Rabbit Hunting with the Preacher

I share this story in tribute to the last day of rabbit season. One of my first hunting experiences was with my preacher. Brother John Spurgeon would bring out a whole pack of beagles to my family’s farm, and we would hunt a brushy area where those beagles were sure to sniff out some rabbits and chase them around to us so we could take a shot at them.

I can’t say for sure if these pastoral visits were out of concern for my eternal soul, or if Brother John just found the rabbit hunting out on my family farm to be better than elsewhere, but these hunts with him became a regular occurrence in the winter.

In addition to the dogs, he also always brought me a gun. It was a double-barrel .410. I thought it was a work of art. And it really did the job on running rabbits at close range.
I don’t remember if Brother Spurgeon kept any rabbits for himself, but he always left some with us. My mother would flour and fry and younger, smaller ones, or boil the larger, older ones with canned biscuits for rabbit and dumplings.

Years later, after Brother John went on to his heavenly home, one of his family members contacted me, and said they had something from him that they wanted me to have. I went to his house to get it, and was presented with a pair of ceramic quail. I’d never quail hunted with Brother Spurgeon, his beagles would have scared any bird within miles away. But the details aren’t important, and it was nice to be remembered.

I hope somewhere out there some young boy is enjoying that .410 the way I did.