Two Kosciusko residents are being inducted into the Mississippi Outdoor Hall of Fame.
Dr. Henry Jones Jr. and Otho E. “Bubba” Pettit Jr., who are rabbit hunting partners, are among six honorees named as 2023 Outdoor Hall of Fame inductees.
“You talk about being blindsided; I didn’t even know they knew Kosciusko existed, much less finding me and Bubba. But it’s just a super honor,” said Jones. “When we go rabbit hunting, I didn’t go to get an honor.”
“We go because we like it so much,” added Pettit.
“So this is just icing on the cake,” Jones said.
The Board of Directors of the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Foundation recently made the announcement. An induction ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 3 at the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum in downtown Leland.
Billy Johnson, executive director of the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Foundation, said the 2023 class of inductees contributed much to the heritage of Mississippi’s outdoor legacy.
“This is our seventh class to induct, and each one of these men deserves all our accolades and more,” Johnson said. “I hope everyone will make plans to attend the induction ceremony and enjoy celebrating the accomplishments of each of these great outdoorsmen.”
“It really is an honor, and I am honored,” said Pettit.
Jones practiced veterinary medicine in Kosciusko for more than 40 years. He is a well-known breeder of beagles and was instrumental in the formation of the Small Pack Option Beagle Gun Dog Field Trials in Mississippi and throughout the southeast. He is the producer of nine rabbit hunting (Fair Chase) videos that have been viewed throughout the United States, Australia, Canada and Europe. Jones is an avid rabbit hunter who has been “busting” briars behind an outstanding pack of beagles for more than 65 years.
Pettit was given his first beagle at age 6 and began rabbit hunting with his father at age 8. When he came back to Kosciusko after graduating from law school, he began raising and training beagles. His passion for dogs and rabbit hunting led him to a lifelong study of swamp rabbit habitat, “spending his wife’s hard-earned money on buying hunting land,” he said, and eventually becoming a self-taught forester and tree farmer.
Along with his college roommate, Larry Hancock of Tupelo, he pioneered the concept and perfected the art of “Rabbit Camp.” He participated in the production of all the rabbit hunting videos produced by his hunting partner, Jones, and he has appeared in several televised rabbit hunting shows.
“Henry was on the field trial circuit, and he knows everybody in the beagle hound field trials for rabbit running, and he’s a big-time breeder. I’m more of a hunter, and then I got to realizing that everybody has their deer spot or their turkey spot, but in rabbit hunting, you need a lot of land,” said Jones. “I really got interested in the rabbit habitat, and I studied the habitat.”
Pettit’s father was a rabbit hunter, and Jones’ uncle was a rabbit hunter, which is what led them to the sport.
Jones and Pettit have been a rabbit hunting team for about 40 years.
When Pettit came back to Kosciusko to practice law, he immediately began rabbit hunting.
“We really just barely knew each other, but I kept hearing about Dr. Jones and his group going,” said Pettit, “and they would get a lot of rabbits and had a lot of success. So we were kind of competitors.”
Pettit compared the two to John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles. “They were in different bands, and they were jealous of each other,” said Pettit with a laugh. “Then they hooked up, and the rest is history.”
One day, Pettit finally decided to invite Jones to go to rabbit camp.
“We were in the grocery store,” Jones remembered.
Jones agreed, and the rest is history.
“We just got to be a team,” said Pettit.
And once they began hunting together, they never separated.
They would hunt with Pettit’s dogs part of the day, and then with Jones’ dogs for the other half of the day.
When Jones originally got a video camera, it was to record his children when they were young and family life.
“The next thing I know, I’m chasing Bubba Pettit out in the woods to film the rabbit hunt,” Jones said.
When filming rabbit hunting videos, Jones would hold the camera and record, and Pettit was often featured.
They went to a wild turkey banquet in Jackson and connected with people who helped Jones with producing their footage into the first of the rabbit hunting films.
“He carried the camera and produced the videos,” said Pettit. “I was the guy in the videos most of the time, either me or his son, Hank. We tried to make them funny, and he had a Christian message on the end of the video, and we tried to let everybody know what a blessing the outdoors are.”
Through their videos, Jones and Pettit were able to enhance the understanding of the sport of rabbit hunting.
They were also featured on the TV show “Mississippi Outdoors” hosted by the late Melvin Tingle multiple time.
Both have a passion for rabbit hunting.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” said Jones.
The sport follows deer season. With deer hunting, Jones said, you have to wear camouflage, you have to smell good to the deer, and you have to be quiet. In rabbit hunting, however, there’s a bit more excitement, such as barking Beagles.
“It’s just a different atmosphere,” said Jones. “If a rabbit comes by somebody and they miss it, we don’t feel sorry for him; we rag him. If you have three shells in your gun, and a rabbit comes and you shoot three times and miss him, we call that the ‘empty chambers club’.”
There’s another part of the sport that both men love.
“We both just love dogs. We love beagles,” said Pettit. “You’ve got to have a love for the dogs. Your dogs are your pets. I probably wouldn’t be a turkey hunter or a deer hunter because you don’t have your dogs.”
They keep their rabbit hunting group small, but if you get an invite, count yourself lucky.
“Everybody wants to go hunting with us in February,” said Pettit. “We take our boys, and it’s pretty much just family. ... If you get an invitation to go rabbit hunting with us, that’s pretty special.”
Also being inducted into the Outdoor Hall of Fame are Robert Dean of Greenville, Pete Fulton of Grenada, Fox Hass of West Point and Mike Morgan of Florence.
