# Rabbit hunting



## 7mmMag (Aug 22, 2017)

Well we didn't get an extension on rabbit season but deer hunters got another week of our rabbit season. I mean keep dogs up year round for 4 weekends of rabbit hunting. This is rediculous. I'm sorry but if you haven't killed your deer by jan. 1st. Give it up you probably ain't going to get it done. Then if I take my dogs in the woods to rabbit hunt. It messes up their deer hunting boo hoo. I think the dnr needs to rethink this whole deal.


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## kmckinnie (Aug 22, 2017)

7mmMag said:


> Well we didn't get an extension on rabbit season but deer hunters got another week of our rabbit season. I mean keep dogs up year round for 4 weekends of rabbit hunting. This is rediculous. I'm sorry but if you haven't killed your deer by jan. 1st. Give it up you probably ain't going to get it done. Then if I take my dogs in the woods to rabbit hunt. It messes up their deer hunting boo hoo. I think the dnr needs to rethink this whole deal.



Your upset about this aren't you. Why don't several of y'all get a lease and hunt it. 
I do understand.


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## kmckinnie (Aug 22, 2017)

I have my deer my the 1st.


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## Hillbilly stalker (Aug 22, 2017)

7mmMag, I feel for you. We used to have 2 weeks in November for small game hunting only on WMA. Deer hunting gobbled that up too.  That's where the money is at. So I just hunt where they aren't. First come first serve. I leave my tailgate down and the dog box open, they are welcome to join me anytime. I love to hear them beagles run one tho.


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## specialk (Aug 24, 2017)

Preaching to the choir 7MM.....i wish they would bring back the December break....aint gonna happen.....


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## Rulo (Aug 24, 2017)

Yep, WRD just about killed any type of small game hunting by extending the season through January 14th. Give it 2 years and it will go on out to January 21st. 

Awful move on behalf of WRD, very short sighted when every year fewer and fewer people (young people in particular) are taking up hunting as a hobby. I just don't see too many young people in the deer clubs Ive been in over the years.

What is WRD doing to recruit new hunters? I know they do limited events for kids like a one day AC Dove hunt or AC Deer Hunts but in the big picture what are they really doing here? Did State Farm and GEICO  finally prevail over common sense?

Deer Season now runs from Sept 09th through January 14th.  Almost 4 1/2 months long now.  

How many kids have the discipline to sit and wait for that giant 10 pointer to show up?  Especially after January 1st when 1/2 the deer are dead already......Not to mention all the competition and nastiness of people competing to kill the "Big Pumpkin". 

Why?  Because some WRD staff deer hunts and thinks this is what we all should be doing?

.......the passion of deer hunting on my  700 acre lease comes to mind.......


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## JohnBoy62 (Aug 24, 2017)

they are doing what they intended to do ,turning hunters against hunters,


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## 7mmMag (Aug 25, 2017)

Not mad at the hunters. I love to deer hunt but when January rolls around I want to hear them dogs a running. The post that said lease land. What if you were deer hunting and the lease next to you starts running rabbits? Wouldn't make me very happy. Just extend season another week like deer season. Give me back my time.


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## Buckman18 (Aug 25, 2017)

Kmckinnie had a great point. Why don't you and some fellow rabbit hunters go in together and lease a large track of land? Then you can deer hunt when you want and rabbit hunt when you want.

My friends and I used to do something similar when we ran coon dogs.


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## antharper (Aug 25, 2017)

7mmMag said:


> Not mad at the hunters. I love to deer hunt but when January rolls around I want to hear them dogs a running. The post that said lease land. What if you were deer hunting and the lease next to you starts running rabbits? Wouldn't make me very happy. Just extend season another week like deer season. Give me back my time.



Maybe not everyone but my heart speeds up a little when I hear dogs running on property next to where I'm deer hunting, I'm mostly a deer hunter and I think the season was already to long , I also love to hear a pack of dogs running a rabbit or a deer !


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## HossBog (Nov 25, 2017)

I killed my first deer November 5, 1966 when I was the only deer hunter around. I’d much rather rabbit hunt!! Oh me, to have a couple of good beagles like I used to raise and train. Then, Vietnam got me...


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## Ruger#3 (Nov 26, 2017)

We argued loudly against this and lost. I enjoy deer hunting but like most started on small game and still enjoy running beagles.

Couple more moves like this and the annoying small game hunters wont be a problem. It will be harder and harder to get kids in the woods.


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## XIronheadX (Nov 26, 2017)

I've quit hunting deer by the first week of Dec. for the last 10 years. Got rid of the last rabbit dogs 25 yrs ago, because of the few weeks you can safely run them. The dollar bills are generated in deer hunting. The small game guy loses every time. I do miss my rabbit dogs though.


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## JustUs4All (Nov 26, 2017)

7mmMag said:


> Not mad at the hunters. I love to deer hunt but when January rolls around I want to hear them dogs a running. The post that said lease land. What if you were deer hunting and the lease next to you starts running rabbits? Wouldn't make me very happy. Just extend season another week like deer season. Give me back my time.



Rabbit dogs don't bother me.  I let my neighbor run his dogs on my farm during deer season.  I like to hear the dogs run and they do not bother the deer at all.  My neighbor might stir one up that was bedded in the briars but that would only help the deer hunting.  The folks that deer hunt with me don't seem to mind either.


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## JustUs4All (Nov 26, 2017)

HossBog said:


> I killed my first deer November 5, 1966 when I was the only deer hunter around. I’d much rather rabbit hunt!! Oh me, to have a couple of good beagles like I used to raise and train. Then, Vietnam got me...



The Keller boys, Bill & Bob, from across the line in McDuffie were killing deer back then too.  Bob (Charles Robert) patented a pendulum bow sight in the 70s.  Most of the rest of us were still hunting small game back then.


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## bentleyboys (Nov 27, 2017)

We put on a show open day with two in the bag ,then we just let them run . we ran some long races dogs never got a break 5 hours off it , blessed to have this place to hunt during deer season  .7 dogs on the ground an rabbits running round an round . if we had these dogs in the 60's they would not be a rabbit left. thanks to all the older breeders thats worked so hard on over the years,to get us where we are today. Not sure where its going from herein the future


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## Lukikus2 (Nov 27, 2017)

JustUs4All said:


> Rabbit dogs don't bother me.  I let my neighbor run his dogs on my farm during deer season.  I like to hear the dogs run and they do not bother the deer at all.  My neighbor might stir one up that was bedded in the briars but that would only help the deer hunting.  The folks that deer hunt with me don't seem to mind either.





It's only complaints from fellow hunters that creates those rules. Neither type of hunting being overlapped hurts or harm the others behavior or populations. Some deer hunters just don't get it.


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## specialk (Nov 28, 2017)

bentleyboys said:


> thanks to all the older breeders thats worked so hard on over the years,to get us where we are today....



amen brother....good to hear you're still at it.....


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## KyDawg (Nov 28, 2017)

Anybody my age grew up hunting small game. There was no deer back then. Small game used to be where, the deer hunter, developed their skills and woods knowledge. I am afraid we are losing several generation of those hunters. I not saying it is right or wrong, but a lot of the new deer hunters today, rely heavily on technology. Only technology I had was a double barrel shotgun with a slug in one barrel and Buckshot in the other. I think it is a crying shame the way small game hunters are being treated in Georgia.


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## Hogwild80 (Nov 29, 2017)

Small game in general gets pushed to the wayside,what makes it even worse I hunt big lazer and this year after deer season was done there they closed majority of the gates and will only reopen them when turkey season comes in,its a shame small game hunters get treated like step children,it would be great to pool everyone together on a lease but usually not enough people in a close enough proximity for them to deem it affordable enough,myself would do it but majority wouldn't,I coonhunt and have all my life and have seen it fall off the map on the pleasure hunter side.


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## watermedic (Nov 29, 2017)

Clarks Hill WMA is open for small game from now till February!


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## Ruger#3 (Nov 30, 2017)

If you want to see DNRs priorities go over to the deer hunting forum and look at the thread of DNR asking deer hunters what they want in harvest data software development.

All that takes resources and is self perpetuating.


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## furtaker (Nov 30, 2017)

I started out hunting small game and loved it.  I love to deer hunt, and probably hunt more than most people on this forum, but by the time mid December rolls around I'm ready to move on to something else.  I enjoy chasing hogs and coyotes just as much and maybe more so than deer and I can't go after them on hunting properties when deer season lasts what seems like 8 months out of the year.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit to see the December break like it used to be.  Or close the season on December 15, or maybe Christmas Day.  Believe it or not, deer are not the be all and end all of everything people can enjoy to hunt in this state and some of us like chasing other critters too.  I do feel bad for the rabbit hunters.  It's really ridiculous.


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## BIG HUNT (Nov 30, 2017)

kmckinnie said:


> Your upset about this aren't you. Why don't several of y'all get a lease and hunt it.
> I do understand.



ok say us rabbit hunters lease 1000 acres. At $10.00 an acre that is $10,000. so we would need 10 memebers at $1000 each. So that's 10 members who all rabbit hunt and I don't know if you know it or not but rabbits will be concentrated to certain types of habitat.
Of the 1000 acres maybe 400 acres will be suitable to hold rabbits. So now we have 10 members hunting 400 acres. So common sense tells me that the rabbit population will be diminished very quickly.
And if you know anything about rabbit hunting then you should understand this but I don't think you know anything about it kmckinnie.


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## Beagler282 (Nov 30, 2017)

Dad started me rabbit hunting when i was 7. I've had beagles and been at it since then. Things have certainly changed since the 70's. South GA was the place to be back then.Rabbits running everywhere and nobody cared about deer hunting. Several years later the coyote come along and since then has lowered the rabbit population #'s. Deer hunting has sky rocketed to the #1 hunting recreation leaving very little land to hunt anymore. Lots of deer hunters just don't want dogs on their property because of the misconception that dogs run the deer off. Far from true. 

Well it's December 1st tomorrow and I've harvested all the deer I need for the next year so it's on to getting the dogs out and getting after them fur critters. Certainly sad we can't get the small game season to end the weekend before turkey season. If they can extend deer why not just extend small game?


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## bubbafowler (Dec 1, 2017)

I don't have beagles anymore nor the time needed to care for them properly. But if one of y'all want to come hunt on my meriwether property or run (no kill allowed by landowner rules) on my coweta land before the end of deer season just send me a PM. Two tracts in meriwether. One 110 one 155 both with good population. Coweta making a comeback in population and is 150 acres. Just prefer no large packs of dogs or hunters.


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## Beagler282 (Dec 1, 2017)

Bubbafowler just shoot me a PM after deer season when you want to hunt Meriwether. I'm just next door in Harris. Be more than happy to bring the dogs and enjoy some fellowship with ya!


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## Hogwild80 (Dec 1, 2017)

Big lazer is open until feb28th with limited to no access to most areas,and my hunting buddies are in there 70s,this makes it tough to cast a dog from the main road running through,it's very evident when they close the gates after deer season and say they will be re opened when turkey season comes around


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## BIG HUNT (Dec 1, 2017)

watermedic said:


> clarks hill wma is open for small game from now till february!



have you ever been rabbit hunting on clarks hill wma? I have and there is 5 or 6 packs of beagles hunting rabbits every saturday. Between the over hunting and coyotes there not many rabbits on the wma.


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## specialk (Dec 1, 2017)

Ruger#3 said:


> If you want to see DNRs priorities go over to the deer hunting forum and look at the thread of DNR asking deer hunters what they want in harvest data software development.
> 
> All that takes resources and is self perpetuating.



excellent post.....


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## Chuck Terry (Dec 17, 2017)

I am the primary lease holder on 566 acres in Wilkes County.  I tried making it a rabbit and beagles first club.  Not enough rabbit beaglers willing to pay the dues required to keep that going.  Now have four rabbit runners and five deer hunters from NC.  I give the deer hunters exclusive use of the property Saturday and Sunday once bow season starts.  Then, they get Friday - Sunday once firearms deer season starts.  They can deer hunt during weekdays but it is with the understanding there may be beagle running on the property.  Working well right now for all of us.  Hoping for five Beaglers and five deer hunters next year.  Dues will be $600 each if we can do that.


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