Let's get with it!!
I've tried several times in the past to try and get people to send in there hunting stories, why they hunt bassets,etc...This sight is very BORING!!!!!!All you ever see on it is chat that should be sent either PM or thru e-mail...In fact it looks like the preconcieved idea that our hounds are Boring also! I would like to see everyone involved with the AHBA respond to this..We need it and need it Badly....Lets make this exciting!! Maybe we can renew that old flame and stir up some new intrest MY QUESTION TO ALL...WHY DO YOU OWN AND HUNT BASSETS????....pros and cons!!!!!! Now LETS GET WITH IT!!!!!!!

will have some stories as soon as Feb gets here. Deer season goofs us up bad down here. I have one female and two female pups out of her that if they end up as good as she is it will be one of my best seasons yet. if you kill a rabbit you better put it in a bag cause it wont make it back to the truck. My beagle was too fast to run with them but age finally caught up with him and now they are same speed when trailing. in 8 days the hills will light up.

Boring................ I agree about that part. I hunt them because of peer pressure from my friends :lol: . Not really. This all started as a christmas gift to my wife. Then after one retarded dog, one dog that thought he was a beagle, one dog that should have made me eat my own SH--, and now a puppy named QT I'm hooked. I love running with the dogs and watching them work. It's like being in the middle of a football game or some other sporting event. These animals are athletes and they amaze me everytime we go out. I guess the best thing to say is I can't exactly put into words the feeling I get when a hound opens on a rabbit and the chase begins. I just know I don't know what I'll do when I don't get to hear or see it anymore.

I've coonhunted and squirrel hunted with hounds (coonhounds) and I'm not a fan of beagles so Bassets were the obvious choice when hunting with a different breed -- They remind me of coonhounds but with shorter legs. I am just starting out on hunting with bassets.

I AGREE! I have tried also, here is mine. I found the AHBA 3 years ago. I have been loyal to the breed for close to 20 years. Before the AHBA I have never owned a dog that hunted. The first three I owned did not hunt but I always did. After the last one died about 3 years ago. I told my wife the next dog we own will have a purpose! I started looking at bird dogs. Not only is a good dog very expensive but my area doesn't have a big bird population. So I went to looking at beagles for rabbit hunting. I just don't like beagles. I couldn't do it! Then I thought; most breeds were developed to serve a purpose. Bassets were originally breed to hunt. But I never even heard of anyone using a basset to hunt. Thats when I got on the WWW and found the AHBA website. I put a message on this board, Dick Franck answered me and put me in touch with Jim Rogers. I went to the hunt 2 weeks later just to ''check it out." HA! I come home with a young started dog, Bender, that Jay said he didn't want any more. I think he just wanted to help me get started. Now I have 6!! 2 that hunt and 4 pups I hope will. I thank all of them for getting me started in the sport. I love it. I feel a big smile every time one of my hounds Open on a rabbit. I only wish I had found it years ago. It is a way to spend some quality time with my son and daughter and friends in the field. I do have a story I will share later.

My dad & grandfather started raising and hunting with Bassets soon after the end of WWII until the last of them died off in the early 70's. I started hunting as a kid behind those dogs. In the late 60's I got my first Beagle pup. I raised them & hunted rabbits and hares with them until 2000. That is when the hare populations crashed around here, and the deer & coyote numbers exploded. So I ended up selling them off. A few years ago I found out about the A.H.B.A. and started attending the hunts here in Michigan. If and when I got back into rabbit hounds I wanted to see if a Basset would fit the bill. I also wanted to know if there were any hunt left in them Fellas found out that I knew a thing or two about rabbit hounds and soon I was handling some of their dogs on the casts. This allowed me to get a look at many different dogs. In the past year or so the rabbit & hare numbers are coming back around here so I decided to get a Basset pup. With me just turning 50 years old I liked how the Basset were a bit slower and methodical while searching than are most any Beagle I ever saw. Yet could move on a line. I didn't want a "walkie-talkie" brace dog. I wanted a rabbit hound that would hunt with me rather than one that cast-out like a coon hount. I was going to get a female pup because I had always had male hounds, and wanted to do something different when getting back into them. But the litters I had a deposit on produced only male pups. The last one though I decided to take a male because I didn't want to wait another year to get started. So I got this Barney pup last July from Kevins Emma X Droopy cross.

Rabbit hunting is my favorite game to hunt. Growing up as a kid we never owned a dog. I was the dog for my dad. When my dads health stopped him from hunting in 1999 I got my first beagle and joined a beagle club. Well one dog turned into two then three. I hunted with beagles with great success I never trialed the dogs just hunted. One day when I was working at a field trial at are beagle club. I was talking to one of the old timers from are club about field trials and his advice to me was go to a basset trial and see if you like them first before I get started in beagle trials. about a month later I went to a akc basset trial and met a guy named Dean Wickwire he explained the difference between the akc and the AHBA. He was there promoting the AHBA and annoying the akc people. Thats when I fell in love with bassets. It took a little while till I got rid of the beagles. I then called Dean about getting a dog so he gave me one to try first and see if I liked him. Two days later I called him back and told him this dog wont stop barking. His reply was he is lonely you need another one so he gave me another one. Now I had two bassets and no more barking. I' am truly grateful for Dean and all that he has done to get me started with bassets. I love bassets and would not trade them for anything. Altho I don't get out to hunt that much anymore I still run the dogs twice a week. For me I like the speed and the sound of a basset nothing sounds better than a basset on a rabbit

Thanks for the input I enjoyed it .As you can see the GREAT intrest that this generated!!!!!HA With the few of you folks that took the time to help me try to get things going a BIG THANKS!!!It is tough to make an orginization go with such little intrest...SO GET WITH IT and lets add some more to this.. the simple little stories about a weekend hunt..ANYTHING!!!!!!We should have had several pages full by now!!!!Don't hesitate to come back with more than one story as there are only a few of us trying to spur things on...Iwas giving eveyone a chance before I started in with the stories I have......

I tried the nice approach let me try another....I feel I take up enough of the board space that is why I haven't gave any input here!!!!Again a BIG THANKS to all of the contributors ...Maybe the rest of you are just BLOWING SMOKE and you know the rest of that line....if you feel you can't put it on the board etc. or don't know how call me...If I can't teach you how Tell me the story and I'll put it on here for you.....SO again!!!! LETS GET WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!

how do you all put pictures on here. Monday I am sure I will have some with some hillbillys and some caincutters. I know there are several methods to do this so if someone would put a 1,2,3 post on how to do it. Thanks. I say i will have some pics but in these pines and briars I have ran for hours and never seen the rabbit. watched one of a akc trial the other day and I was thinking that it must be nice to be able to judge and keep up with the dogs. down here you will need a transfusion if you run these planted pines.

Fall Hunt. . . I don't have the date. ..just for you Fran
Took Blossom to the Christmas tree farm and for the first hour or so she was having a time of it trying to find a bunny. Finally went down to a brush pile, spotted a hole in that brush pile that looked real inviting. Before I can say anything, Blossom spotted it too and next thing I know she's buried so deep in that pile I can't see her at all. Make no mistake, this was now ordinary brush pile! This pile is easily a 100' long, maybe more, 6' high and likely 15' wide. She's buried in there but she's a barkin and a howlin and she aint gonna give up. I climb on top a this here pile, start stomping an a pokin. Well I'm so busy stomping an Blossom busy howling I decided a rabbit very well coulda come outa there and about this time Blossom seems ta git the xact same idere. Out pops Blossom and she tears into the Christmas trees hot on a scent. I climb on down off the pile and start heading down a pathway and out pops a bunny crossing the path about 45yds away. Wasn't much time as the path is only about 7yds wide and that bunny was goin full speed. I let the lead fly anyway, but it was a clean miss (shucks). Well I'm a thinking this is gonna be some fun and wasn't payin close attention to my hunting and out popped another bunny not even 5yds from me (shucks again). No loss though as Blossom was working over that scent really well and I'm enjoying the sounds of the chase. Gawsh ah mighty, nothing like the sound of your first ever rabbit dog bawlin and fully into the hunt! She likes it more n I do. She chased that bunny across several paths and patches of pines down a bank along a meandering stream, back up out of the ravine and into the pines again. When I heard Blossom coming up outa that ravine I knew that bunny must be gettin close to me. Sure enough it come come blasting out of a patch of pines to cross the pathway. I had just enough time to throw a quick load of sixes and lost sight of that there bunny. Blossom come right to the spot where I shot and she lost the scent. After some searching, turns out that bunny made a hard right turn and ran about 50 yds up the pathway before it expired. Neither Blossom or I had expected that but we found it and it was a good hunt! Now, I'm gonna try to put a picture here, we'll see if it works:

Great story! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Thanks for the explaination of picture posting Buckshot. You are a great technicial asset to the board. Are your bassets running rabbits yet?

Not yet Eric......I wish. They will be 12, 10, and 8 months old this month.