How Long Do They Run?

[gwyoung]

buck, I never kept a journal on the rabbits caught. I have been saying for forty years or so that I was going to keep a Hunting and Fishing journal but haven't done it yet. Wouldn't it be nice to have the happenings of every day that you ever hunted or fished wrote down somewhere, oh, well maybe next year I will start! I trapped rabbits in this manner for two years and caught quite a few. I will guess about seventy or eighty. As far as catching a dog I never went to a trap that had one in it , but occasionally I had a trap to come up missing and several times I had traps where it was obvious something had pulled out of them.
I always used #1 traps and put a piece of cloth over the trap that was wider than the jaws this helps prevent the rabbit's legs from being broken as well as allowing most larger animals to pull out. As far as running after dark to be honest with you I haven't run enough after dark to give a qualified opinion, But it would be my guess that females would hole just as quick after dark as they do in daylight, but that is only a guess and I have nothing to back it up. The really large rabbits that we normally kill are generally females , I can't tell the difference for sure while they are being ran because even though the biggest females are indeed larger than the biggest males it is generally a difference of ounces around here and the females don't want to stay up long enough for me to form an opinion one way or the other.

[bucks better beagles]

GW: Re: Journal

You are right about a journal. I have kept two for 30 years. One records my everyday activities and thoughts and the other records my daily hunting exploits. I keep the temp, general weather conditions, locations, number of dogs, who I hunt with and, most importantly, how the running conditions were.

Of topic: I also kept one in Vietnam and through it away after about 7 months. I figured I would never want to read and no one else would care. Man was I ever wrong, looking back.

[gwyoung]

Since I brought up the topic of weasels I would like to add something. Just about anywhere you live in the U.S. there will be long tailed weasels where you live. If you live in the North-East you will have Least weasels as well. They do not hibernate and they stir just about every night regardless of the weather. I track them while hunting just about everyday there is snow on and so do you! Most people thing the tracks left by a least weasel are bird tracks or mice tracks on top of the snow most of those little tracks you see are least weasels , they look like they are left by something with only two legs ( birds) because the weasel places his rear foot exactly in the front foot print. The larger long tailed weasel leaves a track about the size of a red squirrel ( fairydiddle) and most folks who see his track think it is a red squirrel track because it is to small for a gray or fox squirrel and therefore, most belong to the smaller red squirrel, but take a close look at it and you will see the rear foot exactly in the front print, squirrels do not do this.

[ANTHONY KERR]

Ran Friday afternoon at a beautiful new spot with a buddy. 7 foot tall planted pines with thin briars and broom straw. We turned out my pack of 5 at 3:15 and kicked a rabbit up at 3:29. After the initial drive there was a 2 1/2 minute check when the rabbit doubled his track. When they picked it back up there were only 10 to 20 second checks and pretty much pounding. My buddy killed the rabbit at 3:52. The next run was jumped at 4:01 it ran14 minutes to a loss. Rabbit 3 was kicked up and by the time the dogs got there they only ran it about 100 yards. Then banged around until I got tired of listening. I guess I would round that up to 1 minute. They finally jumped another at about 4:42. I pulled up the gun and let it run at 5:40 and they ran until after dark. I did not look at the end time but it was over an hour an a half. It was not check free and one drive took the dogs beyond where I could hear them. I was grinning from ear to ear when I reached in the cooler and re hashed the great afternoon. I had a 21 month old big male that did some absolutely great things with the pack of vetrans.
I would not have sold him for any mans money Friday night.

Saturday we ran the first rabbit poorly with 9 dogs from 7:30 to the gun at 7:52. After that we could not run a rabbit the length of a football field and some the length of a ping pong table. We quit in disgust at 11:45. A front moved in and the wind was howling and we had blue bird skies with the temprature dropping. I had a 21 month old male that I probably would have given away or left on the side of the road if we had gone much longer.
I posted this to say it is not all 2 hour pounding runs with caught or killed rabbits. Spring is coming though and big runs should follow. If any of you guys are in the area and want to run. I will be out there giving them hell.

[gwyoung]

The dogs started eleven rabbits on the strip job where we ran the five last Friday. three went straight to hole. Seven of them were killed . six of the seven ran from a low of 9 minutes to a high of 31 minutes these six were males. One female was killed, I think she ran about five seconds. I will explain, after the dogs started a rabbit in a black berry patch they ran him for twenty five minutes and then back to the black berry patch, as the dogs went through the patch a rabbit popped out the other end with the dogs behind her and my buddy killed it, It was a female . I didn't think she ran for twenty five minute as hard and fast as the dogs were running and told my buddies that I thought she was a stray and that another rabbit was in the patch. We had the dogs start working the patch and as I walked around it I saw where another rabbit had left out of it, we put the dogs on the track and the rabbit crossed the road the same place it had originally and was headed for the same area it had run previously, it was killed an was a male. I am not saying that a female will never run for an extended period of time, I think some of them may, but generally if you get a long run it will be a male. Knowing this gave us another rabbit today as we looked for another rabbit after we noticed a female was killed after a 25 minute run. You will not always kill the original rabbit that is run either. The last rabbit was run for 48 minutes and then went into a culvert. I think he was a male!

[chapkosbeagles]

Ran one today for 2 hours with these slow hounds

[Newt]

I went out yesterday at about noon. I had a two year old Englbert bitch, Bertie, a thirteen month old male, Razz, a ten month old bitch, Polly, and an eight month old bitch. The male, Razz, jumped the first rabbit at 12:55 and they ran it until 2:20. The rabbit was getting tired, so it started squatting in the briars. Toward the end It squatted in a fallen tree top in the briars. The ten month old pup, Polly, routed it out. It burst out of the briars toward me. It jumped a four ft ditch, saw me, made a 90 degree turn along the ditch, and squatted in the honeysuckle. The dogs came out and over ran the turn. They made a circle back into the briars and retraced their earlier path on the rabbit trail. This time when they passed where he turned left, Polly, picked up the scent, stopped and crawled through the honeysuckle until she routed it out again. The rabbit went back into the briar patch. I was afraid they were going to catch it so I called them off with the tone button, on a check.
Bertie jumped the next rabbit at 3:05. They ran until 4:30. I caught the three older dogs on a check, using the tone button. I only had a shocking collar on those three so I couldn't call the eight month old pup. I tried voice call but she wouldn't come. I took those three on the leash to the truck, then I returned and caught the pup about twenty minutes later at a check.
That seems about like a typical run for me. As long as I take the Englebert bitch, there will be some long races. She has a great nose, a great mouth, and she loves running rabbits.
If I were gun hunting I could have killed each rabbit about thirty minutes into each race. There are not a lot of rabbits there, its a quiet pace to run, the rabbits run big circles, and I love it. I don't shoot there.

[chapkosbeagles]

Today it was headhigh running ran the same rabbit for 2 hours and they holed it

[Robbie F.]

You seem to have alot of long runs when no one can verify it.

[rabbitearl]

I just glad to see some other states that have two hr running rabbits than NC,or like someone said.Just sorry dogs.I m still waiting on that video of dogs catching a rabbit under 30 min.

[chapkosbeagles]

Robbie what is stopping you from driving over and putting a dog down

[dog]

I just glad to see some other states that have two hr running rabbits than NC,or like someone said.Just sorry dogs.I m still waiting on that video of dogs catching a rabbit under 30 min.

thats funny right there , whats even funnier is that all you read on these boards is what you should expect from a true rabbit dog , everyone has got an opinion on what is exceptable and what is not , if they do this then they gotta go and if they cant do that they are junk and they find a new home but from what im reading there arent many that can keep a rabbit going for any amount of time , dont matter to me if they have checks or if they have some long ones , like someone else said earlier , i love a dog that can work a hard check and get it going again , in my book thats what i call hunt and desire , ant dog worth 2 cents can work an easy check , show me one that will stick it out in a hard one and ill take it ! like i said before ,ive never had any complaints about my dogs but after listening too what others had to say about what it takes to have a good dog i honestly believed that i had "culls" in most peoples eyes , obviously not , mine seems to keep them going , if they couldnt keep a rabbit going they wouldnt be here , dont care how far off the line they run , they can throw in an extra bark once in a while , can even get competitive and create a check now and then , as long as they find it and get it going again i dont care

[Tonyallen83]

In KY there are three different species of rabbits. In the eastern foothills there are two this excludes the swampers which are located in the western most part of the state. The most common where I run are the Eastern Cottontails. We have ample reclaimed strips where these are abundant. You can have hours of running at night but never be sure your dogs are not switching rabbits because there are so many on the first loose they can move 20 yards and grab a fresh track. I would say 30 minutes is a long race on the same rabbit. There is also a third species that many hunters don't realize the Appalachian Cottontail or woods bunny as my dad and grandpa always referred to them. On a rare occasion if you are lucky enough to jump one of these the race is on. I remember on a gun hunt we jumped one early one morning and timed it for some unknown reason. After running the ridge line for almost 2 hrs my dad made me go catch the dogs saying they would be dead tired and the remainder of our hunt would be ruined. We saw the rabbit several times but it was to far for a shot. If you are lucky enough to see one they are red and smaller than an Eastern cottontail they tend to inhabit hollow logs and pine thickets in the higher elevations and they will run for hours just thought I would share this story.

[briarhopper]

My dogs run abt upper med speed but can kick it up a gear when that rabbit hits his afterburners. u often have to pull them off a 2 hr run. Hunted saturday and they ran him for almost 3 hours. I could have shot twice but ended up my buddys little brother killed it. If my dogs could only run for 30 min id get new dogs

[gwyoung]

dog, what you are describing is what I call meat hounds. I like meat hounds! They are what puts the rabbit in the bag, thus, the term meat-hound, and the ORIGINAL intent of the rabbit dog in the first place. On a check, a dog should work for as long as it takes to recover, I would say checks under five seconds would be the most common for us. If the dogs don't pick up the check after about twenty seconds or so I am starting to think hole, doesn't mean it is a hole , I'm just starting to get that idea . dogs should be smart enough to know when the rabbit has gone to hole and return to you. They should also be smart enough to know that the rabbit didn't hole and to continue looking until they find him or you give up, not them. We ran thirteen rabbits yesterday , we had one heck of a long chase , the rabbit was seen 6 or 7 times by us but circumstances didn't allow a shot. He finally went to hole out in the woods behing me. I yelled to the other guys and told them hole. I called the dogs away and met my two buddies. One asked me if I was still timing the runs and I told him no, he said well that run was an hour and 33 minutes. We had a couple of 2 or 3 minute checks in this run but for the most part it was steady. My hounds are meat hounds, they are not pretty, lined up, polite to each other , hounds that some trialers seem to prefer. My buddy has a dog I gave him as a pup that will out-check anything I have seen in thirty years. My buddy looked at me yesterday on the way out and said , If they don't hole they are going to get killed aren't they. Rarely is this statement not true, but I am sure there are a lot of trial folks who wouldn't own them. The great check dog I spoke of earlier would be thrown out of a trial immediately, he likes to run the front but he doesn't always get to, some of the other hounds can keep him behind them for a little while, He will pass the other dogs without putting on his turn signal and waiting for the other dogs to get out of his way, he will bump them off the road as he goes around , he does his check work on the run and he ain't necessarily close on them but the rabbit will not , I repeat will not be lost. A lot of field trialers would rather see it lost then to see what he does to recover. I would rather he was a lot closer on the checks also , but I will never get rid of a dog for getting the job done .