A thread on the Hunters Campfire forum regarding the first things that you hunted made me recall this experience.
I was hiking up a grassy ridge while carrying a .22 rifle. I came upon two cottontails and shot one, which I thought had dropped dead. The second rabbit scurried up over the ridge and onto the other side. I followed it and as I did that, I walked past the first bunny. I looked over the ridge and, while I did that, the "dead" rabbit let out a blood curdling scream from behind me. It was startling to say the least.
I would put an injured cottontail scream right up there with a bunch of coyotes “chorusing” after sunset with sounds that raise the hair on the back of your neck. 😳
Some buddies and I were camping out one early fall night and about midnight we were all woken up with a bloody scream. It turns out a bobcat had caught a rabbit not far from our camp and it was screeching I assume because of the pain and fright. My dog was with me and she took off in the direction of the scream and a few seconds later we all heard this growl we are pretty sure was from the bob cat. The dog came running back and laid down beside me like it wanted protection. After the bobcat's growl that was the las we heard of the rabbit. It was pretty spooky.
Probably the most hair raising noise I've heard in the outdoors is two bobcats fighting. In the moonlight deep in the national forest alone walking out with a bow killed deer in the backpack and when that ruckus kicks off about 150 yards ahead of you it will cause you stop for a minute or two to figure it out before continuing on that direction.
11 or 12 years old, out woods loafing with my trusty Crossman, sitting just below the top of a slightly wooded ridge, mainly junipers and such with a few trees here and there, overgrown pasture, I believe. I heard a gawdawful screaming above me ... several one or two second bursts. I scrambled up to the top of the ridge, scaring off a big red-tail hawk that had obviously just nailed a rabbit. The rabbit took off too. I winged a hail Mary shot at the rabbit, clean miss, but I could see three red stripes down the length of his hindquarter where the hawk had grabbed him. Pretty cool sight for a kid to see.
Not sure in real life. but about 35 years ago I had a cassette tape for my tape caller with a Handwritten label "cottontail being skined alive. Bought it at a small local gun shop. It called a few coyotes, but would make my dog go berserk.
Funny that you bring this up because I haven’t thought about this topic for 40+ years. When I was a little boy my grandpa and I were real close and we’d spend all summer traveling across the country. Grandma and grandpa had decided to buy property in Apache Junction Arizona so we started spending a lot of time there, especially spring and summer. I was always into guns, hunting, fishing and everything outdoor related with my earliest memories of shooting BB guns and archery. I had a bolt action 22 that mom and dad bought me for Christmas when I was 9 and that’s what I toted in the desert around Apache Junction for rabbits. I had read about cottontails screaming and I absolutely dreaded that. I literally stayed awake at nights fearing a bad shot and having to hear them scream. I spent more time practicing with my 22 kicking a ball and hitting it on the move like a fleeing rabbit. Finally the day came that I was comfortable enough with my shooting that I committed myself to giving the rabbits a shot(pun intended). I started out on the desert trail about 7am, the desert in the springtime is magical with everything being a wonderful assault on all your senses. I had only been on the trail for a couple minutes when the first cottontail flushed behind me and to the left. I instinctively swung and fired hitting the cottontail in the head and instantly killing it. I was PROUD of my first shot and decided to collect the rabbit on my way back to grandpa and his truck unless a coyote or something came along in which case I’d use the rabbit as bait for a bigger trophy. Over the next several hours I proceeded to kill 4 more cottontails all with head shots and not a peep out of them. I killed several big jackrabbits and other assorted desert vermin including a decent sized rattler but for some reason it was the scream of a cottontail that worried me. 😂
On my way back to grandpa and the truck I slowly approached the site of my first cottontail kill hoping to see a coyote or bobcat eating it. I crawled over the little rise to peek into the small wash where the dead rabbit was and I couldn’t believe my 12 year old eyes….there were 3 cottontails eating their buddy. I threw my rifle up and set the iron site on one of the little cannibals and it looked up at me with a bloody face…the 3 rabbits looked demonic with the blood of their fallen comrade staining their cute cuddly furry little faces. I killed 1 of the demon cannibals and kept returning to the site hoping for something bigger but that was it. I never worried about them screaming ever again after that surprisingly gruesome encounter…😂
I've played it a lot but only heard it once. I was sitting in a deer stand and one started. It went on forever. I couldn't see exactly where it was coming from or what was happening, but if it died, it wasn't a quick death.
I've also heard a Pine Squirrel scream as it was being chased by a Pine Marten. That chase lasted about 2 or 3 minutes. I was hoping the Pine Marten would get his chattering ass but he got away.
I've heard it here and there, including the first cottontail I shot with a .22.
Last time was maybe 5 years ago near Worland WY, and the desert was just full of little cottontails. Camped that night at a BLM site and heard a couple of them get killed by something overnight.
Was putting a new frame under a grain trailer by Coleta Illinois a few years ago. took a break and shut the welder down to hear the sounds of a screaming cottontail right behind the machine shed I was working in
Ex and I were camping in Iowa's yellow river state forest when we heard a rabbit start screaming. Ex grabbed a flashlight and said she was gonna stop it. Just then a bobcat started screaming from the other direction and the ex was quickly back at the fire with a blanket around her.
Funny that you bring this up because I haven’t thought about this topic for 40+ years. When I was a little boy my grandpa and I were real close and we’d spend all summer traveling across the country. Grandma and grandpa had decided to buy property in Apache Junction Arizona so we started spending a lot of time there, especially spring and summer. I was always into guns, hunting, fishing and everything outdoor related with my earliest memories of shooting BB guns and archery. I had a bolt action 22 that mom and dad bought me for Christmas when I was 9 and that’s what I toted in the desert around Apache Junction for rabbits. I had read about cottontails screaming and I absolutely dreaded that. I literally stayed awake at nights fearing a bad shot and having to hear them scream. I spent more time practicing with my 22 kicking a ball and hitting it on the move like a fleeing rabbit. Finally the day came that I was comfortable enough with my shooting that I committed myself to giving the rabbits a shot(pun intended). I started out on the desert trail about 7am, the desert in the springtime is magical with everything being a wonderful assault on all your senses. I had only been on the trail for a couple minutes when the first cottontail flushed behind me and to the left. I instinctively swung and fired hitting the cottontail in the head and instantly killing it. I was PROUD of my first shot and decided to collect the rabbit on my way back to grandpa and his truck unless a coyote or something came along in which case I’d use the rabbit as bait for a bigger trophy. Over the next several hours I proceeded to kill 4 more cottontails all with head shots and not a peep out of them. I killed several big jackrabbits and other assorted desert vermin including a decent sized rattler but for some reason it was the scream of a cottontail that worried me. 😂
On my way back to grandpa and the truck I slowly approached the site of my first cottontail kill hoping to see a coyote or bobcat eating it. I crawled over the little rise to peek into the small wash where the dead rabbit was and I couldn’t believe my 12 year old eyes….there were 3 cottontails eating their buddy. I threw my rifle up and set the iron site on one of the little cannibals and it looked up at me with a bloody face…the 3 rabbits looked demonic with the blood of their fallen comrade staining their cute cuddly furry little faces. I killed 1 of the demon cannibals and kept returning to the site hoping for something bigger but that was it. I never worried about them screaming ever again after that surprisingly gruesome encounter…😂
We see that with sage rats (Belding’s ground squirrel). They’ll drag a dead buddy off into a burrow to eat later.
As a young kid I used to ride the tractor with dad or grandpa while they were mowing alfalfa for hay. When a younger rabbit would run out I'd jump off and try to chase it down. Caught a few, the first time one of them screamed it was a real eye opener.
Second deer I killed was on the other side of a fallen log, just his back showing, when I shot him he went straight down out of sight, spined him... he screamed worse than any rabbit for about 30 seconds before he died... eerie.
Second deer I killed was on the other side of a fallen log, just his back showing, when I shot him he went straight down out of sight, spined him... he screamed worse than any rabbit for about 30 seconds before he died... eerie.
Second deer I killed was on the other side of a fallen log, just his back showing, when I shot him he went straight down out of sight, spined him... he screamed worse than any rabbit for about 30 seconds before he died... eerie.
Kent
Had a big boar hog I shot in the spine from above while in a tree blind scream like that. Drew my 44 Mag Ruger Super BlackHawk and shot him as he walked underneath my bow blind. Eerie sound. 😬
I've heard a rabbit scream twice in my life. One night in the summer I woke up and one was screaming in the woods next to the house. A fox probably got it. I knew the sound because I've heard a recording of it, and IIRC it was called a "Dying rabbit call". I guess it's used in predator calling. Second time was a real small young one that got behind a small wire mesh fence behind the garage with only one way out. I cornered it out of curiosity and snatched it up and was gonna put it in the woods. That thing began screaming and it wasn't even hurt. Guess they also scream out of terror.
I've heard it here and there, including the first cottontail I shot with a .22.
Last time was maybe 5 years ago near Worland WY, and the desert was just full of little cottontails. Camped that night at a BLM site and heard a couple of them get killed by something overnight.
Was putting a new frame under a grain trailer by Coleta Illinois a few years ago. took a break and shut the welder down to hear the sounds of a screaming cottontail right behind the machine shed I was working in
Ex and I were camping in Iowa's yellow river state forest when we heard a rabbit start screaming. Ex grabbed a flashlight and said she was gonna stop it. Just then a bobcat started screaming from the other direction and the ex was quickly back at the fire with a blanket around her.
Yellow River also has bears and wolves. Probably cougars as well. I want to camp there but the wife wants running water and flush toilets.
When I was a young kid I rode on the ladder of the combine and when a rabbit flushed out of the standing wheat into the wheat stubble, I bailed off and caught many of them, and lots of them screamed bloody murder just from me catching them.
I shot the face off one with a .222 once, and it ran at me and tried to climb my leg screaming the whole time. Stuff of nightmares. I think I'll lung shoot 'em from now on!
Yes, many times, but not often in recent years. Last time I heard a rabbit scream was at night in the E. Kootenays of British Columbia and I'm sure it was an owl grabbing a snowshoe hare. I grew up rural and hunting a lot in E. WA when jack rabbits and cottontails were plentiful, plus we raised domestic rabbits that sometimes will scream when you merely pick them up. I remember a high pitched cottontail at the old Hover town site that we cornered in a basement and it screamed a squeeky note I will never forget. I don't like the sound, though have called a lot of critters with it.
walked through a partially cut corn field into the woods and climbed my stand before daylight. Soon as I sat down heard the god awfulest screaming exactly where I had just walked through the corn. Don't know what got it but it wasn't a quick death.
Yes. I snuck up on my belly to see what was happening, and stuck my head up. Some poor rabbit had got caught in a snare. It was whipping around in the air like a slow motion helicopter thing, attached to some sort of automatic snare trap box. I heard a gunshot and the dirt kicked up next to my head. I crawled back outta there.
Quote//"On my way back to grandpa and the truck I slowly approached the site of my first cottontail kill hoping to see a coyote or bobcat eating it. I crawled over the little rise to peek into the small wash where the dead rabbit was and I couldn’t believe my 12 year old eyes….there were 3 cottontails eating their buddy. I threw my rifle up and set the iron site on one of the little cannibals and it looked up at me with a bloody face…the 3 rabbits looked demonic with the blood of their fallen comrade staining their cute cuddly furry little faces. I killed 1 of the demon cannibals and kept returning to the site hoping for something bigger but that was it. I never worried about them screaming ever again after that surprisingly gruesome encounter…😂"
I never knew chickens were cannibals either until I built a coop. I put a group of pullets in with the existing flock - one had a bum leg. Within a couple of hours they had killed it and stripped the carcass. No head and had gutted it and eaten the entrails. Kinda freaked me out...
A friend of mine many years ago, caught a Jack Rabbit (don’t know how) alive. He was a serious coyote hunter. He rolled the rabbits ear up tightly, then squeezed it until the rabbit screamed while he recorded it. Then used that recording for calling!
He brought his recording to work one night and played it for us……it would make you cringe! memtb
when we were kids me and friend of mine were walking through a field during the summer. He spotted a tiny baby cotton tail hiding in the grass, and caught it pretty easily. It immediately started screaming really loud. My friend suddenly yelled out OUCH! and the rabbit leaped out of his hands and took off. It bit him on the thumb and he said it was very painful
First time I heard one,was walking a hedge row with a friend,we were 13-14 maybe,just out goofing off. My buddy had a black lab who was tagging along. Out of nowhere Mike pounces into the hedge and we hear the scream,Mike comes walking out of the hedge with a bunny in his mouth.
Went rabbit hunting with some family when i was about five years old. I had a single shot .22. Spotted a sitting rabbit not far away, aimed, and shot. Rabbit screamed, jumped up about my head height, then fell over dead. Pretty exciting for a little kid.
Heard a few cottontails, and a few black-tailed jackrabbits. When I was about 17, or so, I was baling hay and saw a baby cottontail in the windrow. Stopped the tractor, and tried to rescue the little guy. He bit the heck out of me! Drew blood through my glove! Thereafter, I'd just kick the little bastids out, and carry on.
Funny that you bring this up because I haven’t thought about this topic for 40+ years. When I was a little boy my grandpa and I were real close and we’d spend all summer traveling across the country. Grandma and grandpa had decided to buy property in Apache Junction Arizona so we started spending a lot of time there, especially spring and summer. I was always into guns, hunting, fishing and everything outdoor related with my earliest memories of shooting BB guns and archery. I had a bolt action 22 that mom and dad bought me for Christmas when I was 9 and that’s what I toted in the desert around Apache Junction for rabbits. I had read about cottontails screaming and I absolutely dreaded that. I literally stayed awake at nights fearing a bad shot and having to hear them scream. I spent more time practicing with my 22 kicking a ball and hitting it on the move like a fleeing rabbit. Finally the day came that I was comfortable enough with my shooting that I committed myself to giving the rabbits a shot(pun intended). I started out on the desert trail about 7am, the desert in the springtime is magical with everything being a wonderful assault on all your senses. I had only been on the trail for a couple minutes when the first cottontail flushed behind me and to the left. I instinctively swung and fired hitting the cottontail in the head and instantly killing it. I was PROUD of my first shot and decided to collect the rabbit on my way back to grandpa and his truck unless a coyote or something came along in which case I’d use the rabbit as bait for a bigger trophy. Over the next several hours I proceeded to kill 4 more cottontails all with head shots and not a peep out of them. I killed several big jackrabbits and other assorted desert vermin including a decent sized rattler but for some reason it was the scream of a cottontail that worried me. 😂
On my way back to grandpa and the truck I slowly approached the site of my first cottontail kill hoping to see a coyote or bobcat eating it. I crawled over the little rise to peek into the small wash where the dead rabbit was and I couldn’t believe my 12 year old eyes….there were 3 cottontails eating their buddy. I threw my rifle up and set the iron site on one of the little cannibals and it looked up at me with a bloody face…the 3 rabbits looked demonic with the blood of their fallen comrade staining their cute cuddly furry little faces. I killed 1 of the demon cannibals and kept returning to the site hoping for something bigger but that was it. I never worried about them screaming ever again after that surprisingly gruesome encounter…😂
Great story. Thanks.
Never a cottontail but when younger ive made a few whitetails holler.
When I was stationed in Kodiak, I attended the Ducks Unlimited banquet. At the banquet they had a duck calling contest. It was taken seriously and the winner garnered serious cred. The contestants were shielded from the audience and judge. This will not likely come as a surprise to anyone, but I am not very good at duck calling, among the many, many things I am bad at. When my turn came, I hammered that predator (rabbit squeal) call for all that it was worth. At first there was an uneasy quiet in the audience, then when they realized what was going on, they erupted in laughter.
Was going to shoot underneath a Cottontail that thought he was hiding. I only wanted him to run like Rabbits do. Evidently my .22 was shooting high. He crumpled and let out a wail that I will NEVER forget.I feel terrible about it every time I think about it.
KC: I was maybe 11 or 12 years old when I heard my first Cottontail Rabbit "scream"! I was sound asleep one summer, early morning, with my bedroom window open. My bedroom was right over the family garden plot and the "screaming" woke me up - I had NO idea what it was. I look out my window to see a Cottontail Rabbit flopping and half jumping right below me. And to my amazement I also see a Weasel with a jaw death grip on the Cottontails throat! This went on for a couple of minutes until I could get my trusty Remington bolt action Model 511 Scoremaster 22 L.R. and whacked the Weasel amidships. The Rabbit did not survive the attack from that Weasel either. At the shot the rest of my family arose as they had been awakened by the "screams" of that Cottontail. We were all puzzled and stunned at the noise and by the attack by the much smaller Weasel on the Cottontail. Nature! Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
Had rabbits around the farm when I was a kid, both domestic, cottontails and hybrids of the two. Had a pair of weasels all but wipe them out one time. Heard several bunnies do their death scream. Hard to imagine such a sound coming from such a cute lil fur ball.
I've heard it here and there, including the first cottontail I shot with a .22.
Last time was maybe 5 years ago near Worland WY, and the desert was just full of little cottontails. Camped that night at a BLM site and heard a couple of them get killed by something overnight.
Was putting a new frame under a grain trailer by Coleta Illinois a few years ago. took a break and shut the welder down to hear the sounds of a screaming cottontail right behind the machine shed I was working in
Ex and I were camping in Iowa's yellow river state forest when we heard a rabbit start screaming. Ex grabbed a flashlight and said she was gonna stop it. Just then a bobcat started screaming from the other direction and the ex was quickly back at the fire with a blanket around her.
Yellow River also has bears and wolves. Probably cougars as well. I want to camp there but the wife wants running water and flush toilets.
kwg
Some of the best trout fishing in the midwest...
We used to spend a week or so a couple of times each summer there. Maybe every third night we'd go to the Winchester in Waterville to relive toilets and running water, as well as great food... Wish someone would open that place up....
I ran a trap line back in high school. I would get up early to check the traps in the dark before going to school. Sometimes there would be a rabbit in a leg hold trap that I was using for coon. The screams were enough to just about make a teen age boy piss his pants while trying to dispatch the rabbit with a club and a flashlight in the dark woods.
I've heard it here and there, including the first cottontail I shot with a .22.
Last time was maybe 5 years ago near Worland WY, and the desert was just full of little cottontails. Camped that night at a BLM site and heard a couple of them get killed by something overnight.
Was putting a new frame under a grain trailer by Coleta Illinois a few years ago. took a break and shut the welder down to hear the sounds of a screaming cottontail right behind the machine shed I was working in
Ex and I were camping in Iowa's yellow river state forest when we heard a rabbit start screaming. Ex grabbed a flashlight and said she was gonna stop it. Just then a bobcat started screaming from the other direction and the ex was quickly back at the fire with a blanket around her.
Yellow River also has bears and wolves. Probably cougars as well. I want to camp there but the wife wants running water and flush toilets.
kwg
Some of the best trout fishing in the midwest...
We used to spend a week or so a couple of times each summer there. Maybe every third night we'd go to the Winchester in Waterville to relive toilets and running water, as well as great food... Wish someone would open that place up....
Harpers Ferry is just down the road as well. ON Saturday night the American legion has bingo. It may not be as much fun as using a real toilet but it's not bad.
A buddy and I were in my boat once anchored just off the bank while Night fishing for flathead catfish, it was around 2 am in perfect quiet except for the sound of the river trickling bye.
It was a nearly cloudless moon light night, not hot.. just the slightest breeze…
Trees / woods along side of the river which is only 80 yards wide, with train tracks running on top of a bluff on one side of the river…
Just plain peaceful…
THEN - a piercing scream of a rabbit around 50 yards away, a coyote or fox must have pinned it and couldn’t kill it because the heinous sounds of the rabbit slowly being murdered went on for nearly 30 minutes… it felt like hours.
Could have been a big snake ? Which is the only reason I didn’t take the boat over to end the horror movie we got plunged into… WOW - we still remember it pretty vividly.
When I was a kid, my parents raised Golden Retrievers. We had this one dog that had a real soft mouth. She would catch baby rabbits and bring them into the house and spit them out on the kitchen floor alive. Then you'd have to catch them and take them outside. There was always a lot of squealing going on.
I liberated a farm raised rabbit IVO Baghdad Iraq one hot summer day in 2003. That damned thing squeeled like mad. My ears were ringing afterwards. Since I had to stretch my arm out a good ways to snag it from the rear of it's cage all I could grab was it's ears. Once I pulled it from the cage I used my other hand to grip it by the neck and silenced it. I'm glad I was wearing tough leather gloves used for handling concertina wire. It was kicking and scratching me like mad until it ran out of oxygen. My friends and I cooked it over an open fire. We ate like kings that night. Fresh meat was a delicacy after eating MREs for weeks on end.
