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Kid's First Rabbit, Kid's First Limit

by Bob Green :: Featured: January, 2002

This is the story of a young man's first rabbit hunt with beagles.

His name- Jeremiah Durbin, age 14. Jeremiah lives on a large farm in Brown County, Ohio. And on this day, he would harvest his first rabbit over hounds. I met Jeremiah's father, Mark, earlier in the week when I talked to him about an excavating job I needed to have done. During our conversation, the topic of my love of beagles and rabbit hunting came up as it usually does in my conversations. Mark told me about his farm, which is 300 acres of bean fields and wood lots. He informed me that he had been seeing lots of rabbits while farming this year and that his son would love to go hunting with a pack of hounds. Jeremiah had only been living with his father for 2 years. Unfortunately, Mark was so busy with farming and other jobs, he had not had a chance to take Jeremiah hunting. I eagerly volunteered to take Jeremiah rabbit hunting, so a date was made, Saturday, February 24, 2001, for me to take Jeremiah rabbit hunting with beagles on his father's farm for the very first time. The players of the day were Jeremiah, Joe Rogg, Jamie Rosteutscher, and me. Joe took two of his hounds, DPPRC Pistol Pete and LPRC Trapper. I brought four hounds, LPRC Swift's Rockeyfork Brenda, LPRC/GBC Rising Sun's Red Speck Tammy, and two young hounds out of DGLPRC Rush Hollow Maverick and LPRC Swift's Rockeyfork Brenda, Molly and Stacie. Joe, Jamie, and I arrived at the Durbin farm by 9:30 a.m. for the last hunt of the season. Jeremiah came out to meet us. He was very excited to go. We headed for the field. The hunt started out slow. After about 45 minutes, we hit pay dirt. The dogs jumped two rabbits at the same time. One headed straight out and one darted to the right. Jamie took the one to the right. And after about a 15 minute run, I got the second one. Joe took a third rabbit out of this same wooded lot. The day went on like this from wood lot to wood lot. The runs were long and fast the entire hunt. Around 11:00 a.m., after a 20 minute run, Jeremiah connected with the first rabbit of his young life. Ten minutes later the dogs had one going again. I shot at it three times but missed each time. Jeremiah picked me up and harvested his second of the day. By the time we were finished, the four of us harvested 16 of 20 rabbits jumped. It was getting late, and we soon realized this was the best running and hunt of the season. When we got back to Jeremiah's house, I had a brief conversation with his father. It became clear that Jeremiah needed a hound. I talked it over with my friends and decided to give young Jeremiah a hound. I gave him a well started hound, Stacie. This is a good start for a new hunter and houndsman, and several good friendships forged that day.

Keep 'em running.