How did you get hooked???

[kjohns]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Been a lot arguing on here lately. I haven't seen a "How did you get started" post in a while. So lets here it.

I'll start. I've told it before but I'll tell it again.

When I was a kid we had a beagle that couldn't have run an elephant if it wanted to. So my brother and I were the beagles. Dad: "Getting in that brush and kick-em up boys" I didn't rabbit hunt with a dog again until I was 25. My brother-in-law took me out one day w/ his uncle's beagle "Rocky" 7 year old male at the time. First fence row we went down, he opened up. Real deep drawn out bawl. I said "What was that?" my brother in law said quiet he's gotta rabbit. I looked down and the rabbit was sitting in front of my foot. I shot it point blank with a Remington 870 12 guage 6 shot. Never once thought about it being to close to have any meat left. My brother in law came over, looked down at the rabbit and said "Dam, you could've kicked in the rear end and given it a running chance" I still hear it about that one. Anyway, I was hooked!

Now I got 4 of my own beagles and will be breeding my female to Rocky as soon as she comes into heat. He's 13 years old now and will still find you a rabbit on ANY kind of day.

[Dave H]

I was in my early 20's a new friend told me about his uncles dog "mid-night" I had shot cottintails before be never even seen a white hare before. It was so cold that day and felt weird not to be in a fishing shanty that time of year. I had all my guns put up since deer season at the end of november. Her it was mid febuary and I am out with a shot gun freezing my but off with a old 12 beagle in 2 feet of snow. Just as I was wishing i had stayed in bed I heard off in the distance baaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooo!!! than another and so on. I didn't know what to think. I was looking around as now the dog has gone around me 2 or 3 times. I was thinking this dog has done insane!!! next thing I know I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to see. I saw this fast moving balck eye running on top of th snow!!! I rased my 16 ga full of #6 and shot 4 times at this thing and never touched it!!!! my buddy was hollering DID YA GET IT!!! I Yelled back. I DONT KNOW EVERYTHING IS WHITE MAN THOSE THINGS ARE FAST!!!! I finaly killed it and being that id never even seen one I was looking it all over in amasement and thinking that dog aint even close to me that B A N G !!! my buddy shoots over near where the dog was. Seems I shot a stray. I thought that was weird because this one was just hopping along. I gunned the rest of the season over that dog and went out a bought a pup that spring. All uphill from there....

[pete young]

I was 10 years old and was growing up on a farm outside of Lexington, KY. I had started hunting squirrells that same year and I LOVED it. One day I was out running around in the feilds and I saw some guys pull up in an old truck and turn loose a bunch of dogs. I ran over and asked them what they were doing and they told me rabbit hunting. I asked what the dogs were for and they said "come along and you will see". After that day, I was begging for a beagle. It took me 3 years of whining and crying to get my own dog. It was a tri-colored grade dog. He was 8 weeks old and we named him Norman. I don't know how we came up with that name, but it stuck(lol). I took him out everyday and when he was 4 months old he was opening and running. I was the proudest kid in KY of that pup. I have had beagles ever since with the exception of a 5 year brain lapse. I can't imagine not having beagles now and will never forget those old men that let a kid tag along.

[Dave H]

This is a very good topic and makes for some great reading and story telling.
Great thought Kjohns!

[Emery]

My brother gave me my first beagle. When she opened the first time I was as happy then as I was 4 years later when my first child was born. I got infected with Beagle Fever and have had it ever since. I sure hope they don't find a cure for that disease...

Emery

[MIKE]

LIKE MOST OF THE OLD HUNTERS I STARTED OUT BEING THE DOG. JUMPING ON BRUSH PILES, KICKING CLUMPS OF WEEDS & I ALSO GOT TO CARRY THE RABBITS. LATER ON MY BROTHER GAVE ME AN ESSEX SINGLE SHOT. IT HAD A 36" BARREL & FULL CHOKE. IT WAS WORTH ABOUT $10.00 BECAUSE IT HAD $9.00 WORTH OF TAPE ON IT. THE FIRST RABBIT I KILLED (murdered ) WAS SITTING IN A HOLLER TREE STUMP & I CUT LOOSE. I DID MANAGE TO GET THE BACK LEGS OFF OF IT TO EAT. I GOT LUCKY, WHEN I WAS IN THE SERVICE SOMEONE GOT RID OF THAT OLD GUN. I'M 62 NOW & STILL SMILE WHEN I THINK OF IT
BUNNYBUSTER

[anderson7807]

my neighbor bought a pup just for a pet last year. i enjoyed watching her in yard. this christmas my wife bought me a pup for christmas. he is 12 wks old and i took him out in the field and he put his nose down and now i am hooked. i told my wife i want a couple more pups.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I started coon hunting with my dad in Michigan when I was 2 years old. My family moved to Kentucky when I was eight, we continued coon hunting untill I was 16. I sold my 2 walker dogs and started hunting that did not involve dogs. I went to Morehead State University after high school and as a junior I started dating my future wife and her dad rabbit huntedandonmy Christmasbreakand Thanksgiving breakI hunted with himand continued hunting with him when I got the chance. He hunted feist beagle mix and these dogs were good hounds. I bought a grade beagle and hunted himfor 2 years then bought another grade beable and hunted her still yesterday. I then met Mike King and Dexter Reffett. I bought some registered beagles with Northway breeding I started enjoying hunting more than ever. One Friday my uncle in Michigan Amos Hamilton told me to come and get his 4 beagles it was just to cold for him to hunt anymore. 3 old females passed away on me before the next season but there was a 2 year old male named Shady Hills Comanche that was fast enough to hunt with my father-in-laws feist. I still have Comanche and yesterday with him and some other Northway hounds we jumped and ran 23 rabbits. Seen 6-9 and shot 4. I am hooked and have been hooked on huting with dogs ever since hunting with my dad in Michigan. I would walk for a while then they would put me on their shoulders when I was 2 and I love my dad for this and take him hunting with me now every time he wants to go. Sorry to babble about my story but this is just a real good subject to write on. Also, I just bought my 5 year old daughter a 410 870 (my wife don't know yet) hopefully I can spent time with her just as my dad did with me.

[Jack]

My Grandpa was, my Dad was and I have always been.

[BeaglerJay]

Well I'm 18 now alomost 19 and I have been around rabbit hunters and beagles just about all my life because both sides of my family had beagles and hunted them. My dad got me my first beagle when I was 10 years old and I named him Max he was just a grade dog. I took him out every day after school and in the mornings on the weekends. You couldn't ask for a better listening dog that would retrieve too. Well I got older and more responsible and my dads buddy had some beagle pups and my dad took me over there to look at them and when we got there my dad asked me which two I liked the best and I liked a red and white one with some tickin on him and this Long Eared Blue Tick that was tippin his head back bawlin and then my dad said well son there yours. So I had me two new beagle pups Jack and Duke and they were the best pair I have had. There came a time were I had to get rid of them Max,Jack,and Duke and it was really hard doing that so I quit hunting and running dogs for about 3 years and just last year I got back into rabbit hunting and running dogs it took my a while to find the right dog I liked I probablly went through 10 dogs then I bought me a Male Branko pup that I named Buster but I just had to have another dog so I bought me a Little Branko Female that I named Trixie and I plan on keepin these two till they can't run any more.

Jason Inabnitt

[BuschBound]

well, I was about 5 years old living in minneapolis mn with my mother(1978), and my grandparents were living here in Ironwood mi. My grandfather had always had beagles and was more into the hunting than the field trials. I had over heard him tell guys at the coffee shop on how he use to have a beagle that became a F.C. back in the 50's. Well I was wondering on day on how a dog gets that title. Well, after many bus trips on the greyhound bus back and forth from Mn to Mi, I had went out hunting with my grandfather and really enjoyed the outdoors and spending time with him hunting, so when I was about 15yrs old I told my mother I'd like to move to Mi with my grandparents and that is all it took. My grandfather introduced me to all types of hunting, fishing and trapping and I was hooked. I never looked back at the city life. in 1996 I believe I went to my first field trial and I have always been a people person and I love the company of others and being around the old time beaglers like Dominic Leitza, Howard Willson, Joe Corullo. I loved to hear about the old time greats... like Mt. Zion pete, Tamarack Tiger, Tigers Duffy and many others all of these hounds came from our area. Around 1987 I got my own beagle and started to trial. My grandfather started to trial again and we attended many trials together. in 1995 or so my grandfather died and since then until 2001 I kept his kennel alive by raising a few dogs there. Now after getting married I have built a new kennel house and still hunt hard and attend about 12- 15 trials a year. My whole family enjoys the sport of beagling and I don't know what I would do with out my beagles!!!

[Little Dog]

Sitting on a deer stand one day freezing my buns off I realized bunnies where more fun.

[S.R.Patch]

My mama told me I was born with the hook in my mouth, was a painful birthing and the coldest day of the year...lol
My wife concurs with her and it's one of the few things they agree on ...Patch

[yellow mt. kennels]

I WAS THREE YEARS OLD, AND MY GRAND PA GOT ME STARTED.
I REMEMBER LIKE IT WAS LAST WEEK, FUNNY BECAUSE I CAN HARDLY REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE PAST A FEW HOURS OR DAYS. "PART TIMERS" !!
ANYWAY, AT AGE THREE FOLLOWING BEHIND MY GRAND PA CARRING A CUT OFF BROOM STICK FROM GRAND MA'S KITCHEN. BEING TOLD EVERY ONCE AND A WHILE TO GO OVER AND BEAT SOME BUSHES.
THEN WHEN A RABBIT RAN OUT, NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE IT, BUT JUST AS HOOKED AS I COULD BE.
FUNNY THE THING'S YOU REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JAMES DAVIS
YELLOW MT. KENNELS

[yellow mt. kennels]

OOPS!!
FAILED IN MY ABOVE POST TO MENTION THE FOLLOWING:
I AM NOW 43 YRS. OLD, AND HAVE ONLY BEEN WITHOUT BEAGLES ONE TIME SINCE I WAS 3. THE YEAR AFTER MY DAD DIED, I SOLD EVERYTHING AND STOPPED. BY THE NEXT GUN SEASON MY MOM, AND MY WIFE CONVINCED ME THAT I SHOULD GET BACK INTO DOGS, AND HAVE BEEN EVER SINCE!! DAD DIED IN 2000.

JAMES DAVIS
YELLOW MT. KENNELS