Very cool and inspiring video. Thanks for sharing. I know this thread is a little old, but I felt it appropriate to comment because yesterday I harvested my first rabbit in maybe 2 decades. I hunt mostly big-game, and when I've had the opportunity to take a rabbit I've either passed or gave a kid the shot. I eat my share of junk like the rest of America, but I'm trying to push more toward eating as nature intended and I'm grateful that this rabbit will make its way to my table.
Cottontails are just fun and really excellent to eat! I've never gone "just rabbit hunting"--always was hunting quail or chukars out West or grouse and phez in the NYS and the Midwest. But rabbits kept me from getting skunked on some of those bird hunts and I always took them as "targets of opportunity," much to the amusement of my purist bird hunter buddies.
Began with a Win Model 37 .410 which was too big for me when I was 8 but I never outgrew it, and still haven't at nearly 78! A .410 is the perfect rabbit gun, IMO. Not the perfect bird gun, but I accept the handicap at least once a season, and stick to the really close shots. (It'll kill quail clean at 25-30 yards if you point it in the right direction! But I cheated when I was about 12 and had my gunsmith mentor rechoke my 37 to IC....).
Gonna try my TC Contender G2 with a 26" custom MGM VR .410 barrel soon this season. (Love the two TCs you guys showed, but I need a little more shotgun to hang onto!).
Mike Armstrong aka Mesa
Was Mike Armstrong. Got logged off; couldn't log back on. RE-registered my old call sign, Mesa. FNG. Again. Mike Armstrong
Hares were scarce where I lived near Troy. We found a few in the NYS side of the Green Mountains, but I never had my .410 with me and shot them with my regular bird gun, usually a double 20. I also shot one with a .25-20 while wandering around along the NY/VT border on snowshoes once.
Did kill a lot of jack rabbits in CA when I was a kid and later when I used to ranch-sit in grad school. They are hares and my .410 Winchester and the ranch owner's ancient Iver Johnson killed them just fine. Most Westerners don't eat them, but I have eaten young ones down in the "Other Californias" and they make great burrito stuffing--slow cook, add Mexican spices..
I KNEW those lever action .410s were good for something besides rattlers and "things that go bump in the night."
Was Mike Armstrong. Got logged off; couldn't log back on. RE-registered my old call sign, Mesa. FNG. Again. Mike Armstrong
Mesa, I did not know you were a former NY'er. I hunt hare on the Tug Hill Plateau and the western ADK's. This picture was taken last Sunday. I was near Brantingham, just east of Lowville. I am planning on running the beagles in central VT in December. Near Bethel. I need to expand my hunting grounds further east in the ADK's
The lead dog isn't a beagle. He's a Black Mouth Cur that goes everywhere with me, even work so I can't leave him behind.
Life is but the memories we've created.....Sully Erna
Mesa, I did not know you were a former NY'er. I hunt hare on the Tug Hill Plateau and the western ADK's. This picture was taken last Sunday. I was near Brantingham, just east of Lowville. I am planning on running the beagles in central VT in December. Near Bethel. I need to expand my hunting grounds further east in the ADK's
The lead dog isn't a beagle. He's a Black Mouth Cur that goes everywhere with me, even work so I can't leave him behind.
Too cool...
You've gone to some trouble to set that up.
Looks like a lot of fun.
If we lived a bit closer, I'd come ride those roads with you. I love to hear the "music" when they hit a trail.
It's a great way to hunt. I take very few rabbits or hare anymore. I'm more in it for the hounds. And my motto is.....dead rabbits don't leave tracks. Therefore I let them run to chase another day.
Make your way on up here and we'll cut the dogs loose.
Life is but the memories we've created.....Sully Erna
Great looking revolver AZ Southpaw. Is that a .32 mag?
.410 IS an awesome caliber for a rabbit gun Mesa. I also hunt hare horseback from time to time and carry a .410 lever action in the scabbard.
Thanks, Robster. That Ruger Vaquero is chambered for .357 Mag. I built a light .357 "cowboy" load featuring a LRNFP. It's crazy accurate and I have been trying to find a way to use that revolver for more than just punching paper - which is another reason why I decided to take a shot at this rabbit. A shoulder shot did the trick without ripping the critter apart. In fact, I've seen 22lr HPs be more destructive to rabbits. I've got a new batch of loads ready to go and hope to put that Vaquero back to work soon!
And, I agree about the .410! When I was a kid I took my first rabbit and quail with a borrowed shotgun so-chambered. After shooting my 12ga. for all these years, part of me wouldn't mind finding my own .410.
That cur dog looks like a tough little customer! And the cowboy rig with the lever .410 is plain neat. (Unfortunately I gave up on horses when I left the ranch at 17, so I'm still in the infantry...).
Beagles are God's Gift. I've even hunted pheasants with them in Western Nebraska tall grass prairie where you almost never saw them until they brought a bird back. The rest of the time they were tracking phez along all the little wildlife tunnels down near the grass roots, runnin' along 'em like little heat seeking missiles. First thing that let you know where the hound was would be a bird launching out of the grass, which was so thick that it muffled the beagle music!
I suspect a lot of those phez got bit before they got hit, but I never could prove it with "forensic evidence" like beagle tooth marks on the drumsticks!
Fun thread, thanks for posting, you-all!
Was Mike Armstrong. Got logged off; couldn't log back on. RE-registered my old call sign, Mesa. FNG. Again. Mike Armstrong
Good thread, Gents. I hunt the foothills of the Green Mountains with my kiddos (two still under age 10, one is 11, but no longer likes to come along - I’m too strict in the woods, I guess!), and have yet to see more than rabbit tracks. Bumped a grouse with them today, and we only left the woods with a single gray squirrel. I’d love to bag a few rabbits for the dinner table, some time - and a grouse!
I love rabbit hunting with beagles, grew up doing it all my life here in Alabama. We went last Thursday and had a great hunt, killed 4 swamp rabbits and had solid running from 6:30 til. 11:30. The dogs were tired by then. Robinhedd
My Pop a long time ago, it was what we could do when it was too bad to pour concrete. His favorite was to hunt the sloughs along the MS river for swampers.
To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.-Richard Henry Lee
Endowment Member NRA, Life Member SAF-GOA, Life-Board Member, West TN Director TFA
My Pop a long time ago, it was what we could do when it was too bad to pour concrete. His favorite was to hunt the sloughs along the MS river for swampers.
To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.-Richard Henry Lee
Endowment Member NRA, Life Member SAF-GOA, Life-Board Member, West TN Director TFA