Rabbit Hunting - 1/17/2010

James and I went up to White Memorial Conservation Area on Sunday morning. We pulled up to the CA around 7:15. Temperature was right at freezing and there was a lot of fog in the area. Beautiful day for hunting. As we started the day the dog was really anxious and was barking on just about any rabbit trail, new or old.
It took some time to get our first rabbit up. Chip (the dog) was working in a thicket on the edge of the woods while James and I were walking the outer edge. Chip had pushed a rabbit out of the thicket, and was on it's trail. However, he ran the rabbit down through the woods then just stopped and came back up towards us. I have no idea what happened with that rabbit.
Because of the way Chip was barking on every scent, we didn't pay much attention to him as we crossed over a grass field. He took off away from us baying and going crazy. As we listened to him, we realized he was circling and decided he was actually on a rabbit. We staged ourselves on either side of a brush pile where we thought the rabbit came from. As Chip approached we never did see the rabbit and had to move on.
Not much further across the same grass field Chip was in front of me working a thicket and I watched him get a rabbit up and start the chase. He ran the rabbit in a huge circle for about 15 minutes. We setup on either side of a small depression that lead from the woods back to where Chip jumped the rabbit. Unfortuneately, James saw the rabbit on another deppression that was just out of shooting range. Chip stayed on him, but we never saw this rabbit either. (there is a video of this chase. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSpC9pCuqC8)
As we were making our way back to the truck Chip jumped another rabbit in a brush pile and was right on him. However, this one crossed the road outside of the CA and we called the dog off. I'm not losing my dog over a stupid rabbit.
It was a great trip and I am really impressed with how well Chip worked. It usally takes him about 4 or 5 outings to start turning the rabbit, but he proved me wrong this trip.

Rabbit Hunting - 12/20/09 - Whiteside

Our first rabbit hunt of the season, and really of the last two years. We didn't get out last season at all, so my beagle, Chip, was a little rough for wear. There were 4 of us that went, and it was the first hunt ever for James. We had to be back in St. Charles by 11:30 so we left the house at 6:00. By 7:00 we were at Whiteside putting on our insulated bibs and extra layers of fleece... it was cold (24 F). It didn't take long and we had our first jump of the day. I got him up in a small field and got the dog on him within a minute or so. Chip lost the rabbit aobout 150 yards out. There were a lot of BIG piles of fallen timber that I think they were holding up in. We continued and had another field jumper. This one came out of a creek and crossed a large field. James could have gotten a shot off, but with a new gun, didn't get the safety off in time to shoot. Again we got the dog on it and again Chip lost the rabbit. I don't recall the third rabbit... but the forth one Jeff kicked up and the shit was so thick I had problems seeing my feet. Needless to say, Jeff didn't know where the rabbit went so we couldn't get the dog on the scent and we pushed on. The last one came up between us (all 4 of us) and the dog got right on it. 50 yards away was another one of these HUGE timber piles. Yeah... Chip could have lost him, but I'm pretty sure that rabbit ran in the pile. All in all, it was a good day. Weather was good, snow on the ground and we had 5 rabbit up on public ground with one dog.

William R. Logan & Whiteside

           
The day started out a little rough. Les, Matt, Jeff, Mark and I headed out to Logan and Whiteside, but I didn't go far enough and we started out on the back side of Logan. Turned out that was just the shooting range and there wasn't a good place to rabbit hunt so we continued on up 61 and got to another entrance to Logan. We stopped in a camping area and worked a couple fields. It was still pretty cool with an overcast. Great day to be hunting. With 5 of us hunting it didn't take long to push down through a draw. We worked the area in a counterclockwise direction, heading southeast and then doubling back to work around the backside of the pond towards the road and eventually back to the truck. As we pushed up the backside of the pond, we came up on what looked to be a really nice rabbit field only to find out that it was a limited area and we couldn't shoot in the area. So we were forced west of this field. As we neared the road I got a rabbit up. He jumped about 15 feet in front of me. They were not holding tight at all. Of course the rabbit headed towards the area that we couldn't shoot. He out-smarted the dog and we pushed our way back to the truck.
We drove around Logan a little bit more, but the area was a dead end so we decided to go on down to Whiteside. The area is actually called William G. and Erma Parke White Memorial Wildlife Area, but since it's White Memorial Area, and it's just outside of the town of Whiteside, we call it Whiteside. I digress. We started in what use to be my favorite place to hunt. I say this because we have always had luck in the area. Not only have we seen a rabbit on every outing, but we've gotten quail up in the area on several occasions. We worked this field clockwise starting by heading west towards the little pond. This is where we usually have a lot of action. As we turned north on the west side of the pond we found that the entire north side of this field had been part of a control burn, similar to the area we saw at Hi Pointe a couple weeks ago. We walked along the woods until we got east of the truck at which point we were back into cover. We passed a few other hunters that had a rabbit going in the woods north of the area (we never did hear a shot). As we neared the truck, Jeff and Mark spotted a rabbit crossing from the south towards the northwest. We got the dog over as quickly as possible, but after crossing two field he wasn't driving very hard and was searching for the scent, so we called him back and headed to the truck.
After a bite to eat we went down to the large lake on the west side of the CA. We worked in a clockwise direction again. Down a draw and around to the back side of the lake. As we came down this little road, we headed up the overflow from the lake towards the back of the dam. Nearing the base of the dam Chip started barking about 10 feet to my right. There was no rabbit in site, but he pushed over towards Mark, and on up the side of a wooded hill. We decided to let him go and see what he does. He hesitated in several different areas lost the scent and then got it back. He got almost out of ear-shot and seemed to be holding in one area. Mark, Les and I headed after him while Matt and Jeff stayed put. Chip was on the other side of the conservation line when Les saw both him and the rabbit in a full sprint. I ran west down the path to try to catch the rabbit crossing the path towards the north, but got there about the same time the dog did. Chip stayed in pursuit all the way back to where Jeff and Matt were waiting, but just before arriving at their location, the rabbit was gone. Three rabbits up, three lost. We continued to hunt, but it was after 1:00 and we were all a bit tired. We talked to another couple of hunters who were had not seen a thing all day. We exchanged hunting stories and headed back to the truck. It was a good day of hunting.

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TEMP: 27° - 35°
TIME: 8:00 - 2:00
CONDITIONS: Overcast and cold in the morning. Had a little bit of spitting snow when we first headed out. A good day to utilize layers. As it got later in the day, the clouds broke up and we had some sunshine. The wind was on and off. Not too bad, but very cold. It was pretty dry. Great day to be in the fields.

William G. & Erma, CA

Adam, Matt and I tried this area again on Sunday. Adam got the first rabbit up in a small row of trees. Chip got on the scent late and couldn't get things to go his way. I got the second one up and Chip was on it pretty quick. He ran it around to the north and then back west. It must have holed, or Chip lost the scent in the woods. We did kick a covey of quail up. I'm sure this is the same covey we got up on Friday. Seems like there were about 6 or so that got up. We didn't get any rabbits, but it was a good day.

William G. & Erma CA

Chip and I went out by ourselves. This was our first hunt of the year. Hunted 2 areas. The first place was on the backside of the area off of CR-210. Stop at the second parking area. We walked the field west of the parking area. Only got one rabbit up, but the area looks promising. I kicked the rabbit up. The grass was so thick I couldn't see the rabbit, just the grass move. Chip got a late jump, but chased it in a full circle before he lost it through a hog wire fence. We did kick some quail up in this area. There were about 10 birds that got up. The second area we hunted was west of the main lake. We didn't see any rabbits and there were a lot of hunters in the area.
CONDITIONS: Got very warm in the afternoon (67°F).
TIME: Got in around 7:00 and left around 9:30.