Your heart beats faster, your palms are damp, you are breathing heavily.  You are on edge looking in every direction your eyes will go while turning your head slowly.  You are in the woods, and you have heard something.

 Did you just hear a twig snap or the tinkling of antlers on the underbrush, dry leaves crunching under cloven hooves, a gobbler responding to your owl call, or did you just hear a hound open up a long strong bawl?  Did your pointer just freeze motionless staring at a mound of dry grass?

 Excitement:  (ik-‘sīt-ment); 1: something that excites or arouses; 2: the action of exciting: the act of being excited.

 We all have had this happen to us in the woods, no matter what we are hunting.  The experience of knowing that game is headed your way can be the most exhilarating part of the hunt.

 Well, when you have a pack of hounds on the ground, particularly beagles (in my case), and they strike a hot trail and start to bay and bawl on the track.  Tthen they become even more excited and louder with their concert, the closer they get to their quarry, the more you get energized right along with them.  It is the same when you have a pack of Bluetick or Treeing Walker hounds turned out to tree a raccoon at 2:00 am or put a pack of dogs down to chase a hog or deer.  No matter what species you prefer to hunt with your hounds, the music that they make for you can get your heart pumping faster than the tread mill test your doctor just put you through during your last physical.

 An adrenaline rush….can only describe the feeling of approaching game, but no better rush of excitement is felt than when a pack of hounds is announcing that approach.

 When you hunt with hounds (or gundogs) you are not as worried about your scent control or sitting in your stand motionless.  You have to be able to move with the hounds, follow where they are headed and take a position to intercept the prey.  Once in that position, you then need to stand quietly and nearly motionless until your objective is in sight (and that can be hard to do when you are breathing hard and your palms are sweating).  You take a breath, pull your shotgun up, take aim and fire, and then you see your target roll.  Rabbit Stew for dinner!

 After your successful shot you can yell out to all your fellow hunters of you success. In fact you can talk to your comrades in the hunt all the time you are in the field.  Plan your stragies of bagging that rabbit, tell your deer hunting stories, plan your turkey hunting adventures and still bag Mr. Bunny…..

 There is truly nothing wrong with sitting alone on a cool crisp morning watching that trail or the scrape line hoping that the buck you have twenty trail camera pictures of comes your way today.  You have time for meditation and to reflect on all that has happened with your deer season or just watch Mother Nature.  When you are calling that gobbler you are interacting with the turkey, but you better be still as the dawn or the turkey will be on his way – the other way.  When you are hunting with hounds, it is a gathering of friends for a day (or night) in the field, all laughing, kidding each other and sharing the fellowship of the outdoors.

 If you are hunting upland game, your pointer is crossing feverishly back and forth in the field (called quartering) in front of you with its nose in the air; it stops and stands motionless.  You walk up beside the dog, kick the brush and flush its feathered find.  The pheasant, quail, woodcock or grouse bursts into the air, and you bring your shotgun to your shoulder and fire.  Feathers fly and the pheasant under glass dinner will be served shortly!

 Even waterfowl hunters know to watch that Lab; he will hear the flock coming before you do.  That lab can be laying almost asleep until its keen sense of hearing picks up more than your calls in the distance.  He will tilt his head in the direction that the ducks are flying in from.  This will cause your heart to beat faster because you know your Lab has never lied to you and oyster stuffed duck for Sunday dinner is on its way.

 Don’t have a pack of hounds?  Want to experience the rush of the chase?  Find a local Rabbit Hunting Club or a group of local Raccoon Hunters.  Most are always ready to introduce someone to their form of enjoyment of Mother Nature.  Shoot if it is rabbit season and you happen to be near my part of the woods let me know.  If I can, I’ll let you feel the excitement of a good hound chase, and you will be hooked for life!

Beagle photos are mine

Coon hounds, pointer and Lab from breed websites on http://www.ukcdogs.com

By Luanne Bragg

TalkHunting Pro Staffer, Luanne "Beaglepup" Bragg, started hunting (going hunting) with her Grandfather in the fall of 1965.  He loved to squirrel hunt and would carry her into the woods and sit her on a rock and let her hold his prizes.  He took Luanne on her first Pheasant and Rabbit hunts when she was 7.  Shortly after that he had a massive stroke and was never able to return to the woods again.  When Luanne was 9 her Father, who was about to retire from the Marine Corps after 20 years active duty, and Uncle decided that since she could shoot she could remove the ground hogs and crows from the farm fields.  Luanne spent the next few years watching all the wildlife and removing varmints from the farm.  She took herself deer hunting for the first time when she was 15 and took her first deer at 17.  There was a long time between Luanne's first deer and her next deer due to college and work and general life.  She did a lot of small game hunting with her ex-husband starting in 1985 and killed her next deer in 1988.  She has not missed a deer or turkey season since.  When not hunting she is fishing or working in her garden (when not WORKING...).

Luanne has raised, trained and field trialed Beagles in the UKC and ARHA formats for 20 years and has produced several Field and Show Champions and Grand Field and Show Champions.  There is usually at least one litter of puppies born on her place every year.

She holds a Real Estate License in Virginia and owns a Dog Boarding Kennel.  Luanne belongs to the National Association of Realtors, Central Virginia Beaglers Association, NRA, NWTF and Buckmasters.  She was born in East Liverpool, Ohio,  and started showing Appaloosa horses in 1969 and was the Pennsylvania Appaloosa Queen in 1980 and runner up to the National Queen Title the same year. When she gets the chance she still enjoys a long trail ride.  She graduated from Kent State University in Kent Ohio in 1982 with a degree in Applied Science. Luanne relocated from Ohio to Virginia in 1984.

Comments(3):

1. Great Article

   Great article and reminds me how much I use to enjoy beagles chasing cottontails

   Saturday, March 05, 2011 clyde

2. excitement

   luanne did this bring back memories of my dog rabbit hunting as a youth. you are right, nothing like the music of beagles on a track. come up to michigan sometime cause i've got raccoons that really need thinning. very nicely done.

   Sunday, March 06, 2011 brad

3. Always wanted to try...

   I've never rabbit hunted per se'. Have always had an interest, but reading this peeks it even more! Great article!

   Wednesday, March 09, 2011 Duane