Dogs and Cats and Hares.... oh my!!

**Ron Zega** · #1 12-23-2008, 03:40 PM

Date: December 20th & 21st, 2008

Location: New York

Sunrise/ Sunset: 7:21am / 4:25pm

Weather: Bitter Cold, light winds, Snow

Temperature: Low 6 F / High 16 F

Wind: 3-5 mph from the North

Equipment Used: Avery® Field Caps, Avery® Fleece Skull Caps, and Avery® 900D Strap Vest.

Hunters: Bryan Haslun, Arliss Reed, and Avery® Pro-Staffer Ron Zega

Journal Notes:
Late December… and almost all the water in New York State has frozen, the snow is piling up , and if you are lucky, the sun will shine for 9 hours a day. Although I especially miss chasing waterfowl around week after week with the motley crew, this finally gives me the opportunity to take my friend Bryan up on his open invitation to hunt snowshoe hares with him. See, Bryan rabbit hunts like I waterfowl hunt, and we both manage to get each other in on some excellent hunts in our respective fields every season. So this past weekend, Bryan invited Arliss and I to run some rabbits with him and his beagle “Hunter” in the fresh snow.

Saturday morning came and the storm that hit on Friday evening had left us with over a foot of fresh powdery snow, this made it a little challenging, but not impossible to get back into some of Bryan’s “honey holes” for the first drop of the morning. The hares were hunkered down and holding tight, but it didn’t take “hunter” long to sniff one out and run it right past me on the first loop, fortunately I didn’t disappoint him, and connected on the first rabbit of the day. With a little more bush beating, “hunter” struck another red hot track and Bryan bagged the second hare of the day in short order. With plenty of rabbit sign in the area, “hunter” was on another hot trail in no time and after running this one around us a few times, we finally got a clear shot at that bunny, and were headed back to the truck around 11:30.

We were headed back to the truck mostly because I had to leave so that I wouldn’t be late for a wedding that afternoon, and Bryan and Arliss were going to go to another spot. Turns out that I didn’t miss much from the rest of Saturday’s hunt, but I did miss something spectacular from Sunday’s hunt.

Sunday morning found Bryan and Arliss once again on the hunt for snowshoes and with snow falling, “hunter” was staying right on their heels. Bryan put the first rabbit down and got “hunter” back on another hot track right away, and not more than 5 minutes after Bryan shot his rabbit, he heard a shotgun blast come from Arliss’ direction. Immediately after the shot, Arliss yelled for Bryan to “just get over here quick” and I really wish I could have been there to witness the celebration when they both realized what had just happened; Arliss had just shot a 32 pound male bobcat! A serious trophy for anyone who has ever tried hunting or trapping bobcats in the Northeast!!! Needless to say, both of them were basking in the glory of this true trophy cat for the rest of the day and I am just glad I got to take the pictures of it!!

Saturday's take.

"Hunter" ready to run!

Strap vest in action

32 pounder!

Arliss and the big ol' tomcat!