My brother. Been trying to get him into the woods with me for a couple of years but his job and personal situation didn't allow it to happen until this year. He got his hunter Ed done and was able to sit out for a deer two times with me and my son but of course no luck late in deer season. Anyway talked him into getting his nh license and the three of us went out for rabbit yesterday. So glad we did! We were setting up mini drives through thick pine regrows and "bouncing" rabbits back and forth all morning! My brother finally caught up with one at about 8:30am. I was so happy that he got one and you could see in his face that he was proud of himself. Its been a long time planning. He is actually a great cook and made stew out of it last night and he said his wife absolutely loved it.
A successful day. Also confirmed some of the theories I've read about with hunting rabbits without dogs. They absolutely hold tight till you get within a few feet of them. They flush when you stop moving! If you just walk through an area they hold tight and assume you have not seen them. If you stop every 5 or 6 steps for a few seconds and look around they think you've spotted them and run like hell. My assumption is that's how they evade coyote......if a coyote sees a rabbit I would assume it stops and starts to stalk in so that's when they flush. That's my theory anyway. Every rabbit I flushed was just after I stopped walking. We seem to be in a peak in the population cycle for cotton tail. We were hunting a WMA and there were rabbits everywhere. NH has done some habitat management it seems as well. The WMA we were on has a few large areas that were clear cut about 5 to 6 years ago and they have thick young pine and birch growing in and those patches of succeasional forest were full of rabbit. My son said he thinks he saw a grouse flush out of the patch I was pushing but not confirmed as it was a ways off but it wound not surprise me if it was a grouse. The clear cut ans re grown areas we were in were good habitat for them.
A successful day. Also confirmed some of the theories I've read about with hunting rabbits without dogs. They absolutely hold tight till you get within a few feet of them. They flush when you stop moving! If you just walk through an area they hold tight and assume you have not seen them. If you stop every 5 or 6 steps for a few seconds and look around they think you've spotted them and run like hell. My assumption is that's how they evade coyote......if a coyote sees a rabbit I would assume it stops and starts to stalk in so that's when they flush. That's my theory anyway. Every rabbit I flushed was just after I stopped walking. We seem to be in a peak in the population cycle for cotton tail. We were hunting a WMA and there were rabbits everywhere. NH has done some habitat management it seems as well. The WMA we were on has a few large areas that were clear cut about 5 to 6 years ago and they have thick young pine and birch growing in and those patches of succeasional forest were full of rabbit. My son said he thinks he saw a grouse flush out of the patch I was pushing but not confirmed as it was a ways off but it wound not surprise me if it was a grouse. The clear cut ans re grown areas we were in were good habitat for them.
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