Kentucky’s rabbit season closes Jan. 31, so I decided to make one last hunt. It wasn’t a very pleasant day for it, dark and overcast, temperature right at freezing and with a steady wind blowing ice pellets and snow flurries in my face. Being out with a BP shotgun on my arm always solves all such minor problems, and it did today. My hunting place is mostly open hay fields with a few scattered patches of woods and fence rows which have been allowed to grow up for the critters. I hunt alone and without dogs, just as I learned to do when a kid, and it’s a fairly strenuous way to hunt. Keeps you warm and gives you plenty of exercise.
I knew I’d be hunting in some pretty heavy trash requiring quick action if I found bunnies so I decided to leave my 46”-barrel flintlock smoothbore at home and go modern. I have a Navy Arms 12-gauge SxS percussion double which I haven’t used much for a long time, so I decided to carry that. Last time I fired at a rabbit with it was 1992, and it took me a while to round up the fixin’s for it. I have an assortment of caps, all many years old, and I decided to try a box of Vorderlater Zundhutchen because they seemed to fit. Hard card overpowder wads of 3/32” and overshot of 1/32”, 2F Goex, #6 shot, double snake shot and powder dispenser, canvas shotgunning bag... check, check, check. And coffee. And shotgun chaps. V.M. Starr recommended 82 gr. Fg and 1 oz. shot in a 12-gauge for cottontails, but I was using FFg, so I set my snake up to drop 76 grains FFg and 1 oz. of shot.
I hiked for two hours through the best looking cover I could find and saw only 2 cottontails. The first was in some thick lodged grass right next to a dense briar patch. It held until I almost stepped on it then bolted into the briars and disappeared, was in sight for only 1 second. The second was a hour later in a fairly thin fence row, and it made the mistake of running along the row in the clear. I let it run out about 20 yards and then rolled it. I’ve been hunting for many a year and have taken a lot of game, large and small, but I enjoy doing that more than most. The challenge of beating a scooting cottontail in heavy cover to the draw and rollin it with a shotgun never gets old for me. I do, but that doesn’t.
One rabbit was all I needed, I’m easy to please, so I called it a day.. A good day. There will be another one tomorrow, fried rabbit, biscuits and pan gravy. It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it.
Spence
I knew I’d be hunting in some pretty heavy trash requiring quick action if I found bunnies so I decided to leave my 46”-barrel flintlock smoothbore at home and go modern. I have a Navy Arms 12-gauge SxS percussion double which I haven’t used much for a long time, so I decided to carry that. Last time I fired at a rabbit with it was 1992, and it took me a while to round up the fixin’s for it. I have an assortment of caps, all many years old, and I decided to try a box of Vorderlater Zundhutchen because they seemed to fit. Hard card overpowder wads of 3/32” and overshot of 1/32”, 2F Goex, #6 shot, double snake shot and powder dispenser, canvas shotgunning bag... check, check, check. And coffee. And shotgun chaps. V.M. Starr recommended 82 gr. Fg and 1 oz. shot in a 12-gauge for cottontails, but I was using FFg, so I set my snake up to drop 76 grains FFg and 1 oz. of shot.
I hiked for two hours through the best looking cover I could find and saw only 2 cottontails. The first was in some thick lodged grass right next to a dense briar patch. It held until I almost stepped on it then bolted into the briars and disappeared, was in sight for only 1 second. The second was a hour later in a fairly thin fence row, and it made the mistake of running along the row in the clear. I let it run out about 20 yards and then rolled it. I’ve been hunting for many a year and have taken a lot of game, large and small, but I enjoy doing that more than most. The challenge of beating a scooting cottontail in heavy cover to the draw and rollin it with a shotgun never gets old for me. I do, but that doesn’t.
One rabbit was all I needed, I’m easy to please, so I called it a day.. A good day. There will be another one tomorrow, fried rabbit, biscuits and pan gravy. It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it.
Spence
