Once again, people bring a "home" critter and turn it loose with no natural predators -- few decades later it's a freaking pest.

Do they still do rabbit drives with dozens of hunters, well, shooters?

We are limited to stocked birds or regulated shooting grounds. It is "put and take" pheasant hunting, but it is all we've got today. Sure do miss the native birds of years ago. I use a 16 gauge for all my small game hunting. All the best...
Gil

For me, the prairie dog is my favorite small game to hunt. Managed to get a few last week before the blizzard.

Pheasants, when I can find them. All the best...
Gil

Pasture "Griz" with my underhammer buggy rifle.

Here in the UK it has to be the humble rabbit as well. My American friend tells me they are cottontail's, to me they are rabbits. No season, no bag limit and lot of ways to hunt them. I use my dogs to flush them, a shotgun to bag them, and the dogs to retrieve them. Then there is just sitting up and taking them with a rifle, close in it is with 22lr and moderator and out to about 200 yards a Hornet. Then when the rabbits don't want to come out to play we send ferrets into their burrows to flush them and pick them off with shotguns when they break cover. That can be really fast and furious with rabbits leaving their holes as if they had been fired from a gun.

John

Welcome JayB.

If all you have is cottontails over there, you would be suprised to no end to see a western JackRabbit which are many times larger than a cottontail. And if you think a JackRabbit is big... wait till you see a western Mountain "Hare". I've shot some that when sitting up are 28-30" tall to the tip of the ears, really big bunnies!


-DallanC

I'd like to put in a vote for the Belding's Ground Squirrel. About a third the size of a PD, the color of the dirt they live in and seldom still. They are only above ground for about five months so, Mother Nature is continually driving them eat, multiply, eat, eat eat. They are cannibalistic to the point that you can use their appetite for their brethern to get them to gather in a spot for shooting. Once, I observed a tiny dust cloud in a field and it was one squirrel dragging a dead one across the field for dinner. In April they have the litters and then you have six times as many targets. Of course most of them are the size of large mice. You really need to know your trajectory then. Great fun!

A17Shooter

DallanC,

I am off to Montana in the fall to visit my friend and then we are off to South Dakota to hunt whitetail, maybe I shall get to see some of these giant versions.

John

Hiya JayB, welcome to the site from a "local"! I went after some bunnies last year with a friend of mine and someone took a ferret. My friend was waiting for the rabbits to bolt, missed the first one and - in his excitement - shot the following ferret! Needless to say, he wasn't invited again and had to pay up for another Jill in the bargain. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one this side of the pond with a gun and the ability to type! Ha! Let me know how your trip went when you get back.

Yo! Chainsaw! So we populated Australia with a pest that has grown to plague proportions.......... are you referring to the rabbits or the Aussies? :) Ha! Ha! Seriously though mate, I believe we first took them out there as an easily kept food source due to the prolific nature of the buggers. After all, YOU try getting a herd of cows or pigs half way around the world on a little wooden boat - rabbits don't need so much room or food and Quantas wasn't quite up to the job at the time! Thought you guys spent most of your time shooting 'Roos and Abbo's anyway. Is that why you lost a lot of your long guns? Heard the government were getting shitty about shooting out there a while back. No change there then. "Sigh"

Rattlesnakes!!! Went to the ranch to tend my horses this morning. Shot two in and around the horses. Glad I carry my Mod 19 most of the time on the ranch. I hate cleaning Nickle plated revolvers. Not too happy about rattlesnakes either, at least not that close to the horses.

Cotton Tails, Jack Rabbits, Hairs are all the same! BUNNEY WABBITS and they are my favorite YUMMIE small game. BE VEWWY VEWWY QUIET.

popgun wrote:

Cotton Tails, Jack Rabbits, Hairs are all the same! BUNNEY WABBITS and they are my favorite YUMMIE small game. BE VEWWY VEWWY QUIET.

Doh! I had a nagging feeling this thread would evolve into bunnywabbit hunting


-DallanC

For me it has to be the prairie dog. I have forsaken all else to be able to make the trips to hunt them.