Due to the loss of my two female beagles Blackie and Gertie in August of 2002, I acquired another Beagle pup from the same breeder who produced Gertie. Once again Grandpa has played a significant role in my Beagle acquisition. Grandpa picked the pup up from the Breeder for me, and housed her in his Kennel. In the two weeks that it took me to pick up this pup she was named Princess. My lovely bride decided that it should be Princess Leah.
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Princess was never supposed to be a full time house dog, but she is very close to that now. There are advantages to having a dog that is house trained. There is a much better bond between her and I than there has been with any of my other dogs. My wife is certainly more tolerant of this dog than she has been several of my other hunters.
It looks as if Princess will hunt as well as any of the dogs I have kept in the kennel. She was born in June of 2002. She ran her first rabbit to the gun in December. If I was a better shot she would have had her first rabbit in November.
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I am quite proud of this rabbit, as it is my first with a pistol, and the first I have shot in front of Princess. This rabbit was taken on 12-31-02. I fully intend to write an article on rabbit hunting with beagles and handguns, but I have yet to accomplish this. |
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I normally try to look at the camera, but I was shooting this with the timer. This is the third or fourth shot I attempted. Hunting solo has a few disadvantages. Not the least of which is the post hunt photography. This is my first double with a pistol, and also my second and third rabbit with a pistol. This was done on 1-11-03, on public land. That last point is what I am most proud of in this photo. |
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This goofy looking character is my father. I am told there is a strong resemblance, but I don't see it. In any case, this is another bunny that fell victim to Princess the house dog 1-18-03. Dad, like most others, hunts with a shotgun. I can't complain, as I missed this bunny with my pistol a few times before he finally brought it to rest. |
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I forgot to take the camera with me on this trip, so I had to wait until I got home to get the photo. I was very lucky this day (1-25-03), and was able to kill these two rabbits with my pistol. These were harvested in a state game area near my home. I am always amazed at how few people take advantage of the opportunities that our taxes and license fees finance. If you are a hunter in Michigan and don't rabbit hunt you are missing out on one of the best times to be in the woods. |
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I was once again lucky on this day. The day before I complained to Stacy that I was getting so good with the pistol that I was going to have to start hunting with a sharp stick if I was going to keep from bringing home too many rabbits. This day proved that I am not good just lucky. This rabbit was shot well beyond shotgun range with only one shot. The next two rabbits went by well within the range I feel comfortable shooting, and I missed both of them 10 times. My skills are not what I would like them to be. |
| There are no images of rabbits this day. This is the day that Princess was picked up by a well meaning individual that thought she was chasing cars. I was able to shoot two cotton tales this day. Princess disappeared at 11:30 on 2-8-03. Stacy and I spent the next day waiting for a call. I will write a good article on the loss and recovery at a later date. I may take images of the two rabbits, as they are frozen and on my porch. | |
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This Hare was shot on 2-17-03. This is the Princess' first Hare that she was able to run to the gun. The hunter in this photo was part of a larger group on our annual up-north hunt. This was the second day in a three day weekend for Princess and I. On the first day neither of us seemed to know what we were doing. Scenting conditions were not the best through out this weekend. We hunted very hard this day and were only able to connect on this hare. At this point in the hunt it is starting to look like Princess has an exceptional nose. Many other very good hounds were unable to work these tracks. The other bigger problem was that the older, faster hounds were able to push just fast enough to cause the hares to run large circles, but were not able to the hold the line well enough to allow us to predict where they might go. Princess being much younger was not as fast, and the hares seemed to circle much tighter. That allowed us to set up better ambushes. |
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his hare was shot on 2-18-03. This was another tough day for the dogs. Once again Princess, showed a lot of potential. In this photo, on my left is Duane Miles, and on my right Scott Gerstenberger. Duane has been very helpful to me in my early attempts at training hounds. Scott or Scotty as we all seem to call him, is a the youngest hunter in our group. He is also the leading "hare shooter" for the year. This particular hare happened to chose the wrong escape route while being hotly pursued by Princess. The other dogs had just harked into the chase when the hare found its way to us. The three of us happened to be standing in the only opening within 100 yards. When the the hare appeared, we all shot. The hare tumbled with two holes in it. Scotty claims he is sure he missed, Duane is sure he hit it, and I think I hit it. We decided that I could claim it as mine, but I will always wonder who missed. |
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This is likely to be the last bunny of the season. This one fell on 3-13-03. It was a long time between bunnies, but rabbits this time of year are not as easy to kill as they are in October. Princess did a fine job on this rabbit, and stuck with it in some less than perfect running conditions. There was about 6" of very wet snow on this day. The rabbit did not want to run very far, and was trying all the classic cottontail tricks. After about 10 minutes he tried to get by me, and ran into a bullet. We had four rabbits up and running this evening, and I missed all but this one rabbit. |
