Rabbit Hunting Tips >> Rabbit Hunting Beagles

The cottontail hunting season has always been year-long in many parts of the United States and the bag limit has been 10 rabbits per day for many years. Although some hunters consider cottontail hunting with a .22 rifle as their primary activity, cottontails traditionally have been taken in different areas in conjunction with dove and quail hunting. As a consequence of the wide fluctuations in both cottontail and quail numbers, the annual take of cottontails is highly erratic, ranging from a reported high of about 850,000 rabbits in 1979 to less than 56,000 in 1998. The mean number of hunters reportedly hunting this animal during the past 10 years has been well over 18,000 and their average take has been 91,915 rabbits per year.

The cottontail rabbit is a medium-sized (36 to 48 cm in length, weighing from 0.80 to 2 kg) rabbit. It prefers open country lands, such as spots with few brush, barrier rows, fields of high grass, tangled groves and mounded brush. Cottontails will eat generally green plants of any kind, counting poison ivy and throughout the winter, providing food is very few, they will chew on twigs and bark of shrubs and trees. These rabbits mate early, in mid-February but in the north limit of their range, they start mating in mid-March. The initial litter of 4 to 7 bunnies will be born 26 to 28 days afterward and the warren for the little rabbits is approximately 13cm deep, 18cm in length and 13cm wide. During their first 2 weeks, more than 2/3 die of hunger or exposure but they can also pass away if predators find them or if their mother dies. The numerous natural foes of the cottontail take in hawks, foxes, owls, weasels, coyotes, skunks, lynx and badgers.

If chased by a predator, a cottontail has a fascinating way of trying to get away: it makes some giant jumps to add distance from the enemy and then it sprints in zigzag pattern. This rabbit always runs from a foe in a trail that makes a large circle back to the exact place where it began running and every hunter knows this distinctiveness. So they make use of dogs to chase the rabbit and remain on the spot waiting for it to return.

If hunting without the help of beagles, it’s up to the hunter himself to jump the rabbits from cover and try to have a quick shot by the time they disappear. Hunters that choose to hunt with dogs let them do the work. Rabbit hunt and beagles, the adorable, loving, eager to please dogs, has been a very old tradition. When you are rabbit hunting with a hound, there is action all the time, dropping the chances of monotony in younger hunters. Most of the rabbit dogs are beagle hounds and from a single dog to an entire pack of hounds are used on an occasion. The dog or pack of dogs trails a rabbit by its scent, woofing till the little creature circles back to the hunter’s spot for a likely shot. Using good hunting beagles can be of great fun and also add many rabbits to your bag immediately.

Cottontail rabbit hunting can be great fun for old and young, beginner and expert, and it is a wonderful way to introduce young people to the sport of hunting. Rabbit hunting, with all the action it enhances, can still consist of peaceful, composed actions and rushed decisions, errors in judgment, confusion or snap-shooting are not needed. Restrain the urge to shoot at a rabbit on the jump if you’re hunting with a beagle, but instead leave the dog do the work and bring the rabbit near.
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