March of the Snowshoes: 4 Days of the Craziest Rabbit Hunting in the World. Photos by Andrew Hetherington. The hounds have turned.
I hear them in the distance, echoing off the rolling, snow- clad Maine hills. A chorus of barks and yips morphs into a clamor of bawling chops and ringing howls, sharp as breaking glass. Ewing lives for beagles and snowshoe hares. He has the GPS dog- tracking unit, two- way radio, and a whopper of a patch on his blaze orange jacket that touts his hunting club back home. When we practically fall into a tiny opening in the woods, Ewing nods. I bat away branches and chew my lip. The opening is maybe 2. Scrubby brush erupts from the snow. I have to back into a cedar tree for my shotgun barrel to clear branches in front of me. I need a chain saw. Not two minutes later, a smudge of white on white slides across a dark slash of pine. The spectral shape stops and vanishes against the blanket of snow, leaving but a black marble of a hare. Before you call a Beagle puppy breeder in Pennington, NJ. Meet Patch who was adopted in Pennington, NJ. The mother (Brandy) is linebred 'Patch' hound on both sides and a super jump dog; with a snow nose to get the job done day in and day out. This is the second cross of these two hounds. Patch hounds cojax1000. Subscribe Subscribed Unsubscribe 0 0. Thrasher Twins Jake & Sally round # 2 001 6 month old Beagle Pups - Duration: 5:05. Patch Hound Pup running 5 months. I take a quarter clockwise turn on my snowshoes, but it. The hare vaults and the gun goes off, and I watch the bunny fold into the deep snow. For a split second the woods go silent, as if the snow and the hills have sucked up the dog clamor and gunshot. Then the dogs go double crazy, goosed by the shotgun. I peer into the woods. White on white on white. And a blush of bright red. The Rabbit Rut. The author sneaks close. This is the spot. Snowshoe hares are notorious for the smoke and mirrors they use to bedevil trailing hounds. They will swim through a cedar swamp. Or hop out of the track, hunker down, and snicker as the dogs blast past. When all else fails, a hare can jump 1. A single cover might hold a harem of a dozen hares, and when the beagles bust them loose, the pack breaks apart as the dogs scatter to push the hottest scent they can find. Things get really dicey if the beagles catch the hot scent of a breeding buck. When that happens, you. His Pine Grove Lodge in Bingham, Maine, is the epicenter of a snowshoe hare hunting network that draws clients from as far away as Italy and Greece. His beagles are pure athletes. Beagle Whelp date: 06/08/2014. Breeder: David Tipton Owner: Joe Brand Parents: 2nd Generation. Richards Snow Ball: Johnston's White Puff Patch: Johnston's Powder Puff Girl. Rabbit Hunting With Beagles by Pat Robertson. Each beagle is an individual and the hunter seeking to build a good pack has to pick dogs that will fit each other. The Beagle is a breed of small-sized hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. A strain known as Patch Hounds was developed by Willet Randall and his family from 1896 specifically for their rabbit hunting. Beagle information including pictures, training, behavior, and care of Beagles and dog breed mixes. Patch Beagle Snow HoundstoothIn summer, he hooks the hounds to an ATV for daily paw- toughening runs. Cardio work comes via a johnboat bristling with PVC pipes, each one tipped with a dog lead. Over the last 2. 5 years, Howe has guided hundreds of hunters into the Maine woods. Joe Ewing takes a break wih one of this beagles. On my first day, Howe matches me with Joe Ewing. Ewing and his boyhood pal, Andy Hoover, have hunted together for 4. Joined by another friend, Wayne Wilson, they house their own beagles in one of Howe. And they have a curious approach. Like many bunny runners, for these guys hunting hares is more about the dogs than the quarry. They have some strict rules to ensure that their beagles get a workout. I pick up the drill while lashing on snowshoes. I guess the beagles deserve some fun. Next to these guys, the 1. My second crack at a hare comes late in the day, after the dogs circle three times, my heart pounding as their howls thunder through the woods, then fade away as the hare leads them elsewhere. Posted up along an open wood. At any second I expect to see a snowman speaking with a Burl Ives accent. Instead I hear the pack turn, a few hundred yards away. Soon they lose the scent, with scattered yaps here and there as they pick at the trail, until a single voice strikes with unquestioned faith and the stragglers join the song. The hare might be 2. But he still catches me by surprise, his zigzag hopping closer than I expected, and farther to the left than I like. I get the gun up and swing toward the hare, but now he. No, there he is, at 2 o. I go down to my knees, thread the barrel through twigs and needles, but he. You and me, we lose a toenail, we. Day after day after day. I plunge into the woods behind Howe. On the run, these rabbits aren. The trick is to figure out how close you can edge into the maze without bumping a bunny that. I bump rabbits twice trying to move in on a race, then decide to settle down for a long wait. Clear lines of old logging trails radiate from a big fir like spokes from a wheel, so I post up in the center and circumnavigate the hub as the beagles comb the woods. Andy Hoover holds back the hounds. Settled down, I can hear the dogs run, and I give a little fist- pump when I realize I. The race shifts shape as the beagles work the track. On the slope above me, shrouded in dark timber, their full- throated howls suggest noses on a hot track and wide open running. The music crosses the woods in front and moves downhill, turning into picky little barks and yelps as the rabbit moves through a dense bog maybe 7. I spin like a compass needle, following the sounds. They cross behind and course up through scattered pines now, back in a pack, howls on top of yelps on top of howls. Three times they run the loop, and I see snippets of a tail and an ear, telling me just how close the hare has come. Now the dogs are on a full- throated howling cry in a stand of scattered pines below me, and they. I take a few steps around my tree, and there he is, hopping straight toward me, three times the size I expect. The hare tucks under the low boughs of a tree, in range but at an awful angle, and I remember what happened the last time I tried to shift my snowshoes. I bring the gun up just as a beagle barks not 2. I shoot twice, quickly, maybe too quickly. My first shot seems right on target, but the second is desperate and wishful, and I know it. I mark the spot well, though, and see needles and bark shorn by my shot. When I take a closer look, though, I see toe pads and claw marks. The smear of red is the blood from the paws of a beagle that. The Knight clan hails mostly from the Rome, Maine, area. Shane, Travis, and I line up along an ATV path, shoulder to shoulder and guns mounted. Most likely it heard us shuffling along the trail and turned back into the dark timber. The scale of the chase, thanks to the sprawling landscape and the hares. Unlike cottontails, snowshoe hares rarely go to ground. They run and run and run some more, and the hunter is more like the hound, pushing as close to the action as he dares. Now we. At some point the pack splits and for two straight hours they run, first one hare and then three and right now who knows how many. I catch a glimpse of one hare, and a glance at another, and roll one bunny in a stand of beech. Now the dogs go half mute as they tunnel through a wet swamp, yelps and barks like blips on a radar screen. One hare closer to a limit. When they turn the hares out of the bog and into the trees, all hell breaks loose. In the woods between me and the bog, Shane has a good view down an overgrown tote road where he. In 1. 0 minutes he puts four hares on the ground with his ancient hammer gun held together with electrical tape. Crazy as a March hare.
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