A buddy called yesterday and invited me on a rabbit hunt. I decided to blow off my plans and join him. I also decided to take my .54 smoothbore instead of my usual 20 ga SxS. I got some strange looks from the other hunters.
Rabbits were scarce, the beagles were lazy and didn't want to hunt. We finally jumped one, heard a good chase, but I didn't get a shot. I put the gun from half-cock to full-cock and back time and time again. I lost my frizen stall and had to cut the finger out of a glove to make another one. We flushed one covey of quail but that season is over. I was able to shoulder the gun and get a pretty good aim on one bird but I didn't pull the trigger.
By lunchtime my gun was sure getting heavy. Two of the guys called it quits and left, taking 3 beagles home with them. So my buddy and I continued. We jumped another, heard a good long chase but never saw that one. I was getting tired but he thought he'd make another quick push through the brush across the road. I said, OK, I'll do it, too.
We quickly jumped another and he ran like the wind, down the field edge and across the road, back to our parked trucks and under an old collapsed building.
My Bud went over there and flushed him out again. Sure enough, he came back across the road, right in front of me. I waited for him to cross and get far enough away for a decent shot. I made sure the gun was on full cock, shouldered, aimed and Pow, cloud of smoke, and the rabbit kept running. The delay got me. I shot right behind him.
While I reloaded and my heartbeat slowed back down, my buddy went back in the brush and eventually got that rabbit back up. He shot and missed. The rabbit was coming my way, running as fast as he could. I shouldered and followed, remembering to give a little extra lead and follow through to compensate for the lag of the hammer falling and Pow, big cloud of smoke, and "I got 'im", I yelled. I was thrilled. We ended the hunt and headed home. What a great day.
