# Rabbits



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

What's a big rabbit hunt in the states? Over here the most I've shot in one night is 250. A friend shot 3,000 on the farm I live on in one year.


----------



## Bigdrowdy1 (Jan 29, 2010)

Heck if I am lucky we may get 4 to 8 in a day. Usually 1 or 2. The hunting use to be alot better but the farming and ranching styles have changed the landscape where I hunt so the cover and habitat are no longer there. I enjoy eating rabbit as much as the coyotes do. I think we have more coyotes than rabbits but I aint willing to try them (OAC talks about Jerky). Now I hear west texas is full of Jack rabbits but I aint never been there. UUMMM Rabbit Dumplins or Fried Rabbit and Tators. UUUMMMMM!!!!


----------



## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Wow 250?? Thats crazy. Is there a bounty on them? I know there used to be in Austrailia, they were eating ALL the vegetation and you know how rabbits multiply. In central AZ you can go all day and not see but one or two, there are a lot more up north where they get more precipitation, and the jack rabbits get huge.


----------



## ebbs (Feb 7, 2010)

Mattuk THAT IS INSANE?!!!! You're a stone cold KILLER!


----------



## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

That is one big load of briar runners.

50 some one winter was my biggest take. I really enjoy rabbit stew but squirrel tops the list.

You sure throw alot of lead Matt !


----------



## Bigdrowdy1 (Jan 29, 2010)

What do you do with all the rabbits you shoot? With those numbers our prairie rat hunters would enjoy rabbit huntng myself included.


----------



## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Ditto !!! BigD


----------



## ebbs (Feb 7, 2010)

bigdrowdy1 said:


> what do you do with all the rabbits you shoot? With those numbers our prairie rat hunters would enjoy rabbit huntng myself included.


yes, yes, yes!!!


----------



## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I'd be into that.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

youngdon said:


> Wow 250?? Thats crazy. Is there a bounty on them? I know there used to be in Austrailia, they were eating ALL the vegetation and you know how rabbits multiply. In central AZ you can go all day and not see but one or two, there are a lot more up north where they get more precipitation, and the jack rabbits get huge.


No but by law as a land owner you must control the rabbit population on your land.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Bigdrowdy1 said:


> What do you do with all the rabbits you shoot? With those numbers our prairie rat hunters would enjoy rabbit huntng myself included.


Well this is going to sound bad but I'll tell it straight! If you want to pick them up then you'll get $1.50 a bunny or you just leave them and the foxes eat them. Over here they are a major pest.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

ebbs said:


> Mattuk THAT IS INSANE?!!!! You're a stone cold KILLER!


8 Rabbits eat the same as 1 sheep, fancy that on your crops each night ebbs!?


----------



## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

With all those deer, all those rabbits, and plus what ever other critters there are...how does a farmer stand a chance ? Pasture or crops they all get ate.


----------



## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

But if you leave them lay you are supplying food for the fox which will allow them to multiply at a higher rate and stopping them from killing their own rabbits. I know a $1.50 isn't much but times 250 that is $375. Not a fortune but it will buy a shell or two.


----------



## lucas_shane (Jan 25, 2011)

Id be happy with $350 a day for plinking rabbits lol
That alone is a pretty good days pay !!!! Bet your neighbors wld let you kill for them as well.

Your rabbits sound like our hogs, destructive pest


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

youngdon said:


> But if you leave them lay you are supplying food for the fox which will allow them to multiply at a higher rate and stopping them from killing their own rabbits. I know a $1.50 isn't much but times 250 that is $375. Not a fortune but it will buy a shell or two.


That was on another estate where there was a lot of heathland and you don't shoot 250 every night! To get $1.50 a bunny you do have to gut them all if not then maybe $0.70 not sure as I don't go out after them any more.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

youngdon said:


> But if you leave them lay you are supplying food for the fox which will allow them to multiply at a higher rate and stopping them from killing their own rabbits. I know a $1.50 isn't much but times 250 that is $375. Not a fortune but it will buy a shell or two.


Not just the foxes Don but badgers, stoats, weasels, crows, magpies, buzzards etc.


----------



## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Pitchfork and a wheelbarrow, give the neighbor kid a split on the cash for pcking them up, and he'll never forget his first job and how you made him work like a dog. (pun intended)


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Maybe I'll have to get a .22 then!


----------



## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Mattuk said:


> That was on another estate where there was a lot of heathland and you don't shoot 250 every night! To get $1.50 a bunny you do have to gut them all if not then maybe $0.70 not sure as I don't go out after them any more.


One thing I did learn from shoot rabbits was how to gut them quick...one slice from the pee hole to the neck and quick snap and they are cleaned works most every time.

Matt...what are stoats ?


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

youngdon said:


> Paranoia??


Who said that? I'm sure there was someone behind me!


----------



## exopo (Nov 24, 2011)

do they make good eating?


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Yes very good.


----------



## singlesix (May 13, 2010)

We have a huge population of jack rabbits here. I do my part and help out with the control part. These guys are fun to shoot, in the summer and they are everywhere you can easily shoot them all day long. What I like to do is glass for them out in the open and see how far I can hit one out. We killed 28 one day just going to coyote stands.


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Shoot! Im lucky if i even see one where i hunt in the mountains, i have a new spot but still 200+ in one night is a HOT number! Good job


----------



## ScopinYotes (Jan 31, 2012)

What do you guys look for when deciding where to hunt rabbits? I know people say downed trees, brush piles, briars, etc, but I haven't seen hardly any cottontails around here no matter where I go.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

All-Around-Outdoorsman said:


> Shoot! Im lucky if i even see one where i hunt in the mountains, i have a new spot but still 200+ in one night is a HOT number! Good job


The UK is alive with the little buggers!


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

ScopinYotes said:


> What do you guys look for when deciding where to hunt rabbits? I know people say downed trees, brush piles, briars, etc, but I haven't seen hardly any cottontails around here no matter where I go.


We don't have to look hard or far for bunnies.


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Mattuk, maybe i have to come down there with my shotgun and hunt some of them! sounds like they are as common down in the uk as hogs are in texas lol!


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Oh don't worry there are millions shot every year. You have to control rabbits on your land by law.


----------



## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

All-Around-Outdoorsman said:


> Mattuk, maybe i have to come down there with my shotgun and hunt some of them! sounds like they are as common down in the uk as hogs are in texas lol!


 Better use a .22 or shells will break the bank there are so many from what videos I have seen that matt posted links to.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I think rabbits are making good money at the game dealers at the moment maybe $1 each.


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Oh when i see them i do when do you think is the peak time of year to hunt the little buggers?


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Over here? I would say October to the end of February.


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Not bad price for one dollar each, you can make some money off that!


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

You would think so but it doesn't always work out like that!


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Mattuk said:


> You would think so but it doesn't always work out like that!


Bummer isnt it


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Life sure is!


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

LOL


----------



## Mick105 (Jan 6, 2012)

250 in a night... thats more than I will shoot in my life! So they got the term screwing like rabbits form England I take it!


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Mick105 said:


> 250 in a night... thats more than I will shoot in my life! So they got the term screwing like rabbits form England I take it!


Yes its the way to live life over here!


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

You know they are bad over there when you have to controll them by LAW.....GEEZ in the states if a law passed that we had to kill and controll animals the animal rights freaks would flip


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

All-Around-Outdoorsman said:


> You know they are bad over there when you have to controll them by LAW.....GEEZ in the states if a law passed that we had to kill and controll animals the animal rights freaks would flip


Well over here its got nothing to do with them and they get told where to go. I never said it was "that bad"! Lets say there are 2 landowners with land side by side. Landowner A has a farm and landowner B has an industrial unit with a bit of over grown waste land that butts upto landowner A's wheat field. Farmer A controls the rabbits on his land and has no problems other than the piece of land adjoining landowner B's land. The rabbits are living in landowners B's waste ground and coming onto landowners A's wheat field so this is where the "law" comes into place and landowner A can force landowner B to control the rabbits on his ground.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Here's a few I saw today, all in the same field.


----------



## ScopinYotes (Jan 31, 2012)

Oh. My. Goodness. I would do anything to have all those rabbits around here. It's so hard to find any in my area


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Most had already vanished by the time I took the photo's!


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Same hard to come by that in my area.....on the other hand, i can see what you were saying about landowner a and b it makes percet cents......AS for those rabbits a silenced .22 with subsonic ammo they would all be gone...and no one would ever know


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

All-Around-Outdoorsman said:


> AS for those rabbits a silenced .22 with subsonic ammo they would all be gone...and no one would ever know


Do you really think they'll all sit there and let you pick them off one by one!?


----------



## All-Around-Outdoorsman (Feb 7, 2012)

Only if im lucky matt


----------



## dizdiz200 (May 7, 2012)

wow!!!!! looked at the pics thats insane. im sure elmer could finally get him one there.. i bet that would be fun for awhile then get really boring or turn into a job like fishing if i went and caught 10lb bass everytime i went i would eventually just quit fishing.


----------



## NattyB (Jan 5, 2012)

Scopinyotes, We get rabbit in IA whenever we have permission to hunt the groves near the farms. I only shoot em if my boys are with me and the rabbits are clear of the dogs, but we do see a bunch in NW, IA. Otherwise, I'd have to say look for ground like Matt's UK.

Matt, I was going to ask you when you practice? (I saw on another post you never go to a range.) ...Now I know. Suppose you couldn't post a rabbit as your favorite reactive target because that was against the rules. RS, NattyB


----------



## NattyB (Jan 5, 2012)

...And all this time I thought Mr. MacGregor was the bad guy. I tell you the truth needs to get out! RS, NattyB


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

NattyB said:


> .Matt, I was going to ask you when you practice? (I saw on another post you never go to a range.)


I don't practice anything as I don't see the need to.


----------



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Stonegod said:


> You don't "see the need to" because your already as good as you can possibly be


Sorry to be big headed but that's about where we are at, whats the difficulty in knowing your rifle and what it can do.


----------

