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On January 5, 2011 in Hunting, Rabbit by Clint Patterson


	Hoot, South Carolina's #1 Rabbit Hunter

This past Friday morning was New Year?s Eve and a handful of the WeHuntSC.com crew and some other local hunters got together to go rabbit hunting. We all met up near McBee, SC and Chip was even nice enough to have cooked sausage for everyone. We munched on sausage and hung around for a little bit before starting out on the hunt. There were probably 12 ? 15 people there and I met some nice guys from River Bottom Kennels in the Rock Hill area there too!

While everyone was talking and eating, ?Hoot? (the internet phenom who grunts up rabbits) showed me the new addition to his dog box. He created a piece of metal that reads ?Hoot?s Holdaline Hounds? and mounted it on his dog box. So, if you are in SC and see a dog box with "Hoot's HoldALine Hounds" on it, then you?re riding behind Hoot.

Since we were over by Hoot?s truck I grabbed Hoot and did a quick pre-hunt interview. We had to cut the first interview short as someone cranked a truck up in my ear and messed up the audio. We did a second interview, but since the camera loves Hoot so much I?m posting both below for your viewing pleasure. Shortly after the interview it was time to chase some rabbits.

WeHuntSC.com - Hoot's Hold-a-line Hounds sign on his dog box


Some of the crew out in the cut-over

We left and ended up at a cut-over within a couple of minutes. Everyone got ready to walk through the brush of the cut-over. I think the dogs could sense that we were getting close because you could hear their anticipation building in the dog boxes. Some of us parked on the side of the road and the others drove up the dirt road that went to the cut-over. Once we all got there Hoot did something that I thought was neat?he opened the hunt up with a prayer. We all stopped and paused while he lead us in prayer and then about 5 minutes after the ?amen? dogs were hitting the ground.

I?m not an avid rabbit hunter, but once the dogs got on the ground it reminded me of when we went rabbit hunting last year. Within minutes the dogs were all fertilizing the soil and a strong stench filled the air! Hoot says that?s just part of the fun though!


	Bunns on the tailgate

We started trekking through the cut-over and the dogs were sniffing all around. Some of the hunters in our group brought dogs and some didn?t. With the dogs being mixed with other hunters dogs I think it took them a bit to get in the groove. I could be wrong though, but the dogs seemed to be intermingling and checking each other out early on. Since we had a large group we talked about some safety precautions and some of the guys didn?t even carry guns. As we walked through the brush I kept waiting to hear the dogs get on a hot rabbit trail, but it didn?t happen as quick as I thought it would. We were talking, walking, and listening at random intervals.

I wasn?t able to stay too long because I still had some family holiday functions to attend so I had to jet early in the hunt. I would have loved to stay and get some more footage though. I believe the guys ended up getting about 5 rabbits in total. Hoot was kind enough to send me a pic of two rabbits on the tailgate.

It was neat to get out and meet up with some of the crew plus to meet some new faces. I hope we can do it again sometime soon! Thanks to Chip for cooking and all the other guys for making it a good time.

Regards,

Clint

Tagged With: Hoot, Rabbit Hunting

Wabbit Hunting with Hoot!

On February 26, 2010 in Hunting, Rabbit by Clint Patterson

Well after many a weekends trying, we were finally able to line up a hunt with message board and rabbit hunting phenom, Hoot. If it wasn?t snowing, it was raining, and if it wasn?t raining we weren?t in town, but finally we got our ducks in a row and set out on my first rabbit hunt. I?ve hunted a lot in my life, but I?ve never really hunted any rabbits. Seeing many of Hoot?s videos and images on the site, I was interested to see how it all went down.

We met Hoot and followed him out to some of his secret hunting grounds. Keeping up with the Hoot is something that only NASCAR drivers in training can do. Hoot was letting it roll, but this may be because he was anxious to get there and start hunting. So for all your northerners who read this blog (cause I know you are, I see you on the metrics) don?t let Hoot?s slow talking gabb fool you, he drives way faster than he talks!

Once we got there and got parked we all got out around the trucks and you could hear the dogs moving around in anticipation in the dog box which was on the back of the truck. I asked Hoot if they knew what was about to happen and he said that when they go in the box they know what?s a coming! After Hoot slipped into his briar-resistant overhauls, Kyle was ready to get the dogs out. As you?ll see in the video, I was right there on scene and got up close and personal with some of the dogs as they jumped off the tail-gate. Now something that happened within 2 minutes of every dog jumping the off tail-gate caught me off guard. They all immediately made use of the nearby grass and it was like a chain reaction. Immediately we started smelling smells that aren?t normal! I said ?Hoot, what?s going on here?why are they doing this and what are you feeding them?? and Hoot replied ?Oh man that?s the best part of rabbit hunting? ?lol! I guess they all get excited or either want to mark their territory. Whatever it is, anything with a semi-decent nose within 2 miles knew we had arrived.

After the ?welcome to rabbit hunting? initiation, we set out down the road and Hoot starting getting the dogs headed in his direction. Now one of the main reasons that we set out on this hunt was to see if Bowmaster List could hit a rabbit in the same way he hit the can of Wildlife Energy Drink back when Finland came over to shoot with us. Will swears he can hit a rabbit if the rabbit would only stop for a few seconds. So we strategically set out to put Will up front and Adam was carrying a gun just in case Will was unable to deliver. Hoot told us to stay on the road and that with his dog whispering abilities he would tell his dogs to run a rabbit within 40 yards of Will so that he could get a shot. Now to be fair here, we didn?t start hunting until late in the afternoon and that was my fault. I had to handle some pre-marital duties with the wife-to-be and that put us behind some. Consequently, our time was minimized.

In time Hoot has the dogs yelping and they were obviously getting on some rabbit scent as you could hear them randomly barking. As we walked down the road, we noticed that the tower deer stand was on its side. Hoot said that the deer stand on its side was due to the wind during recent storms. Must have been some strong winds during those storms with as big as that tower stand was.

As Hoot walked through briars as if he were water off a duck?s back, we walked up and down the road looking for a rabbit. We based our position off the yelps from the dogs. Since I didn?t even take a gun and only had the camera, I stayed behind the guys for the most part. The dogs got on a couple different rabbits, but at one point a rabbit came out right on the edge of the field. We had told Will to come up there with us, but he had remained back down the trail. If I would have had either a gun or a football, I could have killed the rabbit. He was about 10 yards from me and was fairly big by my calculations. He was darker colored and he paused, then hopped, then paused again, then hopped off back into the brush. After that I never saw him again.

The answer is no?we didn?t bring home any rabbits, but the trip was very enjoyable. I was impressed with how Hoot was able to guide the dogs via different calls, sounds, talking to them, and their awareness of his presence. You could tell that they knew who to listen to. Hoot gave them pep talks and told them where to go and they seemed to listen. I had never been hunting for rabbits or hunting with dogs so I had two new experiences in the same day. I hope to go back at some point and be able to hunt longer. It was fun. I also got a close-up shot of a SC fire ant hill just in case you?ve never seen one. I kicked a hole in it and zoomed in to see if any ants were in the house and they definitely were. If you?re reading this blog and have never been bitten by a fire ant, then you ain?t from SC!

Hoot ended the day with the quote ?Some people have hobbies, some love deer, some love turkeys? I do rabbits. That?s what I do.?

See a montage video I made with the Flip of our brief rabbit hunt below:

Thanks for taking us Hoot!

Regards,

Clint

Tagged With: Hoot, Rabbit Hunting

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