Cold kick starts Arkansas rabbit hunting

With the majority of deer season over and cold temperatures becoming regular events, many houndsmen are eager to drop the tailgate and begin chasing their favorite quarry in earnest.

For hunters who have never had the chance to participate in a rabbit race, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has put together a video on the easiest way to field dress and process rabbits. It's at www.agfc.com/en/hunting/small-game/rabbit.

Although rabbit season officially opens Sept. 1 each year, many rabbit hunters wait until winter before putting on their field boots and loading up the shotgun. Especially on public land, rabbit chasers wait to give deer hunters plenty of time before their dogs begin working the woods for rabbits. Rabbit hunters also wait for the first few hard freezes and some of the vegetation to die back to make locating rabbits more predictable.

"The habitat favors the rabbit when everything is still green," said Clifton Jackson, small game coordinator for Game and Fish. "There's a lot of different scents out there to throw off the beagles and a lot more cover spread across the landscape for rabbits to slip around in. But when the cold begins to fold all the grass and plants over, those rabbits will move to the brush piles and clumps where you can hone in a little more on them."

Brushy edges near soybean and cotton fields can be real magnets for cottontails once harvest season is complete. Jackson said rabbits are used to the cover and food provided by the fields and are able to spread out during the early part of rabbit season. They have to seek shelter in nearby cover as crops are harvested.

"Turn-rows and edges are always worth looking into if you're on private land," Jackson said. "Rabbits aren't going to stay out in that open ground, particularly in areas where you have a lot of hawks and owls waiting to pick them off."

Jackson said this is actually a good time to be a hunter who's interested in rabbit hunting. In years past, you had to have family or friends who knew rabbit hunters to be able to get started. Today many social media groups and internet forums exist for people to meet and learn more about the sport.

"I'd never just walk up to a random guy in the woods who's running dogs and ask to join in, but now you can ask around much easier to see if someone would be willing to take you along on a hunt," Jackson said. "You can meet, maybe go to lunch or something and get to know someone to decide if they are someone you want to go hunting with. And there are a lot of old-school rabbit hunters who are looking for every chance they can to run their dogs.

Even hunters who do not have a dog can still give rabbit hunting a shot when the cold has driven them to the brush. According to Jackson, he never misses a chance to kick a likely brush pile whether dogs are running a rabbit or not.

"You need to have your gun ready because it will dart out quickly," he said. "After a while, you'll start to recognize which types of brush are most likely to hold a rabbit. It just takes a lot more legwork to push them out of cover."

The daily limit for rabbits is eight, and the season lasts until the end of February.

Sports on 12/18/2018

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