Southern Idaho Jackrabbit population?

[Idaho45guy]

Planning a trip down to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Twin Falls, Idaho next month.

I used to shoot jackrabbits all the time when I was a kid down there, but I guess the jackrabbit population has seen some pretty major ups and downs over the last couple of decades.

Anybody have any idea how the population is doing this season?

[quilbilly]

Jackrabbits have always run in 7-10 year cycles. In the Winnemucca area up to the Idaho border, the peak was about 2-3 years ago. I got some great pics up very close in the week before NCBS 2016 and framed a couple (I know, that's weird framing a pic of a jackrabbit). They should be on the rebound by now but I only saw a few last spring in the same areas.

[Idaho45guy]

Jackrabbits have always run in 7-10 year cycles. In the Winnemucca area up to the Idaho border, the peak was about 2-3 years ago. I got some great pics up very close in the week before NCBS 2016 and framed a couple (I know, that's weird framing a pic of a jackrabbit). They should be on the rebound by now but I only saw a few last spring in the same areas.

Thanks for the info!

We always judged how the population was doing by how many dead ones were spotted on the rural 2-lame paved roads. Good way to find a good hunting spot, as well.

Was hoping to get down there sooner to do some shooting, but my Japan trip and other stuff got in the way.

[abunaitoo]

We don't have jack rabbits here, only bunny rabbits.
I've heard they can stand up to four feet tall.
Is that true????

[Love Life]

I don’t know about 4 foot tall, but I’ve seen some big ones.

[Idaho45guy]

We don't have jack rabbits here, only bunny rabbits.
I've heard they can stand up to four feet tall.
Is that true????

They can be pretty big...

229731

I once worked an insurance claim in which a customer hit a jack rabbit in a newer Toyota Camry going 90mph while traveling through Nevada. Nearly $4k in damage. Other adjusters thought it was a fraud case thinking no way a rabbit can cause that much damage. A 20lb rabbit in mid hop at 90mph is going to cause some damage...

[Goatwhiskers]

Is it true that they have horns? GW

[Beerd]

Only the bucks.
Someone will come along soon and post a picture.
(And they are antlers, not horns) ;)

..

[marlin39a]

Their abundant in my area. I hunt them early in the morning. A 10/22 is all I need.

[blackthorn]

Is it true that they have horns? GW

Those are Jackalopes! They are a bit scarce. PETA (and other Waco Greens) want them put on the endangered species list.

[LUBEDUDE]

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[Gewehr-Guy]

Ineastern SD the jacks were plentiful until '80 or 81 and then just about disappeared, along with the flickertails. During my high school years spotlighting jacks was about a nightly event, and we killed hundreds a year. Now the Jackalopes were a rarity, only ones I've ever seen were shot to extinction and displayed in Wall Drug, also a few flying Jackalopes have occurred over the years, some kind of genetic throwback. Maybe someone can post a picture of one.

[LUBEDUDE]

You KNOW that Jackalopes are real because Herters sold head forms to taxidermists.

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[abunaitoo]

That is a big rabbit!!!!
Bigger than my cat.

[ShooterAZ]

The populations around here are cyclical, kinda like the cicadas. I think much of it may be dictated by weather though, boom populations in good moisture years. There is a mountain range just to the north of Flagstaff called the San Francisco Peaks. The biggest jacks I have ever seen in my life are up there. Must be genetics or something. Some really big ones up there.

[HABCAN]

Years ago shot an Alberta jack with my 6" .22 S&W #17: holding his hind legs level with my shoulder his ears touched the ground. Fed 6 of us. Them were the (long gone!!) days.

[gpidaho]

Saw a really big Jack last week in the desert south of Boise. They used to be thick around here but not many the last few years. Gp

[RU shooter]

It's my understanding as an easterner that jack rabbits aren't very edible ? If so why is that ?

[gpidaho]

It's my understanding as an easterner that jack rabbits aren't very edible ? If so why is that ?

Because some of the disease that Jack rabbits carry can be past on the human that consumes them. While the cottontail are pretty good eating, it would have to be a survival thing to get me to eat a Jack. Gp

[David2011]

I can still remember the smell of the first dead jackrabbit, actually a member of the hare family rather than rabbits, that I encountered in Southeast New Mexico. It was fresh roadkill. I was out in the boonies with my Dad and I was probably 5 years old. The skin was torn away from the very dark red meat and the smell was atrocious. The meat is the color of bloodshot venison even when it's good. They're tough; very muscular and virtually no fat. Their back legs are so strong that I have felt the the ground thump when I've gotten close before they flushed. They are technically edible in that a fresh one wouldn't kill you if you cooked it. It would have to be a survival situation for me. I would hunt rattlesnakes or pigeons before I would voluntarily eat a jackrabbit.

There was a thread, I think in the cooking section, on jackrabbit a couple of years ago. Not many said they would eat it again.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I have a nice 6 pt. (Eastern count) Jackalope head hanging on my trophies wall that I got in Gillette, Wy back in `72 during an antelope/mule deer hunt. The place where I bought `Jack` at had a wall covered with them to pick from, $25 as I recall. They must have come onto an entire population of them to have bagged so many!Robert

[richhodg66]

Ineastern SD the jacks were plentiful until '80 or 81 and then just about disappeared, along with the flickertails. During my high school years spotlighting jacks was about a nightly event, and we killed hundreds a year. Now the Jackalopes were a rarity, only ones I've ever seen were shot to extinction and displayed in Wall Drug, also a few flying Jackalopes have occurred over the years, some kind of genetic throwback. Maybe someone can post a picture of one.

Talking to older folks, they used to have a lot of them around here (north central, Kansas). I only ever saw one up in Washington County close to the Nebraska border.

I spent a great deal of time over three years or so in the field while stationed at Fort Bliss. There was sure no shortage of them there, at least not then. Seems like the only animals that could thrive there were jack rabbits, coyotes and rattle snakes.

[blackthorn]

I grew up in mid-south Manitoba. We had lots of Jack rabbits. My Mother cooked the ones I shot and they were good eating. Maybe the old-timers knew some tricks on cooking them that made them good?

[quilbilly]

The populations around here are cyclical, kinda like the cicadas. I think much of it may be dictated by weather though, boom populations in good moisture years. There is a mountain range just to the north of Flagstaff called the San Francisco Peaks. The biggest jacks I have ever seen in my life are up there. Must be genetics or something. Some really big ones up there.
They must be snowshoe hares. I see them in our Olympic Mtns. and the do look a lot like jackrabbits to me. The snowshoe hares are almost as big here but quite a bit fatter as you might expect.

[rockshooter]

I've seen maybe one per year in the hills south of Boise- not much going on for rabbits here
Loren

[eric123]

Echoing what others in the area are saying, I only see a couple a year...

[Gray Fox]

In the early '60s when I was in HS in northern AZ an older friend's wife would parboil young ones in salt and vinegar water, then slow cook them with fresh green chilies for a looong time. This made some of the best burrito filler I ever ate in a freshly made tortilla. We used to hunt them from the irrigation ditches around alfalfa fields with a .22 rifle. A rancher friend swore 5 jack rabbits could eat as much as a Hereford steer. I've often wondered if coyotes can prosper east of the Mississippi River, why the jack rabbits can't. I bet they would get fat on kudzu. GF

[Ateam]

They must be snowshoe hares. I see them in our Olympic Mtns. and the do look a lot like jackrabbits to me. The snowshoe hares are almost as big here but quite a bit fatter as you might expect.

The snow shoe hares were very plentiful on my annual bird hunting trip to the upper peninsula, more than I have ever seen. My wife makes a wonderful rabbit cacciatore.
230174

[quilbilly]

In the early '60s when I was in HS in northern AZ an older friend's wife would parboil young ones in salt and vinegar water, then slow cook them with fresh green chilies for a looong time. This made some of the best burrito filler I ever ate in a freshly made tortilla. We used to hunt them from the irrigation ditches around alfalfa fields with a .22 rifle. A rancher friend swore 5 jack rabbits could eat as much as a Hereford steer. I've often wondered if coyotes can prosper east of the Mississippi River, why the jack rabbits can't. I bet they would get fat on kudzu. GF Jacks need lots of open country unlike cottontails. If you put them on the "prairies' around the Atlanta airport, they would do OK.