From the first yelp of the hounds to heading home with game that will soon be hasenpfeffer (rabbit stew), cottontail rabbit hunts provide a relaxed kind of enjoyment each winter season.

Fall hunting for deer and spring and fall hunts for turkey often involve long hours of just sit-watch-wait and see/hope. But once the big-game seasons end, fields and edges of forests and swamps become bunny country.

Rabbit hunters can get out when things look good, walk where they like and talk with fellow hunters as they please.

As in big-game hunts, it is best to seek out likely hunting spots before seasons begin and obtain access permission while scouting.

That’s what Rick Giermata has been doing for decades out of his Smoke’s Creek Kennels in Lackawanna.

“I’m always on the lookout for places to run my dogs and hunt,” he said Tuesday morning when he, Lyndonville native Lee Boyce and I met for a morning hunt along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Orleans County.

Giermata said he keys on the entire lake plains shoreline from Orleans and Niagara County along Lake Ontario to places in Erie and Chautauqua counties in New York State and in Pennsylvania’s Erie County.

Over the years, area rabbit populations have declined, but devoted hunters such as Giermata and Boyce still find good numbers and quality hunts.

“Most blame the decline on coyotes and foxes, but I credit hawks, owls and other raptors for the scattered numbers of bunnies now,” Giermata asserted. Fewer bunnies hasn’t blighted things for Boyce and Giermata.

Boyce, hunting locally since he could first get onto bunny trails, brought along Sky, his 2-year-old beagle, for a run with Giermata’s Blackie, Max, and Macy.

Rabbit-hunting guns need not be elaborate. Anything that scatters No. 6 or 8 shot in an open or modified pattern will do. Boyce carries a beautifully worn double-barrel 16-gauge Ithaca shotgun he believes is older than any of us. Giermata sports an H&Rsingle shot with a vinyl stock.

In seemingly ideal conditions—a light breeze, partial sunshine, and temperatures slightly above freezing —the rabbits holed up each time the dogs picked up their scent.

Instead of leading the dogs on their cheerful chase in circle, they headed for the nearest hole, a behavior more akin to late in the season.

Giermata pulled up and headed to a second spot along a creek bottom draining into Lake Ontario visible to the north. No sooner had the dogs gotten into the broken brush—mainly red willows and multiflora rose clumps—then they began baying and moving.

Finally, a shot on the other side of a brush thicket, followed with another, ended with “I got ’em.”

Rick pushed one bunny toward Lee and he put that one in the pouch.

Commitments elsewhere had me end the hunt at noon without shooting my trusty 20-gauge Ithaca Deerslayer pump. No matter. On hunts like these, one can get pumped as much by the repeated yelps and runs of the hounds as the thrill of the kill and cooking thereafter.

Macy, the 10-year-old, pushed or backed up Blackie, Max and Sky on at least a half dozen rabbit runs before I had to leave. “We hunted until dark,” said Giermata, who added another two to the count.

Along the way, they met another hunter interested in rabbit hunts. “And that’s how it goes,” Giermata said.

“I still do some deer hunting, but I’m mostly interested in finding good places to hunt,” he said of early small-game seasons and of the times from big-game end to the Feb. 28 closer.

Giermata savored the enjoyable mix of running his dogs, cooking favored recipes—including a jerky that begs more and more bites—and especially those good friends met each season. He cited a rabbit-hunting friend and mentor, Frank Privitiere, who accompanied him on many outings, over the years. Privitiere, an active member of beagles clubs such as Java and Northern Chautauqua, died in January 2008. Giermata immediately held a memorial hunt in his honor in late January.

“The first derby drew 28 hunters and we weighed in 60 pounds. Last year, 35 hunters totaled 114 pounds in entries,” Giermata said of previous contests.

“We’ve got about 40 hunters interested and might break 50 entries this year,” he said of the contest held on Saturday. Weigh-ins begin at 5:30 p. m. at Reese’s Place at 1441 Electric Ave., Lackawanna, with food served during and after the presentations of awards and prizes.

“Along with bringing fellow rabbit hunters together, we like to stress the importance of bringing youngsters along on the hunt,” Giermata added. “They are the future of our sport.”

Modest snow cover and temperatures plus fair and improving numbers of rabbit reports this year make it inviting to get out and beat bunny bushes this season. One good way to connect with other active cottontail-hounding honchos would be an entry in this Third Annual Frank Privitiere Memorial Rabbit Hunting Derby. For contest entry info, check with Giermata at 602-5017.