Advice for rabbit hunting?

[Hickok45]

I've never been hunting at all but I've always wanted to. I think I'll take my .22lr out soon for some rabbit hunting, any advice on how to do it? I'm unsure about how to find them without scaring them off... do I just walk and lookout for them or would I likely scare them away before I ever see them? It feels impossible just thinking about it. In my mind the best way would be to walk quietly and stop to look with my binoculars every now and then but I really don't know.

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[10mm]

Look for the eyes. They tend to run in a big circle and end up back where they got spooked from.

 

[Stomper]

When hunting wabbits, be vewy vewy quiet....

 

[Spitpatch]

I've never been hunting at all but I've always wanted to. I think I'll take my .22lr out soon for some rabbit hunting, any advice on how to do it? I'm unsure about how to find them without scaring them off... do I just walk and lookout for them or would I likely scare them away before I ever see them? It feels impossible just thinking about it. In my mind the best way would be to walk quietly and stop to look with my binoculars every now and then but I really don't know.

Since you're in Astoria, cruise the back roads looking for infestations of Scotch Broom in previously logged areas. The coastal woods rabbits seem to like those thickets.

Check your regulations. About every fuzzy thing in the woods of Oregon has a wildlife law pertaining to it.

Good luck, and good eating.

 

[Nosferatu]

I found the best way to go rabbit hunting is to actually go quail hunting, then all you'll see is rabbits.

 

[Mikej]

When hunting wabbits, be vewy vewy quiet....

View attachment 2272034

Ohhh. Bless your heart stomper!! As usuall, perfect timing!

 

[echo1]

Check with the ag dept and see if they're having any problems with infestations. Then ask the local farmer if you can hunt there.
Of the 2 main species, Jacks & Cotten tails, the Jacks are usually thought of as not edible, but the Mexicans make good Tamales out of them.
Be prepared to be grossed out when you skin 'im, they can be loaded with festers and boils. PAX

 

[thorborg]

I've taken a reasonable amount of them over my life time but never actually hunted them as a stand alone hunt. I've always scoured the woods for a variety of game at the same time while exploring or hunting other large or small game, grouse, deer, bear, turkey, etc. (even while mushroom hunting and fishing) carrying a 22 pistol while having a shot gun or large caliber rifle required for things not able to use a 22 on. I raised a Checker / Dutch / Flemish giant mix breed of rabbit I developed for 11 years as our main source of meat finding it excellent any way you cook them but wild rabbit i find best in soups or mulligan stews.
The liver is the best around cooked just to pink inside in butter and also provides the best info on their health condition; even uniform color dark brown or dark reddish brown color if black or spotted best not to eat but their hides are OK and easy to tan at home as very little effort required to soften them. Check on line to get a pictorial visual memory of the proper liver colors and you will be more confidant at what your looking at. if you hang by the head or hold it down with your foot after cutting the skin around the neck you can gently peel off the skin off and minimize getting the fur sticking to the carcass cutting the feet off as you come to them.

 

[Spitpatch]

I've taken a reasonable amount of them over my life time but never actually hunted them as a stand alone hunt. I've always scoured the woods for a variety of game at the same time while exploring or hunting other large or small game, grouse, deer, bear, turkey, etc. (even while mushroom hunting and fishing) carrying a 22 pistol while having a shot gun or large caliber rifle required for things not able to use a 22 on. I raised a Checker / Dutch / Flemish giant mix breed of rabbit I developed for 11 years as our main source of meat finding it excellent any way you cook them but wild rabbit i find best in soups or mulligan stews.
The liver is the best around cooked just to pink inside in butter and also provides the best info on their health condition; even uniform color dark brown or dark reddish brown color if black or spotted best not to eat but their hides are OK and easy to tan at home as very little effort required to soften them. Check on line to get a pictorial visual memory of the proper liver colors and you will be more confidant at what your looking at. if you hang by the head or hold it down with your foot after cutting the skin around the neck you can gently peel off the skin off and minimize getting the fur sticking to the carcass cutting the feet off as you come to them.

skinning a rabbit: a small cut in the skin once across the backbone. grab the "scruff" of the skin on each side of this cut with each of your hands, and pull your hands apart (like stretching a rubber band across your chest). The skin will peel down to the neck and feet perfectly. 30 seconds, beginning to done.

With a Cottontail, it all can be accomplished with no knife at all, since their skin is so thin, you can tear it with your fingers initially, and break off the feet, twist off the head when it peels to those points. (You don't get to keep the skin, since it's torn in two.)

Beginning at age 5, I fed our family on Cottontails in Nevada, field dressed every one myself.

Best tasting wild rabbit is a Snowshoe.

 

[Mark W.]

Jack Rabbits are an East side animal Hunt from March through April you want animals that grew up during the winter. They will be the healthiest and have the least amount of parasites. A .22 works fine though a 12ga with open cylinder choke and LOW base #7-8 game loads works best. I use my 20" barrel Rem 870 Wingmaster with an 8rd mag. Your going to be hunting mostly in sage brush so quick jump shots are most common.

As to eating them. Again this is why you want the ones just coming out of Winter to be the healthiest. We butcher them in the field and get them on ICE within a couple hours at the most. At home I cut them up into quarters and the back The rear quarters we save to be fried like chicken the back and ft's we use to make Stew or Sheppard Pie.

I have limited Cotton tail hunting experience and all of that in rim rock areas East of Bend they are slightly smaller taste a little better. These were shot at distance with a 22-250 going for head shots and only a couple trips.

 

[dangerranger60]

I have hunted a lot of Cottontails. As I'm walking through the brush I watch for bush without any leaves on the ground under them. [ as the rabbits are moving around the ground gets swept clean.] look for scat piles, etc... When you see these, there are rabbits in the area. Then scour the area. Young spring bunnies will run a few steps and stop to see what startled them. [ giving you time for a quick shot], but as time goes on the smart bunnies learn to keep going till they are out of range. this is when I change to a shotgun a shoot them on the run. Good Luck DR

 

[thorborg]

skinning a rabbit: a small cut in the skin once across the backbone. grab the "scruff" of the skin on each side of this cut with each of your hands, and pull your hands apart (like stretching a rubber band across your chest). The skin will peel down to the neck and feet perfectly. 30 seconds, beginning to done.

With a Cottontail, it all can be accomplished with no knife at all, since their skin is so thin, you can tear it with your fingers initially, and break off the feet, twist off the head when it peels to those points. (You don't get to keep the skin, since it's torn in two.)

Beginning at age 5, I fed our family on Cottontails in Nevada, field dressed every one myself.

Best tasting wild rabbit is a Snowshoe.

I used to sell the tanned domestic rabbit skins (my mother tanned most of them) to Holland feed store off Broadway in Beaverton same place I sold dried chittum bark (Cascara Sagrada) and weaned chipmunks for pets i raised when I was a kid.
But if you don't want the skins, then yes just tear it off.
We wasted as little as possible and a good reason to make stews from the wild ones as there is little meat on them besides the hind legs so boiling them you could scrape the other meats off the bones and back losing as little as possible Though I wouldn't bother any of that with jack rabbits although my neighbor would eat them, even carp I sometime caught, which I really disdained.

 

[UsernameS]

Jack rabbit roundup.

 

[UsernameS]

Also, a long time ago, you could go over to boardman navy bombing range area and shoot jack rabbits. we used to practice with our deer hunting rifles, shooting them as they are running and bouncing around changing dirctions at 100 yards, is good practice.
I was just thinking that is probably illegal now.. like lots of things we used to do, in oregon
Anybody else remember doing his kind of stuff ?

 

[gearhead]

Since you're in Astoria, cruise the back roads looking for infestations of Scotch Broom in previously logged areas. The coastal woods rabbits seem to like those thickets.

Check your regulations. About every fuzzy thing in the woods of Oregon has a wildlife law pertaining to it.

Good luck, and good eating.

Thanks for the advice. I've lived in Astoria for 6 years total, and have yet to see a rabbit. Now I know where to look.

Rabbits were everywhere on the east coast, I'd almost trip over them going to the mailbox.

 

[Outermostline]

I've never been hunting at all but I've always wanted to. I think I'll take my .22lr out soon for some rabbit hunting, any advice on how to do it? I'm unsure about how to find them without scaring them off... do I just walk and lookout for them or would I likely scare them away before I ever see them? It feels impossible just thinking about it. In my mind the best way would be to walk quietly and stop to look with my binoculars every now and then but I really don't know.

Growing up, my mom who is from central europe would make a traditional rabbit stew from the region that her family is from in Germany/Poland/Czech Republic. It would have the leg meat & all the other meat of an entire rabbit in it, along with potatoes, carrots & sometimes also a bit of sauerkraut/cabbage. It was such a wonderful comfort food on those cold winter nights when I would get home from working out in 30-40 degree weather.

Sometimes she would make the same dish, but with all of the meat from a duck instead of a rabbit, and oh man, was that duck stew tasty too.

 

[UsernameS]

Yeah? Growing up, in Mosier Oregon, we had neighbors that raised rabbits. I remember lots of times, having rabbit for dinner. And like they say, it tasted like chicken but.. the pieces were just shaped different. I tried eating squirrel once... it tasted like cr*p !!!

 

[ma96782]

Aloha, Mark

 

[Spitpatch]

With the federal outlaw of Strychnine and use of other poisons for predator control (think Coyotes), combined with federal protections established for all birds of prey (these legislations are relatively close in time), the Jackrabbit population noticeably and almost instantly plummeted in Eastern Oregon, Nevada, etc.

There are pockets still to be found (nature is NEVER in balance regardless of what idealists believe), but the populations will never be in the abundance they were prior.

There was a time when a box of 50 .22 shells would not last you an evening if you carried a fast repeater. With a recurve bow and arrow, you were VERY busy, and learned early to make a killing shot, as a Jackrabbit can run just as fast as always with your (expensive) arrow lodged.

About half the time, a flushed rabbit will stop to a brief whistle. A Jack that is crouched with ears down is fully convinced you haven't seen him, not likely to flush unless you make direct eye contact. When he's sitting with ears up, he's capable of hitting 25mph in two bounds.

 

[outwest]

Beagles. You have to get yourself a half a dozen Beagles!!