"Trophy" Rabbits

**Ron Zega** · #1 02-10-2009, 04:22 PM

Date: January 24th 2009

Location: New York

Sunrise/ Sunset: 7:01am / 4:46pm

Weather: Bitter Cold, light winds, Snow

Temperature: Low 6 F / High 16 F

Wind: 7-10 mph from the North

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

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

Journal Notes:

The long anticipated weekend was finally upon us… It was the night before the annual “Fort Plain Beagle Club Rabbit Hunt” and the excitement level was at a fever pitch. The rules were as follows:

1. All participating hunters had to register ahead of time.
2. Hunters could hunt anywhere as long as they made it back for the “weigh in”.
3. Each hunter could weigh in 1 cottontail rabbit and 1 snowshoe hare.
4. Weigh in closed at 5pm on Jan 24th.

With over 100 hunters registered, and this being our first year entering the competition, the 4 of us, led by Bryan and his beagle “Hunter” were all hoping to put up some good sized rabbits/hares by the end of the day. The day started early, with high hopes, but with deep snow slowing us and the dog down, after the first 3 drops all we had managed was one close call with a porcupine. Things finally went our way on the last drop for hares, when “Hunter” cut a red hot track which finally produced a fine specimen of a snowshoe hare for the game bag. Our second hare was bagged shortly after and after a quick lunch, we switched gears and headed to one of Rob’s cottontail honey holes.

Once again, the going was tough for both the hunters and the dog, but after a few more hours of beating the brush, our team had collected a respectable bag of cottontails, including a few “trophy” sized rabbits. We arrived at the weigh station, not really knowing what to expect, and were all pleasantly surprised find out that Rob’s cottontail had just taken over the #1 spot on the leaderboard!!! With less than 1 hour left before the 5pm deadline, the 4 of us never left the sight of the scale as time counted down. When the scale finally closed, all of us were happy to hear that all our entries had finished in the top 10, and, to everyone’s surprise the “lunker” that Rob had shot was still at the top!!!

A spaghetti dinner was included as part of the entry fee and the evening concluded with the trophy presentations, as well as prizes for all hunters that entered rabbits. This was a great event to be a part of and “hats off” to the Fort Plain Beagle Club for organizing it. I know that, “Hunter” and the rest of us are already looking forward to next year.