Dogging wily rabbits to put more meat in the pot
Eager with high anticipation and adrenaline, I listened intently to frantic howling echoing across the Mississippi pine savanna and moving in my direction. Tensed for action, I heard something about 40 yards behind me. I turned just fast enough to catch a fleeting glimpse of a cottontail rabbit disappearing into a brushy thicket.
Since everything with teeth, claws, or talons likes a rabbit meal, the “bread of the forest” spends most of its time hiding in thick cover, especially during daylight. Most people hunt cottontails with dogs to roost rabbits from their lairs. Even helped by canines with acute noses, hunting rabbits can prove challenging.
With every predator trying to eat them, rabbits know how to disappear. They know every hole, thicket, and briar patch in their home territory. They run a network of small trails and tunnels through the most impassable vegetation with ease. One never knows where one might emerge again.
Most people get into hunting rabbits with dogs because of family tradition. At an early age, they begin by following their fathers, grandfathers, or other relatives going back many generations. Later, they pass that heritage down to the next generation.
Dog people know and love the sound of their animals. They can pick out individual beagles from a howling pack. Frequently, dog enthusiasts hold informal competitions to see whose dog finds the first or most rabbits.
After releasing the dogs, hunters spread out to spots with reasonable visibility. Listen to the dogs and watch any openings where a rabbit might appear. Determine safe places to shoot and never fire until positively identifying the target and what’s behind it. Something low to the ground and brown in heavy cover could be a dog, not a rabbit, so make absolute certainty of the target. When a rabbit bolts for cover, shooters must react quickly.
Each hunter should wear an orange cap and vest plus thick “brush-buster” pants. Also, communicate with each other so every person knows where all others stand. In dense cover, people might not see another person, even one wearing orange. Many hunting teams bring light, short-range radios to keep track of everyone and help keep up with the movements of hunters, dogs, and rabbits.
Rabbit hunters don’t need to sit still for hours. They can talk and move around. This social atmosphere makes rabbit
hunting such a great way to introduce children or novices to the sport.
People who want to start hunting rabbits should find an experienced person to take them. After learning a few things and enjoying the sport, that individual might consider buying pups and training them. Pair young dogs with experienced ones, so the pups learn from the older ones.
Most rabbit hunters release their dogs on private lands, but many public properties in Mississippi hold abundant rabbit populations. Any place with thick undergrowth for coverwhere rabbits can elude predators with succulent foods to nibble should hold rabbits.
Rabbit hunters don’t need to sit still for hours. They can talk and move around. This social atmosphere makes rabbit hunting a great way to introduce children or novices to the sport. Everyone gets a thrill from hearing the dogs and watching them work.
