Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: ballista on October 13, 2008, 02:32:23 pm
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hey guys- don't worry, i'm not here to steal you're hunting ground ;), but what do you look for in a good rabbit hunting site? The only rabbit hunting i've done has been in a brush blind by a big garden in wisconson, thats it. The videos on youtube looked like pretty open land, with bushes for hiding, but I'm sure theres alot I don't know, and it's crappy weather for deer hunting today and tomarrow, so im hoping I can find, generally speaking, somekind of rabbit feild. so, my real question: When you hunt rabbit, what does your terrain look like? I'm pretty sue you can't bait here, but my neighbor has been baiting squirrels in his subdivision-sized backyard ever since we lived here 9 yrs ago, no one really cares. Do you look for water too? the place i was thinking of going to has a small creek, with small fence rows of timber on each side, them in the middle is an open feild, but theres absolutley no cover and I've never seen a rabbit there once. thanks, and if you have a picture of where you hunt, that's greatley appriciated also. -jimmy
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I hunt rabbits in open fields (of low-cut grass) when it starts getting dark. That's when they come out of their hiding places. It's handy if you've got a friend who can hold a flashlight on 'em if it's too dark. Their eyes will reflect a pink color. ;D
You can also hunt for them in terrain with lots of shrubs (anytime of the day) but it will be harder to hit them with an arrow (because of the obstacles). It's also a lot harder to see them before they see you.
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I would hunt where ever I had access to likely looking terrain. Where do you live. Might be different in Wyoming than in Main. Kennerh
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oh, I should have mentioned that, northern Illinois, close to the wisconson border- they call it the prarie state, but its real populated up here, i'd like to live a little more south to where they'res real prarie terrain ;D. I'm planning on buying a half dozen blunt arrows sometime soom, but at the moment, i got 5 feild tips... dont wanna loose those :P. you guys know what they would eat naturally? I'll be honest, I was going to go to petco and buy a crapload of pellet food and just bait the hell out of wherever I'm going, I got two rabbits as pets in the backyard and thats what I give 'em-could be illegal, but i dont plan on going hunting with a loudmouth ;D. thinking on using razor darts from a blowgun to harvest them, but that cuts your range down alot... you guys know a real cheap arrow? I wanted to make a few dozen for squirrel, god knows how many arrows you're gonna loose, I figured why not take 50 dowel rods and rough fletch em, but im sure theres better methods. thanks for the help, after highschool i'm going to look around for any places... not being able to drive kinda kills me. thanks- jimmy
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You can remove your field points and replace with blunts or 38 special cases to make good blunts, should be able to find some for free. As for cheap arrows, they can be free if you can get out and harvest some shoots and spend the time to straighten and dry them. Look for goose feathers around duck ponds or maybe I could send you some, like I say points can be as simple as pistol cases. It takes time to learn the tricks but lots of help in the arrow section. If you can afford to buy a couple dozen cedar shafts from three rivers makes it a lot easier and faster. Like I said, I would hunt any place I could get permission and be legal. Maybe you can find a like munded friend who drives to open up possibilities. Be always on the lookout for materials and hunting opportunities. Kenneth
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souds good, thanks again man. would you add any weight to the .38 special cases? I stumbled over something that said about melting lead bb's into them, dunno though. every time I go roaving, I look for some red osier- still no luck, unfortunatley. I'm actually going to order enough supplies for a good dozen arrows, the feld ponts I have are glued on.. but I have a bad feeling about blunts, i think i might make my own style for rabbit and squirrel, that still penetraits, with similar springs to the judo. thanks again guys, jimmy.
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i stalk the windbreaks in sticker bushes. The rabbits in NY like it thick. You have to spot em, find your best hole, and punch an arrow thoruhg it. you wouold be amazed at the stuff you can get thorugh, and be amazed at the stuff you can't, lol. I like to use flu flu's for brush hunting because they show up better with big bright feathers.
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Back Home it's a good Cedar Swamp with plenty of Hidey Holes...........down here it is Windbreaks.....Fencerows.....Brush Piles and any standing Irrigation Pipe piles...they love the stuff!!
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aha! see, i was thinking fencerows also- I was driving past a small feild about 4 miles from my house, looked like great terrain, the houses were purdy close though, gotta watch out. I have a beagle too, you never know! ;D anaways, I had one in my backyard eating the rabbit food that spilled under my rabbits cage- thats the second rabbit i've seen in my life back there- I wasn't going to shoot it at first, but then i though about how good it would be with some onions, so I grabbed my longbow-(not the laminated one, the good old 42 pound hickory!) and loosed a feild point, about a centimeter high..... I think it doged it! It was anly about 17 or 18 feet away, so afterwards I was shooting close range, I was way off- a good four inches high, a little to the left, consistantly. so, thats my rabbit experience reccently, any of you have a similar aiming problem? I didn't have an arrow rest, so it's not like it was uneven or anything. thanks -jimmy
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Yep, I used to have that aiming problem until I started shooting targets (practice) at 17 & 18 feet way. ;)
Also, you might not be drawing the arrow all the way back to your usual draw length. That happens when you get exited and rush the shot. If you don't draw the arrow back far enough, it will act like it's too stiff.
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Down here it's good ol' Blackberry bushes. Bre' Rabbit says, "Pleezes don' throw me in tha Bria patch"
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thats awesome, I was thinking maybe under an apple tree, maybe they eat osage oranges ;D that'd be pretty ironic- woke up at 5 this morning to find the 6 point that was gut shot, and as we were pulling out, i saw the same little bastard cottontail run across my yard, i'm gonna drill him the next time I see him fer sure ;D -jimmy
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Ha, come to my development! Rabbits everywhere! I'm just not sure all the good residents would care for arrows screaming through their yards. Tempting none the less. I figure that I could disguise my bow as a walking stick, but still haven't decided how to disguise the arrows.
Seriously though, fencerows, field edges, and swampy areas are good. Orchards if you can find one. You want terrain that the rabbits like, but that gives you enough cover to slip up on them.
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I used to hunt rabbits a lot when I was younger. Generally, we hunted agricultural areas, cut cornfields, apple orchards, fencerows, and general "brushy" areas. The thicker the brush the better. Look for honey suckle thickets, briars, overgrown fields, etc. We used to also hunt with beagle dogs. When you jump a rabbit with a dog, let the dog trail the rabbit and stand perfectly still. Rabbits will literally run a complete circle when followed by a dog. I don't know how many times I would jump a rabbit without a shot, put the dog on the trail, and a half hour later, they'd be looping back to me and the rabbit would literally run right up on me. Good luck. Rabbits are fun to hunt and great eating.
Jason
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...............................Hunt Rabbits with Beagles...now thats a New One..................... >:D ;D ;)........................................
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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
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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"
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/Titan_Bow/Archery/11-25-06_1358.jpg)
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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!
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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
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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)
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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 :P 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?
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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.
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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!
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jw, thats a grat idea ;D 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 :D 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
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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.
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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