Rabbit In The Back Yard

OK I like rabbits
Mainly in the wild to feed the hawks , foxes , coyotes and ME
But rabbits in the yard like to feed on my small trees and bushes this time of year
Besides in the summer they raid the garden

So this morning I went out to get lure blanks out of the garage
I saw fresh rabbit tracks in the snow
So I went in and grabbed the Glock 17 and a mag with 15 rounds of 9mm ammo

I followed what looked like the freshest tracks to the back of the garage
There setting next to a small pine tree was a rabbit

Moving to the side I made sure the bullet wouldn't hit anything after passing through the rabbit
Range was 10 ... maybe 12 feet so I was pretty sure I could hit the rabbit
I took aim and 1 gentle squeeze of the trigger I had a rabbit for lunch
The bullet hit just behind the eye and exited about in the same area
So no meat lost

Mixed 9mm cases
LEE 120 gr TC bullet out of a slightly softer than WW reclaimed lead alloy
Powder coated and sized .357
Wolf SP primer
4 gr of HP38

The bullet was not recovered
It dug into the frozen ground and I didn't feel like searching for it

Have fun
John

Congrats and you made me hungry! Waaay back I had a neighbor who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. He'd shoot rabbits (králičí in Czech) and dress them kind of like a bird, hanging them for a day by their ears off their clothesline. The next day he would skin and dress them and his wife would make rabbit stew, which they called hasenpfeffer. She always had her homemade egg noodles in the cupboard, and one would get a generous topping of the rabbit stew atop her homemade noodles (flicky -- pronounced fleech-key in Czech). They're long gone, but not the memories of that awesome meal! Thanks for the memory rekindle!
fgeo

Good Hunt!! Had to be tough toting that heavy chunk of meat around:kidding:

My mother loved young Cottontail fried.
I loved providing them for her to cook!
I’ve always said if you can’t feed yourself with your handgun, get a different one!


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Rabbit tastes awesome! I went out and got my limit of squirrel a few weeks ago with the 22 WinMag. I made some hamburger helper knock off with it. It still had a metal wild game taste after soaking it overnight. I never get that with rabbit. Here’s my only cast bullet rabbit story and results. It was 136 yards away and I hit it with a Lyman devastator out of my Ruger, 7744 with a pretty stout load of H110. I found the halves about 15 to 20 feet away from each other and put them closer for the photo. He was chewing on my garden, so I took care of him. I can tell you I didn’t waste any meat either I ate him that night for supper!

https://i.imgur.com/kQY8UqQ.jpg

Was feeding the horse last week when this pesty rabbit came along to help eat his lucerne, that's him right in the middle of the gate. Couldn't fire a shot, dang!

https://i.imgur.com/nvPDKdSh.jpg

Twenty years ago we would hunt and or see dozens of rabbits every night. Then…we couldn’t even find them for several years, I guess coyotes wiped them out. They are coming back but slowly.

I’ve been wanting to hunt them alot lately and I think this weekend I’m going to.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by sukivel

Twenty years ago we would hunt and or see dozens of rabbits every night. Then…we couldn’t even find them for several years, I guess coyotes wiped them out. They are coming back but slowly.

I’ve been wanting to hunt them alot lately and I think this weekend I’m going to.


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In my younger years I learned that rabbits live in a cycle. Depending on pressure from animals like foxes, coyotes, and humans they would buld up to an overabundance. Then they would die off and it would take a few years for them to come back. Then the cycle would repeat. I was told it was a seven year cycle but experience has shown me that it is not that neat.

These were Snowshoe Hares.

Anyhow there seems to be a cycle. Probably applies to other animals as well. We had quite a die-off of deer here a couple years ago because of weather. Now they are coming back slowly.

Jim

I think it is a combination of things that lead to the severe reduction in cottontail rabbit population.

1. Reduction in fur prices led to less people hunting and trapping predators.

2. Current farming practices of clearing everything, including old fencerows. Less cover available, less rabbits.

2a. More chemicals being used in farming, both herbicides and pesticides. Non of them can be good for a mammal to eat.

Now granted I don't get out and tramp the fields like I did forty years ago, but it is rare for me to see a single rabbit while driving gravel roads these days.

Robert

Used to go out and do quite a bit of rabbit and squirrel hunting. Typically while out camping, which I used to do dang near every weekend when I was a young adult. My favorite way of cooking them (rabbit or squirrel) was to clean them, soak them for an hour or so in water, spray with some pam, sprinkle salt and pepper on them, wrap them in tinfoil and toss them on the fire for 15-20mins or so... One of the best camping meals you can ask for...

Have not seen rabbits in the wild around here for close to 10 years. Growing up in Southern Ohio my dad was a truck driver hauling cars. Ever year the industry would shutdown for model year change. He would have hunting season off every year. We learned to like Ribbit for two meals per day. He would shoot over 200 every year for a lot of years.

Thanks for sharing. Now I am tempted to go after a few myself before season ends.

I occasionally see one out by the fence row at dusk. I have shouted down my dogs for chasing it- it’s the only cottontail that I’ve seen here in years and jackrabbits left decades ago with the quail……
I blame the feral hogs.


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We’ve got them here in town and two red fox that come in the backyard quite regularly chasing them. My dog looks like a rabbit, so I keep the BB gun right by the back door.

Right after WW II Suburban Chicago's GONRA's Dad built a Rabbit Trap.
Gave Rabbits to our Plattdeutsch German Farmer neighbors for yummy hasenpfeffer......

Large freezers for Victory Garden Produce were all the rage at the time.
Remember getting a package of commercial frozen berries for the rabbit.....

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Originally Posted by Mk42gunner

I think it is a combination of things that lead to the severe reduction in cottontail rabbit population.

1. Reduction in fur prices led to less people hunting and trapping predators.

2. Current farming practices of clearing everything, including old fencerows. Less cover available, less rabbits.

2a. More chemicals being used in farming, both herbicides and pesticides. Non of them can be good for a mammal to eat.

Now granted I don't get out and tramp the fields like I did forty years ago, but it is rare for me to see a single rabbit while driving gravel roads these days.

Robert

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I think you are exactly right, I'm sure that the quail shared the same fate around here. I see a few rabbits now and then but not nearly like I used to.

Rabbits are making a BIG comeback in some areas
I live in NW Ohio in what used to be the Great Black Swamp

As more and more of the farmers get huge tractors , planters , combines and other farm tools
They run the planters , combine the fields and work the fields 24 hours a day by GPS
So more and more farmers here locally are starting to leave 5' to 10' areas un farmed at the edges
Also sharp corners along the creeks and odd ball wedge areas to nature
I was told it can cost them more in fuel and wasted seed
Than the amount of grain they will get and the "Wasted" time it cost them to farm the land
Also locally most of the larger creeks and all the rivers
Have a flood plane and then a 5' to 20+ foot bank to the rest of the flat farm land
These banks are unfarmed and are normally over grown great cover

Another place the rabbits love is the lime stone ridges and out crops
Some are a few acers , others run on and off for 20+ miles and up to several miles wide in some places
That is what the land I bought is
Un farmable limestone out cropping area with maybe a foot max of topsoil
With lots of areas of exposed limestone and old small limestone quarries

So land owners tend to turn many of the unfarmable areas into CPR land

John

When I was a kid my dad always had a pair of beagles. Every Sat and Sunday, except for a couple weeks of deer season we would hunt cottontails starting October 1 ad then switching to snowshoe hares in December until mid March. Oh what fun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnch

Rabbits are making a BIG comeback in some areas
I live in NW Ohio in what used to be the Great Black Swamp

As more and more of the farmers get huge tractors , planters , combines and other farm tools
They run the planters , combine the fields and work the fields 24 hours a day by GPS
So more and more farmers here locally are starting to leave 5' to 10' areas un farmed at the edges
Also sharp corners along the creeks and odd ball wedge areas to nature
I was told it can cost them more in fuel and wasted seed
Than the amount of grain they will get and the "Wasted" time it cost them to farm the land
Also locally most of the larger creeks and all the rivers
Have a flood plane and then a 5' to 20+ foot bank to the rest of the flat farm land
These banks are unfarmed and are normally over grown great cover

Another place the rabbits love is the lime stone ridges and out crops
Some are a few acers , others run on and off for 20+ miles and up to several miles wide in some places
That is what the land I bought is
Un farmable limestone out cropping area with maybe a foot max of topsoil
With lots of areas of exposed limestone and old small limestone quarries

So land owners tend to turn many of the unfarmable areas into CPR land

John

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Similar over here in NE Ohio. Farm are not as big so smaller equipment but they still leave areas for wildlife. At least the smart ones do.

Game is coming back as are predators. Nature at its finest!

As for rabbit control, we have three Golden Retrievers. They love to run!

Kevin