Wyoming Jacks

[dk17hmr]

The wife and I went for a ride out in the desert tonight. I threw my Remington 700 30-06 in the truck with and a handful of "whisper loads" in my pocket. NOE 311-247 plain base pushed by 11gr of Trailboss, average velocity is 1070FPS. This load hits hard but not hard enough, I either need to speed it up or make the bullet softer....it took an average of 2 shots per rabbit. I shot one rabbit 3 times before it quit 750grs of lead for one rabbit....twice in the chest and once in the head/neck. These things can be tough.

I killed 5 tonight, mostly 50 yards and in one was way out there at about 75 though.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20120705_204623.jpg

It does look like we have some rain moving in though.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20120705_205132.jpg

[waksupi]

Looks like fun. Pray for rain!

[runfiverun]

we had rain most all day,it was coming up from the south so you might get some.

try speeding them up.
i was using an nei loverign rn design in the 30-30 and it would stop them right there,well flip them around actually.
i'd go out south off of blairtown and make the loop around to hwy 430 just before dark.
i'd ocassionally see a yote out that way.

[429421Cowboy]

Those jack's can be durn tough, i jumped one last week moving cows and hit him with a double roundbal .44 load and he required a second dose. A .22 only works well with good head shots. Unfortunatly most of ours have died off here as they seem to run in cycles, kinda wish we had more to fly the eagles on but oh well!

[dk17hmr]

I really hope it pours for 3 or 4 days....we really need it.

We went out North Baxter (airport road)...didnt get very far up there and started seeing them in the ditches. I might bump the load up to around 1400fps and just see what it does. I would really like to take an antelope with this bullet this hunting season.....1070fps isnt going to cut it for that.

[Longwood]

My very first ever varmint round was a 7.62, 93 grain Luger bullet in a 06.
I knew squat and had not even read a gun magazine but somehow I figured they would work.
I simply pulled the bullet from the 06 round and replaced it with the Luger bullet.
Hit a Jack in the chest with one and the biggest chunks we would find would maybe be the hind legs and ears.

[Bob Krack]

30 years ago, a half dozen of us would take our deer rifles (in preparation to deer season), loaded with our hunting ammo and visit the area a little north of I-80 wandering between the California-Nevada line. We would walk abreast across the open desert and jacks would appear as if like magic at random intervals and random directions/distances.

Over an hour or so, we would decimate perhaps 60 or 80 of those critters.

For any of those who do not know how exciting it is to try to be the first to hit these big lo' desert jacks doing their running dance - you have no idea what you are missing!

Good luck Doug,

Bob

[Longwood]

The big alfalfa fields in the high desert of California used to be teaming with Jacks and the owners loved for us to get them because of how much hay they ate.
All we had were 22's but three of us got 52 in one day.
Not one scope or simi auto amongst us.

[Bullfrog]

What do you season your JackRabbit with DK? LOL

[x101airborne]

I only ask this because my -06 is on a mauser action so my box is shorter than normal, but do you single feed those rounds? Great shooting, by the way.

[Crawdaddy]

Nothing like hunting desert Jacks. It is one of my favorite past times.

The one and only time I took my wife rabbit hunting was a disaster. I leveled my pistol at one and heard "run bunny run!"

I hunt by myself now.

Congrats.

[David2011]

Nothing like hunting desert Jacks. It is one of my favorite past times.

The one and only time I took my wife rabbit hunting was a disaster. I leveled my pistol at one and heard "run bunny run!"

I hunt by myself now.

Congrats.

Crawdaddy,

You're obviously a man with great discipline. My finace couldn't understand why I would shoot jackrabbits until she saw one for the first time. She said, "They're as big as a dog!" Well, a small dog but then she understood that we're not talking about Peter Cottontail. The way they thump the ground as they attempt to leave the area is memorable.

David

[Hardcast416taylor]

The last time I was "goat" hunting out by Casper a group of did a jack hunt. All "goat" tags had been filled so 6 of, with handguns, did a line abreast walk through an area. We had jacks all over the place and managed to reduce the population a little. Handgun shooting on a jack is more challenging than than you might think.Robert

[Longwood]

The last time I was "goat" hunting out by Casper a group of did a jack hunt. All "goat" tags had been filled so 6 of, with handguns, did a line abreast walk through an area. We had jacks all over the place and managed to reduce the population a little. Handgun shooting on a jack is more challenging than than you might think.Robert

I did not know I could shoot a pistol until I was 35 and fired my first S&W Model 41, 22 pistol.
The 41 was as accurate as 99% of the 22 rifles I ever owned.
Up until that day, I had mostly fired military 45's and did not think I could ever shoot well with a handgun.
With one magazine, I suddenly realized I could shoot a pistol accurately.
I bought one about a week later and from then on it was my Rabbit gun, until age took away my eyesight and pistol shooting ability.
Shooting running rabbits with a handgun is far more fun than with a rifle, any old day.
I wish I still had my Thompson Contender. I would like to put one of those dot on a flat screen sights on one, so that I can shoot with both eyes open, and go bunny hunting with it.
I don't try to kill rabbits away from my property anymore but I do like to get them up and moving, then start putting rounds about two inches behind him to see if I can get him to lay his ears back, stretch out to about a yard long, and go into high and overdrive to see if they run into something.[smilie=w:
I have had to finish off a couple that hit stuff so hard they hurt themselves.
You can make Coyotes find a gear they did not know they had also.

I took two Jack's out in my yard last week and I see four Cotton Tails are hanging around, but I will let the hawks have those,,, if he can catch them..

[JeffinNZ]

Doug, if your Jacks are anything like our Hares they will be tough and I suspect from the drawings I have seen the 247 does not have a large enough metplat to transmit sufficient energy on its brief journey through the animal.

I used to shoot a lot of hares in the high country and generally with a .22RF. I was out in the plantation of young pines one day and using a suppressed 10/22 with subsonic ammo. The hares would not reliably drop so I came up with the idea of my suppressed .32-20 I now have. RN boolits in the .32-20 at subsonic velocity will not drop rabbits reliably let alone hares but load a 311008 or similar and they drop on the spot.

[dk17hmr]

I only ask this because my -06 is on a mauser action so my box is shorter than normal, but do you single feed those rounds? Great shooting, by the way.

Seated to 3.300" they run in my box mag great.....actually I can seat them out to touch the rifling and they still work in the box mag.

Might try and shoot some with Ranch Dog 311-165's this weekend. I know that will work.


What do you season your JackRabbit with DK? LOL

Carnauba Red

[Crawdaddy]

Crawdaddy,

You're obviously a man with great discipline. My finace couldn't understand why I would shoot jackrabbits until she saw one for the first time. She said, "They're as big as a dog!" Well, a small dog but then she understood that we're not talking about Peter Cottontail. The way they thump the ground as they attempt to leave the area is memorable.

David

Every time I tell that story with her around she says " they look like they should have a bow tie around their neck" in reference to the playboy bunny I guess.

[leadman]

I've hunted alot of jacks here in Az. Maybe with the monsoon moving in it will cool enough to get out in the desert.
Just after I started reloading my Makarov I went elk scouting and had it along. A jack took off straight away and it was the third shot I think caught it is the back of the head. Stopped it right there.
Stingers in the Rem 581 LH usually do a good job. It is fun to change around different guns for a little jack hunting.
A little more velocity will help out, or the Ranch dog boolit. The 311041 does a good job also.

[ammohead]

Jack's have two purposes in this world...target practice and feeding coyotes. Coyotes have three purposes...target practice, controlling the jack rabbit population and they make a nice fur collar.

When people ask if I eat the jacks I shoot I reply. "Nope, even a coyote deserves a free lunch now and then. And if they ask if I eat the coyotes I shoot I explain that the coyotes and I have a symbiotic relationship whereby they provide me with target practice and I ensure the superiority of the gene pool by culling the stupid ones. It is very rare that you shoot a smart coyote!

[lead chucker]

Nice jacks. I have been seeing a lot of show shoe hairs this summer. I think there's going to be a good crop of them this year. They are fun to hunt especially when they turn white in late fall and it hasn't snowed yet. They stick out like a sour thumb. My wife makes a real good bunny pot pie.

[x101airborne]

It is very rare that you shoot a smart coyote!

Water is wet, Sky is blue, and that is the dang truth.

[dk17hmr]

Well the Ranch Dog hammers jacks. 15.0gr of Trailboss, not sure on the velocity but likely only around 1300fps, flattened this one out at 65 yards. Shot through the shoulders he didnt even kick.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/dk17hmr/IMG_20120707_204653.jpg

I think I am going to try fill one of my antelope tags this year with the 30-06 and a Ranch Dog.....not sure where I should be at for velocity though.

[quilbilly]

Wish we still had those out in the Central Washington desert out where I hunt but the eruption of Mt St. Helens ash fall wiped them out in 1980 and they never came back along with the rock chucks and even the ground squirrels. The desert just isn't right without jacks. At least the deer and coyotes came back.

[David2011]

Well the Ranch Dog hammers jacks. 15.0gr of Trailboss, not sure on the velocity but likely only around 1300fps, flattened this one out at 65 yards. Shot through the shoulders he didnt even kick.

I think I am going to try fill one of my antelope tags this year with the 30-06 and a Ranch Dog.....not sure where I should be at for velocity though.

Doug,

Nice Jack. I shot one with a 120 grain 6.5mm Nosler Ballistic Tip and it looked like a crime scene around the carcass. Photo wasn't fit to publish.

David

[Longwood]

There were a few places in the desert in socal that had windmills and stock tanks.
the Jacks that lived near them were huge compared to the ones I see now.
I saw a lot of bucks with heads that were four inches across and had ears a foot long and almost five inches wide when spread out flat.
We liked to hunt them near daylight and dusk because when we walked into the sun, they would be sitting in the shade by a big bush all nicely camouflaged, looking straight at us, with two big pink ears with the sun shining through them like a couple of pink Neon signs.

[Gray Fox]

I used to do the same glowing ear trick around the alfalfa fields in northern AZ. One rancher swore that five jacks could eat as much per day as a hereford let loose in the field and he was glad to have me come shoot them. Leave a couple of those tough old jacks along an irrigation ditch trail and set up that night for coyotes was a good trick, too. Wish I was still up there in the juniper flats (wish I was still 16, too). GF

[QuickRick]

I knocked off a few jacks when I lived in western Wyoming from 86-93. My favorite CB load was with the Lee 30 cal 113 grn RNFP from my little Marlin Model 62 in 30 carbine. Pushed to 1,800 fps with H-110 it was much more effective than any 22 rimfire ammo I tried at the time, stinger included. I didn't have a 22 Magnum at the time. Since picking up a Martin SSHB in 22 Mag I have smacked a bunch of jacks in southern Idaho with that caliber and find it to be a great choice for a non centerfire load.

[runfiverun]

bout 1900 should do the trick.
i do the ww's and soft thing [3-1] with a titch of tin, and water drop.
a load of 28.5 grs of 4895 and a filler with a win Lr primer is my big game load.
it's consistent, about 1-1/2 high at 100 let's me get to bout 150 yds with a straight on hold.
it'll punch a deer easily, so an antelope in the shoulders would be a non issue.
to match @ the same velocity 18 grs of 2400 will make cheap and easy practice loads.
and is good enough for ground squirell/ p-dog hunting. [i just tip the powder back for each shot to keep the 2400 load consistent]

[GRUMPA]

I used to do the same glowing ear trick around the alfalfa fields in northern AZ. One rancher swore that five jacks could eat as much per day as a hereford let loose in the field and he was glad to have me come shoot them. Leave a couple of those tough old jacks along an irrigation ditch trail and set up that night for coyotes was a good trick, too. Wish I was still up there in the juniper flats (wish I was still 16, too). GF

Wonder where those alfalfa fields are? We have Jacks all over our place but pretty much leave them alone. The dogs wont even chase them, those are some fast critters for sure, they can and will go for the cotton tails without even thinking about it. From time to time I "POP" one or 2 Jack's but that's more or less to keep the Ravens close by to kinda keep the birds of prey away so they wont go after the chickens the wife likes to free-range. And I have yet to "KNOCK THEM DOWN" with just 1 shot with the 22, always takes 2 hits.

[Longwood]

Wonder where those alfalfa fields are?




They are probably still there,
Try google earth.
The field managers may like for you to hunt them but I would certainly try to ask them first prior to doing so.
Some owners may be willing to pay a bounty.

[Gray Fox]

Grumpa: They were NW of you near Snowflake. Of course, that was 50 years ago! Seems to me I was told some group of more money than brains folks put a golf course near there or maybe right there. GF

[GRUMPA]

OK that helps explain things, Golf course is right next to town now, NW of Snowflake is the wind farm ( Political Gathering Area). I have yet to see crops of any kind but I'm sure they do exist. And I'm 25mi east of Snowflake and there sure isn't anything around me as far as crops, water being somewhat scarce.

[michael30.06]

I agree with JeffinNZ the meplat area of that big 247gn round may not be dropping it's energy quickly enough.
Have you considered hollow pointing that round?
I am still waiting for my mold to arrive, I've ordered a 2 boolit mould pb with one HP

[Love Life]

If anybody ever makes it to my area of Nevada give me a holler. We have a huge population of Jacks and Cottontails this year.

We are probably due for a population bust soon so I will be out getting them while the getting is good.

[9.3X62AL]

What Ammohead said.

I've seen a lot more jacks this year than in past years locally. They have come to hate me--my white F-150--and ESPECIALLY my CZ-455 in 17 HMR. There is a powerline road that goes off at an angle across the desert about halfway between home and the rifle range, and I usually take at least one run down that track after a hard day of rifle shooting. Occasionally on the return trip I can jump a coyote that is feasting on the results of the inbound jaunt. The local song dogs may not care much for that F-150, either.

[ammohead]

Speaking of their big pink ears.

A while back when the boys were young and I was still married and living in Smith Valley NV. We had a alfalfa field down below our 2 acres that had a good jack and cottontail population. One winter there was one particular large jack that had a run in with either a coyote or a barbwire fence. The result was that one ear had been torn, bit, sliced from top to bottom right down the middle. When looking straight away or right at you he looked for all the world like a 3 eared jack rabbit. We saw him all that winter and the boys went after him several times but he was never shot, he just faded away.