Rabbit techniques

[Dakotian]

Of all the species of animals that I have hunted rabbits are most certainly my favorite, however I always just wing it when it comes to just about everything involved. So since my luck on thinning the herd of such a great number of rabbits in my woods has been less than somewhat not successful, I find myself wondering what techniques should I be using when it comes to rabbit hunting, stalking, searching, tracking and shooting. What do you all find works best?

[Coo-wah-chobee]

D- shoot close-no more than 10 yds or so-herr' rabbit is a small target-searching i dont know since i dont know the country. look close up to you forget 30 yds away-rabbits hide in  what you and i would consider ridiclulously small cover. I use blunts myself-if you see rabbit go into cover shoot just inside cover. Stalk very slow-and dont make direct eye contact- thats about all i can tell you-wish we still had plenty of cottontails down south here but fire ants have taken care of that-but we still have marsh rabbits a bit different- still fun-dont taste as good as hossenpfeffer though-good luck-bob

[Little John]

I don't have any special techniques, I just get out and hunt. Sometimes I will get a shot and sometimes I even conect. Use an arrow that will kill. I use broadheads. good luck and have fun.   kenneth

[Hillbilly]

I like to track them down when it snows. I don't threaten the population too much with a bow, either, but it's fun.

[jamie]

when you take the shot look at its head . the best placement for a shot is the head and shoulder area. hit the head and its done. hit the shoulders and it wont be able to go anywhere. i prefer blunts especially judos for rabbits. ive just about cut small game in half with broadheads and the animals still have enough in em to run for a hole or up a tree. thats why i like the head and shoulders and blunt trauma on small critters.

[MattE]

Jamie, I found out the same as you that broad heads arn't good for rabbits. I remember shooting one rabbit with a broadhead that ran 20 yards and the arrow entered just behind the rear leg and exited in front of the opposite front leg.I can't for the life of me see how that rabbit could even move, much less run 20 yards.
 I have shot many a rabbit with a shotgun and they seem to fall at the sound of the gun. Some of them look like they wern't even hit but cutting them up with a broadhead seems to energize them for a few minutes.

[SteveO]

 I've found judos work really well for rabbits but I have trouble getting them through the surroundings to the rabbit. Seems one prong always catches on something in between. I make my rabbit arrows from .38 cases with a finish nail bent back to make a barb. I de-cap the cases and then drill a hole through the case for the nail. I grind a notch on the nail near the center, then insert it into the hole, put the case and nail on my powder scale and add lead shot until it all weighs 125 grains. When I stand the case on a metal surface and hit it with a propane torch, the lead melts, flowing into the primer pocket and solidifying around the notch in the nail shank, keeping it from pulling out. I just center punch them at three or so places to hold them onto the shaft. After it's cool I bend the nail back for barbs.

 They hit a little harder than straight blunts and will usually stay in a rabbit, hanging up on everything he's trying to run through, slowing him down until he cashes in. Of course, as already said, a hit in the head or shoulders kills hit right there.They usually will bend and/or come off with a hard surface hit without breaking the shaft. A new one just slips on and you're good to go.

 I get most of my rabbits along the tracks, shooting downward. If I can get another hunter to go along, we can leapfrog along, one going quietly down the center of the rails a hundred yards or so and taking up a stand, then the second one busting through the brush along the right of way pushing rabbits to the first guy. I have had quite a bit of success like that, usually getting lots of shots. If I had some beagles, I think they would be perfect for bowhunting rabbits in thick stuff where the rabbit moves ahead of the dogs at a pace slower than over open ground.

Steve.

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[jamie]

oooooooooh i like

[Justin Snyder]

My rabbit technique is to go out the back door before daylight, sneak along the block wall out into the street without the neighbors seeing me. Sneak the 50 yards to the dumpster at the park. Now the hard part is over.  Now I just need to lean around the dumpster and make the 10 yard shot and kill the bunnies that have come out of the river bottom to eat the grass. Oh and then sneak back to the house with my prize before the neighbors see me.  Justin

[Coo-wah-chobee]

Surburan huntin'-huh?

[billy]

I've only killed 2 rabbits (one cottontail, and one jackrabbit).  But both were taken with stone points.  The first was the jackrabbit, and I shot it at about 12 feet with a small, mini-clovis shaped arrowhead.  It went through the chest, sliced the side of its heart, and knocked it over.  The rabbit squealed, kicked, then righted itself and ran in a large half circle.  I waited about a minute, then followed the blood trail (yeah, that's right..the blood trail!).  As soon as the blood trail started to dwindle, I looked up and there was my jackrabbit, laying dead behind a sage bush. 

The second rabbit was taken at about 12 yards with a point made from the bottom of a beer bottle.  I missed the first shot and the rabbit ran under a juniper tree.  I threaded the second arrow right through all the branches, hitting the rabbit in the lower back on the right side.  The point came out right behind its left shoulder.  I ran up to the tree and that rabbit wasn't going anywhere...he just kicked a few times, then quickly died.

I did shoot a cottontail with a blunt, but hit it in the guts....it ran with the arrow hanging out of it and disappeared into some rocks.  I never found that rabbit.  I also shot a small cottontail with a stone-tipped rivercane arrow this summer, but I also hit that rabbit in the guts.  That arrow zipped right through the rabbit, and he ran off into the brush and I never found him either.

So I think its about shot placement...the ones I've shot with stone points, as long as they have been in the vitals, are very quickly fatal.         

[Titan_Bow]

 It depends on your local terrain I guess, but heres what works for us out on the eastern plains of Colorado.  We will slowly stalk through the yukka and sage, and you will usually jump them up.  I look for draws,  depressions, any slight terrain feature that might afford some protection from the elements.  Out here in the open terrain, once you jump a cottontail, he'll usually run, but usually not more than a 100 yards or so. Then you can pinpoint exactly where they stopped, and make your stalk from there.  This usually works well, and I've noticed that the closer to dark (either early morning or late evening), the less distance the rabbits tend to run once you jump 'em up.
 On points, I have found that the regular steel blunts tend to work best on cottontails, and broadheads on jackrabbits.  I would not recommend using judos unless you are sure you are going to make head shots.  If you hit them anywhere in the body, I find that the judo spring arms drag fur and dirt into the would channel, making it almost impossible to completely clean, and I usually have to just cut around the judo wound, wasting meat.  The regular steel blunt does not drag fur and dirt into the wound, and if you happen to hit one in the hind quarter, you dont waste meat, because you can clean the wound channel out without wasting the whole hind quarter.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

  Wow_nice bunch of Hossenpfeiffer !-bob

[Dustybaer]

bob, please don't take this wrong, but you gave me a good chuckle this morning.  the dish you're referring to is "Hasenpfeffer", consisting of the words Hase = rabbit or hare and Pfeffer = pepper.  However, Hose = pants and Pfeiffer = whistler, so you may have called them pants-whistlers, which reminded me of a body function, the bunnies may perform when they see a primitive archer approaching 

[Coo-wah-chobee]

  Ha-ha-ha- i was wondering if you would pick up on it ?hhh-bob