Closing out the rabbit season

By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
Feb. 28, 2003
I looked around for a place to sit down and rest but saw none. Later in the morning I looked again becoming aware that my feet were tired. But there were no logs and no stumps to serve as seats in the pine plantation. The flat, Noxubee County terrain had been cropland, previously planted in soybeans and corn, thus devoid of trees in its earlier days.
Diminutive beagles streaked through a tangle of sprouts, planted pines and vines sending both hillbilly and canecutter rabbits scurrying for places to hide. The constant excitement kept my mind off my aching feet.
At lunchtime I stood while I ate, visiting with one of my hosts, Marcus Anderson. My feet waited patiently for a rest but I ignored their weariness during the noontime conversation.
After lunch the 20 or so beagles jumped within 30 yards of our releasing them and were off again for an afternoon of singing close behind rabbit after rabbit. At mid-afternoon, the dogs showed no signs of tiring, jumping one cottontail after another. I followed them wherever they went, tearing through nearly impenetrable brush.
Resting time
When four o'clock arrived, I realized I had not sat down even once since we began the hunt at 8:30 that morning. I boldly stepped up to Melvin Coleman's four-wheeler and sat down on the machine's rear rack. Melvin soon joined me but I didn't budge. The Honda would have to hold us both, my feet were too busy being relieved.
I was hunting with a group of hunters who give rabbits a run for their money in the fields around Shuqualak. Come the first months of the year, these hunters go afield with some of the best rabbit dogs I have ever been privileged to hunt with. On this day we cast more than a dozen dogs owned by Frankie Boykin, Oscar Boykin, Melvin Coleman and Billy Wade Whitfield, the hunters who had Marcus Anderson and me as guests.
Our hunt produced 11 rabbits with excellent races that gave the beagles no time to catch their breaths between chases. As always, memorable incidents highlighted the day. One hillbilly rabbit circled and came back to the same spot three times, each time swimming in a flooded ditch within a stone's throw of three of us. He would swim the length of the ditch before exiting at its opposite end so that the dogs would lose his track for a few minutes on each round.
A spooked bunny tiptoed to within six feet of me when I turned and saw him nearly under my feet. Trying a quick draw shot, I led the rabbit several feet as he turned on the afterburners. At the shot, two large saplings fell in the line of fire. They had been cut off clean with my shot charge and fell away from their trunks. Two more smaller ones had been broken over. The damage was so extensive that had the trees been valuable pines I would have felt the need to reimburse the landowner. Such obstacles are common in the thick woods where cottontails thrive and this makes shooting challenging.
Ancient sport
Because dogs have a far better sense of smell than man and they can run faster and for much longer periods of time, they have long been used for hunting game animals. Dogs that jump game and follow its scent probably have been used for thousands of years. Keepers of beagles are becoming more numerous, evidence that this sport is showing no signs of fading.
Hunters like the action in rabbit hunting with dogs. Unlike stalk hunting or sitting in a stand, rabbit hunting involves a lot of exercise, excitement and comradery. At the end of the day, just a few rabbits yield the makings of delicious table fare for several people. And rabbits being rabbits, hunting them does not threaten survival of a population. Rabbit numbers cycle up and down based primarily on predator populations other than humans.
Today is the last day of the 2003 rabbit season for Mississippi hunters. The dogs will rest sore feet, the rabbits will launch into their season of multiplying their numbers and the hunters will catch up on chores and savor their memories of the hunt.