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The best rabbit hunting tips can help you become a more successful rabbit hunter. Rabbits reproduce a lot and it is very tasty. If you are a beginner rabbit hunter and would like to take more home, then incorporating some of these hunting tips will improve your hunting game.
Best Rabbit Hunting Tips
1. Wounded Rabbit
After shooting at a rabbit and you think you have missed it, check around in a circular area of about 20 feet. Rabbits run a little distance and then stop and sit tight when wounded.
2. A Fleeing Rabbit
When a rabbit is running away to safety, don’t give up hope. All is not lost. Keep an eye on a fleeing rabbit and be ready to take a shot as they often stop and look back to see if the danger is now out of range. Be prepared as this might be the chance you were waiting for to take a good shot at the rabbit.
You could also whistle or click your tongue if you know how to do it when rabbits are fleeing. This sound will cause it to stop and try to figure out what is the sound and where it is coming from. They don’t want to run into another danger. This may be another opportunity to take it down.
3. Dog Running A Rabbit
Don’t focus on your dog’s path as if it is running like a rabbit. Instead, pay attention to other directions as you may see other rabbits that may be trying to escape the action going on around them or other rabbits that are just sitting tight waiting for you to go past them.
4. Wear the Orange
For safety, wear an orange vest and hat as you might hunt rabbits in thick cover and don’t want to be mistaken for game by other hunters.
5. Late Season Rabbit Hunt
Late in the season is a great time to hunt rabbits as deer hunters may have stopped their hunting activities. You should find their food sources like the blackberry and raspberry bushes, clover, pine sapling stands, patches of greenbrier, honeysuckle, sumac, plum, cornfields, soybeans, clover, and rye.
6. Right Choke & Shot Size
Don’t use a tight choke for rabbits. For a shot of 10-25 yards, use an open barrel. For distances up to 35 yards, an improved cylinder will suffice. You really don’t need a modified or full choke because you won’t spot a rabbit deep in thick cover, therefore shotshells of sizes 4- 6 or 7-1/2 work well.
7. Use a Stick
Use a stick to beat on the edges of the thick cover when hunting rabbits without a dog. If you use a dog while hunting, this article on how to train your hunting dog will give you some tips to make the training successful.
8. Hunting A Rabbit On Cold Days
Rabbits are not blessed with great insulating fur for very cold weather. On frigid days, they shelter from the brutal cold which makes it easier to find them. Think about where you would go to protect yourself from the cold weather outdoors.
Rabbits will seek shelter from the cold weather and the places that will give them that protection should be placed to check when the weather is bad.
9. Windy Morning Rabbit Hunt
After a very cold night, on a windy morning, look for rabbits on the sunny and lee sides of ridges, forests, and brush rows.
10. Rabbits Circling You
When you are rabbit hunting in isolated patches of cover, you may often see one getting away. They often disappear and then circle behind you while others will sit tight and wait until you pass them. The key is to always glance over your shoulder often and just might spot some making their escape. This is when snap shooting comes into play.
11. Snowshoes Hunt
When you are hunting for Snowshoes, don’t focus on the areas where you find crisscrossing webs of Snowshoes tracks. They were there last night but are gone and maybe in the thickest cover of the swamps.
12. Spot the Rabbit’s Eyes
When hunting rabbits, it is a good technique to look for their eyes. You want to spot them before they see you. They have round, dark eyes that will look out of place against the crisscross of cover. You can easily spot it if you walk slowly and carefully examine all the brush and weeds.
13. Rabbit Scouts
You can get a lot of information about where to find rabbits from the farmer who owns the land you are hunting them on. Additionally, the deer hunter who has been hunting in that area will also be a good source of information about rabbits. He just may know where they usually hang out although he isn’t interested in hunting them.
14. Hunt the Woodlands
Thick cover, field edges, old barns, and similar areas are not the only places you can find rabbits. You can also find rabbits in the woods. Spots with fallen treetops, canebrakes, brush piles, honeysuckle patches, and other forest cover are also good areas to hunt rabbits. These areas receive less hunting pressure and therefore become a safe haven for many rabbits.
15. Be the Contrarian
Look for places that are overlooked by other hunters like abandoned sheds, warehouses, barns, broken-down farm machinery, small farms, and overlooked public hunting parcels. Overgrown fence rows, fallow fields, and brushy ditches are also prime places rabbits will frequent.
These areas usually have more cover than larger farms and attract rabbits. Quietly check those areas and you just might not believe how many rabbits you can get from there.
16. Stop-and-Go Technique
This technique takes advantage of the fact that rabbits can’t handle suspense very well and they are also very nervous animals. As you move through an area that you think they reside in, move slowly and then stop for about a minute. Then repeat this walking sequence. This sound makes them think they have been spotted and it flushes them out.
17. Dusk And Dawn Hunting
Rabbit’s behavior has changed due to our modern farming practices. Long ago they were most active during the daylight hours. However, that has changed. Rabbits are now often more active during the night, early hours, and when the daylight is fading away.
18. Zig-Zagging For Rabbits
When you are hunting for rabbits, zig-zagging or moving in a weaving pattern through cover, rather than moving in a straight line is a good strategy. This zig-zagging pattern alerts them and gets the rabbits out of their hiding spots.
19. Rabbits And Thick Cover
Rabbits use thick cover for concealment. When you are hunting rabbits, areas with dense vegetation will also be prime areas to focus on. Look for brushy hollows, overgrown hedgerows, corners of fields, and areas with tall grasses and weeds.
Fallow fields, clear-cuts, and railroad rights of way are also prime areas to check for rabbits. Most of these areas also have food sources for rabbits like fruits and tender forbs.
20. Use the Wind
When you go rabbit hunting, it is always a good idea to work into the wind. This will minimize the noise you create and also drive your scent away from the rabbits. This will allow you to get closer to their quarry before they set off.
21. Rabbits Signs
As you move to look for rabbits, keep your eyes open for signs of rabbit activity. Rabbit droppings, round small pellets in piles of a dozen or more, and cottontail runways are also good signs that rabbits are in that area.
The Bottom Line
Hunting rabbits is not a walk in the park. Rabbits are fast and elusive. The best rabbit hunting tips can help you be more successful in taking down more rabbits. If you are a rabbit hunting beginner, then these rabbit hunting tips can help you improve your hunting skills and put more rabbit meat on your dinner table.
You can also read how to hunt cottontail rabbits, how to hunt jackrabbits, how to hunt snowshoe hares, and the best squirrel hunting tips.