Grapples, in dialect

• Tangles with, in the country
• Scraps in the sticks
• Fights with, in the hills
• Gits in a scrap (with)
• Gets down 'n' dirty
• Scraps in the backwoods
• Struggles with, as a critter
• Grapples with, as a critter

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
vb. (en-third-person singular of: rassle)