Rabbit hunting?

G'day. When I was a teenager I took the flyscreen off my bedroom window and shot a rabbit while lying on my bed (about 80 yards). Did it just so I could say I did.
About 3 years ago I went to a station that a friend was working on. He removed the bedroom flyscreen and shot wild pigs while lying on the bed.
Back to rabbits. We had a cat that went and caught a rabbit and brought it home, then gave it to the dog (the dog was a border collie). It then went and caught a rabbit for itself. The cat would bring all kills home for my mother to see before eating the kill.
We got so tired of eating rabbit that we would stop bringing them home. Mum would ask how many we got and we would say that they fell into their burrow, or crawled into some blackberry bushes. Or we would only bring home enough to feed the pets.
If mum cooked anything with mince (from a butcher) she would thin the 'good' stuff out with rabbit mince.
 
.410 Bolt gun for the first 10 or 12 years of bunny whackin'... Pretty much a one shot killer too. I loaded 2 6's and a 4 shot for the ones that escaped my first 2 shots. I had the poly choke cranked pretty tight though.
Brent
 
I do love rabbit hunting and i'm hunting them with my Beretta 12 GA AL 391. It is a real blast to go in to the field and have some rabbit action. Some of these fast runners will wait until last second possible to jump out right from underneath of your legs, so it forces you to stay "sharp" most of the time...;-)...on few occasions i have also learned that it is not worth to shoot at them from very close range from 12 Ga because bb's damage is basically devastating and there is not much meat left...
 
I've hunted them with .22 and shot gun. All the way from Jacks to cottontail to Arctic Hare.

I like the smaller ones fried, but the bigger ones I prepare in the rosting pan.

Place the rack in the bottom of the pan and pour in 2 cans/bottles of beer. Quality of beer doesn't matter much. Add 1/2 cup of Balsamic (some call it Balsamic vinegar.) Slice a large red onion thin and layer the rack with it.

Lay a whole rabbit (or two, belly to belly, head to tail) on the onion. Sprinkle lemon pepper (not lemon pepper salt) over the rabbits and cover with another sliced large red onion.

Cook several hours in a 250F oven.

I served this to a couple of guys who "don't like rabbit." They knew what they were eating because they watched me prepare it. There was none left, but they still "don't like rabbit." :D

Pops
 
Shooting a rabbit with a 12 gauge at a short distance would ruin the meat. There wouldnt be much left.
Click to expand...
Same thing with the .410... maybe a wee bit less loss with the .410.
Brent
 
When I was a teenager (some 30 years ago) my brother in law owned a few hundred acres near Cooma in Australia. There was a rabbit plague at the time & I would spend several weekends per year rabbit shooting down there. We had a rule that you couldn't shoot until you were at least 100 yards from the house in the morning, so as not to wake every one, but there were usually a few rabbits in the garden at the back door step every morning. My best tally for a weekend was 95 rabbits (between myself and one friend), both using 22's, and no shooting from a spotlight. My rabbit shooting these days is only incidental- I shot one two weeks ago with my 308 while out pig shooting(not much left of that rabbit:D).
 
Used to use a .22 rifle. Was real partial to a Winchester pump rifle. I sometimes ran beagles. Best dog I had was a CHA-WA-WA. Little fellow could get into the tightest places and come out with a rabbit. We don't have rabbits here anymore.
 
I don't start hunting bunnies regularly until pheasant season is over. I'll still take the german shorthair pointer along to help kick them up. We'll use handguns most of the time, both revolvers and autos, from .22 up to downloaded .44 mags. I've also used pistol caliber carbines and ak's. My ar is fun but anything less than a headshot will blow them apart. One great memory from a rabbit hunting trip was the dogs pointing a covey of quail with a steep hillside behind them. We had some pretty warm loaded .44s in our single action revolvers. Kicked the covey up and dropped a bird just ten feet from the end of the barrell, thought the muzzle blast had got him. Shot through the lower back, no meat damaged. My buddies couldn't believe it. I'll never top that one. Sorry for the long post, but the topic brought up some pleasant memories on a cold, windy morning.:)
 
I'm not much for shooting of cottontails unless i'm camping I have some great recipes if anyone wants them, but most of the time i go and shoot jack rabbits at night i never shoot from the road but we do locate them with spotlights, best night ever was 37 jacks, three porqupines and a skunk


BONES
 
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Dad and I had about 20 beagles back in the 70's. We hunted rabbits every chance we got and used shotguns. Where we hunted it was thick and the action was fast and furious.
 
i still hunt em when i can see one.... used to go with 12 guage but no longer have a shotgun so just get one now and then with .22..
 
If you like to hunt the sage brush try to find the lava rock piles. The rabbits love them in the winter time because they set on them and sun themselves to get warm. I bet if you think about it everyone out there that hunts sage brush can agree we have all shot many many rabbits off the top of rocks while they were getting some sun. I have found some lava rock piles that I was able to shoot 5 to 6 rabbits off of one right after the other.
 
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