Hunting Forum

I was wondering what some strategies are for rabbit hunting with no dogs.

Hunt where there are rabbits. We hunt rabbit in the winter, usualy there is snow and you can see tracks and search in that area. Walk slow and look for parts, much like hunting deer or elk, ears eye, shape.... We use a 22lr. shoot for the head, Hunt and stalk, they will likely run in a big circle when spooked. They like to sit in the sun on brisk mornings.

When I lived in CA, we had a place we called the Rabbit Store and other public hunting areas with rabbits. For those areas where the rabbits were held up in big bushes, we would sit down and wait. Within 15 minutes are so they would start sticking their little heads out looking around or coming out to sun themselves as PrairieDogger said. For those places where they are in cover in a field or along fence rows. Our strategy for finding them was to take 10 steps forward in the field or along the fence and then stop. Watch all around you because they will let you walk by, but for some reason they cannot stand it if you stop. If there is a rabbit close by you, it will bolt. Those strategies works better with a shotgun and the strategy of sit and wait I like better with a rifle. Of course, neither is as fun as turning a loud mouth hound loose so he can bring the rabbit around to you. However, you asked about how to hunt them without a dog so ignore that last statement. Now that I live in Maryland, I have no idea what folks do back here as I have not found a good spot to hunt the little critters (not that I have looked that hard, dippers (ducks) are a lot more fun to me)

jack

I grew up hunting them without dogs.We would just walk along kicking bushes and brush piles to scare them up.Every few steps kick.

If there is a creek with the water frozen I would walk along on the ice and look up underneath where the banks have bushes or tree roots and find them sitting where they dig out a hole where they get a lot of Sun to warm up by.

Walk along fence lines and brush rows. They don't run very far when they don't have a dog chasing after them. Pop em in the noggin with a .22 cal pistol.

I grewup on a 110 acre farm and always had a pack of 14 beagles for rabbit hunting. When hunting the farm I never used my dogs and simply walked them up paying sepcial attention to the big areas of sawgrass that the preferred to make burrows in. I also would always make passes by the old woodpiles left when clearing the few trees that would start growing in the pastures. It is a great way to hunt and I enjoyed it immensely being out there by myself. I would use my .22 when there was no snow on the ground and if there was snow I would use my single shot .410 which made for a fun time. I still to this day use my Mossberg 500 ( an old one with the ribbed barrel ) when dove hunting which is great for tuning up for duck season when I use a .20 ga. What firearm are you gonna use for the rabbits ?

I have never hunted anything with a dog. All we ever did here was kick some brush, walk 10 or so feet stop and kick some brush, repeat til you hit the other end of the field or limit out on rabbits, also worked for pheasants when we had them here.

I live in Vermont and only dream about finding spots where you can hunt like that where you just walk and kick them up constantly for my dog....I hunt snowshoe hares though but have an awesome time doing that all winter with my beagle. He is gonna be 3 years old and he had 116 hares killed in front of him with plenty more fun years to come...cant wait!

Make drives-----couple of guys very slowly walk through thick mean brambles , fencerows etc---Place standers at end--You will be surprised !!    recruiting your no good brother in law from Illinois works great for a driver,  Do not use girlfriend or wife---It will be the last time they come along , HMMMM Maybe thats a good thing !