Hunt Report Taggart’s Grove City, PA Does anyone else out there remember Pennsylvania’s old tourism slogan: “You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania”? Well, it seems that the Chagrin Valley Beagles have a couple friends in Pennsylvania and, lucky for us, they just so happen to enjoy hounds and field sports. We are very grateful to C.Rizza for coordinating with her neighbor, D.Taggart and allowing us to bring the beagles to his fabulous property. I’m not sure if it’s by nature or by design (Dave grew up enjoying beagles), but his place was just teeming with rabbit habitat, and it didn’t take the beagles long to figure that out. We actually had a little bit of a slow start combing the large coverts north of the barn, but our new pal Haden let out an intense cry and the rest of the pack honored him in short order for a brief but wildly musical run. Staff and field enjoyed a nice view of the rabbit making a nice arc into the next covert where she squatted, very patient and still. We had a great time watching the pack try to figure out the line, which they did. She remained motionless in the brush, according to the eyewitness account of one of the whips who could see her, and let the hounds ramble around until she could make a clear break back into the first covert where they had started the chase. Eventually, the beagles figured out her escape line and crossed back over to resume their musical search. With the cold winds picking up and complicating scent (and blowing through our coats…brrr), we called it at about the two hour mark and warmed up with a fantastic home-cooked lunch in the house. Our three couple dog pack today hunted as a wonderful unit. Haden was our strike hound, Gulliver and Jenkins picked the checks like pros, little Dallas got into all the tight spots to make sure no area went uninspected, Iroquois sang with operatic fervor, and (as usual) our enthusiastic Pike didn’t want to quit. This was truly a wonderful beagling day. The CVB is so grateful to have been invited to this new fixture. The few extra minutes of travel time across the state line just gave us a little more time to keep asking each other “wasn’t that great?!?! “ It was!!!
- rcallister