Bear Grease - Ep. 406: This Country Life - Rabbits, Beagles, and a Creature Named Blade

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Brent's out with the boys this week and they're all chasing rabbits. Well, more like following the dogs that are chasing the rabbits. He's giving insight into how a rabbit hunt with dogs is done, why it's so special to him, and where it ranks on his list of favorite things to do. The results may surprise you. Bubba, it's time to cut the pups loose on MeatEater's "This Country Life" podcast. Shop This Country Life Merch Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips Subscribe to the 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 Trotlining 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 from the Storemore Studio on Meat Eat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts that Airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. Rabbits, Beagles, and a creature named Blade.

Rabbit hunting with beagles is a time-honored tradition, not only in the South, but all over this great nation of ours, and where it lands on my list of favorites, might surprise you. That's what I'm talking about today, and I can't wait to get to it. So with that said, let's get to it. From September the 1st through the end of February, rabbits in Arkansas are looking over their shoulders and living on the edge. That's when it's legal for hunters to get after them. Now, in reality, they're already looking over their shoulders because just about everything else eats on them year-round.

Codes, bobcats, foxes, bears, and birds of prey, snakes, alligators, and even coons will make a meal out of syliligous Floridantis and syliligus aquaticus. The two types of wild rabbits found here in Arkansas commonly referred to as cottontail rabbits and swamp rabbits. Both are good to eat and fun to hunt. I gave an overview of rabbit hunting back in episode 293 rabbits, dogs, and car hoods. I talked about watching out for bot fly larva and whether the rabbit that had one was good to eat or not. They are, but I still ain't been hungry enough to have to do it.

I mentioned that you should check their livers and spleen for white spots and lesions that could indicate tularemia, but I didn't tell you how to avoid it other than saying you should clean them properly. Well, let me cover that right now. Are you all ready for the big secret? Are you ready? Wear rubber gloves. That's it.

You ought to be doing that anyway. I don't always, but I'm trying to get in the habit. It only takes one. time to make you wish you had, and I know some folks who've gotten sick from improperly cooked or handled game meat, and it's no bueno. Tullerima's common name is literally rabbit fever. It's as if the rabbit's last act of defiance before being given a one-way ticket through your colon, is to make you think you've got the flu, pneumonia, leprosy, and rabies all at the same time. It's like the old saying goes. Hunting ain't no phone.

When the rabbit gets the gun. Now, wear gloves when you're skinny rabbits and cook them until they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit and you're good to go. Simple. Just the other day, Michael Roseman and his nephew R.J., Nelson Howell, whom we affectionately refer to as Melvin, Brad Clark, Randall Whitmore, and yours truly set out on a rabbit hunt on public ground here in Arkansas using Michael's Beagles. The hunting rabbits with beagles is my favorite way to hunt them. And y'all know that I like to hunt, and I've said before that adding a dog to a lot of things I chase just makes it that much better. I'll go one step further and say this.

Of everything I hunt using a dog, rabbit hunting may be my absolute favorite. I know some of you may be looking at the radio right now like they just smelled something terrible, but I'd hate to be held at gunpoint and made to choose a favorite two that didn't include rabbits with beagles. Coon hunting, squirrel, hog, deer, ducks, all of it. A rabbit being chased by a pack of beagles is as exciting to me as anything. It may be because of everything I just named, rabbits with beagles is the least of which I've done. My wife, Alexis's grandfather, Buddy Deckleman, or booed, as she called him, was a rabbit man from way back.

Episode 248 had me given y'all the lowdown on him. I never had the opportunity to meet him as he passed away long before Alexis and I met, but everyone always said that we would have gotten along really well, and I'm confident that we would have. I saw the same shared experience the other day when the group of Naradu Wells I just mentioned and I assembled at the Koon Camp. It was well before breakfast when we started to work on the contents of the coffee pot and get everyone headed out the door for a rabbit hunt.

Cookie, Chessie, and Mandy would be doing all the work this morning, and the rest of us were just along for the ride. These three female purebred beagle hounds were being asked to do something that their ancestors had been doing well over 400 years. Find a rabbit. Make that rabbit hit the road. and that's all they had to do. We and the rabbit were going to handle everything else.

Now, for those that don't know, rabbits normally run in a circle when pursued, and depending on what kind of rabbit is being chased, can determine how big of a circle they'll run. Now, before anyone starts yelling at me saying anything to the contrary, I'm speaking in generalities here. But generally speaking, cotton-tailed rabbits run in a small circle and swamp rabbits will move out in a bigger one.

If the dogs you're hunting behind are deer-proof, meaning they won't run a deer like most of Clay's coon dogs won't run a coon. Just kidding. Not really. Then when those beagles head out anywhere on the plus side of a hundred yards, you can bet you're probably chasing the swamp rabbit. You might lose, but I'll make that bet every time and come out ahead more times than not.

We drove the 20 minutes or so from camp in deep conversation about dogs from Michael's past that he longed to have now so I could hunt and see how they work. He mentioned several, but one in particular was a beagle named Blade. Blade stood 17 inches at his withers, that's the top of his shoulder blades, which is two full inches above the bigger of the standard-sized beagles. Beagles fall into two main categories, 13 and 15-inch dogs. A blade wouldn't have been allowed to compete in some registered events because of his size being passed a maximum allowed features for the height of a dog in certain competitions. That doesn't mean he wasn't a beagle. It just means that he was an outlier and exceeded the parameters and standards that had been

set in stone for a breeze-specific events back in the old days, or as my daughter Bailey would say, back then. But back then really isn't an absolute. accurate description of longer ago. She thinks back then was anything before the sixth grade. She's in seven. Anyway, Blade came to Michael's kennel 13 years ago by way of a dog tray. Blade was the one thrown in to sweeten the deal enough for Michael to agree. He was more of an afterthought like, here, you can have this one too. Blade wasn't a picture of health when he was offered and it could have been a deal breaker going in the other direction, but Michael took a chance.

And there was something that spoke to him. This little, this little big hound deserved a chance, and Michael was going to see that he got one. After some nursing and nurturing, Blade filled out, and he perked up. The dog that he'd traded for, the target dog, a female, which made Blade, the player to be named later, That dog didn't turn out at all. She found a new home in Blade. The dog that almost wasn't slid in to the number one spot. 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 backwards. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there 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 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th.

Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now that's how Cinderella stories are written, and you can't have a Cinderella story without an ugly step-sister. Unfortunately, playing the part of Cinderella and all three ugly step-sisters was the one and only blade. His biology made him cast better as the handsome Prince Charmin. However, according to Michael, he wasn't handsome in any form. Michael described him this way. He had a big blaze up the middle of his forehead. He was black-headed with a red face. He had a lot of black on his back, but he wasn't blanket back. It was all broken up with a lot of white. He looked like what a kindergartner would draw if they had drawn him in the dark.

And charming, he didn't know the meaning of it. He made up for his lack of looks by being rude and inappropriate in every sense of those words. He would take the most inopportune time to be crass and indecent regardless of who was around. His kennel habits were less than ideal, and according to my friend Michael, his food and water bowls became targets of opportunity. Now, if you're number one in your eating and drinking bowls, that's one thing. But the number two in them, well, that's just plain nasty. Like I said, his hair was long and greasy, and he was the nastiest dog I've ever had in a kennel. And I said, well, why did you keep that freak?

But he turned and looked at me, and he said, because a rabbit didn't stand a chance with that clown. Michael said that not only was he an absolute savage in his lack of morality and kennel manners, but also in rabbit-jumping ability. He'd get in the thickest, nastiest places a rabbit would have to tow the hatchet to get in and out of, and before a cat could lickets behind, he was on him. He was all so fast. How fast, Michael? Fast enough that he'd caught several rabbits on his own.

He literally rinkered. ran them down and caught and killed them all by himself. And the ones he couldn't catch, he'd keep moving until they circled around for one of us to get a shot. Blade was a rabbit-running machine. He was fearless. He would crawl in any hole, any tree top, any patch of briars that would make the devil think twice. And he had no regard for his health and safety. Characteristics that would ultimately lead to his demise

But on the street, he challenged a 1989 Ford Fiesta for the rideaway After breaking out his kennel to take his one-man active debauchery on the road around the neighborhood He spent the last four years of his life That Michaels and lived to be six A ripe old age for anything with this little regard for cleanliness or safety as Blaine. We weren't hunting behind anything on the same level as Blade in any category, and I can't say that I was completely disappointed. I'm not sure I'd like to have witnessed or experienced anything along the lines of what he was famous for.

We were going to have to make do with Mandy, Chessie, and Cookie. Now, Mandy, I'd hunted with last year, and she's a rabbit dog. She's solid when she strikes, and you can believe her when she says she's on a rabbit. she barks good on the track, but she hits a different level when they jump him. Now, for those unfamiliar with rabbit hunting with dogs, here's how a typical hunt plays out. Ideally, you release your dogs in an area with thick cover that's broken up with openings or areas where hunters can space themselves out and align with one another and see 20 or so yards away. As the dogs work together in a pack or separately, one will strike the scent of a rabbit and start barking.

The others either hunting with that dog that strikes or are working close in that area in a different location. They'll join up and pick up the scent once they gather. Now, from there, the dogs bark as they determine the direction of travel. They can figure that out, usually within three to five feet, according to a bunch of science nerds over in England. I reported on that very subject on an earlier episode from last year, and it still amazes me how, they can do that. Anyway, the dogs are smelling the rabbit and they're barking. They're telling us that they're on his track.

Now, what that rabbit's doing is merely conjecture at this point, but it makes sense that he starts paying attention to the dogs once they get to a certain distance from where he stopped and listened to the dog race just like we are. Once they cross that magic threshold that the rabbit has determined to be close enough, he'll light a shook and hit the road. Everything the dogs are smelling up to now is where the rabbit was minutes ago, maybe even longer. Once they get to the spot where he's been hiding and recently sitting, sin is stronger,

and the dogs automatically grab another gear in both momentum and how they bark. It doesn't take a veteran ear to discern the differences either. Once you've hunted rabbits with dogs once or twice, you'll have it down pat. That's my favorite part of the whole experience. The dogs get excited, and so do I. Now that the rabbit knows he's the reason for all the commotion, he'll put some distance between himself and the dogs. A cotton tail, Michael's dogs ran right out of the gate the other day,

ran about 50 yards in front of the beagles. And I would use the word ran very loosely. Brad shot him and he said he was moving pretty good when he took the shot, but he likes to make everyone think he can shoot, so only him, the rabbit, and Jesus know for sure. The rabbit ain't talking, and when I see Jesus, I'm going to be so relieved I made it. I'll probably forget to ask.

I've seen them hauling the mail with the hounds way behind them, and others just sauntering along, maybe even a mosey or a sashay, if you will, when they were close. They know they can outrun the racket, especially since Blade met his fate way back. then. What they aren't counting on is the dude with the shotgun. Rabbits will run in a circle or a figure eight type pattern. It might be a long oval. It might be any shape you can imagine, but they feel safest in familiar territory.

And the home range of a cottontail rabbit, according to the rabbit nerds, is typically one to eight acres. That's why they stay in that one spot. They will dodge and duck and circle back, hide in the brambles, the bushes are just off the trail and let the dogs run past them and then double back. They'll cover the same ground multiple times in different directions to confuse and throw the pursuers off. That's how they get away from everything else that's trying to have them over for supper. Again, it's the creature with the opposing thumbs and a shotgun that has the advantage. Swamp rabbits are bigger rabbits, sometimes twice as big at four to six pounds versus two to three of the cotton tail. Their home range is significantly bigger as well, averaging anywhere from two acres to

20, which explains the next part of the hunt that we had the other day. After we got the first rabbit that Brad shot, we walked the dogs a little further away from the truck and cut them loose again. They immediately put their sniffers to the ground and went to work. The tails wagging with anticipation and the sounds of their nose is clearly audible above the crunching of the the leaves as they worked their way into a small thicket that looked like a rabbit had designed it himself. You can tell a lot about a dog's demeanor and their drive and enjoyment by the way they hunt, and I firmly believe that they enjoy what they do, and it's not all just instinct and prey drive that has their tails stir in the wind like a helicopter once they strike a rabbit. To me,

they're literally expressing themselves on both ends. I know what joy looks like. And if I had a tail, I'd be kicking up gust out enough to blow the leaves off the trees right there with them. I'm glad I don't have one, though, because I spook every turkey before they got close enough to shoot. So, back to the hunt. The dogs have now worked their way out about 75 yards, and we're just easing up a pipeline right-of-way that's been mowed having a good visit and walking along. The gals crossed out in front of us, and were working their way through the woods on our right side. when they struck a track and headed out away from us. We're watching and listened in their direction as they're moving

when Melvin says, here comes a rabbit. Man, he wasn't kidding. He wasn't close enough to shoot and was running, I assume as fast as a swamp rabbit could run heading in the opposite direction of the hounds. Seeing what kind of rabbit they jumped, let us know this probably wasn't going to end quick. We were right.

I'm not sure we could have caught him with a motorist. cycle, but the dog's barking grew even more faint before it got louder when they made the turn coming back. I looked at my watch when the rabbit shot through leaving a jet stream. A minute and a half later, the Beagle stepped in his tracks moving along the path he took in a tenth of the speed. The reality of the chase is that nine times out of ten, it ain't really a chase. It's more like a loud following. But to hear the hounds, you'd think they were looking at the rabbit the whole time. They passed by where we were standing and eventually completed a big loot, and at one time,

they were over 500 yards away. It was more like a coyote or a deer race than a rabbit hunt. We never saw that rabbit again. Michael and the rest went in the thicket to try to cut the rabbit off, but wound up eventually just collecting the dogs and walking back out to where Randall and I were drinking coffee on the tailgate of Michael's truck. Two rabbit races ran, one rabbit collected, and seven miles logged by three beagles

that were earning their keep that morning. As we sat there listening to our friends a quarter of a mile away, calling the dogs to them, I told Randall, and I'm leaning up against this dog crate and all I can smell is wet dogs. He looked over at me, and I asked him, you ever smelled anything better?

He kind of laughed, smiled, and just said, nope. The connection between dogs, a man, is strong, and it's been built every day for the last 15,000 years. My connection with that smell only goes back a little over 50, but in that short span of time, I associate that scent with a lot of good people, a lot of good dogs,

and a lot of good times. Dogs have developed from being a competitor in the beginning to being a companion and have gone on to indirectly bridge the gap between humans. All my friends that I talked about today have become like family to me because of dogs. We all coon hunt together and do other things because we enjoy each other's company. The very creature that some would say was sticking up. that dog box was also triggered an unfinished novel

of stories and adventures that I see in this rolodex of memories that play in my head whenever I catch the faintest whiff of that scent. It's good times. And hopefully, more to come. I appreciate all of you listening to us

here at Backwoods University, Bear Greece, and this show, this country life, it's a privilege for me to be associated with these boys, and I truly count my blessings every day. Until next week, this is Brent Reeve. Signing off.

Y'all be careful. 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 game calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did,

and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning calls. who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action.