Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game How is small game in your area??

Saw some nice threads on guys bagging some squirrels.. Not much squirrel hunting in my area.. But the previous five to seven years cottontails were pretty scarce.. Now the coyote population has taken a nose dive, and this morning the dogs and I went out for a ride. Snowing, not an ideal day, but I left these two out for a run in a brush patch near a tumbled down old cabin.. With in minutes they had cottontails running everywhere.. Driving on up the road, I spotted several more near the brush line.. Got to one of my favorite ranches, and drove around the haystacks.. The jacks have been trimming the hay near the bottom of the stacks.. Looks like the cottontails and jacks have enjoyed a better life since the decline of our coyote populations. How are things in your area????

Squirrels everywhere, no quail, rabbits starting to rebound a little (killed 2 swamp rabbits yesterday) and lots of doves.

have seen more rabbits this year than in the previous 3 years combined...havent rabbit hunted in a few years, but will be doing so this month.

squirrels are also thick, and we've jumped a couple of coveys of quail on our farm this year...last few years we might only jump 1 or 2 singles, some years none, so was glad to see the birds making a slight comeback.

saw some sizable flocks of turkeys around some of the meadows a couple weeks ago....overall, things look good...

Looks like I picked the wrong time to stop deer hunting as deer and wild hogs are every where.Small game? Worst year for squirrels I've ever seen. Rabbits? Haven't seen one in years but know they're still here cause every pile of coyote scat has rabbit fur in it. Quail? Haven't seen one here since I was a kid. Doves? Nada.

If I want to see small game, I go to the wife's house in town. Squirrel, foxes, racoons, coyotes and deer in her back yard.

We have a good amount of squirrels. the only rabbits I see are in town. Very few pheasants and quail. Lotsa coyotes and coons.


maddog

Squirrel are fairly well distributed throughout South Central NC and the SC Midlands. Quail disappeared about 6 to 7 years ago. Likely gone forever. This past spring seemed to be a good one for rabbit reproduction as they are plentiful where decent cover exists but are spotty in more open areas.

Squirrels are very well represented, but cottontails almost disappeared during the 1980s as coyotes entered the area and almost wiped them out. The bobwhite has disappeared as well during the same time frame. Lots of predators and changes in land use. Sprays and bush hogs have eliminated much quail habitat. I am wondering if some parasite has also affected the quail population. Grouse have also gone missing. I have only flushed a couple during the past 5 years of deer hunting. Too many coyotes, foxes, hawks, bobcats, skinks, possums, and turkeys have played havoc on the upland game.

In the posts so far, the squirrels seem to be the common "survivor" in most areas..likely because they live mostly off the ground to help keep them a bit harder to capture.

My area seems steady in squirrel population. Rabbits have slowly been dying out over the last decade or two.

Quail around me were pretty good from about 1960 into the 90's...then many of the small grassy fencerows and strips were removed by farmers..Sadly I havent heard/seen a quail around me in the last few years.

Deer have been thinned dramatically also around me from timber/land clearing. Turkeys disappeared about the same time around me..

Coyotes seem to be quite vocal and plentiful in my area.

Sadly, I have lost all my privately owned hunting areas over the last few years due to landowner changes. I have a few acres of my own that fortunately I take quite a few squirrel off of each year, but most other game mentioned are all gone.

Dave

Last Saturday...

WOW!!, Shrap. Would love to get in on a hunt like that. More bunnies than I've seen in 20yrs.

Come on over, we are going again, Saturday...

SC: squirrels are plentiful though I think the grays are pushing out those raccoon looking fox squirrels. I see less of them in the neighborhood and almost none in the woods. Rabbits are pretty scarce.

NC: rabbits plentiful in the E and gray squirrels everywhere.

OH: rabbits everywhere, some squirrels mostly the gray/orange fox squirrels.

Haven't done much bird hunting last five years or so except turkey--lots of them in SC.

Northeastern Ohio: Squirrels everywhere, both Fox and Gray.. and of course, the occasional black phase. This year, I have seen more rabbits than I have in the past ten, combined; they must be on the upswing.

Grouse, not so much. Pheasants, here and there.

...and unfortunately, we have a truckload of coyotes.

Appreciate the "come on over" but have to pass for the time being. This is my last year to teach so make that offer next fall and I'll try to find my way out there. Never been to Montana but mean to remedy that.

rabbits everywhere until hunting season. i don't know what the hell happens to them between sept and jan. went out for a walk in fresh snow the other day and didn't see any tracks. this summer i was tripping over them. squirrels are cyclic in my hunting woods. been down the past few years. had a good mast last year so i hope this year will be good.

Here in central MO.,40 or 50 years ago we had lots of rabbits and it seemed every fence-row had a covey of quail. Nowadays rabbits are scarce(though I have seen few more the last couple of years)and the quail are just about gone.I haven't seen or heard a bobwhite on my land for maybe 15 years but I do see a rabbit or two.
Red and gray squirrels are very common...it seems like there are more of them now. We had 3 or 4 years of poor nesting conditions for the turkeys but last year was a good one and I see turkeys pretty regular.
We have a lot of doves nest here but nobody chops silage anymore and hog lots are almost a thing of the past so the first couple of days of the season they concentrate on the public area's sunflower fields and get worked over pretty hard then people start picking the early corn and before you know it there's stubble fields everywhere and the birds are scattered.

There's plenty of ducks around and geese are using farm ponds(that is something we didn't see around here when I was a youngster...geese on ponds).

We have good populations of dove, cottontail and swamp rabbit and squirrel. Quail are disappearing, but we have a decent populaiton of pheasant in central and western Oklahoma. Duck and goose hunting is good here also. 30 years ago I would ride around with some friends on the back of a flatbed farm truck and shoot jack rabbits. I haven't seem any in my area in years.

Perry

I'm in the Eastern Panhandle of WV.

Rabbits are common, except where I can hunt them. On the nearby WMA, I almost never see one, or even a track. Quail are scarce, but I see or hear some every so often, either in my yard or on the public park where I walk my dog. Squirrels, gray or fox, are generally very plentiful on the WMA, if there are some acorns. Doves all over, but it's very hard to get permission to hunt.

Surprisingly, there are a few pheasants about. There used to be a shooting preserve a few miles away. It closed at least ten years ago, but I see a bird now and again at the park I mentioned. Ringnecks are pretty smart and tough, and given some decent cover for nesting, they do okay.

All this makes me pine for the good old days, hunting In Adams County, PA. Wild pheasants, quail, bunnies and squirrels galore. Also woodcock, and doves by the barrel.

Another Saturday in the bunny fields...

Don't kill all of them Shrap, I'm coming out there next winter. Looks like I'll be needing a 95Win, a 73Win and several more.