Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game What Size Shot For Rabbit?

Have been invited to go rabbit hunting this coming weekend and curious as to what size shot I should use. I haven't hunted rabbit in almost 50 years and that was with a single shot 16 ga. I plan on using a 12 ga pump this weekend but all I have on hand for shells are 2, 4 or 8 shot. I'm leaning towards the 8 shot but might be able to find other shot size if you don't think any of these will do. Thanks for your help.

any of them will work...I prefer 6 shot, but if I had 8's I wouldn't hesitate to use them....rabbits are pretty delicate and not hard to kill....

ps....hope there are some beagles involved....huntin rabbits over a merry pack of little dogs is one of the most fun things you can do with your clothes on.....

I most often use number 6 low brass, but the 8's will work. As said above they roll pretty easily.

Thanks, I'll give the 8 a try. The fellow that invited me has 4 beagles. They jumped 12 last weekend and manage to shoot 7 (which isn't bad considering the area they hunted).

I don't hunt rabbits often but I've always used low base #4s. Just a couple of those will put the rabbit down, and "over penitrate" so there's few shot to remove from the body.

Am I wrong?

Have used #6 shot most of the time.

I hunt over my hounds, using a 410 or 28 ga.sxs. If, and when I shoot a rabbit, I use #5 early season, and 6`s or 7.5 late season. (less cover to shoot through) I have noticed that the larger shot drives the hair further into the meat, but a sharp little knife will solve the problem. Larger shot is easier to find in the meat also. Nothing like chomping down on a piece of shot.

I hunt over my hounds, using a 410 or 28 ga.sxs. If, and when I shoot a rabbit, I use #5 early season, and 6`s or 7.5 late season. (less cover to shoot through) I have noticed that the larger shot drives the hair farther into the meat, but a sharp little knife will solve the problem. Larger shot is easier to find in the meat also. Nothing like chomping down on a piece of shot.

Just me I head shoot but with a 22 I would ask with a shotgun that they were gutted on retreivel. Simple squiese twords the ribe cage and work to te back using your nee if neseasery on the bucks. Then dress out later but the meat unless bad gut shot should ???

#4 I dislike hunting pellits when cleaning.Just me...

Hope you had a great day today. Got rained out in NC. I prefer #6 but have shot a few with #8.

Eight shot {and 7.5's} sucks for rabbits unless for some strange reason you like broken teeth and/or the taste of lead shot. Fours or 5's are best if you're flingin' at least an ounce of them from a 12, 16 or 20 gauge gun. If you can't fling an ounce of shot {.410 or 28 gauge users} best switch to 6's to help fill out your patterns. I've shot literally thousands of rabbits from in front of my beagles with various shot sizes over the past 40 odd years and these are my findings.

Haven't shot bunnies in front of a hound for years, but liked 1 1/8 of 4's best...

6 is my go to load. I switch to 4s if I am in heavy brush.

If you plan on a 12 gauge, I'd go with low brass and a light load unless you plan on letting them get out there a bit.

I sure appreciate all of the advice, but I could have taken a sling shot as we didn't jump a single rabbit all day. One of the dogs took off after a deer or something and it took about 2 hours to find him using his GPS tracker. After that we hunted with one dog as they didn't trust the other two and it never hit on anything. I still enjoyed myself but it would have been nice to have seen a rabbit. Again, thanks for all the help and perhaps I will get to try again next year.

I have hunted rabbits since i was big enough to walk and # 6 is the best i have used.

I hunt rabbits over beagles and use both #6 and #7.5.

Have not been able to notice any difference.

I just buy the cheapest low brass I can find in that shot size.

No need to over-complicate it. Just go hunting and have fun.

Steve

20 GA and 1 oz of 6 shot is pure poison on cottontails over Dogs

I always noticed alot of the rabbits I killed with small shot tended to resemble a spaghetti strainer and weren't fit for the table while the ones I shot with 4's or 5's were just as dead with far fewer holes in them.