The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-11
HARE SHOOTING.
ARUNNER THAT.CAN OUTSTRIP
CIR iYHOUND.
Shooting the Little Animal With a
Bow and ArrOw-ISccOllec-
tions ofHarc Hunting
in kentucky.


is we have no genuine wild rabbits in
our country. So much the better for our
sport and our table The English rabbit
is a very tame quarry beside our swift
and nimble game, whose snowy cotton
tail passes before ones vision like ray
of white light as it darts across the field
in search of covert.
The common hare, or gray rabbit, as it
is enormously known, is the swiftest
runner for a short race of all the wild
animals, so far as l have had the oppor-
tunity to observe. l have seen it out
strip q greyhound on a 200-yards race,
but usually its squirt is over in that dis
tance, after which it rapidly fails if close
pursued.
A certain class of spo-tsmen have given
up hare shooting as tame and uninterest-
ing, but find that these are the men who
u.c 10-gauge guns and shoot an ounce
and a half of shot at charge. With
such weapon the killing of hares is re.
duced to the level of killing pigs in a
ughter-house. 1t is all well enough
for meat getting, but there can be no
sport connected with it.
was walking across a field of winter
stubble with sturdy Indiana farmer one
day. 1 had my bow with me, and keep
ing sharp eye out, soon discovered a
hare bestowed under a tuft of dry
burdock. Putting my hand on the
fa mcr's arm, made him halt.
"Yonder's rabbit said, pointing
toward it,
He looked with all his. eyes, but could
see nothing. showed him the burdock; :;
he could see that very plainly, but with
all that / could do I could not show him
the hare.
"There's no rabbit there" he pre-.
scntly asserted, with utmost confidence
in his own eyes and thorough contempt
for mine "Ye can't fool nobody bout
these parts, young man."
Meantime I had fitted heavy headed
arrow to my bow. | aimed with great
care and let drive. 1t would have been
as good as seeing Jefferson in Rip Van
Wrinkle could you have observed that
farmers surprise, nay, his utter astonish-
ment, when the hare somer:aulted out of
the burdock tuft and fell over dead
The man was speechless for a moment,
and when finally he did get his tongue
there was whole volume of eloquent
eulogy and apology in his praise:
"Well, I'll be dog gone!"
When I was a child I used to view
hare-hunts in Kentucky. The men
would take their places around an area
of covert and send negroes and dogs in
to drive out the game. From my point
of observation on some breezy hill
could see the whole proceeding from the
rousing of the hares to the death.
Among those stslwart sporlsmen therule
was that if you used shotgun your
charge was not to exceed sixteen pellets
of No. shot; but the rifle carrying O
ball of $50 to the pound was the common
weapon. 1t was picturesque scene, as
recall it, the white men most on horse
back, the negroes on foot, all hallooing
back and forth, the dogs mouthing
musically, now and again the keen,
whip-like crack of a rife, masters,
servants and beasts all excited, and the
startled hares scudding for the lime,
stone cliffs whose clcfts were their strong
hold. see this picture through a rift
in the war; it is part of the old, old
South.
There is no more savory Wand than a
saddle of young hare properly broiled
and served with toast and butter, and
washed down with-well, coffee; coffee
is very good indeed.
Hares are 80 numerous in most OF the
Eastern United States that they may be
found, as a rule, wherever there is u suit
able covert; and even where nothing
better than wheat stubble or grassy
hedge-row may offer them shelter by day
they are not scarce.
The amateur sportsman, though a
bearer of breech loader No. 10, will
find this game none too easy to kill,
and he who uses rife must be swift
and sure or his bag will be very light.
find the best sport in stalking my game
with light sixteen gauge shotgun
loaded with three drains of powder and
q half ounce of No. shot. Of course
the game is shot on the run. This, to be
sure, is not considering the bow and ar
row, which in the hakAs of an expert
arc incompatible for hare shooting. Al
though the hare appears to sleep with its
eyes open, it depends more upon its cars
than upon its organ of vision, and you
must be light of foot if you would hope
to take it unawares. When startled it
springs from its form and rushes away
with Incredible rapidity. 1fyou are not
an old hand at the sport you will be
startled by the suddenness of the appari-
ton, and your game will be gone before
you have pulled yourself together and got
ready to shoot.
I saw a market hunter in kentucky
station himself in front Of cliff that
was full of little caverns into which the
harcs of the ad aren't fields always ran
when put up. He had closed all these
openings with fragments of stone and
had sent his comrade into the fields to
start the game. Without moving rod
from his station he shot four dozen
hares in about an hour. do not think
he called this sport, exactly, but the
Cincinnati and Louisville folk doubtless
enjoyed eating the excellent game he
sold to them at five cents saddle.
The negroes of the South are famous
hare hunters; they give "Brer Rabbit
small rest during the season when his
flesh is good. In Alabama, last winter,
l saw five men and eleven dogs assailing
one wildly carcering hare. whose only
hope of safety was dense sassafras
thicket, which, l am glad to say, it
reached; for, strangely enough. always
am on the side of the hare, save when l
myself am the hunter.
The time is not far distant when even