First Bunnies of the Season

Well, deer hunting is over and its time to move on to the next season...rabbits. We got a light dusting of snow on Friday which made Saturday morning a can't miss chance to go rabbit hunting. With a big winter storm headed our way starting in the afternoon, we met up at the Vater House at 9:30 and went over to the Stuckmann farm.

We walked both the creek bed along Point Creek Road and the woods across from their house which has done well for us in the past but, alas, no rabbits this day. Not to worry, we were prepared and had saved the "honey-hole" for last. That being Roger and Pat Mayer's land. They have some marsh grass that has grown up behind the workshop, which this year stood nearly nine feet tall in some places. You know you're in it when you look through it like trees, Rob & Chris can appreciate what it's like to walk through it. This year you had to part it to get through it.

We kicked up a rabbit near there and Dad dropped it with a from-the-hip 12 gauge shot, the kind he so often does while hunting the furry creatures. Gratefully, it was no baby. Devon was going to pick it up and was concerned it was going to run off so had his gun pointed and ready before I yelled..."How many times are you going to shoot his rabbit!" (You'll get the joke if you watch our deer tracking video from this past fall, or maybe not.)

Anyways we then walked over to the rock pile near the old bridge which has produced each year. Not today though so we walked up the drainage ditch towards the road. Halfway up, I kicked up a rabbit that went screaming over the edge and across the open field, heading for cover. It burst out Dad's side of the long grass so he pulled up the gun and bang!...then...click...click...click...click. Unfortunately he had forgotten to reload his gun after the last rabbit and this little fellow was the lucky beneficiary as he hopped across the field and back into cover. The funniest part was I'm not sure Dad knew he didn't have any shells left, even after the clicking started. He can get very trigger-happy. (Even on baby rabbits.) We walked some more and kicked up another rabbit that both Dad and I shot at but I got as it went back into the ditch I was walking in.

By now, the snow was starting to fall pretty regularly so we packed up and headed home. Devon took no shots with his Benelli, something that happens fairly often when hunting with him. Of course, every time I look over at him, he's got his gun cradled under one arm and is looking at his fingers or something, basically not paying attention. Oh well, he's only eight, or is it fifteen? Either way, plenty of time to straighten him out and make a hunter out of him yet.