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| Hunting |
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| Chilton County Canecutters |
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| By Paul Sims |
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Originally published in the February 2008 issue of AON
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Several members of the Mid Alabama Beagle Club invited AON on a hunt. Members included (front row, from left) Willie Littleton, Ashley Bice and Joe Roberts. (Back row, from left) T. Mike Evans, Randall Kelley and Rickey Bice.
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Randall Kelley and myself squatted down in a thicket near a small creek. We were attempting to head off a zig-zagging rabbit that had a pack of beagles hot on its trail. We listened carefully to the dogs barking; at times we could tell they had turned away from us, then they would seem to be coming right back toward us. Randall turned and smiled.
“That ol’ rabbit is pulling every trick he can to lose those beagles,” said Randall. “I have been in a position before where I was able to watch a rabbit, and you would not believe what all they do to escape the dogs. I have seen them stop and lick the bottom of their feet trying to get rid of the scent or stop and then jump 8 or 10 feet over and take off again in a different direction, trying to throw the dogs off. They will also hit this creek sometimes swimming straight across it, but at other times they may float down a ways before they come out. During a hunt I once killed a rabbit that was coming down the creek. I was up on the train trestle when I first saw him. At first I thought it was a large rat until I took another look.”
We listened as the barking dogs turned away and continued moving farther off. It sounded like the rabbit had crossed the creek again and was going back in the direction he had come from. As we started working our way toward the dogs, a shot rang out. One of the other hunters had caught a glimpse of the rabbit and had fired a quick shot. Although it was speculated that the rabbit may have been hit, we could not find it.
This was just one of the many races that occurred while I hunted with the Mid Alabama Beagle Club, located in Clanton. The club, a member of the American Rabbit Hound Association (ARHA), is 30 members strong. The club’s president, Ashley Bice of Verbena, is one of Alabama’s state representatives of the ARHA. Raising and training beagles to hunt rabbits is what the members spend their time doing, and make no bones about it, they are good at it.
Randall Kelley of Clanton started beagle hunting with Rickey Bice, also of Clanton, back in 1994. Randall brags on his fellow member.
“Rickey is one of the best trainers around these parts. He spends time with the dogs and works the dogs correctly. When Rickey tells you a dog is clean (will not run anything but a rabbit), you can bet that he is. Rickey will not sell you a dog without taking you out and letting you hear the dog run,” said Randall. “Rickey trains a dog obedience first, then to hunt.”
Long-time member Willie Littleton of Clanton may have seen some of the first beagles introduced into central Alabama. I watched as Willie reached into his wallet and pulled out a wrinkled photograph. The picture, showing a much-younger Willie surrounded by beagles, dated to 1932.
“I have always hunted,” said Willie. “I started hunting with my father when I was four or five years old. Back then we hunted deer, squirrel and rabbit. There was this doctor from Birmingham who would come down and go hunting with us. He told us that he had ordered four registered beagles from England, two males and two females. It took them three months to get here by boat. Then in the fall we started hunting them. One of the little females turned out to be gun shy. Now, she would hunt good, but when a gun fired she was gone and you couldn’t catch her. Because of that the doctor went off and left her one time. I ended up catching her and taking care of her, so when the doctor returned I could give her back to him. Well, we went hunting again, and when the guns fired she was gone again. This time the doctor said if I could catch her, I could have her. I ended up breeding her to one of the males, and I have had beagles ever since, but I had never seen a beagle around until 1932.”
It was a beautiful Saturday morning, clear and in the mid 30s when everyone met at 7 a.m. in Clanton. We drove outside of town to some of the club’s favorite hunting grounds owned by member Randall Kelley. The area consisted of old cutovers, creek-bottom thickets and green fields, and it proved to be a favorite home to what many members referred to as “canecutters” or “swamp rabbits.” These big canecutters are much larger than the common cottontails that many folks hunt. I took this opportunity to ask about the rabbit population in this area and was quickly answered by Rickey Bice.
“Most of these rabbits around here suffered lead poison,” Ricky laughed. “I am not being smart, I am telling you what happened.”
As the beagles hit the ground, so did their noses, and the hunt was on. While we had to hunt and pick our way through the thickets and underbrush, the small beagles had no trouble at all going through the worst areas. While watching the dogs work, T. Mike Evans explained to me the differences in ARHA Little Pack and Progressive Pack dogs.
“The Mid Alabama Beagle Club generally falls into two divisions, the Little Pack Division and the Progressive Pack Division,” said T. Mike. “The Little Pack is the most-popular division, and in competition runs a cast of five dogs. Little Pack tends to favor fast dogs that work a large area. The Progressive Pack’s competition runs a cast of six dogs, of medium speed, and scores are made or deducted by how a dog performs in a pack or check area.
T. Mike, the founding member of the club, is probably one of the members with the most experience when it comes to rabbit hunting with beagles. T. Mike, former president of the Mid Alabama Beagle Club and former member of the Executive Board of the ARHA, has hunted and judged beagle hunts all across the United States. He has several grand- and champion-class dogs that have won state championships in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi. He also holds the distinction of being inducted into the American Rabbit Hound Association’s Little Pack Division Hall Of Fame in 2003.
As the hunt got under way, it didn’t take long before the beagles struck on the fresh trail of a rabbit. Apparently earlier that morning the rabbit had been in the green field, and that is where the beagles first picked up the scent. The hunters fanned out speculating where the rabbit would run. Having hunted this area many times they knew several routes that rabbits commonly took. We listened as the dogs turned one way and then another. The members moved into several positions. They listened and watched for the rabbit to come out. Finally a shot. Ashley Bice got the first rabbit, the first of two he would kill that day, up in a thicket. It was a nice one, a good canecutter that weighed between 3 and 4 pounds.
Randall called attention to a dog still barking in the opposite thicket from where the rabbit had first come. He bragged on the young puppy. While the race was on, the young dog had jumped another rabbit and kept working it even with all the racket of the rest of the pack chasing the first rabbit.
“It’s a young dog. It found the rabbit, and that is good,” said Randall.
As it warmed up and the frost burned off the ground, the hunting pace picked up as the beagles began striking faster. During the first race, another rabbit was seen slipping across a field. Quickly, the dogs closed in and started trailing the rabbit. As everyone was moving into position, I noticed several members, including Willie, not carrying a shotgun.
“I enjoy just being out hearing the dogs run,” said Willie. “That’s what it’s all about, hearing the dogs run.”
I walked over and stood behind Joe Roberts. Joe is from Eclectic and has been hunting with the beagle club since 1991. The dogs were barking hard, hot on the trail of another rabbit running through the thicket in front of us. There was no doubt that they were headed our way pushing the rabbit right toward us. Joe had taken a good position at the corner of the thicket. He had a road to his left and to his right, allowing him to look down both sides of the thicket covering the rabbit’s exits. Knowing the rabbit was out in front as the dogs got closer and closer, I expected Joe to shoot any minute. Then at the last possible moment the dogs made a hard turn toward the road on the left. Joe and I moved down the road for what would be a sure shot at the rabbit as he raced across the road. We had just gotten into position when we heard a shot fired to our rear. We looked at each other, and Joe laughed.
“That rabbit must have passed us as we moved down the road,” said Joe.
That is exactly what happened. As we moved down the road, the rabbit, concealed by the thicket, moved parallel to us in the opposite direction. Such is rabbit hunting. The only problem for the rabbit was that T. Mike, who had played his cards right, was waiting on the edge of the field. When we came out and turned the corner of the thicket there was T. Mike holding a big, nice canecutter. A minute later the pack of beagles caught up, and soon T. Mike was surrounded. The hunters took this opportunity to allow the young dogs still being trained to see and smell the freshly killed rabbit.
After a quick break, the hunters decided to cross the creek and try one more thicket on the other side. Crossing the creek proved to be no problem as many of us caught a ride with Rickey on the back of his Gator. Others with waterproof boots waded across with the beagles. Crossing the creek was another good training experience for the younger dogs who did not want to cross the deep-running water. Soon with some coaxing they found it was nothing to just jump in and swim across. As we climbed to the top of the hill, the pack of beagles jumped another rabbit. The hunters spread. At first it seemed like the dogs had gone back across the creek and had really moved a great distance away, but then they turned and started heading back toward the open powerline. Quickly, everyone spread out and took up positions on the powerline. The rabbit was making a big circle and was coming back toward the standers. As the sound of the dogs twisted and turned, the hunters adjusted hoping to position themselves for a good shot at the running rabbit. Randall, who had passed his shotgun to his son Keith, was the first to see the rabbit break into the open just above him. The rabbit was well ahead of the dogs and was making a dash across the powerline. Immediately, all the hunters were focused on the rabbit, which was now out in the wide open. The rabbit turned uphill and moving at an angle headed toward the opposite thicket. T. Mike standing on top of the hill quickly moved to get a shot at the rabbit. The rabbit was now almost in the thicket and turned and headed straight for T. Mike. He fired his shotgun at the rabbit, but the rabbit made it into the thicket. All the hunters agreed that hitting a rabbit running straight at you is a very difficult task, probably one of the hardest shots.
“I hit in front of him. I could see him shake his head when I threw dirt up in his face,” said T. Mike.
As the hunters gathered at the top of the hill, I asked several of them for their best advice for individuals interested in raising beagles and rabbit hunting.
“Find a seasoned hunter with experience, and ask a lot of questions,” said T. Mike. “Many times people do not want any help or will not listen until they go to a field trial and get beat really bad. Then they will want to know what went wrong. It is also important to start with the best possible bloodlines. Try to get the best proven dogs available. These dogs are bred to hunt.”
Joe Roberts agreed.
“We cull better dogs now than we were hunting with back when we first started,” said Joe.
Willie made some good points.
“Find the best of what you like, and stick with it,” said Willie. “If you have something you do not like, then you won’t use it. You also need to keep your dogs in the woods every chance possible. They can’t learn anything sitting in a pen all the time.”
If you are interested in beagles and rabbit hunting, Ashley recommends joining a local club.
“There are eight Little Pack clubs in Alabama, and just about all the information you need to learn more about the sport and to locate participating clubs can be found at the ARHA website at <www.arha.com>.”
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