46 NEBRASKAland • JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016
and the bunny bolted, Ortiz
was ready and dispensed it
with a single shot from his
20-gauge, bolt action shotgun.
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
Krause has been hunting
rabbits since he was a boy.
He picked it up from his
father, Stan Krause, who
had started hunting them as
a youngster. For most of that
time, the elder Krause hunted
sans dogs. That changed
when he moved to Lincoln in
the 1970s, met other rabbit
hunters who ran beagles and
picked up one of his own.
Stan had several beagles
through the years, the last of
which died a few years ago.
Shane has one at home, but
managed to pick the dog that
every litter has one of: the dog
that won't hunt.
Bella's owners had much
better luck. He met them
through his son's Cub Scout
pack. They were bewildered
by the dog's behavior whenever they
ran across a rabbit on their walks.
When they were telling Krause about it,
he knew exactly what it was they were
describing, and has been borrowing the
dog ever since. "It's kind of like having
grandkids from what I hear," Krause
said. "You get them for the fun part,
and then you send them home."
The Shooting Stars 4-H Club
has been serving youths age 8 to
18 in Lancaster County off and on
for 30 or so years. It got a boost
when the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission's Outdoor Education
Center opened in 2014. It meets at the
indoor shooting range weekly, offering
BB gun, air rifle and pistol, .22-cal.
rifle and pistol, shotgun, muzzleloading
and archery.
The rabbit hunt was a final exam of
sorts for another club offering: Hunting
and Wildlife. Part of the National 4-H
Shooting Sports program curriculum,
hunting and wildlife teaches kids about
wildlife, their behavior and habitat
needs before they set out on a hunt.
"It's basically trying to incorporate
Kolton Davis walks next to grass covered deadfall along the upper end of Wagon Train Lake hoping to flush a cottontail.
Bella, a beagle borrowed by Krause for the hunt,
roots through the undergrowth at Wagon Train in
search of rabbits.
