# Rabbits



## Had a Bite

Anyone been out after rabbits this year? Seen lots of post about squirrel but no rabbits. I havent gone after them myself yet, but a few friends have done pretty well on them this year.


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## jmyers8

Weve been out several times just getting 2 pups started finally started jumping a few lately. Hoping to get a few up tomorrow if we get some snow tonight to see fresh tracks 

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## mach1cj

Going tomorrow...we'll see.


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## Had a Bite

Good luck!


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## one3

Have not hunted rabbits in years. They are to scarce. Will not waste my time.


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## colonel594

I've been out several times this season, had some good chases with my lil dog, but so far only harvested one bunny. She seems to run them better than I'm able to shoot em!

As far as "they are to scarce" I'm willing to guess that a.) you don't have any hounds and b.) you havnt put in much time looking for them..... There are small areas with huge concentrations of rabbits, you just have to find them. The #1 problem is that generally the areas that you do find them in are so thick it's difficult to effectively hunt. Fine by me, if we get out and get exercise, and my hound gets to run a few I'm a happy hunter! If I get lucky and harvest one every once in a while all the better, but it's not all about coming home with a limit.


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## Muddy

I have a lot of rabbits on my farm. I need to thin them out a bit because they are causing damage to a lot of my young trees.


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## floater99

Muddy said:


> I have a lot of rabbits on my farm. I need to thin them out a bit because they are causing damage to a lot of my young trees
> I haven't been out myself could use a few bunnies for some Hazzenpher Muddy I could come out help you you remove a few bunnies


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## floater99

I would like to help you Muddy and maybe take a few bunnies off youre property I haven't made Hasenphepher in a couple years


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## Muddy

Where are you located?


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## floater99

I am close to cleve Hopkins airport


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## buckeyebowman

colonel594 said:


> I've been out several times this season, had some good chases with my lil dog, but so far only harvested one bunny. She seems to run them better than I'm able to shoot em!
> 
> As far as "they are to scarce" I'm willing to guess that a.) you don't have any hounds and b.) you havnt put in much time looking for them..... There are small areas with huge concentrations of rabbits, you just have to find them. The #1 problem is that generally the areas that you do find them in are so thick it's difficult to effectively hunt. Fine by me, if we get out and get exercise, and my hound gets to run a few I'm a happy hunter! If I get lucky and harvest one every once in a while all the better, but it's not all about coming home with a limit.


When my buddy got me into the fish & game club, my first season there was for pheasant. We buy them from a breeder and stock the place. When we first started going, I noticed that we never kicked up a rabbit, and assumed they must be scarce. 

Much of the club consists of impenetrable thickets that a man cannot walk through upright. Most of them a man can't even dog crawl through, he'd have to belly crawl! Sounds like ideal rabbit habitat, right? Turns out it is. We got some snow, and went pheasant hunting a few days later with snow still down. There were rabbit tracks everywhere! 

When I thought about it further, the club reminded me of another friends Dad's beagle club way back in the day. They had purpose built "habitat" to keep rabbits safe from owls and hawks. We went out there one time to watch his Dad's dog in a field trial. It was kind of crazy. They got a rabbit going, and we would cut it off and watch it hop toward us, paying absolutely no attention to the people. 

This was the biggest cottontail I had ever seen in my life, and it was as cool as a cucumber! It would hop up close and then sit, nibble some greenery, and every so often cock an ear toward the pack of hounds bawling behind it. When it figured they had gotten close enough, it would hop away.


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## $diesel$

Sounds like Mahoning Sportsmens, bowman?


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## colonel594

Bowman hit it spot on... We very rarely "jump kick" a rabbit anymore , especially not on public land. Generally all the bunnies we find are in some thick stuff, oddly enough it's usually not briars... At least not all briars. It seems like it needs to be a combination of briars and undergrowth with new growth saplings coming through that are filling in so thick your can hardly push through them.

Your observation on how the rabbit acts is something that I've gotten a kick out of since the first time I hunted rabbits with dogs.... Unless they are on a "hot chase " That rabbit really has no care in the world about those hounds, it's just another day at the office! Cracks me up every time I hear my dog working her tail off and then I see the rabbit just slowly hop by, stop and hang out before it decides the next trick is going to be to throw her off. 

Of course that only ever seems to happen when we are running in the off season, every time I'm in the field with a gun that dog seems hot on the track, some times I swear to God there is smoke coming off the rabbits paws when they go by


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## $diesel$

We used to kill them jump shooting, no dog. That was right up there with squirrel hunting. 
Now, the state put a bicycle trail right through the heart of that stretch where we used to hammer them. That and all the coyotes we have around now, i just don't see'm any more.
I haven't even had trouble from them in the garden.
I would love to go and jump shoot them again.


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## BankAngler

I have a small parcel that is mostly CRP with a few acres of woods. I hunt it after gun season with my beagle. She is very slow so I get to watch the rabbit's antics quite often. I wear snow camo coveralls when there is snow on the ground. I usually have a good idea of where the rabbits will run once jumped and set up and listen to and watch the chase. I've had rabbits hop on my boot if I set up on a trail and can remain mothionless long enough. Most times I don't shoot the rabbits, I just let Tracker get some exercise.


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## $diesel$

BankAngler said:


> I have a small parcel that is mostly CRP with a few acres of woods. I hunt it after gun season with my beagle. She is very slow so I get to watch the rabbit's antics quite often. I wear snow camo coveralls when there is snow on the ground. I usually have a good idea of where the rabbits will run once jumped and set up and listen to and watch the chase. I've had rabbits hop on my boot if I set up on a trail and can remain mothionless long enough. Most times I don't shoot the rabbits, I just let Tracker get some exercise.


Tracker is my chocolate lab's name!


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## BankAngler

My dog Tracker is named after the Tracker Tundra walleye boat I used to have. She is a hit when I take her to Bass Pro.


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## Uglystix

Feral cats everywhere. I have multiple nests in my yard each year that get hit by cats. I find the babies scattered around. The cats seem to be protected, can’t shoot and apl wants nothing to do with them.


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## one3

Cats all over. Make a mess in the yard. The law says, YOU NO TOUCH. Your folwer beds get messed up make a me out of your yard, and you can not touch.


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## BankAngler

I took Tracker out to a small woodlot this morning. The weather was unbelievable. It didn’t take long for Tracker to jump a rabbit and the chase began. I let her run it by me twice before I shot it. She jumped another one and I just let her run it. After the rabbit went past me for the third time I Pulled Tracker off of it and we headed home. What a great December day


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## $diesel$

Nice. Nothing sounds sweeter than a good hound morning.
Good look'n dog, BTW


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## BankAngler

Thanks. She will be 11 in two weeks. She’s family and goes with me about everywhere. She loves to hunt so I try to get her out whenever I can.


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## PromiseKeeper

Beagle music was always one of my favorites. I had a woods behind me that we were allowed to run dogs but didnt allow hunting. Several of us would run dogs there in the off season. I think those rabbits actually enjoyed it. There was one that would jump up against a tree and push itself off to throw the pups off the trail. It sure made some good hunters chasing dog-wise hares!


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## BankAngler

Tracker likes to retrieve rabbits after I shoot one


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## PromiseKeeper

If my old hound got to them first, you could bet he would bury it at the base of a clump of multi-flora rose! 

Tracker deserves some rabbit heart for that! Good dog!


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## BankAngler

She gets every heart


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## DHower08

You guys with rabbit populations are lucky. I would love to find a spot to get my son on a few. Not many bunnies around these parts any more


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## jmyers8

I finally got the first one off the circle to our 8 month old pup today.. this was the third one he ran for the day he by no means fired it around but with the rain and wet ground I thought it was a good enough job to let him taste some fur. Hoping for a little snow soon.









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## Bmcclain1

I find that, with the coyotes and such, that there just aren’t many rabbits anymore. 15 years ago we were getting four, five rabbits per hunt. now we get maybe one rabbit every other hunt. Maybe it’s us, or different dogs, but somehow I don’t think so. Are others having the same experience?


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## Bmcclain1

colonel594 said:


> I've been out several times this season, had some good chases with my lil dog, but so far only harvested one bunny. She seems to run them better than I'm able to shoot em!
> 
> As far as "they are to scarce" I'm willing to guess that a.) you don't have any hounds and b.) you havnt put in much time looking for them..... There are small areas with huge concentrations of rabbits, you just have to find them. The #1 problem is that generally the areas that you do find them in are so thick it's difficult to effectively hunt. Fine by me, if we get out and get exercise, and my hound gets to run a few I'm a happy hunter! If I get lucky and harvest one every once in a while all the better, but it's not all about coming home with a limit.


No one said they had to come home with a limit every time, but I make no apologies that I would like to come home with a couple of them. Many longtime beagle owners get to the point where it is more about seeing their dog run and have fun than it is about getting rabbits. You sound like one of these, and that’s fine. But please understand there are those of that of us Who are still primarily rabbit hunters. Of course it’s not all about shooting the maximum number of rabbits. But yes, I do want to get some rabbits and I think there’s nothing wrong with that. Years ago we used to get maybe 4 to 5 rabbits a hunt, and now we get about one rabbit every other hunt. From the same farms.


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## DHower08

I use to kick up numerous rabbits on the property we deer hunt. This year I have kicked up exactly 1 while we were tracking a deer. That's not good. We don't even see then driving in and out of the lane during dark anymore


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## jmyers8

Bmcclain1 said:


> I find that, with the coyotes and such, that there just aren’t many rabbits anymore. 15 years ago we were getting four, five rabbits per hunt. now we get maybe one rabbit every other hunt. Maybe it’s us, or different dogs, but somehow I don’t think so. Are others having the same experience?


I think compared to years ago like others have said there are pockets or wood lots with good rabbit populations and there could be areas right next to or around that area and have none we have real thick stuff that still holds a good population and a few spots where you can still jump a few. But to say your gonna be able to go down a fence row or through a wood lot and jump or even see rabbit sign were not that lucky any more... we used to be able go down most any fence row and jump one to run it's not that way anymore and I dont think it will be. 

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## BankAngler

It’s all about habitat. I have plenty of coyotes in the area but I also make escape cover for the rabbits. I cut up downed trees and pile up the tree top limbs to make escape cover for the rabbits.


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## Softshellcrab

BankAngler said:


> It’s all about habitat. I have plenty of coyotes in the area but I also make escape cover for the rabbits. I cut up downed trees and pile up the tree top limbs to make escape cover for the rabbits.


I agree about the habitat. Unfortunately many or most of us hunt public lands or on farms where we have permission to hunt, and don't have that option. The places where we find rabbits anymore tend to be really heavy cover where it is hard to actually get a shot. Years ago we often found them in small patches or more sparse cover. Not anymore, if we find them at all.


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## jerkaperch

I’m one of those old beagle chasers that could care less about killing a rabbit. However, I’ve got a teenage son and he has buddies, they still like to shoot em once in a while. This was a couple days ago. It may not be the good old days, but things are still pretty darn good.


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## Softshellcrab

jerkaperch said:


> View attachment 335963
> I’m one of those old beagle chasers that could care less about killing a rabbit. However, I’ve got a teenage son and he has buddies, they still like to shoot em once in a while. This was a couple days ago. It may not be the good old days, but things are still pretty darn good.


Wow! Just curious, what county or part of the state was this, if I can ask?


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## jerkaperch

Softshellcrab said:


> Wow! Just curious, what county or part of the state was this, if I can ask?


Highland. I hunt a lot of ground in the Highland, Ross, Fayette county area. Believe me it’s not a county wide rabbit infestation, just small properties with good habitat. Additionally, in a lifetime of rabbit hunting, I’ve never seen that many rabbits jumped and shot that quickly. They were everywhere that day.


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## loweman165

The population is definitely down from 80's and maybe early 90's levels. There are alot of reasons why but rarely do I hear birds of prey being part of. And unlike coyotes theres nothing you can do for that. I've had a Coopers hawk nest in the back yard for the last 5 years and I've seen them on one occasion with one down in the back yard. At any rate, i think the predatory bird population is at very high levels which is great but you have to take the good with the bad. Honestly they need the rabbit far more that I do lol.


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## waylon22




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## waylon22

Not the best day numbers wise but can’t imagine having a better day than getting out with my kids!


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## 1more

Kids look happy and the dog looks tired! Way to keeps the kids in your footsteps.


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## $diesel$

Way to go, waylon. I especially like to see todays dads get'n the young ladys going.
From the looks of some of some of todays males, we need those young lady's to carry the torch til the world comes back to normalcy.
And your saving your son as well.
Good job, son.


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## Muddy

Nice, Looks like a good time for everyone! A buddy of mine is coming over with his beagles tomorrow. I’m taking my 6 year old out with us for his first rabbit rodeo.


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## $diesel$

I'm sure he'll he have a blast, Muddy. Kids that age don't care if they shoot one or not. He'll have more fun play'n with and watching the dog. He'll also love sharing a new experience with his dad. Who knows, maybe he'll kill one?
Good luck and have fun.


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## Muddy

We got 4 rabbits this morning. We ran rabbits for the better part of 3 hours straight. They are hard to kill in CRP grass. My buddy with the dogs was using a shingle shot that wouldn’t extract shells, which hindered his shooting quite a bit. We had fun with all of the excitement of numerous runs. We saw multiple rabbits that we never got a shot off because of the thick cover. You usually have just 1-2 seconds before they are gone again. My son hung in there the whole time walking through cover that was taller than him. We got some bunnies, and multiple bunnies lived to see another day.


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## Morrowtucky Mike

loweman165 said:


> The population is definitely down from 80's and maybe early 90's levels. There are alot of reasons why but rarely do I hear birds of prey being part of. And unlike coyotes theres nothing you can do for that. I've had a Coopers hawk nest in the back yard for the last 5 years and I've seen them on one occasion with one down in the back yard. At any rate, i think the predatory bird population is at very high levels which is great but you have to take the good with the bad. Honestly they need the rabbit far more that I do lol.


Amen to that! The red tailed hawk population around me is way outta control. We used to raise pheasants to release but it’s a waste of time anymore. Get a couple young hawks and they go crazy, just killin the fresh released birds and not really knowing what to think till they spot another one. About every country road you drive down anymore you’ll see a hawk sitting atop a power pole. Nothing against the birds, I really enjoy watching them and listening to them but they basically have no predators to keep their population within reason. The new farming practices only cater to the birds of prey.


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## $diesel$

^ ^
I'm hear'n you on the birds, Mike, and agree.
I live just below an old limestone quarry. There are all kinds of critters live'n back up in there.
A lot of redtails and other raptors. I've seen eagles over my place and once seen what i believed to be an osprey.
But the biggest denison of my woods is the barred owl. Them critters are all over my woods and they are BIG. Other than the coyotes, i think they prey heavily on the young turkeys as well as rabbits and squirrels, but i don't have a problem with that.
I did a little research on them years ago and discovered they are the second largest owl in our area. The only one bigger is the great horned owl, however, the barred owl actually out weighs the the horned.
I can't say for sure that they are a rabbit hunter cuz i never seen one with a rabbit, but the amount of squirrels they take i'd have to guess they're tuff on the bunny's as well.


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## Muddy

Sometimes I will set my predator call on the back patio and turn on a wounded rabbit call in the middle of the night. Quite often an owl will show up very quickly and perch in an oak tree right outside the window looking for the wounded rabbit. It’s fun to watch him try to figure out why all of that noise seems to be coming out of a plastic box instead of a real rabbit.


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