Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game why do people look down on squirrel and rabbit hunting ?

I thoroughly enjoy shooting rabbits with cannons (270 or 7mm) whilst walking through the local sandhills, much more than I enjoy shooting large game such as pigs and deer.

But then, I couldn't give a toss about trophies or pleasing others.

You get it. I will hear that hour long run for a while to come. Ten old vets and a couple of pups running full throat that long! Amazing. One or two for the pot is all I want to take each year as well.

used to hunt on camp pendleton in 60s with a fellow who shot cottontails with a 30-06. he of course got yotes & once 3 deer on the side. i stuck to cottontails with an ancient single shot rem. 22.--cranky72

There are few squirrels here in Wy..but the last good hunt I had was about 10 years ago in W. Va. Big old fox squirrels..But the woods we hunted then has been cut over and subdivided for lots for folks from D.C. As for cottontials..Got 3 or 4 this winter with the CZ .22 rifle..but hunting cottontails in the west is not as much fun as in front of a pack of dogs, or even one dog..
Lots of folks I know quit hunting cottontails due to the marked decline of rabbits..Squirrel were never as popular as cottontails in the areas I hunted..but they were a real favorite for me..My favorite hunts were with a good Marlin 39a and later a Browning .22 Hornet..Squirrel were always tougher to skin than bunnies..Most of the folks I gave game to are now long gone, and with it that way of life......

.22 hornet what the inthe?? suprised there was skinning invalved.

Heck everybody seems so down these days that when they get a moment all they do is look up. Squirrel!! kicked to poor rabbit to get there.grin

Gimme squirrel hunting any day over deer hunting. They're just as much fun, the season is a LOT longer, there is certainly a lot more of them, they can be as challanging if not more so, it doesn't take near as long to clean one, you can take one or 10 here in Missouri, you can hunt them with our without dogs, you can hunt them any time during the season with rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader, permission to hunt, if needed, is so much easier to obtain that it is laughable and for me last but not least, they taste 10 times better than deer.

I don't, nor do I know anyone that does "look down" on small game hunting..

Sounds to me like you're "looking down" on trophy hunters though.

I would guess the answer to the original question is, "Because they've never done it, or eaten squirrel or rabbit." In other words, ignorance.

We actually have some decent fox squirrel hunting in far eastern Montana, and around urban areas in the western part of the state where they've been transplanted. Cottontails vary due to habitat and year, but in boom years in eastern Montana they're quite abundant--and I'd rather eat them than pheasants.

Not many people hunt jackrabbits for food, but the big white-tailed jacks we have here are very good eating at the right time of year, much like pronghorn. (And yeah, I know some people don't like pronghorn. I do.)

I really enjoy squirrel hunting and the taste of squirrel. I actually love a good late October day with a 22LR and running the hills and hollows of WV chasing grays and fox squirrels. I get sort of a "rush" out of deer hunting but get pure fun out of squirrel hunting.

If all you do is trophy hunt, I feel bad for you.

Not you personally but a person who does that is missing out.

Jackrabbit sorry but it works but a slowww cooker and in the end quite good as is the carrits salrie pottato salt pepper and this strainge bone I found at work yes it all comes together.grin

Kawik, the Hornet is a great small game round if loaded down with a powder like Unique..Paul Mathews used to use his #3 on all small game..Here I have used it a great deal for cottontails..simply knocks of the head..for squirrel with medium loads and a 45 grain bullet head shots were necessary, but even with light loads, the head was the place..The only thing with squirrel, I never took a shot that didn't have a excellent backstop, but never did that with a common 22 either..

kawi, sorry about the incorrect name, my fingers hit too many keys...

Hello WCH, some years ago I had a 1949 Brno ZKW465 rechambered to 22 spitfire, it easily pushed a 40gr Nosler ballistic tip out at 3400 fps using ar2205.

I had 2x ZKW's done and a Ruger no 3, and all three shot extremely well...they gave 1/2" groups at 100 yards using the original Brno/Ruger barrel...boltface is the same, and I left the long neck.

If I could only own one firearm, that cartridge in a small action would be what I would choose.


ps, which reminds me, one of the old smiths here changed a couple of ZKW's to the Sako L461 bottom metal and magazine style, if I ever find one of these I will hock everything I own and snatch it.

JS, this spitfire is a new one on me!! A bit of information please? Sounds interesting..

It is just the 30MI carbine necked down to .224...been around for years.
Most converted carbines but we just rechambered Hornet barrels, and it worked a treat.

Being a shorter case, the ogive of the Nosler sits outside the mouth of the case which is something you cannot do with a Nosler 40gr BT in a ZKW magazine and Hornet case...the Spitfire case lasts better as well.

JS, thanks..I will have to check this round out in my books..I may have heard of it, but it sure didn't register..thanks again..

Who ever looks down on skwerl or rabbit hunting has likely never done it. Probably the most fun I have ever had was this type of hunting. Both of these critters make real decent table fare.

I've always enjoyed hunting rabbits, but they are the stinkiest animal to clean I have ever done. Plus they have more fleas on them then anything else I have shot. They do taste decent, although not my favorite.

It has been a few years since I last went after them. My Sister-in-law and her family came out 2 summers ago. Her son wanted to go rabbit hunting, but his parent didn't want me to take him very far (as in distance from our place). So we hunted our place and he did get one. I was willing to travel 150 miles to a place I know that is BLM and usually hold lots of rabbits. So I guess I like hunting them.

We usually hunted them by spot and stalk with 22s. I think it would be fun to hunt them with beagles. I have an aqaintance here that uses them, but I am not in the in crowd so have never been able to go.