good rabbit terrain

[Ian Johnson]

if you jump a rabbit in a certain spot, try again at the same spot a couple days later, he will be hiding in the same spots, also, early morning after a good rain, or late afternoon after a good rain, you can stalk up close to them in the open

[Titan_Bow]

Here's the type of terrain we hunt out here in Colorado.  The cottontails can be thick as fleas in these areas.  We find slight draws and terrain features out in the open sage, anything that creates shelter from wind, etc.   The bunnies tend to hang tight underneath the sage, and you can usually spot them before they run or jump down there holes.  If the hunting pressure on them is not bad,  you can usually walk through until you jump one, and shoot them when they stop. They dont run more than 20 yards or so.  However, if they've been hunted alot, they usually run to the next county.  A rabbit's main defense is camofluage, so they tend to hold tight as long as they can.  Look for their black eyeball instead of looking for a "rabbit"

[JW_Halverson]

Looks a lot like land we hunted several years back north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota until a disease went thru and wiped out the cottontails.  At one point we estimated the population up there at 35 rabbits per acre!  The next year we went back with a beagle and in 3 hours the dog never bayed, barked, or struck scent.  During the peak population there were no coyotes or fox in the area because of the low fur prices.  Lack of predator control led to high fox/coyote populations until mange broke out in a bad winter and collapsed the predators and releasing the rabbit populations.  We did out level best to keep the bunny populations down but ultimately lost the fight.  I hope we never see those high bunny populations again because of the range damage they can do, but a normal population would be good to see again. 

Oh, and all the land where we hunted (over 15,000 contigous acres) was Bureau of Land Management and open to the public!

[ballista]

titan bow, thats the exact terrain i was thinking of. open, low bushes, stuff like that- i have a beagle i might be able to take out, and jw, thas insane 35 rabbit an acre!? lucky man. friday i had school off, so I went out with my neighbor hunting a fencerow fer deer. before I went out, my neighbor told me there's a black and white cat that hangs around his two buddies that have been freaking the squirrels out, thus freaking the deer out.I was under orders to kill it if he presented himself. I was in my deersand, and out of nowhere, I head the squirrel chirp, loud, and loong. I look way to my left, and theres the cat, terring up the squirrel. all the squirrels ar ichirping it up, then it all stops, and the cat, now broadside, was about 20 yards away, maybe a little closer. I stood up, made sure I had an ace broadheadd instead of my woodsman,incase I missed (which i truley thought was going to happen), and loosed one, perfect double lung. It sounds cruel, but walking out of there, i saw two more of the same color cat, and about the same size. hopefully those were the last of the two, so far we haven't seen a one since opening day. oh titan, did you use blunts ot feildtips?  thanks again, -jimmy

[Titan_Bow]

Ballista, I like using regular steel blunts.  I have tried broadheads, Ace hexblunts, fieldpoints, Judos, .38 casings, wingnuts screwed on the end, etc. etc.  I find I keep coming back to the regular old steel blunts.   For one, I shoot 160gr points mainly, so I can get the blunts matched.  Secondly, I find in open sage country, regular blunts do not get lost like a field point or broadhead.  And finally,  they dont do as much damage to meat as a judo, hexblunt or the like.  I hate shooting rabbits with judos!  They tend to go through the animal, and the spring arms drag dirt and hair all through the wound.  With a smooth sided steel blunt, it does cause alot of trauma, but the wound channel is clean.  Broadheads would be the least damaging to meat, but they tend to zip through bunnies real fast, and if the rabbit is sitting above his hole, he tends to dump down into his hole and die, making it hard to retrieve them.  Blunts tend to go halfway through them,  and if they attempt to dump down into their hole, the arrow usually prevents it (at least long enough for you to grab them)

[ballista]

i see, I heard .38 casings work well, but if the steel blunts work well, so be it. not a good day today, i had a bow i spent about 2 weeks on come out at 15 lbs..... pist, so i was shootin an osage bow of mine, and as I was drawing back, i heard a sharp crack, and the bow cracked a bit midlimb. I decided to make a howard hill style bow\, because of the simplicity of the design, and as i was cutting the padouk riser, twang!! the f'in bandsaw blade snaps, rattling around in the bandsaw. grin and bear it I guess I guess the reality ofrabbit hunting is you're going to loose alot of arrows, I thought the judo was the solution to that, but then i've heard that they get caught up in thick brush before they hit the targret, hard to say. thanks for the advise, do you think they like area near streams or not so much?

[mullet]

 Titan, I know what you mean about Judo's. The first two rabbits I shot with judo's I couldn't believe how much damage was done to the meat. I would have been better off using my 12 gauge.

[JW_Halverson]

12 ga.  Here, lemme loan you my side by side black powder caplock 10 ga.  All kidding aside, the 10 guage actually is my first choice in rabbit gunning.  Instead of the big turkey load of 100 grains of powder and 1.5 oz of #6 shot, I use just 40 grains of powder and a half ounce of #7 1/2.  Shoots like a .410 for about a fourth the price.  And if you leave the ramrod in the barrel by mistake it's called black powder archery!

[ballista]

jw, thats a grat idea    id love to get a rabbit oneday and have a nicely finished hardwood ramrod buired in the hind leg, gnawed off or sumthing :)its not the primitive edge, but i fixed a big crack in an osage recurve with some good old gray ducttape, works like a charm now. 10 gauge??? haha, pretty much chicken nuggets afterwards, whatever keeps em out of the tomatoes though we got alot of rabbit a few years back via fixed broadheads and a compound, this was when primitive archery was still an idea in my mind- that put em out real fast, but the .22 was the real slayer. that caplock sounds like a beauty though man, my dad just got my grampa's (long past away) goose gun for a phesant hunt in iowa in a few weeks, its nice, but i've always wanted a double barrel, over and under or side by side. you hear of a kentucky rifle jw? there a single barrel, flintlock, about 6 foot long, used exclusivley by confederates, my grampa's used to have one but the insurane was so bad he gave it to a buddy who collects ww2 guns to hold fer a while. thanks for the replies guys, -jimmy

[JW_Halverson]

The shotgun was built by Pedersoli in Italy, but my .50 cal flintlock Early Lancaster school with German Jaeger influence, swamped barrel, and wood patchbox, was built by yours truly.  It was blackpowder guns that lead to my obsession with bows.  Next step in my de-evolution as a hunter will be atlatls, then clubs, followed by throwing rocks, and finally following large predators and scavenging scraps.  For that matter I may just grow a tail and head back up into the trees if I have time.

[ballista]

haha- that 50 cal sounds like a beauty. i'd love to get into atl atls soon, but forst i need to try a hand at fletching some primitive arrows. some one smashed our pumpkins, and i watched 4 squirrels devour the remains, when i came close they scattered. god, if only i didnt live in the suburbs. -jimmy