MOST PERFECT RABBIT GUN
 

This gun is the perfect upland bird gun, but I have never had a better rabbit gun. Choked cylinder and improved modified this DHE 16 with a straight stock has almost never missed. I can't take all the credit, because the cylinder with light loads does the job. I had killed ten in a row with it until missing one yesterday.

Sadly, my good friend and a die hard rabbit hunter died of a heart attack while hunting on the first day of the season this year. I adopted Porky and Tracker, and my cousin got three of the sixteen dogs he had. They remind me of him every time I go now. We played baseball against each other in high school, softball with and against in our youth, and after a twenty year absence of hunting together had reacquainted in the last five years.

This post brings back memories for me. My dad had a Beagle and we went on a rabbit hunt with some of his coworkers on cape cod. I was only about 8 or 9 at the time but the guys put me in a place where I could not miss the rabbit as he came around. I was lucky enough to get my first rabbit, which also my first kill.
My dad had got an old model 24 Winchester 20 gauge and cut the stock down to fit me.
We moved shortly after that to the metro west area of Boston and had about 600 acres of hunting land behind the house. The rabbits back then were plentiful and we shot many rabbits over the years until rocky our beagle passed away.
Thanks for bringing this back.

I know the feeling of losing hunting buddies. Is that blood on the dogs tails or did you do that with a wire brush?

The pine plantation I was hunting in was about six years old. Last year it was all broom straw between the pines. This year it is so thick with briars above one's head that the rabbits never leave it, and this works on the poor beagles.

I had a rather nice VH 16 26” on an 0 frame that came to me from western NC that I used a time or two for wabbits and quail . And that guns now gone to Savanah I think for dove and quail . It’s choked IC/M .

Good report, Jerry. Good on you for taking some of the beagles, as a way to keep your buddy's memory alive. He must have been a serious rabbit hunter, with sixteen rabbit dogs. It reminds me of a close friend who used to hunt wild hogs with dogs. He had, at once, 37 tracking and bay dogs that he was feeding.

Thanks for the pics and report.

I’m sure your friend was smiling as he watched your hunt.