Where Are All The Rabbits?

[Shrapnel]

We took off yesterday with the side by side and a handful of guns. Lee, who is like a brother, and I are so crippled up, we can't hardly walk. Lee has been battling cancer and all the residue of cancer treatments and their negative effects to the body.

Me, I am waiting for 3 surgeries to get done to try and get back to some normality in my own life. One of the surgeries being a total knee, so my mobility was almost none. We were certainly a pair to draw to.

We have probably shot more cottontails than coyotes have killed over the years and this time of year is always our favorite hunting. Big game season is just a primer for the rest of the winter chasing cottontails.

I took a Beretta CX-4 Storm, A Colt SAA first generation in 44-40, A Whitney Kennedy SRC in 44-40, a Whitney Kennedy SRC in 45-60 and a Heckler and Koch P-7 M13.

Neither of us walked much at all. I was able to get at least one rabbit with each gun. It is hard to reconcile with the aging and conditions that contribute to your inability to be as mobile as you were just a few years ago...

[plowboy 45]

Plenty of rabbit stew in the days to come for shore
Mighty fine shootin
Sorry for your friends battle, lost my best friend a few years back to cancer at 47 years old and it's still perty tough
Hope you get better to



PLOWBOY

[Bill in Oregon]

You are fortunate to live in great cottontail country. What a great way to get out and beat the December blues!
Hear you about being partly stove in. No darned fun.

[Shrapnel]

Rabbits make winter something to look forward to and this year is a banner year...

[Pete44ru]

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That's sure a LOT of Hasenpfeffer in the makin', there !

Most rabbits hereabouts are living in close proximity to houses/etc - too dangerous, and illegal (here), to shoot.

To add insult to injury, the Partridge/Ruffed Grouse game birds have been closed to hunting (here) for almost 10 years now, due to very low numbers (LOTS of land here developed for housing).

My state's F&G Dept does stock Ringneck Pheasants on state land here - but hunting there is like hunting a WalMart parking lot (lots of vehicles, zillions of "hunters").

As a result, we've been chowing down on Venison, Raccoon (Roast-N'-Boast oven bag), and Gray Squirrel.


.

[Shrapnel]

.

That's sure a LOT of Hasenpfeffer in the makin', there !

Most rabbits hereabouts are living in close proximity to houses/etc - too dangerous, and illegal (here), to shoot.

To add insult to injury, the Partridge/Ruffed Grouse game birds have been closed to hunting (here) for almost 10 years now, due to very low numbers (LOTS of land here developed for housing).

My state's F&G Dept does stock Ringneck Pheasants on state land here - but hunting there is like hunting a WalMart parking lot (lots of vehicles, zillions of "hunters").

As a result, we've been chowing down on Venison, Raccoon (Roast-N'-Boast oven bag), and Gray Squirrel.


.

Speaking of grouse, it has been a banner year for them too...

[ollogger]

Great story & photos, hope you two have many more hunts together!!


ollogger

[44shooter]

Saiga grouse guns? Awesome!

[Griff]

Y'all sure make a boy jealous!!!

[Nath]

Good looking rabbits boys.
Glad your still getting out despite health problems.

N.

[Chuck 100 yd]

!!!

[Alan in Vermont]

Around here most of the rabbits and woodchucks end up inside coyotes. Used to be you could cruise the backroads and shoot woodchucks(right from the car, it didn't used to be illegal) before the ahy got too high or after it was cut. Rabbits were all over, in quantity, and used to bunch up as the hayfields were being cut, get down towards the middle of the field and there were rabbits going everywhere.

Since the coyotes moved in, starting maybe 35 yrs. ago, both of those critters, as well as grouse started dropping in numbers. I haven't seen a woodchuck in a cut-over hayfield in I-don't-know-how- long.

Doesn't really matter, can't road hunt anymore and I also don't have a good chuck gun the in closet either. My son gave me a gorgeous Ruger 77-22 Hornet but it's accuracy doesn't match up with it's looks, something on the order of minute-of-barn-door. It shoots so poorly that I can't stay interested in working with it to see if I can find something that will shoot. Whelen(I think it was) was right when he said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting!"

[gamekeeper]

I have forgotten what a rabbit looks like! Some virus has wiped them out near me, you guys sure did good, I'm jealous...

[earlmck]

Egads! That pile of bunnies constitutes more rabbits than live in Central Oregon anymore. I don't know what has happened but we hardly have jack rabbits anymore, let alone cottontails. I am quite envious -- rabbit is my favorite target.

And you're going to really like your new knee, Shrapnel. I have got two of them this year (both mine were equally bad, so I had them done about 2 months apart). It is a pain in the tush for about 2 weeks while you are still hooked to the sock-pump and the ice machine, but about the time you get the stitches (or staples more likely) out you get to shed those extra acoutrements and life starts getting progressively better. I think it was about week 7 or 8 after the surgery that I was able to begin making a pretty decent hike once again, and they keep getting a little better and a little stronger even now after 8 months. The doc tells me that will be how it goes a while yet -- a full year for total function but you get over 50% in the first 3 months.

[Daisyman]

Good shootin!! That's a lot of bunnies!! We have a lot of cottontails here in southern Iowa for a change. All of our game is starting to increase some. We had some brutal springs about 10 years back (along with coons, coyotes, turkeys, hawks, and a loss of habitat)( oh, and now bobcats) and we're just now getting back a little toward normal.

[Daisyman]

.

That's sure a LOT of Hasenpfeffer in the makin', there !

Most rabbits hereabouts are living in close proximity to houses/etc - too dangerous, and illegal (here), to shoot.

To add insult to injury, the Partridge/Ruffed Grouse game birds have been closed to hunting (here) for almost 10 years now, due to very low numbers (LOTS of land here developed for housing).

My state's F&G Dept does stock Ringneck Pheasants on state land here - but hunting there is like hunting a WalMart parking lot (lots of vehicles, zillions of "hunters").

As a result, we've been chowing down on Venison, Raccoon (Roast-N'-Boast oven bag), and Gray Squirrel.

How in thunderation do you fix a raccoon fit to eat? I go to the Ikes game feed every year, and I've never had coon that was fit to eat. And those guys are darned good at fixing all the rest! Does that oven bag mean it's already bagged up for when you throw it out???


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[M. M. Wright]

Boy Shrapnel, I really like your "Frontier Six Shooter". Roll marked barrel or etched panel? Either way, handgunning for bunnies is one of my favorite shooting sports.

I hope you get along well with your new knee. Prayers up for that.

[Shrapnel]

Roll stamped, shipped to Texas...

[RIHMFIRE]

congrats on the pesky wabbits and grouse! Looks like you had a great time. nice iron too!