Two Rabbits

[EigerWand]

I'll start with these. A bit smaller than what the Grendel is capable of but "Aim small, Hit small."

Here I am in the Tongariro National Park.
This is the sort of country I was hunting. More like where you might expect to see a hare and there's certainly plenty of sign of them.

Ruapehu tree scene 600px91kb.jpg

I was looking for deer, really, but didn't get one this trip. Early in the morning, watching and scanning for bigger game, I spotted this one at 103m and had a good reast lying over my pack.

Ruapehu Rabbit Best 600px84kb.jpg

In New Zealand we have "rabbits" imported from England. They had originally been imported there from the vicinity of Spain around 1400 AD. This is Oryctolagus cuniculus. I hear you have a lot of different sorts of rabbits in the States - would be interested to hear about them and see a few pics.

A couple of months later I was out on a farmland block, looking for goats. A rabbit hopped out of the gorse bushes but, unfortunately for him, there was one still between him and me so I was obscured. Kneeling, I could see him between branches and I knew the 123gr bullet could withstand touching some vegetation on the way through if needed. It was about 30m.

Rabbit and Grendel 500px92kb.jpg

Rabbit hole 600pxcompr.jpg

[Old Bob]

In North America there are around 20 species of Cottontail rabbits, 5 species of Jack Rabbits (actually hares) & Snowshoe Hares.

Cottontail.jpg BlacktailJackRabbit.jpg SnowshoeHare-Summer.jpg SnowshoeHare-Winter.jpg

In deer hunting camp, when I was in my early teens, my dad would give me 5 .22 long rifle cartridges & his old single shot .22. My job was to bag 5 cottontails for camp meat. My dad would say, "Shoot 'em through the eye, son. It don't ruin any meat."

[EigerWand]

Thanks Bob, interesting to see.
That Jack Rabbit is a strange looking beast.
Are you allowed to hunt all of those or does it depend where you are ?

[mel]

Thanks Bob, interesting to see.
That Jack Rabbit is a strange looking beast.
Are you allowed to hunt all of those or does it depend where you are ?

were im at in utah u can pretty much shoot the jackrabbits all year long do to massive over population , this year though they are asking u do not shoot them due to a disease running threw the population wiping a good majority of them out

[Old Bob]

Thanks Bob, interesting to see.
That Jack Rabbit is a strange looking beast.
Are you allowed to hunt all of those or does it depend where you are ?

I don't know if any of those bunnies can't be hunted in the USA. I was thinking the blacktailed jack rabbit might be a threatened species but I couldn't find anything to verify that. The info mel already gave might move them to threatened in that locale only.

The big ears on the jack rabbit are their radiators. They help them maintain a safe body temperature. Jack rabbits are just barely edible. Low, slow BBQ is the best way to cook 'em but roasted over hot campfire coals is the way I've cooked them the most. I won't touch any rabbit in the summer... fleas!