# A Weekend Exercise in Futility (Rabbit Hunting w/pics)



## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

Myself, *Bax, and one of our buddies decided we'd try rabbit hunting in Escalante over Memorial weekend. The other two guys have made a habit of spending their Pioneer Days down there for the last few years, and have had some success hunting rabbits down that way. *Bax and I try to get out at least a few times a year to bunny hunt, but it seems like our adventures near SLC tend to be more of long hikes with guns slung over our shoulders. I finally gave in and decided to go down with them to see what all the hype was about.

We left Friday morning to sunny skies, and had a decent drive down. Things started to cloud up around Red Canyon but when we hit the Bryce Canyon area, the skies opened up. For any of you who haven't been through this area, here's what you're missing out on:
[attachment=6:38i0l3sk]RedCanyon_RockForms.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

After some mid day rain, and a stop at Aunt Helen's (Bax's great-aunt), we made it out to the desert for some bunny busting. We only saw two on Friday. One that our buddy missed, and this one. (Gore courtesy of Bax and his new toy)
[attachment=5:38i0l3sk]BadassBax.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

The ground out there was pretty wet, and we ended up with 5 pounds of mud on each boot within ten steps.

The next day we awoke to more rain, which meant more mud. We hit up an area where Bax had found a deer shed last time he was down, and lucky me, I found it again! Shortly after that, we jumped two rabbits, our buddy missed one, and I managed to track down the other one after a first shot miss, and connected.
[attachment=4:38i0l3sk]TheOnlyOne.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

The rest of the day we walked around without seeing another jack. We saw a cottontail, but of course, off limits. We dealt with more rain, and as we found out once we made it out on Hole in the Rock road, more crowds and mud. We did notice that the desert was in bloom. I wish I had taken more pics of some of the cacti that were flowering, but I didn't. Here's a sample of the springtime colors.
[attachment=3:38i0l3sk]DesertInBloom.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

Sunday morning we were greeted by sunshine, so we decided to take a drive over the Hog's back to Calf Creek, and hike to the Upper Falls. Its not too long of a hike, but the hike out is a fairly steep one!
[attachment=2:38i0l3sk]UpperCCFalls.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

We got a good view of a dark thunderhead that was rolling in as we hiked out.
[attachment=1:38i0l3sk]StormBrewing.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

We were glad to finish our hike and be back to the truck before it hit us. We decided to drive around Hell's Backbone to get back to Escalante, and this is where the storm hit. Marble sized hail pelted the truck and made for very slick roads. Our buddy was driving his new Tacoma, and not wanting the hail to dent things up, he made the mistake of trying to pull off the road so he could get shelter from a big cottonwood. As soon as he started to turn towards the shoulder, Bax and I about lost it. He ended up getting stuck pretty good in 6 inches of clay mud, and it took some coaching to get him back on the road.

Hell's Backbone:
[attachment=0:38i0l3sk]HellsBackbone.JPG[/attachment:38i0l3sk]

That about did it for our Sunday. We tried to call coyotes, with no success, and our friend managed to bag his rabbit for the weekend.

We each only bagged one Jackrabbit the whole weekend. One each day. It was unbelievable. Plenty of sign, but very few rabbits. We keep trying to hypothesize what might have caused the number of bunnies to be so low, and we tried a few different tactics while we hunted them, but we just couldn't find them.

All in all, a fun weekend away from the city, with plenty of exercise, and lots of pretty scenery.


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## legacy (Sep 30, 2007)

Looks like some fun times! Great pics!


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

love the looks of the arrr


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

I was a bit disappointed with this trip because the weather was so crummy and it was hard to get out where I usually go because the roads were so slippery and muddy. But it was nice to get away from SLC and see some pretty country.
Chaser made a pretty nice shot on that jack he killed. It made a big poof of hare hair :lol:


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

So....I guess Bax* is probably not going to let me have the new rifle?? Dang....  

Nice country you guy's went to, last time over the Backbone for me was in a motor home, we ran into a herd swarming bees, no where pull off. Too slow with the windows, the bro got nailed about 27 times, me 3, and the motorhome got hit around 1200 times. 
Glad you got out of the valley. You guy's must know something I don't, I've never really seen jacks down in the country...cottontails, yotes and snakes is all I've ever seen...Good story !!


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

So what's up? not another pooch for *.45*? :lol:

Bax*- Looks like the new toy is shootin pretty good, how's that scope work in the field? 8)

Looks like a good trip.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

sawsman said:


> So what's up? not another pooch for *.45*? :lol:
> 
> Bax*- Looks like the new toy is shootin pretty good, how's that scope work in the field? 8)
> 
> Looks like a good trip.


It shoots well, just hard to get used to.
One thing that Chaser failed to mention is that it took me 3 shots to hit my jack at about 20 feet away! I shot under him twice because I was sighted in for 100 yards so I missed the first two times I shot  I didnt take into consideration how close he was. Duh!


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## cornerfinder (Dec 4, 2008)

OMG those are great pictures


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

That looks like a ton o'fun! Makes me think I need to get out after the raggits more. Great pics


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