Yes on the apple. Drove into my driveway last fall and a cottontail was busy on a fallen golden delicious. Picked up his apple and made a 40 yd scramble to the bushes.
When I was young(early 1950's) my dad had a string of homemade wooden box traps on properties just outside the city limits of Milwaukee. He baited with apple and kept us in meat all winter. I still love stewed rabbit with onion gravy, drop dumpling and sweet-sour red cabbage. Mom made the same meal with chicken, pheasant and pork steak. I've made it with muskrat, you can hardly tell it from rabbit.
24 inch chicken wire keeps most of them out, except the most athletic. I enjoy watching them futz around in the yard too much to fret over the little bit they eat. They seem to like the peach drops pretty well, and also the corn I put out for the birds and squirrels.
If you live close to woods and brush shooting doesn’t work well lots of rabbits they just keep coming back.If you live in a housing development or somewhere more open it might work.A fence is the most effective way to keep Rabbits ,Racoons and Groundhogs out especially with a couple strands of electric.
I've never had a rabbit I shot come back, at least not yet. If it happens I might consider moving...
As mentioned, a fence works well, especially if one buries it a bit underground. For my wife's first garden I took 4' tall chicken wire, folded it in half in an L shape and buried the one half a few inches under ground. Going out 2' was enough to keep the rabbits from digging in, especially after adding some mulch over the top to make it all look better.
As we got older, I made tables for her to use for her gardens. Now, the soil is waist high which makes easy what little weeding needs to be done and there is no bending over to pick veggies. Tomatoes can be a pain if a tall hybrid is picked but she has learned along the way. I made a deep planter so she can even grow carrots which are tough in the pottery clay soil we have.
I know others who have built raised gardens but I like the benches I made. There is no bending over which is becoming more difficult as age rushes up on us. The only drawback is using cedar and not treated wood as the preservatives can leach into the veggies and potentially cause problems. So far the beeches have held up well, the oldest is 6 years old and has no signs of rotting yet. The wife uses potting soil and other additions and it may be that it does not hold water and other organisms to cause rot like top soil.
the only way to control rabbits is shoot them all the year long. heck its kinda fun too, i shot the last one with a 220 Swift and you know what happened then = BANG and spagetti in the air and all over the lawn .
thats a tough one, in our town you cant discharge firearms, bows, pellet guns or anything else legally. cottontails are a game species and have seasons and such. so when we started having problems with rabbits in our garden, I called game and fish and they said I could get a trap from the animal control place and then trap and relocate them. of course they were always out of the traps so I found a great box trap on youtube from "the meat trapper" and then built my own. they work very well, no need for bait, set them where bunnies will go into them for cover. the bunny is protected from the elements and cats and such until you get there. then you can do with it what you wish as far as relocating, having for dinner, ect...