# Rabbits



## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Has anyone been out to their "Honey Hole" to hunt rabbits this winter? 

How are the populations compared to last year? 

Our spot seemed to be near the peak of its cycle last year and am trying to predict whether the drive will be worth it or not by asking how others have been doing.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Way down... last year was epic, like 1980s epic. Prolly never see numbers like that again in my lifetime. 11 year cycle my ass. 


-DallanC


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

Pretty sure everyone in Utah got .22 rifle for Christmas. 
We went out and there were no rabbits to be found. Lot and lots of human tracks out in the desert.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I witnessed my honey hole bust before the end of winter.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

It's not a very good cottontail year here. What few cottontails we have are very spooky. 

Good numbers of jack rabbits.

Lots of coyotes.

.


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

More Jacks this year. Less cottontails. Less pygmys. We had a great Jack shoot one afternoon last week, but they were skittish. Saw 300+ jacks, 20ish cottontails, and 1 pygmy in 3 hours. Good times.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Our area seems to run a 7yr cycle and was very good last season. I'm hoping to at least find a handful of jacks to make the drive worth it.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

My honey hole is a private little piece where they all run from surrounding public ground. Must have seen 100 or so, 30% of which were cottons. Every bit as good as last year.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

DallanC said:


> Way down... last year was epic, like 1980s epic. Prolly never see numbers like that again in my lifetime. 11 year cycle my ass.
> 
> -DallanC


I believe it is a 14 year cycle. I look at it like a bell curve whose halves represent 7 years. So the peaks are actually 14 years apart.

Many people say there is a 7 year cycle. What I believe they fail to recognize is that it takes 7 years to reach the first peak, followed by 7 years of decline, followed by 7 years that approach a peak in population.

Just my own observation here, but it really seems logical in my observations.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Finally got out there this weekend and I have to say that there were as many if not more rabbits available to shoot this year than last.

I downed 13 my buddy downed 17 and the 3 kids only shot 1 between them. If we had been able to get through the deep snow with 2" crust better we would have absolutely slayed them suckers! Guess I'll drive back out there once the snow melts a bit.

I did get to shoot one with my .204 Ruger for the first time...not much left of that jackrabbit, rifle performed as expected.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

KineKilla said:


> Finally got out there this weekend and I have to say that there were as many if not more rabbits available to shoot this year than last.
> 
> I downed 13 my buddy downed 17 and the 3 kids only shot 1 between them. If we had been able to get through the deep snow with 2" crust better we would have absolutely slayed them suckers! Guess I'll drive back out there once the snow melts a bit.
> 
> I did get to shoot one with my .204 Ruger for the first time...not much left of that jackrabbit, rifle performed as expected.


I've got a retriever that will go pick up your rabbits for you, if you could just figure out how to keep her from EATING them. :grin:


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

LostLouisianian said:


> I've got a retriever that will go pick up your rabbits for you, if you could just figure out how to keep her from EATING them. :grin:


Mighty fine offer but I don't retrieve jackrabbits, I leave them for the coyote's.


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## whacknstack4 (Jan 17, 2017)

All the places ive been out to hunt this year have been some of the best hunting ive seen in awhile. Seems like the jacks are really on a rebound, havent seen as many cottontails though. Went out to our favorite area two weeks ago and between 5 of us we shot close to 150 jacks. Pretty dang fun time lol


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Gotta love the .204!

Its amazing how much damage that little 32-40gr bullet does.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*bunnies in the southwest WY part of Utah*



whacknstack4 said:


> All the places ive been out to hunt this year have been some of the best hunting ive seen in awhile. Seems like the jacks are really on a rebound, havent seen as many cottontails though. Went out to our favorite area two weeks ago and between 5 of us we shot close to 150 jacks. Pretty dang fun time lol


My observations for the southwest Wyoming part of Utah:

We have same numbers of Mountain Cottontails as last year.

There's a few less Pygmies this winter.

Jack rabbit numbers are up substantially.

Desert Cottontails have pretty much crashed. (Geeze, I wonder what happens to all those rabbits?)

.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Desert Cottontails have pretty much crashed. (Geeze, I wonder what happens to all those rabbits?)
> 
> .












-DallanC


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

wyogoob said:


> Desert Cottontails have pretty much crashed. (Geeze, I wonder what happens to all those rabbits?)


This.....


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

gdog said:


> This.....


Gawd, I can see the fleas squirting out between my fingers.

So I went out to that place a couple times this year. Lots of jacks, coyotes and Rough-legged Hawks. Even seen a Great-horned owl hunting rabbits in the middle of the afternoon. The snow is like waist-deep in the Big Sagebrush.

.

.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Gdog that looks just like that guy that helped you on the swan hunt!!Man he gets around.


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Dunkem said:


> Gdog that looks just like that guy that helped you on the swan hunt!!Man he gets around.


Hey...yeah...wonder if they're related 8)

...those flea's were bad news...making me itch now thinking about it. Should have taken some video of it...have to remember that for next time.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Gonna run out to a place this weekend, gonna give the old truck a workout in the snow. Lots of jacks there last year.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

DallanC said:


> -DallanC


Yeah, the predators are cyclic, follow the food. In the 36 years I've been involved in the Christmas Bird Count this year was the second best for numbers of hawks, mostly Rough-legged and Northern Harriers. We don't have too many Red-tailed Hawks here in the winter.

That's a neat picture.

I have a story to tell:

1969
Me and a pal where pheasant hunting in Illinois. I came upon a big ole Red-tailed Hawk perched on a fence post. I walked right up to the hawk and just grabbed him. The bird acted kinda sick and I was certain he was injured. So I threw the hawk in my day pack (GI surplus rucksacks in those days) and hunted the fence row out to the car. When I got in the car I let the hawk out of the bag in the back of my station wagon. The poor guy just sat there, sick.

About half-way home the hawk came to life and started flying around inside the station wagon. Good grief for the icy roads. I slid to a stop and then let the angry bird out. Man, he was anxious let me tell ya. The back of the wagon had globs of fur and stuff the hawk had puked up. (uh...the front of the station wagon had beer spilled all over it) I didn't know any better. The hawk had a belly full of rabbit when I took him off the fence post and he couldn't fly away.

Those were the days. 

.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

I hads the opportunity to watch a hawk try and take a pheasant, well that didn't work out for the hawk, he left in a hurry and a pissed pheasant came out looking all kinds of mad


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