Bear Grease - Ep. 293: This Country Life - Rabbits, Dogs, and Car Hoods

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Brent's cutting the pups loose on this one and they're chasing rabbits. He's talking about the four different ways he grew up hunting them, one of which may surprise you. The way a dog almost immediately knows the rabbit's direction of travel is an interesting deep dive, but don't worry, Brent's already done all the heavy lifting for you. He's also sharing a great lesson through a listener's story and describing a field expedient way to field dress a cottontail. All of that for the low, low price of nada, which is what you'll receive should you want to return this episode after you listen. It's "This Country Life" time, y'all get easy. Check out the Odor Trail Article: https://academic.oup.com/chemse/article/30/4/291/270231?login=false Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Knives on Meat Eat Eater's Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. Rabbits, dogs and car hoods Dogs of all kinds stir my soul more than anything when it comes to hunting. Rabbit hunting with dogs is what I do the least, but may be my absolute favorite. It's easy to do. The dogs don't have to be world champions, and it's exciting and fun.

I'm going to tell you all about it, but first, I'm going to tell you a story. The story this week comes from our man on the scene, Ron Osman. Ron has been a faithful listener of the show and sent this story in a while back, and since we're chasing rabbits this week, I thought I'd include it here. So in Ron's words and my voice, here we go. November 1975, I had just passed my Pennsylvania hunter's safety course and would be allowed to start carrying a gun and hunting with my father and our small pack of bassets and beagles.

In Pennsylvania, a junior hunter had to be 12 years of age before he or she could start hunting, and my birthday was on the 12th of December. I assumed that my father would take me to the store to buy a hunting license on my birthday, and I would start hunting after Christmas when the second small game season started. He just told me to remember my birthday was November the 12th this year. Now, the license department asked no questions, and they issued me my first official hunting license. without a hitch.

Dad told me we were going hunting on Thanksgiving morning, which was one of our traditions. A couple days before Thanksgiving, my dad had another surprise. He gave me a brand new, H&R, single shot Topper Jr. And 20 gauge. That shotgun would serve me and then my brothers for several seasons. The morning of the hunt, I woke up at our normal time. We had breakfast at home and we loaded up to Buick Station Wagon with our Gets. gear and four hounds and off to our hunting spot we went.

Back then, there was a lot of accessible land that was not posted in the county where we lived. The spot we were hunting was the future home of the new Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, and they were going to be breaking ground there in the next couple of years. But right now, this was basically a great place of several thousand acres of Alston Rabbit cover that was open to the public. We started hunting, working our way through red and greenbriars, letting the hounds work in front of us. We were hunting for about an hour before we struck the first rabbit. The hound opened and started the race.

My dad was a meat hunter, so shooting the rabbit on the jump was fair game. But this time, he didn't have a chance to make him a clean shot. The hounds were running the rabbit good. So dad had me stand on top of a fallen tree and said, watch for the rabbit. Should come back around in a few minutes. He went and stood about 50 yards away, watching for the rabbit. There's done a few minutes I could see the rabbit coming my way. Now, if you hunted rabbits with hounds, you know that the rabbit gets a good lead on the pack typically

and then slows down and maintains a steady pace trying to return to where its original setting spot was. I cocked the hammer on that H&R and waited until that rabbit was about 15 yards away and bang! I got him. Dad came running over. and we celebrated. First rabbit on my first official hunt. About an hour later, the hounds had another rabbit started, and dad had me stand in an open area to watch for it. The hounds were working their way to my rear and out behind me, and I was trying to watch all around as the rabbit could appear at just about anywhere. I was watching in front of me when out of the

corner of my eye just to the left, the rabbit appeared and stopped about 10 yards away. Fortunately, the way I was holding my shotgun, the barrel was pointed right at the rabbit. I cocked the hammer and shot it from the hip. Bam! Rabbit number two. Now, by this time, it was about 3 o'clock. Time to head back home for a big family dinner that my mom and my grandmother had been working on all day. The best part of the whole day was later that evening when my father called his brother to tell him about the hunt.

These were his words to his brother, son to Dad Zero. Now, that is one of the fondest memories I have a hunt with my dad and how proud he was of me on our first hunt. And according to retired gunnery sergeant, Ron Olsman, Pennsylvania-born youth hunter of rabbits and adult defender of our nation, now residing in the great state of Alabama. That's just how that happened. Now in that story, nothing really remarkable occurred. There was no surprise ended or hilarious calamity that befell Ron or his father. It was just a simple story.

And in my best Keith Morrison storyline twist, or was it? If you look past the willful falsifying of a state document, a son and a father, a crime they committed together, and the rabbit hunting, what you have is a father and a son spending time together that eventually led them to grandma's house and fellowship over a shared meal

with more folks. And then a father's phone call to a brother to brag on a son. A rabbit hunting may have been the activity, but family was the result. If you read between the lines and look past the trees, then you can see the forest.

Thanks for sharing, Gunny. There are a few things in the outdoors that I enjoy the most that don't include a dog. Now, whether it's my well-known passion for coom, squirrel, and duck hunting, with the latter two of each being formidable on their own, the addition of a good tree dog or retriever just enhances the whole flavor of the endeavor. It's like black pepper on biscuits and gravy. It's good by itself, but reaches a different level. of greatness when the pepper grinder stops after a minimum of half a dozen turns.

Now, rabbits can be and have been hunted without dogs since we figured out they tasted good with mashed potatoes and gravy. I can't remember a time at any time when we'd see a rabbit cross the road or flush as we were rambling around the homestead and someone not wish that rascal's next move was into a skill of hot grease. They taste great and next to quail it was the wild game my mama liked the most. Rabbit hunting was a lot like squirrel hunting for a lot of folks. It was their introduction into hunting. Season is pretty long.

The bag limits are liberal and how you gather them up is fun. You don't have to be quiet or have any special clothing or equipment outside of a firearm or bow and error. And if you're good with slinks, yacht you can use that, provided it's legal where you are. The eastern two-thirds of the United States has good luck charms and supper hopping all around it. There are four states where you can hunt them year-round. That's in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Utah. But here in Arkansas, it's September to the end of February.

Most of the other states have a similar season. Now, growing up, it was calmly said that you couldn't eat a rabbit unless the month in which the rabbit was acquired contained an R in the spelling. September to March was okay, but May through August, no Buono. Some folks narrated that down even further by saying that you should wait until the first frost before killing and eating them. Now, that sounds a little crazy to you. Allow me to explain the reasoning behind it. Down here in the land of cotton, bot flies are an issue. And they're found over most of the U.S. except for Alaska Plus, Southern Canada and Northern Mexico, and they thrive in warmer climates, and they lay eggs on the backs of rabbits that hatch and enter into any open orifice or wound where they can migrate to the neck and the shoulders, the back, and the behind, and grow until the next stage where they form underneath the hide while breathing through a pore or a hole in the skin.

Two weeks to a month later, they will burrow out of the skin and fall on the ground and dig a hole where they can spend their next stage of development. It's like a snake farm except we're talking about a botfly. And botfly, it just sounds nasty. Botfly, it pretty much is. In the cooler months, the flies aren't as active And that's where the old wives tales and practices come from deferring to the colder months to eat them If you've ever seen a rabbit or a squirrel with one of those on them, you'll know why Nasty

Final comments on botfly warbles or wolves as the old folks refer to Is it safe to eat a rabbit that has been parasitized by a botfly And the answer is yes remove it and the meat around it and cook the meat to 160 degrees and you're good to go now would I eat a rabbit that's been infected with one the jury is still out because I ain't

never been that hungry not yet anyway so with that bit of info behind us let's get to hunting last spring Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts now I'm going to

tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to.

I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelps gamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did. And you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Now, outside of a rabbit being an end-season target of opportunity that you could snag

while you were out hunting something else, there were four ways to hunt rabbits where I grew up. You could use dogs to run them. We're going to talk more about that in detail in a minute. But you could walk in cover where you thought a rabbit might be and flush one out. This method works better with more than one person. You walk in close proximity of each other and cause more of a disturbance. That way, you'll have a better chance of making the rabbit run instead of just letting you pass by his hiding spot.

The third way is to track them in a fresh snow. That was a rare occasion where I live, but the name is exactly how you do it. You find a set of tracks and start following them until you find this rabbit. Now the softer the snow, the better. The crunch of ice and frozen snow lets them know that you're getting close, and they'll stay way ahead of the approaching racket. Getting on a fresh track and the few snows that I can remember that we ever got them. I was a kid that was ideal for tracking rabbits was like.

finding a $5 bill in the old coat pocket. You knew you were in for a good day. Following a set of tracks into soft snow and seeing them end in a brush top or a grown-up fence corner meant he was in a hole in there or he was just chilling and staying warm. Now, those you could kick out and get to working on

Mr. Brown and Mr. Winchester, it was always a surprise when they busted out of cover, even though you knew it was going to happen. It was fun. The fourth way we hunted them was by sitting on the passenger side hood of a car with a 22 rifle at night while your buddy drove and eased down the gravel road

the headlights of the car shining the rabbit's eyes making them glow and blinding him long enough for the shooter to send him a lead surprise to the Noggin. I know some of you are appalled at that confession I just uttered and rightfully so. In my defense it was my brother Tim who told me that this was illegal when I was 17 years old.

He being eight years older and the wiser of our two-man hunting team had only found out just prior to telling me at the tender age of 25 that it wasn't legal to hunt rabbits at night. Why'd they change the law, Tim? Believe it or not, he said, it ain't ever been legal. How we stayed out of the penitentiary, I do not know. Where ignorance is bliss, his folly to be wise. The poet Thomas Gray said that in 1742 over in England at Eaton College.

241 years later, circa 1983 on the timber company roads of southeast Arkansas, Tim and I were still proving that to be true. Don't do that today, kids. Not only is it illegal and unethical, there ain't a car made today with a hood that could hold up a fat baby without caving in. Now, running rabbits with dogs. That's a special kind of fun, and the dogs I like the most are beagles. My friend George Pendington, the King of West Point, Virginia,

owner of Woodhaven Kennels and a Tier 1 field trial action star himself, gave me some grief over a recent statement I made that described Beagles as little Walker dogs because of their similar color patterns and shades. I stand beside that remark to this day. I'm not standing behind it because I'm allowed to get hit with some of the rocks and aspersions being cast in my general direction from all the beagle purists like George, who are quick to correct the ignorant. I'm a slow learner.

Remember I was nearly grown when I found out shooting rabbits from the hood of a car wasn't kosher. Anyway, as luck would have it, I've been fortunate enough to know some folks through my time here on this spinning orb we call home that possess numerous rabbit-hating individuals known as beagles. We had some many moons ago that I've talked about before that we used to push deer around at the B&R deer camp so we could shoot at them. I said push them around instead of running because the only one's running were the beagles.

At full speed, they can't keep up with a rabbit. How in the world would they be able to make a deer run more than a few yards at a time? They wouldn't. Much is the same with a rabbit. People who oppose chasing game with dogs always paint a picture of the game being pursued is running wide open with their tongues hanging out and barely stay in the head of the vicious snarling, snapping, biting hounds that are only inches behind the poor distressed creature.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Ideally, here's how it goes. The beagles are cut loose and hit the ground moving in the same general direction, and each one hoovering up all the scent in their path as they criss-crossed through the brush and the brimels hunting up the fresh scent of a rabbit. When one of them barks indicating they picked up the scent, the others will come to him, and when they smell it too,

they'll begin to bark and follow the scent in the direction of the rabbit left. So how do they know which direction the rabbit is going, and how long does it take for them to figure it out? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I deep dive very little as I stumble my mind, way through my existence, but those questions have nagged me to no end for a long time. I started doing some research recently and finally discovered a paper written and a study performed by a couple of nerds over in the UK that was as dry of a reed as Chevy Chase's

Turkey and Christmas vacation, but it was loaded with tons of information. My faithful sidekick and doer of all things requiring above average intelligence, Reva Hanson will include the link to that article in the show description should you want to take a closer gander at it, or if you ever find yourself unable to go to sleep. Now, y'all hang on for the next part. It's worth it. I promise.

Once the rabbit scent is picked up, it only takes a few feet for the dog to determine the direction of travel. Now, the study used human tracks in a sterile environment, and it went into great detail, explaining as to how they controlled and conducted the test to be unbiased. Believe me, great detail. Anyway, after reading it twice, I started smelling what the scent nerds were stepping in when they explained what was taking place in the dog's nose.

Allow me to break it down for you. Imagine someone spraying perfume on a cue tip and wiping it with a single stroke on a kitchen table for one, in to the other and then expecting you to walk in the room 30 minutes later and tell them which direction they wiped it on the table by putting your nose next to the surface and smith. Now that's what a dog is doing. Pretty cool to say the least. The theory is that they can detect the difference in the strength of the odor as it decays across a very short distance. In the study, it claimed that it took three to five feet.

feet for the direction of travel to be determined by the dog sniffing. I'll pause a second for all the folks that were teetering on jumping out of the window through that last part to welcome you back to your chair. Now, the dogs are after the rabbit, and once the rabbit realize he's being pursued, he'll take off and run or hop out along the trail or make one of his own and sit and listens for the dogs to get closer. Now, this is something the rabbit does every day and night of his life. It is their place in the food chain and the reason for their being.

You have to play the hand that you were dealt, and their hand was a blessing for predators such as ourselves, and a curse to them. Rabbits will run out and circle around, and nine times out of ten come within a few feet of their original starting point. Now, the circle is meant to confuse the predator by allowing the rabbit a chance to get into his burrow or make the pursuer just plumb losing by confusing him where he went circling him back over his own cent trail. Now, fortunately for us,

he ain't figured in the part of the equation that has us standing at the ready with a shotgun where he left from when he makes his triumphant return. Bam! Next stop, a hot cast iron skillet. Let's cover gut and a cottontail rabbit real quick. It takes about as long to gut two as it does to explain how to gut one using this method.

It's quick. And if you're hunting in warm weather, you're going to want to get the guts out of them as soon as possible. But you grab the cotton tail by the neck and with your other hand, squeeze him down toward his hind in like you're trying to get the last bit of toothed face out of a tube. All his innards will soon become his outards, courtesy of his naturally installed exhaust pipe area. That's right.

The guts pop right out through that spot where his tail lights would go. It just bust through the skin. out on the ground it goes. You can use the traditional method using a pocket knife and you know which kind of pocket knife to use. Don't wait until they pull this podcast over on the side of the road, kids. But gut them with your knife, keep them as cool as possible, and clean them when you get back home.

I always check the livers for spots and lesions that could indicate tularemia. Even if they're present, it's okay to eat the meat if you cook it to the recommended temp of 160 degrees Fahrenheit or 71 Celsius if you're eating rabbits during halftime at a hockey game. To clean him and get him ready to quarter up, just make a small incision through the skin in the middle of his back, insert two fingers on each hand and pulled north and south at the same time. Presto.

Shirts and breeches gone and all you're left with is a naked rabbit. Now, you're not going to get Tularemia from properly cooked. rabbit. You're more than likely to get it from cleaning them and not wearing rubber gloves. That's an easy fix. And so is the rabbit. Once you get him cleaned, quartered up, and I like the back too. I wash it off and soak all five pieces in buttermilk and spices for at least an hour. I like to soak them overnight in icebox, or as most of you, sophisticated it's call it, the refrigerator. Then I'll let him warm up to room temp while. still in the buttermilk on the counter.

Then I'll take him out of there, powder his behind him with some self-rising flour, and let him swim in some peanut oil I've revved up at 350 degrees. Now that's 176 in Canada. Check the thickest part of the meat with an instant thermometer, and when it hits that magic temp of 160 degrees or 71 Celsius, you're in business. Biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans,

and fried rabbit, to be. Y'all get out there and get after them. Take an old friend or a new young and, or better yet, take a both. Let me know how y'all do. Keep sending those stories into my TCL story at themeadeter.com.

Funny stories, amazing stories, or one where you learned or taught a listen. Y'all have sent in some good ones, and we'll get around to use some of them when the time is right. You need to check out Steve's show on the history channel that debuted this week. It's called Hunting History. And he's been working on it for quite a while. Lots of good episodes

coming. See y'all be sure to check it out. Until next week, this is Brent Reeve. Signing off. Y'all be careful. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly

thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper,

from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season two of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.