The American Beagler Forum

ive hunted an old stripmine, 3 different forks, all have ponds and is excellent looking rabbit hunting.
1st day jumped only 1, real windy so i blame it on the wind and go back after several days of rain.

2nd day jumped nothing but a bobcat. today the 3rd day my 2 sons went with me . we had 10 dogs, most were our old dogs we raised from pups 6-8 yrs old. Never even hit a track and this area is 200 acres or so.
also not been hunted in a few yrs. since its gated off except for 4wheelers.

anyone else having tough luck finding them , how does a place like this become extinct of rabbits, several other areas also the same, no bunnies

been hunting mines in w ky and have found plenty. have hunted some areas that dosnt seem to hold rabbits though, walked half mile through cover and no rabbits, cut across hay field ankle high and my son jumps one, so who knows maybe their all in one area.

Bobcats, coyotes, hawks, owls, whatever else will eat a rabbit, makes one think how any rabbit has a chance to live long. I use to hunt a public hunting are in Linton Indiana called Hillenbrand. Reclaimed strip mine property. The last two times i went there, and the cover is really thick, walked all over that place, dogs hunted hard only jumped one rabbit that went to hole. I havent been back. I dont know why certain good looking places dont hold bunnys. Now Hillenbrand is a public hunting area yes but so is Glendale and its got alot of rabbits. JUst my 2 cents.

BobCat.... They can be just like a domestic cat, kill for the pleasure of it.. I'd say he wiped them out.

rabbit cycle seems to be down this yr
but ticks are just as bad as all the other animals mentioned
and cant for get other hunters (gun)
and the rabbits will go deep

Jon, I've posted on the Hillenbrand area before as I live only a couple miles from it. We have NEVER even jumped a rabbit on this tract of public land. Yes, it has great cover but for some reason there are just no rabbits and from our experiance from several years ago there never were many if any. We haven't wasted our time in about 5 or 6 years going back. We always wonered why we never saw rabbit hunters all over the place there but never have and the reason was obvious to us we we tromped it without a single jump.

Yeah i agree warddog i wont go back there. Now i dont know about the rabbit population being down cause we are sure jumping them everywhere we go, or at least have had good luck so far this year. Last year to me was a bad year. In fact we have had good luck in a couple spots this year that last couple years we couldnt buy a rabbit. Maybe we have just been lucky. Glendale seems to be high this year, weve had no problems jumping rabbits and have had some great runs there this year. We also have jumped 2 bobcats this year there, (glendale) First time ever for me to jump a bobcat while rabbit hunting and to do it twice, wow !! First one we jumped, had a dog we where trying out and she took off on it and my other dogs followed but we got them back quickly with a little help from the sportdog The second jump i had 3 dogs down, my 2 older ones and one young female and they paid no attention to it or the doe they jumped just 30 feet from where the bobcat come out. Needless to say i didnt buy the dog that started the bobcat race. hahaahhha

A place I've hunted over 25 years has always been good til the year I retired, 2007. Never saw one rabbit there that year (usually kill 15 to 20 on this farm). I spent about a year reading about trapping K9's and in 08 took after it. I caught tons of coons , possums, grey fox, red fox, and a few coyotes. Stayed out of there in 09. 2010 went back to rabbit hunting and there was plenty of rabbits again. I also trapped it again in 2010 and caught alot of critters, but nothing like first year.Many people around here think there is a connection between coyote and rabbit numbers in given areas.

Ferrel cats, bobcats, coyotes, fox, hawks, eagles, you pick any of them can wipe out a few rabbits in a hurry. I was farming this fall and watched a rabbit bouncing down the rows of stalks and I watch him take his last steps as a hawk swooped down from a power pole and caught him. They are alot harder on the bunnies then we know. In my area there is a bird of prey on every other power pole. Thats a ton of mouths to feed!!!

I agree on the whole predator thing..........they tend to be very hard on a rabbit population.

One other thing I've noticed too................

Wherever I notice predators around a population of rabbits the rabbits seem to be a whole lot quicker to go to the hole. I suppose it's the only way to survive in an area with a number of hawks, coyotes, fox, etc.

Predators are for sure a big threat,as well as people clearing land out etc.One thing that caught my attention a few days ago I went to youtube and typed in "Rabbit Hunting" and was shocked to see how many people were on there with their airguns and stuff shooting them.If their eating them thats fine,some people dont understand/care what its like to chase them w/hounds but they were killin plenty of rabbits with those airguns,Spotlighting them at night to.Then the people were out "Falconry" hunting,I dont know why but that irritated the life out of me! Its bad enough we have to deal with predators in the wild but to have some joker out there with 1 on his shoulder searchin them out it should be outlawed!Everyones allowed a hobby I guess but it just annoyed me to no end.IMO it boils down to wildlife officials just flat dont care about small game hunting/hunters because it generates no money for them.If we dont do like someone said a week or so ago about the "Rabbits Forever" we may own hounds but we'll have nothing to chase except deer.

Well said! I have a cousin who is into falconry! I can't get past it either! The only thing I've noticed is that most falconers around here go to areas that no one can hunt anyway. Behind shopping centers,development properties. But dang, they can go to the end of march in ky! That's not right! I hope that Ky is going to follow through and start tackling their small game issues! We darn sure don't have a "lack" of natural predators!
I know all my old reliable spots aren't coming through anymore! It doesn't help that all the farmland in northern KY is being broken up,developed or cleared off to look like a golf course! And any possible spots are hard to get into because they don't want you screwing up the deer (shooting) hunting! People got no common sense!