Here at work last evening my buddy Jack stopped by to get some essentials. I noticed that he was wearing a pair of jeans with those built in chaps, briar proof and all. Whatever you call those pants? Anyway, I asked him if he'd been out rabbit hunting.

He had been. Jack told me who he was hunting with and what property they hunted. I know the man that he was hunting with, he has beagles, not sure how many now? They hunted on a farm on the west side of the big river, that joins the low ridges. So, I asked, how'd you do?

Jack said that they'd had a very good day. They killed 28 rabbits. Twenty Eight rabbits is a pile of rabbits. Figure 2 and a half or 3 pounds each. Not sure how many folks were hunting with them? But that would have been a fun day.

It was a pretty day to hunt, the temperature was up in the 40's. Jack said they got up in the grape vines and the rabbits were running everywhere.

Now that our big game seasons have ended, we'll hunt small game. Moe was out yesterday shooting at crows. At. I think he's got us lined up for a rabbit and or crow shoot next weekend. I'm just sitting back waiting for the coyotes to find my bait. If things work out I'll wait another 2 weeks or so.

That would have been a hoot to be at. When I had beagles, and the hare numbers were good we brought plastic sleds to haul the rabbits. But that was exceptional. A half dozen for an afternoon hunt for 2 guys was the norm.

A buddy from back then still has a beagle. He can't find a hare or spot to hunt within reasonable driving distance of his home.

I know several guys that have beagles. Just a week or so ago, a man asked me if I knew of any good spots where he could run his dogs. I know of several properties with a good population of rabbits, but nearly all of them are right beside of a main road.

The man that I was talking to said he'd been box trapping rabbits and taking them to places where it was safe to train his dogs. I know of other guys that usually don't even take a gun when they take their dogs out, cause it is hard to find a safe place to cut them in the wind.

I'll tell you about the picture above. Moe asked me where we could find an "easy" deer, we were hunting a farm right on the edge of town. The pictures I posted in the other thread, where I said that I had Moe up in the brush, above the left corner of the field. If you look on the right side of the picture, that's a trailer park. The main road was 150 yards to my left. I hunted up through the brush towards Moe, less than a half mile, during that little hunt I jumped 2 house cats, the rabbit above, and 2 fawns. I had Moe watching the hollow, up toward the top of the ridge, he didn't see squat, just one feral cat.

Well, my buddy Jack stopped by last evening, I asked if he'd been out rabbit hunting any more. They were out the other day on a different property, said they got 4.

Jack told me that the man he's been hunting with and a couple other friends went back to the same property they hunted the other day, said they killed 24 rabbits the second time. Jack wasn't in on the second hunt, but that's a pile of rabbits.

But, if you think about it, that would only be 10 litters. I mean for 50 rabbits.

I'll tell you this real quick, I had 3 hours to kill the other evening before I had to get back to work. Figured I'd just ride out to the farm where Moe and I deer hunted a month or so ago, right on the edge of town. We had 5 inches of day old snow on the ground, a good tracking snow, I took my .22 and thought that maybe I'd be able to find a rabbit sitting in a briar patch.

Long story short, I started up through the brush, and I'll bet I cut across 8 or 10 housecat tracks before I found the first rabbit track. As well as I could tell, it came out of the vines and went into a hole. I didn't see the rabbit, I didn't jump it or anything. Went on up another couple hundred yards or so, more cat tracks, and finally found a batch of rabbit tracks, but there were 3 or 4 groundhog holes right there. I didn't see any sitting out.

The temperature was about 20* and it was kind of windy. The farm where I was hunting should be a rabbit hot spot. But it seems, you might hunt there today and not see a thing, wait till it warms up tomorrow, and find a couple sitting out.

I'm not sure at what temperature that cottontails hole up? Some times they'll run. But back when we had our beagle, I've watched the dog jump a rabbit and it'd run 25 yards and into a hole. Other times, I've watched the little dog chase them around for hours.

That is the nice thing about hares. Our "rabbits" don't hole up.

West Virginia has a population of snowshoe hares, it's a small population. They're up in the higher mountains 30 miles west of where I live. Up across the Alleghaney Mountains, Spruce Knob area.

Me and a couple of my friends used to go up and mess with them, honestly we always thought that we had a good day if we'd kill one. A couple days we did get 3, and I think one time we got 4. Big pretty rabbits, they'll weigh 4 pounds. A buddy of mine fixed up a set of back feet on a little board, it's on display here it work.

Years ago there was talk about relocating a population into the mountains east of town. That never did happen. Not yet anyway.

I had 7* F. this morning, that's about minus 14 C., think I'll throw another set of tire chains in the truck and go for a ride in a bit.