Rabbit huntin'

[Anonymous Poster]

Rabbit huntin\'

Just to show you we don't always try to kill each other around here, I'll tell you about the time Jake pestered me all afternoon about going rabbit huntin' with him.

Ordinarily I say 'hunting' but I have been corrected by him so many times that I now pronounce it properly. It is a very involved procedure the way he does it, and requires a driver, a spotlight aimer and of course him and his gun. Three people, a vehicle, and a gun, to take out a three pound rabbit. Hmmm.

The object is to drive around the grove shining the spotlight and when he sees a rabbit he shoots it, maybe. There is an intricate series of thumps performed on the roof of the truck to instruct the driver to 'turn left, turn right, stop, go' etc. Details that he grilled me on all afternoon. I know that this is illegal to do with deer, but I wasn't /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gifso sure about rabbits.

Finally about eight thirty a cold (for us) December evening he came in and informed me that it was time to go. I sighed, got up, and searched for boots and jacket. On my way out I summoned Elvis, our mutt, who has taken to sleeping just inside the front door on a blanket as he is old and skinny and doesn't retain heat like he used to.

"C'mon Elvis. Wanna go get some rabbits?"

"Uh uh, no, I don't think so, but thank you for asking." Tail thumping the floor, all innocent like.

"Look" I say under my breath, "if I gotta go, you're goin' and that's that, so get your behind in that truck."

He sighed, much as I had, and dragged butt out and jumped in the cab. I grabbed his blanket as a peace offering and stepped out into the cold night. Off we go, My oldest daughter in the back with spotlight, my son in the back with his .22, all frosty breath and excitement. Around and around we go, didn't see the first rabbit. Saw a raccoon.

“I'm gonna shoot it.” Jake says.

“Fine,” I say, “but you're eating it by yourself.”

“Well, maybe not then.”

We’re making our second tour through the grove and Elvis gives me this 'is this what you dragged me out for? I don't know if I can stand all this excitement' look. I just glared back at him and he sighed like he was trying to expel a bad lung, and lay down on the seat grumbling to himself. I got three thumps which meant turn right and I hollered out the window,

"Say son, are there gonna be rabbits on this here rabbit huntin' trip?"

No answer just two thumps to turn left. I felt like an idiot, but I made the turn. Then it dawned on me. Sure I'd rather be sitting in the house watching television, but I had been invited to be a part of my son's life. To learn something about him, what makes him tick, get a glimpse into his world. It won't be that many years from now that I won't be getting those invites any more.

I got another three thumps so I turned right again and smiled. What the heck, even if we didn't get any rabbits, I could say I'd been 'rabbit huntin'.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As a precaution I contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and was informed that this activity is against the law, so this trip was our last. Shame too, because I would do it again. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[thcri]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Cindi,

I sure have enjoyed your stories every morning. Got to kind of look forward to them. You should send some of them to Reader's Digest. I think they would be good for the whole world to read.

Keep them coming

murph

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Cindi,

I'm sure glad that was your last hunting trip. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I used to
work with the GFC in Florida a few years ago, more than a
few at this point, /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif and you really don't want to
be caught doing that kind of hunting. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

It could have cost you the rifle and the truck. Plus the fines
and sentences! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Equipment used in wildlife violations can be and almost
certainly will be confiscated. A Judge might give it back... I
knew of a case in South Florida where a man was "harvesting"
lobsters that where to small. He got caught. He lost his
SCUBA gear, boat, trailer AND vehicle. OUCH!

He had taken dozens of very little lobsters, they would fit in
spaces use to hold lures in a tackle box. Which is what he
had done. I thought he deserved the penalty myself but the
Judge let him have at least the boat, trailer, and truck back...

Later,
Dan

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Yeah I found that out. I called the next day and they informed me that any spotlighting of any kind will get you in very deep trouble. Basically they said you cannot use a spotlight, (which includes, headlights) and gun in conjunction. What do you know about using a light in conjunction with take down dogs for hogs? There's a lot of that going on around here. Not by us. Pit bulls are typically used for take down and I don't know, it just seems brutal to me. Jake hog hunts all the time out back of the house. Went out with rifle one day, came back with a twenty pound screaming squalling little red gilt, no rifle.

"Where's your gun?"

"Had to put it down to catch the pig"

"Thought you were going to shoot a pig to eat."

"Well, heck, not this little thing."

Had to go back for the rifle. Sold the pig for twenty bucks to a freind for the freezer.

 

[fishman]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Some states allow exemptions for people who are having depredation problems on their crops. You might check, since you've already called them anyway.

 

[Bird]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Cindi, you and your kids are just too young or too properous. We didn't have either a pickup or a spotlight when I was a teenager huntin' rabbits at night; just had to ride the fender of my '46 Chevy and depend on the headlights alone, and we used a shotgun instead of a rifle at night. You don't know what you've missed until you try to balance on that front fender while your driver is driving at breakneck speed trying to keep a jackrabbit in the headlights running across the pasture and just as you get within range and squeeze off a shot with the old twelve gauge, you go over a terrace. Did you know that the combination of a twelve gauge, a terrace, enough speed, and worn out shocks on a Chevy can cause a 16 year old to do a complete backflip and land in the dirt on his face? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

I can see the dinstinct possibility of that happening, yes. Smile. I've seen some things that will curl your hair, not the least of which was running over my own son with the family car while armadillo hunting. I'll post that one tomorrow. He's a pretty tough cookie though, he's been thrown, dropped, and run over and still hasn't moved away. I saw him come across the pasture on our Tennessee Walker mare, at breakneck speed. Sydney (the horse) is not big on running as her breed might suggest, so she stopped on a dime and he flew over her shoulders head first but curled around and landed on his feet like of those dang, uh, you know, uh, ...gymnasts at the olympics. And the horse fell down. Nobody got hurt.

 

[Bird]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Yep, Cindi, you sometimes wonder how a farm kid ever survives. When I got my first horse, my best friend and nearest neighbor talked his dad into buying him one, too. Then he got permission to ride in the pasture across the road where we'd never been before and the grass and weeds were nearly waist high on us kids. Franklin went charging across that unfamiliar pasture; the horse stopped and he didn't, but he wasn't as lucky as your son. The horse stopped because there was a ravine there into which Franklin dived head first. It might not have been so bad if the property owner hadn't been using that ravine for a garbage dump. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Fortunately, no broken bones or serious injuries, but I've never seen a kid wear that many bandaids at once.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Aww.....! Poor kid! Jake has the luck of....well I can't think of a good metaphor but it's almost like he's invincible. I know he's not and he knows he's not but you couldn't prove it. He seem to have used up his major accidents before he hit six.

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Cindi,

Sorry for the late response but I keep forgetting to click on
the "Add this thread to my favorites." box so I don't get the
email telling me that someone responded.

Hmmm. Using the light I *** THINK *** is going to cause
problems. In FL in "prima faci", I'm pretty sure I just misspelled
faci, to have a light and gun at night. In English, /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif, having
a light and gun at night means you B Poaching and all the
evidence that one needs is the light, gun and night.

Hunting Pigs with dogs. Yes you can and no you can't. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
How is that for being clear? In FL pigs are considered
livestock, so if its on YOUR land you can do with them as you
want. Shoot him or let the dogs go after them. They are
your pigs. Now if it is on PUBLIC land there are regulations.
In a WildLife Management(WMA) area I don't think one can
run dogs period.

How is that for being clear. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Of course the law is about the law and not about right and
wrong nor being clear. For instance, I'm assuming the law has
not changed in 10 years, but the statutes allow one to carry
a firearm when hunting, fishing, and camping. But in some
areas one could not posses a firearm. But if I'm hunting,
fishing or camping..... It don't have to make sense its the
law. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The statutes where just waiting for someone to
get charged and fight it out in court to make case law. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Twern't going to be me though!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Call that 1-800 line again and ask the people in Dispatch.
They should help you with your questions. I'm a good 10
years our of FL so my info is dated.

Later,
Dan

 

[bgott]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

We used to do that in Nevada. You didn't want to get carried away when you were driving because it was your turn on the fender next. It's kind of like the payback when you are hauling hay out of the field on a flat bed truck. It's great fun to goose it over the irrigation checks to see if you can knock someone off but not much fun when you're on the back for the next load. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Dan, being a hunter by asociation only (that means only if somone makes me go) there is very little I know about the laws. As for the hunting with dogs, ::shudder::, at the risk of ticking anybody off, I couldn't think of doing that. Lots of the teenage boys out here save their money to buy a truck or jeep first and then dogs and hog/dog pens for the back of the truck.

There are pit bull/cur shows out here twice a month to show off the dogs and their skills with prizes and awards. These dogs don't just corner the wild hog, like a coon dog would a coon, they take the hog down. You may know all this already. Pigs get maimed, kids get maimed, dogs get maimed. It's a pretty brutal sport. Not that I beleive that hunting is wrong, I just see a quick bullet as being a lot more humane.

The end result is always a bar b que with the 'catcher' being the man of honor and the catch dogs getting a goodly share of the meat. These wild pigs roam pretty far and wide out here and the boys get permission from fathers, uncles, freinds etc, to hunt their groves, so it's always private property.

My daughter's boyfreind has a pretty solid reputation as being one of the best. Last year he and a freind caught two gilts about ninety pounds and snuck in early and turned them loose in the admin office of the high school. When the all-call came for someone to COME AND GET THESE HOGS OUT OF THE OFFICE PRONTO, they were first ones there as you can bet. Why? To miss the morning of school with an excused absense.

 

[Bird]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( These dogs don't just corner the wild hog, like a coon dog would a coon )</font>

Uuhh, I don't know about coon huntin' in your area (or for that matter what happens in this part of the country anymore), but when I was a kid, Dad's best friend raised, trained, and sold coon hounds, so I've been on a few hunts. And when the dogs treed a coon, the "sport" was for someone to climb the tree (yep, I've been up there) to jump the coon out the tree and watch the fight until the dogs killed the coon.

Cock fighting was also a popular "sport" when I was a kid, so I've been there, too.

I guess my idea of "sport" is different from a lot of folks. I have no use for those kind of sports. Heck, if I see a bullfight, I root for the bull instead of the matador.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

The only experience I have with coon hunting is the stories related to me by my husband from when he was a child in Texas. The coon dogs tree'd the coon and then the coon was shot. At least in his case, it was a solitary sport, save for the coon dogs.

I agree with you on cock fighting, dog fighting, heck, even boxing for that matter. Violence for the sake of violence has never appealed to me. At least in boxing the contenders have a choice as to whether or not they choose to participate.

 

[Wingnut]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

reminds me of working on a dairy farm for the summer when I was a teenager ... they had a cutting horse that everyone rode bareback ... I'd ridden as often as possible, but always riding stable horses (mostly trail horses), but never bareback. No one told me that cutting horses are trained to respond to leg pressure ... so you can guess what happened. The faster she went, the tighter I gripped, faster, tighter, faster, tighter, barb wire fence, she stops on a dime and gives my 9 cents change .... I go flying over her head and land on the other side of the barb wire. I was lucky too ... some bruises - mostly my pride.
I'd forgotten all about that until I read your story ... thanks for the smile!

pete

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rabbit huntin\'

Whew.....you got lucky. I love the 'nine cents change'....that's a pearl. So far we haven't had any barbed wire incidents. Unless you count me hooking myself occasionally 'cheating' through a fence instead of going to the gate. Now, the electric fence that's another story. Just got the thing hooked up a few weeks ago and there is not a soul on the place that hasn't had a taste of it.

I managed to dodge it for better than a week, and then got distracted trying to catch a little gilt. Got ahold of her leg and started backing up to get a better grip and put my bare leg against it. In case you didn't know, it's wise not to wear a dress while attempting to catch pigs. Something tells me you probably knew that.

Up to that point I was grunting and swearing, and the pig was grunting and squealing and that little jolt came along and for about ten seconds you could have heard a pin drop. Then the grunting and swearing and squealing started up again with a vengeance.