This was not the weekend to go Rabbit hunting

[RVTECH]

went 5 times last spring looking around haystack res, over to grey butte

I used to hunt this area quite a bit from the 90s to the early 2000's and depending on the specific time would often see quite a few 'jacks and would score several a day.

This was mostly in the Graham Corral/Cyrus horse camp areas.

 

[fredoesway]

i remember in mid 80s the jack population in Idaho was at its peak. i stopped at a rest area on the arco desert just after sundown. sat in my truck having a smoke and looking out across the sagebrush. as i sat there the sagebrush came alive, looked like every bush was moving. the jack population runs in a boom and bust cycle from every bush moving to not a jack to be seen the next year.

 

[Unka-Boo]

Past couple of years have been a solid disappointment for us...but it still beats sitting at home
Going late this year, 1st week of June...maybe it'll be better.

 

[Rlynn]

I am so jealous!

 

[Catfishmoon]

Do you remember many years ago, over 40 I think, (were you even old enough?) when Southern Idaho was over ran with jack rabbits? I lived in Utah then. There were so many of them in places that they were rounding them up and clubbing them. I remember wanting to go up and hunt them with .22s. I didn't have the means at the time. Even back then I seem to remember an outcry from the bunny-hugger types.

It is my understanding that some type of disease has decimated both the jackrabbits and cottontails in the eastern part of the PNW compared to the past. I also have memories of large numbers of rabbits, but they are rarely seen now.

You know how when driving down a rural road at night and a rabbit gets in the headlight, they tend to stay on the road in the headlights? We would let our dogs out the van to try to catch the rabbits. Usually the rabbit escaped due to their ability to change direction much quicker than a dog.
I remember similar situations where an individual would get out of the car, running down the road trying to catch the rabbit with a large fishing net, like a net for salmon.. There were a lot of rabbits then and according to my elders there were even more decades previously.

 

[Mark W.]

Shoulda gave me a call and stopped by and said hi!

I'm planning on chasing some jackass rabbits as well but I'm waiting on at least sunny & 50s !

We would have but coming over on Friday mid day figured you would be working. Then Sat we were just in a hurry to get over the pass before dark.

 

[Mark W.]

Jacks, Coyotes, and Hawks run in about a 7 year cycle predators following a few years behind prey. Outside stuff can effect this but its pretty self righting.

 

[Mikej]

It is my understanding that some type of disease has decimated both the jackrabbits and cottontails in the eastern part of the PNW compared to the past. I also have memories of large numbers of rabbits, but they are rarely seen now.

You know how when driving down a rural road at night and a rabbit gets in the headlight, they tend to stay on the road in the headlights? We would let our dogs out the van to try to catch the rabbits. Usually the rabbit escaped due to their ability to change direction much quicker than a dog.
I remember similar situations where an individual would get out of the car, running down the road trying to catch the rabbit with a large fishing net, like a net for salmon.. There were a lot of rabbits then and according to my elders there were even more decades previously.

I don't recall that, but it makes sense. Considering the dead rabbits a person used to see on the road out in the boonies all the time. And that's also how hawks and eagles would get hit.

 

[Catfishmoon]

I don't recall that, but it makes sense. Considering the dead rabbits a person used to see on the road out in the boonies all the time. And that's also how hawks and eagles would get hit.

Here is a news story from over 10 years ago that talks about the decline of wild rabbits in the area.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130029135

I don't know if the cause is habit loss, cyclical, disease or whatever, but there are fewer wild rabbits now than decades previously.

 

[American123]

Any day spent outside is better than 10 days spent inside.

Seems like a bold claim. I could name 10 women in my youth that spending the day/night with beat freezing out in the cold for a day.

But as a general premise, I could agree.

 

[kmk1012]

Jacks, Coyotes, and Hawks run in about a 7 year cycle predators following a few years behind prey. Outside stuff can effect this but its pretty self righting.

I've been hearing that since 2001 as an excuse for the declining numbers, I don't believe it at all. The poison the farmers started using around that time killed off the rats is what I believe happened. That event upset the food chain, including the predatory birds that eat the rats, possibly coyotes. They seem to all be tied together, but it doesn't stop me from going over again and again. I love that part of the state!

 

[bionic knees]

I was stationed at Kingsley Field in '62. A friend and I would would fill our pockets with cartridges, (30-06 , Sierra 110gr Hp ) and hunt Jacks around the base of Stukel Mt. Whomever got the least # of kills had to buy dinner in town. In later years I used to hunt my uncle's place along the Lost River Canal for Digger squirrels. Times were great, there was never a shortage of targets, or places to hunt. The only place in my life where I've ever seen signs that said, "Hunters Welcome".

I used to see welcome hunters signs all over the place growing up in central Oregon, not so much these days.

 

[Mikej]

Here is a news story from over 10 years ago that talks about the decline of wild rabbits in the area.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130029135

I don't know if the cause is habit loss, cyclical, disease or whatever, but there are fewer wild rabbits now than decades previously.

When I was in high school, early '70s, I had friends that were hunters, deer, rabbits, antelope. They would go into the west Utah desert to hunt rabbits. From their talk, I guess they did pretty good spotlighting at night. I did go with them with a borrowed .22 at times during the day. We didn't see many rabbits then, mid '70s. And hardly any in the late '70s to early '80s. They were declining way back then. Why? There are none, or very few now, and it's not because of habitat loss. Those high deserts look the same as they did 50 years ago.

 

[Spitpatch]

The Silver Lake/Christmas Valley/Fort Rock area was my getaway refuge for years. Anyone who did not see the Jackrabbit populations when the Coyotes were still being strychnined/cyanide gunned really missed out. (As we came to learn, poison just about eradicated the raptor population as well.)

But the coyotes were still there in some numbers, and in the early '70's, (in high school), we'd borrow a Mom's Pinto or Squareback, fill it up for about 3 bucks, load it with guns, ammo, bows ,and sleepiing bags and go east. We'd shoot 3-4 coyotes in the course of a long weekend (and Jacks uncounted). Coos county on the coast was the only place still paying a decent bounty ($25!) on the coyotes and all you had to show was the scalp and ears, so we drove there on our trip home, turned in the Lake County scalps in Coos county and came home with a respectable jingle in our pocket.

 

[Mikej]

The Silver Lake/Christmas Valley/Fort Rock area was my getaway refuge for years. Anyone who did not see the Jackrabbit populations when the Coyotes were still being strychnined/cyanide gunned really missed out. (As we came to learn, poison just about eradicated the raptor population as well.)

But the coyotes were still there in some numbers, and in the early '70's, (in high school), we'd borrow a Mom's Pinto or Squareback, fill it up for about 3 bucks, load it with guns, ammo, bows ,and sleepiing bags and go east. We'd shoot 3-4 coyotes in the course of a long weekend (and Jacks uncounted). Coos county on the coast was the only place still paying a decent bounty ($25!) on the coyotes and all you had to show was the scalp and ears, so we drove there on our trip home, turned in the Lake County scalps in Coos county and came home with a respectable jingle in our pocket.

Whooo, that beats the crap out of us getting .25 cents apiece for trapped gophers in the pastures in our neighborhoods when we were in 8th grade!

 

[Mark W.]

LOL we got a couple bucks for a load of Carp in the Wheel barrow when we took them to the Apple nursery across the street from our house. One year they dropped one of the huge irrigation ponds about a 1/2 mile from the house down to about 12" deep and we could just walk out into the mud and using frog Gigs harvest a dozen big monsters. The guy would throw them in this little bitty manure speader that shredded them up and mixed them with old horse poop. He would then spread it on the baby apple trees. Well one nice hot August day he had done that and when dad got home the whole world smelled like poop and rotten fish. Dad calls up the guy and starts yelling at him. Then The neighbor got a chance to talk he explained our involvement and we caught heck from DAD As I remember there was a whole bunch of new OUTSIDE chores we had to do the next couple days MAN DID IT STINK.

 

[bionic knees]

I used to hunt this area quite a bit from the 90s to the early 2000's and depending on the specific time would often see quite a few 'jacks and would score several a day.

This was mostly in the Graham Corral/Cyrus horse camp areas.

it was mostly the late 60's thru the 70's that I did most of my shooting in that area. there used to be lots of jacks and rats.

 

[Spitpatch]

Walking a sagebrush flat one evening (Winter hunt: January, I think), we were kickin' Jacks up pretty regular, but slower than in the morning. Temp was hovering around the Zero mark, but no wind.

We saw a set of lights coming up the side of the plateau we were on, and saw it was a fair sized conventional tractor (Front Loader on it, etc.). We knew for certain we were on public land, but also knew the tractor had come from the nearest ranch.

The driver called out as he slowed his motor near us, "Howdy!", we reciprocated and waved and walked toward him. "Gettin" any?", he asked.

"A few", was our reply.

"Couple of ya hop in!" and he simultaneously put the bucket on the ground.

Hoisted two of us 6 feet off the ground cranked the area lights on, and crawled through the sagebrush. Ground troops fanned out on the flanks and did well.

I'll never forget that Rancher whoopin' and hollerin" when our .22 Automatics burped.

"Didja Ruin 'im?!" "Oh!, Ya Ruint 'im!"