Calling All Rabbit Hunters
Calling All Rabbit Hunters
The hunters in my family learned to hunt small game long before pheasants or deer. Our education began by plinking targets with Dad’s walnut stocked Marlin 56 lever-action .22 until we could consistently hit a nickel tucked into a hickory trunk at 30 feet. Once we passed this test, we graduated to blasting tin cans, glass bottles, and clay pigeons with an H&R 58 single shot .410. Once Dad was confident we could handle both firearms safely, and shoot them accurately, we hit the squirrel woods for bushytails. However, later in the season, after the first killing frost and snow had fallen, the real fun began when Dad let us start chasing rabbits!
When I was a boy it was still legal to hunt railroad track right-of-ways, and I had the pleasure to cut my rabbit hunting teeth on the same tracks my Dad hunted when he was a boy. Although we hunted for pleasure, he hunted out of necessity to put food on the table for him and grandma in the 1950s. After school, Dad would stuff an empty burlap sack or feed bag in his pants and as many shells as he could carry in his pockets. Very often, by the time he walked a mile down the tracks and a mile back the other side, the once-empty game bag was bursting with squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional rooster pheasant. Exhausted from exertion and cold, Dad left his haul outside the back door where grandma would dress and butcher the animals while he got cleaned up and ready for supper.
Dad parked the station wagon at the local coop, and we carried our guns unloaded down the tracks until we passed the city limits sign. Afterwards, I loaded my trusty .410 with a single 3” shell filled with sixes and clambered down the rocky bank to plum thickets and briar patches waiting below. Meanwhile, Dad snapped the magazine into his quick-handling Marlin, levered a round into the chamber, and stalked the tracks from above. The strategy was simple- I shot at flushed rabbits in front of me in the thick stuff with the scattergun, and Dad sniped cottontails that tried to circle up and over the tracks behind us with the rifle. Many fleet-footed rabbits found the bottom of our game vests back in those days, and I will never forget these outings with my Dad.
Unfortunately, railroad right-of-ways have been illegal to hunt for many years now. As a result, rabbit hunters adapted to hunt other areas to continue bagging these formidable speedsters. For hunters on foot, fencerows, abandoned farmsteads, brushy windbreaks, and creek bottoms are hot spots for targeting cottontails. When there is snow on the ground, look for their runs in and out of iron weeds, switchgrass, and plum thickets, and focus on trails with the most tracks and droppings. Before walking a thicket, post blockers on the end as well as the beginning of the cover to maximize success. Cottontails are notorious for circling and doubling back on pursuers, and leaving a shooter at the beginning of the cover can increase shooting odds significantly. Obviously it is crucial to be disciplined and hunt safely to avoid accidents in these situations.
Road hunting after fresh snow can be an efficient strategy for bagging bunnies, especially on calm, sunny, days with frigid temps. Rabbits often come out of their haunts during the first and last hours of shooting light to absorb warm rays of sun. At these times they’re easy to spot along gravel roads and harvesting them is easy with shotguns or rifles.
Look for “softballs covered in fur” and make sure that you follow all rules and regulations for shooting along roadways. To reduce damaging delicate front legs and backstraps, always aim for the head or behind the shoulder when using rifles. When using shotguns, my Dad always taught us to put the bead on the top of the ears to concentrate patterns in the head and neck. Using #4 or #6 shot is ideal in these situations; combining knock down power and pattern density for shooting rabbits in thick brush.
More than 30 years after shooting rabbits with Dad on the tracks, I’m still a dyed-in-the-wool rabbit hunter. While pheasants, quail, waterfowl, and deer, get all the respect and prestige, “rags”, “hind hoppers”, “bunnies”, and “rabs”, continue to play Rodney Dangerfield. Whether you’ve hunted rabbits your entire life or are new to the game, there are benefits to including them on your next hunt. Keeping bunnies on your hit list while pheasant hunting can help avoid getting skunked if the birds, dogs, or hunters don’t do their part.
Learning to lead and successfully shoot zig-zagging hind hoppers in open country and thick cover translates to shooting fleeing whitetails during shotgun season. Finally, if you’ve never eaten fried, steamed, stewed, or baked rabbit and dumplings, you haven’t eaten wild game at all. For those that bemoan the often dry, stringy, and flavorless pheasant breast, a plump, juicy, full flavored rabbit leg or backstrap may be just what they’ve been missing.
by Joel Johnson
October 2020
If you need help choosing ammo for small game check out this article – Favorite Small Game Cartridge – The Iowa Sportsman
