Mar 25, 2021
Mary Lynn of eastern Tennessee hunts with a pack of beagles trained to track and push rabbits. She's also a turkey hunter, a hunting mentor for many youth, and a remarkable human. This week: beagles, training hounds, why shooting rabbits sometimes feels harder than upland birds, barefooted turkey hunts, and getting the 'middle feather' from Texas gobblers.
2:00 Tennessee Wildlife Federation webinar with Ashley and Mary: Women in the Outdoors
3:00 Grouse: not ubiquitous in Tennessee
5:00 Mary Lynn of Light 'Em Up Kennels
5:30 A lot of the pack members are super socialized to people (translate: they love to be loved on)
8:00 Hunting with beagles is super fun for kids... on par with a giant Tootsie Pop
9:00 A real-life "Where the Red Fern Grows" story of a boy and a hound dog
13:00 Hitting a running rabbit is way different than hitting an upland bird
15:00 Rabbit country is tough-going -- briars, brambles, cover, etc
16:00 When the rabbit "checks" (clever as coons!)
18:00 Rabbits... "the M&Ms of the woods" ... everything wants to eat them
20:00 Cottontails vs. swamp rabbits vs. snowshoes
22:00 Rabbits usually run a circle
28:00 Montana jackrabbit... and the grand slam (grand thump?) of rabbit hunting
30:00 Rabbit & dumplings, rabbit stew, fried rabbit... mmm
33:00 How fast can you get a bead on it?
34:00 What aerial clays are to target practice for birds, there's a ground equivalent (rabbit clays) that bounces to help train your eye for more erratic ground quarry
37:00 The Alaska woman who made 'yarn' from her rabbit hides and wove with them
38:00 Hound dogs for subsistence hunting (aka 'meat dogs'), feists, black-mouth curs
42:00 Correlation between wearing hunter-orange and seeing rabbits
44:00 Want to give it a try? Look to Facebook groups first. Most important thing: Don't give up on your puppy. It takes time.
47:00 Mentoring youth on turkey hunts
50:00 When turkeys give you the middle feather... hmph
54:00 Texas turkeys versus Tennessee turkeys... "Wut you think that clicking noise is... gobble?"
58:00 Barefoot turkey hunting