Thread: bunny huntin with a hand gun

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Excuse my hunting ignorance, but are the dogs herding the rabbits to you, or do they just follow the rabbit's scent once they find it? I would have thought the former, but it looks more like the latter.

Depends on the dogs, the rabbits and the cover.

In most cases the dogs flush the rabbits. When the rabbits
break cover and run ya pop 'em...

I have hunted jack rabbit in Wyoming and Arizona... where
shots of 40 yards are needed. I used a 357 handgun
and picked off the ones that circled back when my friends
with a 22 rifle spooked them. i.e. I cheated and never
took the long shots No dogs for jack rabbits... binoculars
or a scope finds them in the shadows.

Some dogs point and then when you release them to flush the rabbit
or bird you pop 'em.

Rabbits can be "herded" not like cattle but pushed up against a
rabbit fence and into an enclosure. Driven is a better way to describe
it. In this case a hand net and club not a gun would be used to dispatch 'em.
There were some astounding rabbit roundups in Australia and in the
dust bowl/ depression days community rabbit roundup were not uncommon.

Rabbit is interesting... it can be too low on fat and not healthy
all by itself. Rabbit can also be infested with parasites. Tularemia
or rabbit fever while uncommon should be understood if you hunt them.

It can be "good eats" but in the US the easter bunny has confused
the market. Cook it like old lean chicken.

we do not shoot the rabbit on the jump or what some call flushing. if i did that i would not need to have dogs. thats jump shooting. they do not herd bunnies. our dogs jump the rabbit from the cover then the rabbit runs and leaves scent then our hounds use there nose and follow or run the scent pushing the rabbit forward. a bunny will do what most beaglers call circling the bunny.a bunny will stay in its home area and circle but sometimes the bunny will take the hounds out of hearing then come back to it`s home area or where the hounds jumped it. if it is not shot or go in the hole it will keep circling with the hounds hot on its scent. our hounds are breed to run a med speed and the bunny is around 30 to fifty yards in front of them. on a good scent days sometimes they get much closer. they run to catch just at a med speed and our bred for staying on the scent witch we call line control. if any of you guys want to see our hounds run the rabbit come to ohio and you will have a good time. after about 30 yeas of doing this its all about listening to a pack of hounds hot on scent. a hound will only open or bark on a hot rabbit scent.