow, How do your hounds fair in it ?

[cheatmountainman]

I will be hunting in some of this stuff in the morning if anyone wants to go along. I will let you know how they do but my cold nosed female will have to sit this one out because of her heat cycle.

[NorWester1]

Gwyoung wrote,

Norwester1, You ask If I really believe if it has to do with the animal being run or the conditions, and I am sure you are honestly seeking my opinion as you could not have a clue seeing that by your own admission you have not run cottontails. And as far as anyone believing that hare are not easier to run than cottontails then you have some really tough hare in your area. much tougher than the hare around here, I don't know. I will tell you something about our hare here. Our dogs run them with the same intensity that they run fox, they will pound them, period.

You are correct. Never run cottontails. They don't and can't survive here. I don't for one second believe the hare that live here are tougher than anywhere else. What is tougher are clearly the conditions and I can't imagine anything else being harder than running a hare in this neck of the woods. Comparitively speaking a cottontail would have to be invisible and able to fly to be any more difficult to run. I guess I can be thankful there aren't any living here
Sounds like the conditions where you hunt are pretty much ideal.

As to dog qualilty I was, as you write you were, speaking generally of course and is a plain observation.

[S.R.Patch]

A LONG WINTER FILLED WITH GOOD RUNS i have went out everyday and olny had one bad day in the last 2 weeks sound to me like you boys need some SNOW NOSE

Good for you, Where in Michigan are you BTW ?

My buddy Bud lives up by Ruby, he'd probably run with you.

[S.R.Patch]

I will be hunting in some of this stuff in the morning if anyone wants to go along. I will let you know how they do but my cold nosed female will have to sit this one out because of her heat cycle.

Man cheat, is that hard froze or wet Makes me wanta pull up my shirt collar...brrrr

[gwyoung]

NorWester1, A cottontail would NOT have to be invisible or able to fly to be harder to run. All they have to do is give off less scent and constantly twist, turn, and double. Under the same conditions cottontail are harder to run than hare. You can't argue this as you do not have any experience in the matter. I don't have a personal agenda, and am not trying to defend anything, just telling you my observations from 40+ years of running both, in this area. Furthermore, I would much rather run Hare and forget all about cottontail. The chases are much more exciting, with very few breakdowns, and seldom a loss, But there are not enough of them to keep everyone around here happy, as it is. I have not visited Canada in the Winter so I won't pretend to know anything about it, but I feel I can safely assume that your winters are longer,colder,and the snowfall is greater. That doesn't mean that we don't have 2feet of snow on the ground on a regular basis, and it ain't hard to catch a day on the Mountain when the temp. is 10 below. But a foot of snow on the ground and temps in the teens would be more typical. Our cottontail do live in these conditions and are ran on the same hunt as snowshoe hare, I can tell when my dogs switch from Cottontail to Hare, Things pick up immediately! Not get worse, Pick up immediately!

[gwyoung]

cheatmountainman, Just be glad you are not in NorthWestern Ontario, Canada. Those are summertime conditions up there,and the snow is actually much colder up there , not that 60 degree stuff we have hanging on our trees. Speaking of which when all of that warm powder falls from the trees I have always been amazed at how it doesn't fall in the rabbit's tracks and make the running more difficult like it does in NorthWestern Ontario, Canada! I am sure glad for Ideal conditions.

[RunninHard]

My buddy Bud lives up by Ruby, he'd probably run with you.

If he lives in Ruby then he is only 3 miles from me, Me or my partner probably know him, He have Lemon/Whites ?

I will run with him...

[RiverBottom]

I live in Minnesota and run mostly hare, but we do have cottontails and have run them some. I honestly can't tell you if one has more scent than the other. I don't think there is enough difference to amount to anything. There is a lot of difference in the way they run here. In fact, cottontails WON'T run here in winter unless the snow is hard enough for them to stay on top. I've ran cottontails in Iowa, Indiana and Ohio and I am amazed at how well they run there compared to our cottontails.

If you want to run hare in Minnesota December, January and February you better have dogs with lots of nose that stay on the line and are not the least bit competitive.

Gwyoung, I envy you. You must live in hare hunters heaven. What you describe doesn't sound anything like reality here. Please understand if most hare hunters think you are full of crap. We just have never seen dogs that can run without losses and catch hare regularly.

[S.R.Patch]

.

My buddy Bud lives up by Ruby, he'd probably run with you.

If he lives in Ruby then he is only 3 miles from me, Me or my partner probably know him, He have Lemon/Whites ?

I will run with him...

Yup, his name is Bud Glyshaw. He's a great guy, but don't let him get you lost...
Give him a call and have some fun...

[RunninHard]

.

My buddy Bud lives up by Ruby, he'd probably run with you.

If he lives in Ruby then he is only 3 miles from me, Me or my partner probably know him, He have Lemon/Whites ?

I will run with him...

Yup, his name is Bud Glyshaw. He's a great guy, but don't let him get you lost...
Give him a call and have some fun...

Yep, my running partner knows him , I never met him though, but would love to have a fun run, From what I hear from my partner he has some pretty nice hounds

[cheatmountainman]

Well the hare hunting didn't amount to much today. We didn't get one jumped to see how they would do in this powdery snow. We did get in a place and found a track but never got it jumped. We had to have the truck chained up and it was still hard to get in there. I know its hard to believe but that snow hanging on those trees is not a wet snow. There was no way you could make a snowball out of it because it was dry and powdery but still hanging on the trees. When we walked through it it would fall in your tracks behind you so if we would have jumped the hare it probably wouldn't have been a very long chase. Here is my hunting buddy getting ready to get some of this powder down the back of his neck.

[gwyoung]

RiverBottom, Appears like you are doing a little theorizing yourself. I did not say the dogs ran without losses, I said seldom lose . Big difference and I will explain this in a minute for you. Also I don't think I said "catch Hare regularly", I think I said I have seen quite a few killed, once again big difference, you seem to be a little reckless with the facts.
I think I can explain why the dogs I have ran hare with seldom lost and also why I have seen quite a few killed when perhaps this has not been your experience. Hare are scarce here. When you jump one the chance that it will cross another hot Snowshoe track during the chase is not good, so the dogs stay on the same hare for hours at a time. I suspect if you are not catching the occasional Hare it is because your dogs are switching to a fresh hare during the course of the run. I also believe that the less an area is tracked up and the less confusion there is ( splits for example) the better chance your dogs will not have a loss. Furthermore, are you sure our hare are the exact species as you have, Is it possible our Hare are smaller, have less stamina, etc" I don't know , but you seem to be extremely knowledgeable, Let me know about this. What I do know and stand by is when I ran hare in the past the dogs seldom lost. Is this also due to them being shot and/ or it got dark and they would have eventually been lost, I don't know that either. In forty years I have seen quite a few of them killed by the dogs. I stand by that also, See explanation above. Are you telling me your dogs or anyone you know have not had dogs catch Hare?

[RunninHard]

Thats what I have been dealing with, froze to the trees/brush, dry as a popcorn fart, now the sun is out and the snow is a little packy but I am stuck in the house with the kids and the wife is on OT this week

[Casey Harner]

We got nothing but ice where I am. Gonna get a mix of snow and ice again tonight. This Friday I'm heading back out in it!!

[bluegrass]

Running here in West Michigan the last couple of weeks has been very good, but reading everything on this post makes me wonder a bit if its an aberration or we just have better hounds than even we knew. By "we" I mean my dogs and my running partner Joe...I KNOW we have great jump dogs, but the running has been very good in the snow, even when theres been that sugary type to hunt in. The bloodlines we run ARE known for having very good nose power, and I agree thats what you gotta have to run in this stuff. I did watch a couple of those cottontails pull some nasty tricks yesterday though...and I got a real kick out of watching my buddy's old bitch jump one by herself down the hill from me. Got to watch the whole thing, what a sight!!!


Tony