This week on Kentucky Afield.

So many pet dogs would love to hunt, but never get the chance to.

We're in the field with a beagle who does.

Next, predators become more active in the winter, which means it's more likely they'll cause problems.

But it's also a great time to hunt.

Then one of the best ways to introduce a youth to the outdoors is squirrel hunting.

And we're doing just that.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Join us as we journey the Commonwealth in search of outdoor adventure.

Dog ownership is at an all time high and the next time you take your dog out for a walk, you may be surprised that its natural instinct is to hunt.

Well, Chase, you and I have been spending a lot of time in a deer stand, but rabbit season is in.

And you're telling me you're excited to go rabbit hunting?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm always looking forward to rabbit season, but especially that first time out of the year.

You have got a beagle here.

Yeah, Hunter.

Hunter is about eight years old.

He's eight yeah.

Most people who think about Rabbit hunting they think about beagles that are specifically trained to run Rabbits.

Every time we go out for the show on a rabbit hunt, we've got dogs that are bred for that are, you know, trained for that.

That's what they live for.

And Hunter, He's a pet.

So he's completely he slept in the bed with me last night, you know what I mean?

So this is a house dog?

Yeah.

I mean, he's a he's a spoiled as they get.

He lives in the house.

Yeah.

But it's instinctual and beagles to to hunt.

That's all he wants to do.

How many people out there you think that watch Kentucky Afield, have a dog that's a pet?

And they're like, I know this dog wants to hunt, but they just never really expose that dog to hunting.

I'll be honest with you, that's kind of how I first got into rabbit hunting because I never did a whole lot of rabbit hunting it all.

But then I got a hunter and I'd just be out walking around the park or something like that, and I'd see he'd just take off chasing a rabbit.

And he, he loved it so much that it made me start wanting to go just to take him.

And so that's kind of how I got into rabbit hunting.

And it was just take it taken him out to do what he likes to do.

I've heard you talk about running rabbits.

I've seen pictures of you killing rabbits out in front of Hunter.

Yeah, but Hunter wasn't sought out and found for his hunting ability.

This is actually a rescue dog.

Oh, yeah.

When I found Hunter, he was only about five or six weeks old, and I didn't know what kind of dog he was.

He was just this little dog, all black and brown.

I thought he might have some Doberman or some Rottweiler in him.

I had no idea.

And then one day I was out with him and he was just sniffing around and all of a sudden he stopped and he was like, Oh, you know, he just started doing that bay And I was like, Well, he's a beagle.

So that's kind of how I found out what he was in the first place.

I want to find out how this dog does.

Let's put it on the ground and get him in the woods, what do you think?

Hey, hunter, hunter, you wanna rabbit hunt.

Go find a rabbit and get a rabbit.

Let's do it.

Nose to the ground.

He█s going the wrong way though.

He's going to the tall grass first tall grass.

He might not be going the wrong way.

You never know.

That dog might know better than us.

Let‘s find em█ bud.

So Chad this is probably a little bit more of a team effort than rabbit hunting with a bunch of trained dogs.

Okay.

Because it's kind of like us and the dog working together.

I'm going to be kicking brush all day, doing my best to try to help him find a rabbit.

Hey, I don't mind getting in there.

That's.

That's kind of how I like hunt em█ anyway, because he's obviously only one nose.

Whereas if you had four or five beagles out here, you know, they could probably handle it themselves.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You'll see.

A lot of times what he does is he'll work the edge of the fields with his nose on the ground.

And if he gets a scent, he'll jump in there and get on it.

Pretty heavy.

There's some good looking stuff just right up here.

Oh or is he.

Where█s he at bud.

let's find it.

Let's find it.

I'm going to stomp around on this stuff a little bit.

Try to help me out.

I tell you one thing, he's definitely enthusiastic.

He gets in there, doesn't he?

Wants to hunt.

That's the thing about having a dog that█s a pet.

They're used to being really close proximity.

You literally live in the house together.

So I was wondering how this dog hunt away from us.

Now he's he probably hunts closer than most hunting dogs will.

But if he gets on a run, he'll go as far as he needs to.

Okay.

Hunter says there's no rabbits right here Chad I'm going to be believe him.

We'll keep working.

There's a whole lot more ground to work with up ahead of us.

Good boy.

Let's find them.

bunny they█re in here somewhere bud.

I like the sound of that.

Hunter says there has been one here.

Oh, there he goes, There he is Hunter, Get him, get him, get him.

here, right here.

So Chad said that he saw that rabbit cut through real quick over there and he couldn't get a shot at it.

Hunter got confused in that thick brush.

And that's the thing about hunting with the pet dog is they just aren't going to be perfect.

So Chad called Hunter back over there to put him on that track.

So hopefully we can get it straightened out.

That was it.

He found it.

He got it.

There he is.

might be a little out of range, maybe.

I saw you shoot twice at the 20 well, i█ll try the 12th cutter.

Hunter, hunter, hunter, hunter right here.

Good boy.

Right over here.

Hunter right here, hunter right here, I'll tell you what.

We jumped that rabbit right here in this thicket and ran across it.

We had a really good race.

Hunter did a great job, but they lost that rabbit right there next to that walnut tree.

And I saw the rabbit, but I couldn't get a shot.

And then he started backtracking.

He came back round in the second loop.

He jumped that Rabbit again.

It ran out here, but when it came out, it was 75, 80 yards out in front of us.

So me and Chase both took long range, desperation shots, which hey, you come out here, shoot.

It's all about having fun.

We missed.

See one?

Yeah, right here.

Here.

If you█ve got this side you got this side.

Ima go on the other side.

All right.

That sounds good however.

If he comes down this way.

I got a shot.

There he goes.

There he goes coming at you, did you get it?

Got it.

Sweet.

Good boy.

You got it.

Yeah.

You got that hunter.

Good boy.

Good boy.

Hunter, Is that your bunny right there?

Oh, he's tryin.

He wants that.

Nice shot, Chase.

Well, Chase, I tell you what, for our first day out, I mean, it's kind of nice to get out of a deer stand and get out and work the dogs.

Oh yeah And, you know, he had a good time and that was kind of the goal today was just to get out.

And I feel like I got a lot of exercise right.

I can't even imagine him, you know, and the thing is, this was all about just showcasing a dog that is bred to hunt but is a house dog and just getting the dog out and letting it do its natural thing.

Oh yeah.

That dog had an absolutely blast today.

He got a ton of exercise.

Got one, got two shots and a couple other.

You know what?

That's what it's all about.

It's like you said earlier, I mean, we would have had more rabbits if we would have had more shooters or more dogs.

But, you know, that's kind of why you got a temper.

Your expectations and understand what you're working with.

So this was not a show about die hard rabbit hunting.

It was a show about just getting out and trying something different.

Yeah, and I'll be honest with you, you know, I'll take hunter to W.M.A█s too, I've I'm taking them to Yellow Bank, to Taylorsville, several public land places.

So you don't even need access to a piece of property.

It's really a shotgun and, you know, a dog that likes to hunt.

Yeah.

And it's not about the tank.

It's about listening to the dog run.

It's about the excitement of seeing a rabbit take off.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm a dog lover, and that's the whole reason I want to come out here and do it.

Because, you know, as a dog lover, I want my dog to have the best time possible, the best life possible.

And this is part of it because this is what he enjoys doing more than anything.

So and I'll tell you what, this will keep his dog in shape.

He's in shape for most eight year old house beagles don't look quite as good as Hunter.

He's a little bit chunky right now, but he's he's all right for being a eight year old dog.

He does pretty good.

But I think he's about had it he's probably covered seven or eight miles.

If I had to guess oh yeah, at least.

Yeah, that's pretty good for him.

All right.

Well, let's make our way back and truck.

Sounds good.

Well, modern farm season for deer has just wrapped up, but that doesn't mean you have to put that rifle up for the rest of the year.

A varmint hunt for coyotes or bobcats might be just what you need.

What I like about coyote hunting is, for one, every hunts different.

Every hunts a challenge.

You have to really study the farm that you're going to and figure out, you know, where do you think the coyotes are and where they're going to come from and where you need to sit accordingly.

I like to try to get to sit somewhere with a good vantage point.

You want to always be aware of where your wind and where your wind is going.

And a lot of times the coyote will actually come down wind of you or of the call and smell what he's hearing before he comes to the call, they smell for their food.

You know, they smell for danger.

They live by their nose.

So any kind of inkling of smell from you.

I mean, they're going I mean, it's over with.

To me, the better times of the year to hunt is December, January, February, you know, kind of the colder months.

But you can get out and kill one in the summertime, too.

You know, coyote hunting legal year round.

We're at a cattle farm right now.

You know, here in a couple of months, these cows are going to start Cavin coyotes have been known to get into calves and they cost the farmers a lot of money.

You can use pretty much any weapon you want coyote hunting I use a 22 to 50.

It's a small quick bullet.

Good.

Out to three or 400 yards if you can shoot that far.

If you don't care about the pelts, you can use a saber, mag.

I mean, you could use whatever you wanted.

If you're hunting in a thicker woods or a thicker area, you might consider using a shotgun.

Well, it's a cold morning.

This is a new farm.

I got permission to coyote hunt.

The farmer.

He's got some cows and stuff out here.

And of course, he wants the coyotes gone.

We're trying to slip back here and see if we can for a couple out of the thicket.

We█ll sit on this fence-line somewhere.

See this whole field here or some thick cover at the very end of it.

Oh, my gosh.

We got coyotes howling down here right now.

We got to hurry up and set up.

Gotta hurry up.

There█re coyotes down here howling right now.

Typically, I'll put the call anywhere from 30 to 50 yards away from where I sit.

But today we were in a rush to get set up, so I put probably 20 yards out and I had a decoy out.

A lot of the times that decoy takes the focus off of you, the coyotes are focused on that decoy, so you can get away with a lot more movement.

I started out with a lone female howl.

I waited maybe 2 minutes and went directly into a rabbit distress.

You know, it's 18 degrees out here and it's in the middle of the winter.

So a coyote cannot pass up an easy meal like that.

It wasn't 5 minutes into the calling sequence when we spotted a few coyotes coming over the hill towards us.

Right here.

Right here.

There█s two of them coming over here right now.

Whoop, whoop, left, right, left.

Okay, we got one.

I see if I can get this other one to come back.

Ready, right here I don't know about that one.

I got one down.

There's at least one more.

Right here, right here, at the very left, to the left.

Right?

Yeah.

Dang it, my gun was on safety.

right here, right behind us, they're two down.

Man there is coyotes everywhere.

That's a third one.

That's a completely different coyote as having to look around.

And he was back there.

Let's go check these out anytime he can go out and kill a coyote, it's you know, it's it's an awesome time.

It's a great set.

But if you can pull out two on the same stand, it's really something special.

Here it is.

looks like a male.

He's definitely not this year's coyote I wouldn't think we checked out the first coyote and it was a big male.

I'm assuming the one that came in with him was his female.

You know, it's close to February.

Their breeding season is upon us.

So a lot of times this time of year they'll be paired.

I was able to make a good shot on this one, put him down right here.

We do have another one on the opposite side of us where we are sitting.

So let's go check them out.

Here's the second coyote right here.

Let's see what we got here.

Looks like this is a female.

If I had to guess, I would think that this is a yearling.

The second coyote was a young female coming in for an easy meal.

Apparently, she didn't care about all the commotion that was going on because she was coming in without a care in the world.

We would have never seen this coyote.

This is directly straight behind where we were sitting.

And I just happened to look over my shoulder and there she was.

I just I got lucky.

Yeah.

You know, coyote hunting.

That's for anybody.

Anybody can do it.

You can do it anywhere.

There's coyotes everywhere.

So it's a year round thing.

You can do.

And it's a great pastime between deer season and turkey season.

It's completely different from deer hunting or the turkey hunting.

You have to outsmart a predator.

There's such a smart animal.

The land owner should be really happy and I will definitely be back to this farm.

Many new hunters want to start off hunting deer or turkey, but in my opinion, the absolute best way to start off a new hunter is in the woods with a good squirrel dog.

Just hold on to our leader for a second.

Well, I'm here today with Brad Powers.

Brad, it's kind of a reunion show.

Yeah, it is.

Been four years.

I think one of the first shows we did and the very first show I did with a squirrel dog is when you brought Cayden out on this same piece property four years ago.

I'll never forget, because Cayden, at that point in time, I don't think you killed a squirrel had you?

No, And we tried to get you a squirrel that day.

And since then, I hearing stories you've shot a bunch of squirrels.

Sure have.

so I'm really excited to get out here today.

And you brought a different dog.

Yeah, this is Bell.

We really like her.

I got her for the boys, you know, so we would have something to do through the wintertime.

And.

And we've had a we've had a ball with this little dog.

We really have.

You brought your other son with you today, Carson, right?

Yeah.

This is Carson.

He he was a we had to leave him at home last time.

He was he was a little too young, I think it was.

He was either five or six when we came the last time.

And he was none too happy about that.

Right.

Would did you kill your first squirrel.

This year.

This year.

So, hey, how many squirrels have you shot this year?

12.

12.

That's pretty good.

You've had a good year already.

First year.

You already got 12 squirrels.

That's.

That's really good.

We got about a mile this way.

So I'd say we cut her loose and see what happens.

Sounds great.

All right, let's go, let█s go girl.

I tell you what, today is going to be fun.

We're going to have a rough time keeping up with these young boys and this dog, because I haven't got my gun fully loaded and we've already got a tree here with a squirrel in it.

So let's get up here and see if we can't let one of the boys shoot it out.

Oh, yeah, I see it.

I got a feeling that there's no way that squirrel sitting in that tree without it being in that nest.

You Boys get ready.

Yeah.

Bell here you go girl.

Bell, I got a girl.

Here you go girl Here you go girl.

I got it.

good girl, good girl, good girl, good lord have mercy.

That thing went six feet out of the tree.

Yeah.

Good job.

Good job.

Yeah buddy, good job.

Yeah.

So these dogs, initially, the squirrels come out for the, you know, the morning feed and they start feeding around and they leave a scent trail.

And these dogs will go in there smelling around the street house, pick up a sent right, and then they'll push it up a tree and then that's when.

Yeah, a lot of times the feist breed especially will work off of their eyes, mainly eyes and ears.

And then as they get older, most of the time when they're around three years old, they'll start using their nose.

Okay.

But feist mainly start with eyes and ears, mainly.

Okay.

So right now with those she█s she's given an alert bark every now and then we think that probably the fact that she's she's startling she smelling one way and winding it most likely just smell and it's up there, you know get em girl.

there's a great big nest in this tree I'm afraid it's in.

We're going to look for it anyhow.

I go around the back of the tree and see if I can turn it.

Where is it at girl?

I see it!

Yeah!

That's a fox squirrel.

I got it Let█s go, let█s go, right to the dog.

He's been waiting years for that.

Oh really.

Yeah.

That's kind of the the myth and the legend for those boys.

They've never got the even I don't think we've even tree█d a fox squirrel.

Wow that█s a big one.

We came out here with you for an entire day trying to get your first world, but we didn't get it on camera.

But we got your first fox squirrel.

We did a good job.

That's a big and nice job.

Thanks, Good job.

There you go, you got to have that mounted Kayden.

I love watching the dog when she gets real excited and hopped up on her back legs and you just know that you're walking to a squirrel.

That's probably my favorite part.

I'm not pausing.

Okay.

But I thought I saw it.

Oh, I see, I see.

Fox squirrel.

Everybody ready?

Yeah.

Go.

Take good aim.

It█s not dead.

Good girl, good girl.

Good girl, good girl.

As soon as I pull the trigger, they leave mid-air and be on the next limb.

Yeah.

Carson had first shot.

He was almost straight up and down for him, but yeah, that's right.

That's a hard shot.

But yeah, we'll get the next one, he█s tore up, make sure you reload and get ready.

She█s a 100 and 87 yards.

She's right on the side of that hill, Yeah.

I hope it█s a fox squirrel, a big one.

Carson.

Did you see it good.

Yeah I see it.

Get your gun up.

help.

Hold on, it█s hanging hold on.

Oh, yes.

There it comes.

Who killed it?

You got it, buddy.

Yes, finally.

Good Job Karson.

Oh, the dog's going bring it to you.

Look, Bell, can I say my big squirrel?

Oh, no, because that.

Hey, how about that?

I'm so excited for you end up getting not only get to kill a squirrel on TV, yeah.

you got to kill yourself.

You're very, very, very first fox squirrel.

Is that your biggest squirrel ever?

Oh for sure.

For sure.

I'll tell you what people ask me all the time.

Hey, I've got a kid that's interested in hunting.

How should I get him?

Started it.

Unfortunately, everyone wants to start with deer in turkey.

You're but this especially with a dog, you know.

Look, we've got hunters orange on you can walk around with the both these boys.

You're going to shoot today, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not like you go out and you sit for hours and you might see something.

It's very hard on kids.

Just to sit still and you wait on something to happen here.

You're constantly moving, you know, you get to move.

So they learn about hunting, even, you know, hunting with a dog.

This is an excellent way to introduce a kid because it's action from the time you cut her loose, your movement, it's an action.

I'm gonna get back to the truck and finish my sausage and hot cakes because I'm hungry Check out this beautiful buck that has a very unique drop-tine that was taken by Cameron Dennis.

This buck was killed on the opening day in Hardin County.

Nice job.

Check out this impressive buck taken by Kevin Canfield.

This buck was taken with this beautiful Winchester model 88 and a308 caliber.

I love the lever action rifles.

Nice job.

Here we have Aubrey Brown with her very first deer ever.

A nice buck that she took in Hazard, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Modern firearm season is wrapped up here in Kentucky, but that doesn't mean you have to spend the next four or five months on the couch.

There are tons of great hunting and fishing opportunities.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next week, I'm your host, Chad Miles, and I hope to see you in the woods or on the water.