HOW TO HAVE A PROPER BUNNY HUNT

Grass, Cane Thickets and Palmetto Swamps

Editor's Note: Numbers of outdoorsmen have grown up hunting rabbits, wily creatures that can teach you many hunting skills. If you live in the South, you already know the difficulty of hunting rabbits in places with overpopulations of white-tailed deer. But you can have a proper, successful bunny hunt. Here's how.

Some hayfields and pastures make ideal feeding areas for rabbits. However, you have to know what type of hay has been planted to determine whether or not the edges of these fields will make productive places to find bunnies. A hayfield or a pasture planted in fescue means you may have a rabbit black hole instead of a rabbit honeyhole. According to wildlife biologist, Keith Guyse of Montgomery, Alabama, "Fescue contains a fungus that attacks the digestive system of rabbits and gives them diarrhea. Although eating this particular food doesn't result in major rabbit die-offs, it can severely reduce the number of rabbits on the edges of fescue fields. Fescue also has a similar effect on cattle. Scientists have experimented with different strains of fescue to try and breed a fungus-free strain of fescue."

Find green winter pastures and hayfields not cut until the late fall if you want to locate bunnies. During the daylight hours, the rabbits most often will hole-up on the edges of these fields or within 200 to 250 yards of these fields and move into the fields at night to feed. You may enjoy some of your best rabbit hunting early in the morning and late in the evening when rabbits move. If you have beagles, hunt the edges of these fields. Early in the morning the rabbits' scent will be fresh just after they've left the fields before daylight and late in the afternoon as they come to the fields. If you have a good pack of beagles, often you'll have two or three bunny runs going on at the same time as the rabbits congregate to feed on the greenery. Since much of the South hasn't experienced very cold weather in recent years during the fall, often these green fields offer highly-productive rabbit hunting throughout much of the fall and even the early spring.

Enter Cane Thickets And Palmetto Swamps:
If you hunt in low-lying areas and swampy terrain, many times you can find Goliath-sized rabbits in the canes and palmettos that provide an ideal home for these very large rabbits. But when you hunt swampers, you better pack your lunch. Swamp rabbits run in much wider circles than cottontails do. Most of the swampers I've encountered have earned at least a master's degree and some even have their PhDs in dog-dodging. The swampers will hit the water in a heartbeat and swim upstream, downstream or across a pond quicker than a raccoon will.

"I know most people won't believe this, but when a swamp rabbit crosses water, it tends to leave an oily or sweaty film on the water that contains the rabbit's scent," my hunting buddy, Mel Stewart, a longtime, avid rabbit hunter, says. "A dog that comes from quality breeding with a good nose can follow that scent across water and keep the race going. If you have dogs that hunt around water frequently, they'll also amass a wealth of rabbit savvy. They'll know where to look for a rabbit if it hits the water. Even if the rabbit throws the dogs off the trail for a few minutes, sooner or later they'll pick up the trail again and keep the bunny coming to you." To take more rabbits this year than you have in the past, think about a rabbit's stomach. If you know what goes in the rabbit's stomach and where to find that food, you'll locate numbers of bunnies to hunt.