Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
04-09-2004, 11:49 PM
#2
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the Great Plains
Posts: 351
RE: Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
Hey there,
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't get rabbits without a dog. If you can, find an old barnyard with lots of sheet metal and junk with high grass grown up around them. Stomp them out real, I mean REAL well. If there's a rabbit in there, it may hold, but you can eventually jump 'em. If you can't find a barnyard, go to a pasture with some strains of brush strewn across it or a dry creekbed trenching across it, then walk and stomp these areas out real well. More than one person is helpful, then one shooter can cover each side of the brush. I was on a pheasant hunt where 15 guy or so were stomping across fields like this. Rabbits were everywhere. Sometimes I'd break from the line and backtrack to where I saw a rabbit. They will often run a short ways and stop suddenly, offering a shot, but you'll probably get a lot of shots on the run. You have to lead them well. If they don't see you, they'll probably circle back to where they were jumped at. Really, just act like a beagle would, except you can't sniff them out! The key, in my opinion, is to find some sort of brush or pile of junk or twigs in the middle of a yard or pasture and flush it out. Then if you flush more than one you can get a shot and watch where the others went. Good luck!
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't get rabbits without a dog. If you can, find an old barnyard with lots of sheet metal and junk with high grass grown up around them. Stomp them out real, I mean REAL well. If there's a rabbit in there, it may hold, but you can eventually jump 'em. If you can't find a barnyard, go to a pasture with some strains of brush strewn across it or a dry creekbed trenching across it, then walk and stomp these areas out real well. More than one person is helpful, then one shooter can cover each side of the brush. I was on a pheasant hunt where 15 guy or so were stomping across fields like this. Rabbits were everywhere. Sometimes I'd break from the line and backtrack to where I saw a rabbit. They will often run a short ways and stop suddenly, offering a shot, but you'll probably get a lot of shots on the run. You have to lead them well. If they don't see you, they'll probably circle back to where they were jumped at. Really, just act like a beagle would, except you can't sniff them out! The key, in my opinion, is to find some sort of brush or pile of junk or twigs in the middle of a yard or pasture and flush it out. Then if you flush more than one you can get a shot and watch where the others went. Good luck!
04-13-2004, 06:33 AM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Central Ohio
Posts: 8,561
RE: Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
I rabbit hunt without dogs a lot. Find some woods near a corn field. Drive the edge of the woods, or walk the edge of the corn field for a while. You'll jump some bunnies.
Someone else posted a strategy once for hunting rabbits with a .22: Walk an open area where you know there are rabbits. When you jump one, freeze. The rabbit will run about 20 feet and freeze. Take all the time you need to aim, 'cause he'll sit there frozen for a while.
I didn't know this would work, then, one day in my yard, I scared a rabbit. Actually, it startled me too. Anyway, I froze, the rabbit ran a little and stopped. I just stood there and looked at him for about 20 - 30 seconds. I finally stomped my feet to get him to run away.
Someone else posted a strategy once for hunting rabbits with a .22: Walk an open area where you know there are rabbits. When you jump one, freeze. The rabbit will run about 20 feet and freeze. Take all the time you need to aim, 'cause he'll sit there frozen for a while.
I didn't know this would work, then, one day in my yard, I scared a rabbit. Actually, it startled me too. Anyway, I froze, the rabbit ran a little and stopped. I just stood there and looked at him for about 20 - 30 seconds. I finally stomped my feet to get him to run away.
04-13-2004, 09:34 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Somewhere in Michigan
Posts: 5,702
RE: Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
Sometimes I do better without the dog, just walk quietly through brushy areas and kick little piles of cover brushpiles etc, it is also really easy to track them after fresh snow and then jump shoot them.
04-14-2004, 06:39 AM
#6
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location:
Posts: 104
RE: Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
Couldn't have put it better myself! Do you live in Minnesota? LOL! My dad and I drive around and find a farm, WITH LIVESTOCK (very important), and a real good grove with lots of brush piles and other junk. The best groves I've found are the ones with all that junk at ONE END ONLY and some heavy ground cover everywhere else. The driver just walks really slowly, zig-zagging through the grove while the stander sits still as high as he can get. Those bunnies just come hopping along real slow most of the time! We had one grove, no more than 50 yards long, that we hunted. I would have to STALK up to an old car and quietly climb onto the roof. I could normally tag one or two just sitting in the sun as I got there. When my dad hit the other end of the grove, you'd see rabbits running RIGHT FOR THE CAR!!!! The shooting is fast-paced and there's a good chance you'll run out of shells! I shot TWENTY (our daily limit) in just that one grove! LOL! We hunted for maybe 15 minutes and had 20 rabbits! Thankfully, I ran out of shells or we would've been over the limit! It's a blast and I've3 hunted rabbits like this my whole life... never used a dog before.
That
's
That
Hey there,
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't get rabbits without a dog. If you can, find an old barnyard with lots of sheet metal and junk with high grass grown up around them. Stomp them out real, I mean REAL well. If there's a rabbit in there, it may hold, but you can eventually jump 'em. If you can't find a barnyard, go to a pasture with some strains of brush strewn across it or a dry creekbed trenching across it, then walk and stomp these areas out real well. More than one person is helpful, then one shooter can cover each side of the brush. I was on a pheasant hunt where 15 guy or so were stomping across fields like this. Rabbits were everywhere. Sometimes I'd break from the line and backtrack to where I saw a rabbit. They will often run a short ways and stop suddenly, offering a shot, but you'll probably get a lot of shots on the run. You have to lead them well. If they don't see you, they'll probably circle back to where they were jumped at. Really, just act like a beagle would, except you can't sniff them out! The key, in my opinion, is to find some sort of brush or pile of junk or twigs in the middle of a yard or pasture and flush it out. Then if you flush more than one you can get a shot and watch where the others went. Good luck!
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't get rabbits without a dog. If you can, find an old barnyard with lots of sheet metal and junk with high grass grown up around them. Stomp them out real, I mean REAL well. If there's a rabbit in there, it may hold, but you can eventually jump 'em. If you can't find a barnyard, go to a pasture with some strains of brush strewn across it or a dry creekbed trenching across it, then walk and stomp these areas out real well. More than one person is helpful, then one shooter can cover each side of the brush. I was on a pheasant hunt where 15 guy or so were stomping across fields like this. Rabbits were everywhere. Sometimes I'd break from the line and backtrack to where I saw a rabbit. They will often run a short ways and stop suddenly, offering a shot, but you'll probably get a lot of shots on the run. You have to lead them well. If they don't see you, they'll probably circle back to where they were jumped at. Really, just act like a beagle would, except you can't sniff them out! The key, in my opinion, is to find some sort of brush or pile of junk or twigs in the middle of a yard or pasture and flush it out. Then if you flush more than one you can get a shot and watch where the others went. Good luck!
04-14-2004, 09:37 PM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Spring, TX
Posts: 236
RE: Rabbit Hunting Without A Dog
I killed one today (no closed season here in Texas) just walking through the woods. I was walking an ATV trail that runs through some heavy brush and looking for turkey. I was walking at a very quiet and leisurely pace and heard a rustle in the bush just a few feet to my left. I looked over and the was a relly large rabbit maybe 10 or 15 feet away. He had only gone a couple feet and stopped. I was kind of hesitant to shoot because of the close range but a well placed head shot did the trick. Not a bit of meat or hide damaged. Let me tell ya, 20guage 3" #6 Heavy Shot turkey loads are more than effective on bunnies!
Especially at short range. May go with the 12ga mag next time though just for extra knockdown power.
Or I'll just take some more appropriate game loads for just such a case as this.
You don't need a dog you just need to hunt smart and slow down.
Anyway, that's my little story. Sure is gonna taste good tomorrow night with a couple of squirrels that were left over from last season, some rice and gravy and biscuits. MMMMMMMM!
Especially at short range. May go with the 12ga mag next time though just for extra knockdown power. Or I'll just take some more appropriate game loads for just such a case as this.You don't need a dog you just need to hunt smart and slow down.
Anyway, that's my little story. Sure is gonna taste good tomorrow night with a couple of squirrels that were left over from last season, some rice and gravy and biscuits. MMMMMMMM!
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