Fox Collectors

Here's a black & white scene with two Lefevers that might have happened 106 years ago. Both are original 26-inchers. Top gun a 1903 H-Grade 12 ga with twist barrels and lower one is a 16 bore DS made in 1912.

Very nice picture. Does the 16 have a round pistol grip? How about the 12? Is there a cap on the pistol grip or is it flat wood. I can't quite tell and I'm not familiar with these guns. Jeff

I get it. Just checked a few pictures on GI. Looks like the DS has round wood and the H has a cap. Nice guns.

Frank, I hope you ate the bunny. Jim

Not sure how to take that comment, JIm. I don't shoot any edible animal that doesn't end up on a table. The rabbit was field dressed right after the pic was taken, skinned and washed later and then into the freezer.

Three of us hunted with beagles yesterday afternoon along the edge of a frozen swamp and we got 4 rabbits. All destined for the pot. Same as circa 1912 at least here in Pennsylvania but without the freezer back then. This is the only one taken with a SxS.

Frank, The hunt with the beagles sounds like fun. How do you keep up with them to get a shot?
Jim

Jim Cloninger wrote:Frank, I hope you ate the bunny. Jim

Jim Cloninger wrote:Frank, The hunt with the beagles sounds like fun. How do you keep up with them to get a shot?
Jim

News Flash to Jim: the hunting world isn't limited to bird and duck dogs. It’s obvious you don't know much about rabbit hunting with beagles and perhaps you should refrain from inferring something like, that I'd pot shot the Easter Bunny on my front lawn. Hunting ethics. It would go a long way if you explain your hope that I ate the bunny.

frank

Ahhhhh! This brings back fond memories. I grew up on 40 acres of good hunting land and Dad always had a beagle. I can distinctly remember the first two bunnies that I shot, both with a Lefever SxS .410. As people that hunt bunnies with beagles know, if you don't get a shot when you first bump the rabbit, just sit tight and it will probably circle right back to you. Yup, you can run after the dog if you want, but it's best to just stand still and let the dawg chase the rabbit right back to you. I had a lot of fun with the 1937 nitro special .410. I got a lot of ducks with that .410 too.

Thank you Jeff. That explains it well. Good memories then and now if you can find someone with beagles and land that doesn’t have a no trespassing poster on every boundary tree.

Same here Jeff. My first hunting experiences were with my Dads beagles on land that now is BWI airport. I shot a Stevens 311 20ga. (that I still have) and hearing those hounds trail a bunny was really music to my ears. My Mom and Grandmother (Noni in Italian) would prepare them cacciatore style. The last few years in South Dakota I would always try to pot one or two for old times sake and carry on the tradition. And then I found birds to hunt, a real game changer but I would really like to link up with someone with beagles to relive some good times afield.

Frank,
As usual a nice story and pictures. By the way that stump could have been cut with a hand saw as I can remember clearing shooting lanes with my trusty bow saw and they resembled that stump.

I hunted rabbits both as a target of opportunity when pheasant hunting in western NY in the late 60's. But my best times were with a friend Stan Popin who had 6 beagles. We hunted on land now a public trail system where I exercise labs every dayi. Normally one of his dogs would get lost meaning it followed the trail of a female canine in heat somewhere in town. The dog would always find it's way home sometime it took three days. Nothing like hunting with dogs whether feather or fur. Beagles rule the rabbit game.

Jeff S wrote: As people that hunt bunnies with beagles know, if you don't get a shot when you first bump the rabbit, just sit tight and it will probably circle right back to you. Yup, you can run after the dog if you want, but it's best to just stand still and let the dawg chase the rabbit right back to you.

My father was a rabbit hunter- he had a friend that had a wide ranging beagle that would get lost, Bob would put his coat down where he last saw the dog and go back at sundown to get the dog and his coat, worked every time,

Frank,

Great picture.

Here's another rabbit gun. Also a Lefever but one from Ithaca. Like the one Jeff used to hunt rabbits and ducks with: Ithaca Lefever 410 with 26 inch barrels choked Mod in the right barrel and Full choke in the left.

Shot a lot of rabbits with this gun both in front of beagles but more of them as a result of my English Springer "Teddy Rough Rider Roosevelt". A great flushing dog and also retrieved rabbits back to me. Sometimes rabbits were still alive.

I shot 2 1/2", 1/2 ounce of #4's in the right Modified barrel and 3", 3/4 ounce, or later 11/16 ounce loads of #4's in the left Full choke barrel. Good grouse gun too.

Like you guys, brings back many fantastic memories.

Thanks men for sharing your memories. Cottontail hunting was a mainstay years ago and when I close my eyes and think about those days I can hear hound music while hunting with Uncle John, Mr K and some others who helped this kid spread his wings in the outdoors. Daryl's comment about his Nani reminded me again of my one Babci (grandmother in Polish) named Mary, an excellent cook who parboiled and simmer fried the rabbits. Also on trailing hounds, there were a few years when I was fortunate to do fox hunting with a master. Long ago but still locked in my memory are those men, dogs, guns and far simpler times.

frank

Amen Frank on the simpler times. If I found a genie in a bottle and I had one wish it would be to go back to those simpler times and stay there until I died.