No R in the month

[Old Hawkeye]

I don't hunt rabbit. I like to share my game with my family. Its part of the fun for me and my wife won't eat rabbit. It is legal to hunt them year round here in AZ. I know people that shoot them when the jump them while quail hunting. There are two main types of rabbits here, cottontails and jackrabbits. I don't know anyone that hunts or eats jackrabbits. A more rare cousin of the jackrabbit is the jackelope, which I have seen, but mostly does.
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The jackelope was hunted to extinction here in the midwest during the Great depression, so I have only seen taxidermy evidence of their existence. Good to see a few survivors hanging on in the desert SW. I think I'll start lobbying for our DNR to "reintroduce" them. Heard they were great tablefare!!

 

[Ponderosaman]

The jackelope was hunted to extinction here in the midwest during the Great depression, so I have only seen taxidermy evidence of their existence. Good to see a few survivors hanging on in the desert SW. I think I'll start lobbying for our DNR to "reintroduce" them. Heard they were great tablefare!!

I can't say how they eat, but like I mentioned, I don't hunt rabbit and its hard to tell if its a fallow doe and so otherwise the bucks are very rare.

 

[stickmann00]

Tularemia, rabbit fever, is a very dangerous disease and can be fatal. As a youngster I would take them at any opportunity with a pellet rifle. So I never have actually been "rabbit hunting" but spent all my woods time hunting squirrels. The occasional bunny was fine with me.

My dad hunted rabbits during one of the massive hare population explosions outside Fairbanks. He saw many rabbits with spotted livers.

 

[ARMY]

Jackelopes are better served with fried green tomatoes and roasted potatoes and a slice of Granny Smith's apple pie. I am getting hungry just thinking about it---

 

[Whughett]

In my part of the world, Rhode Island, rabbit is on many restaurants menus and readily available in many meat markets. It’s a staple in the Portuguese communities. Not wild bunnies however. Many house holds raise them as a meat source.

 

[Griz44Mag]

In my part of the world, Rhode Island, rabbit is on many restaurants menus and readily available in many meat markets. It’s a staple in the Portuguese communities. Not wild bunnies however. Many house holds raise them as a meat source.

In my youth - in the Texas Panhandle - my Uncle raised rabbits for the fur and meat market on a commercial level. We butchered hundreds of rabbits every month.
It is still common to see rabbit for sale in select supermarkets - USDA inspected.

 

[Eterry]

I've heard about hunting rabbits in months with an R in it. My grandpa and father both refused to let me hunt rabbits until first frost. Usually around November. Even then, in north Texas, you would see the dreaded wolves inside the skin during dressing. Mom refused to cook them, so the hounds got them.

My brother raises show rabbits, they sell for hundreds of dollars each. He says rabbits won't breed when the temp is too high, around 90f I think. He has air conditioning window units in his rabbit barn. Dad said months without R the rabbits are breeding and raising their young.

The shrimpers, mud bug harvesters work during months without an R. I think the reverse is true for oysters.

 

[ML48]

Tularemia, rabbit fever, is a very dangerous disease and can be fatal. As a youngster I would take them at any opportunity with a pellet rifle. So I never have actually been "rabbit hunting" but spent all my woods time hunting squirrels. The occasional bunny was fine with me.

You hit it definitely CO-RRECT!! Buddy of mine back it the '90's when we lived in Hayden, CO. killed some rabbits...not wearing gloves to skin them out, had an open wound, spent quite a few weeks in hospital and damned near died. I love to eat rabbit, but we wait for the cold weather to kill them, then harvest them for the freezer, and always wear gloves when doing so.
Good post Hanshi....

 

[TFoley]

I would rather eat my own ears than rabbit.

I'm definitely NOT a country boy where food is concerned.

 

[hanshi]

TFoley, I guess it just depends on where and how one grows up. I was raised rural and around farming. I have friends who never hunted and would take their orders for venison. I grew up hunting and by the time I was in high school the deer population in Georgia was exploding. I fed quite a few families by simply enjoying the woods. And I didn't neglect small game either; but most like venison much more than they would, say, squirrel. But there were exceptions. It's been a long time since I've eaten any small game, but wouldn't hesitate even now.

 

[ML48]

I would rather eat my own ears than rabbit.

I'm definitely NOT a country boy where food is concerned.

Why? Tastes like chicken....and I'd bet a dollar to a dime tastes better than your ears
And you definitely wouldn't like SE Asian cuisine

 

[SOLANCO]

I've heard about hunting rabbits in months with an R in it. My grandpa and father both refused to let me hunt rabbits until first frost. Usually around November. Even then, in north Texas, you would see the dreaded wolves inside the skin during dressing. Mom refused to cook them, so the hounds got them.

My brother raises show rabbits, they sell for hundreds of dollars each. He says rabbits won't breed when the temp is too high, around 90f I think. He has air conditioning window units in his rabbit barn. Dad said months without R the rabbits are breeding and raising their young.

The shrimpers, mud bug harvesters work during months without an R. I think the reverse is true for oysters.

From an old hand in the perishable seafood business who long dealt with the R in the month rule. No oysters in months without an R was a troublesome bug that had to do with the time before refrigeration. A hot oyster in July with no refrigeration was not a happy oyster. While refrigeration essentially negated the R rule it could not help with other seasonal aspects.
Chesapeake oysters, for example, spawn in early summer. A spawned oyster is edible, but not the delight you would expect in, say, December.

 

[TFoley]

I was raised in towns and cities where the only rabbits I ever saw were in pet stores.

The owners take a very dim view of people going into their stores and shooting their bunnies.

 

[Artificer]

I was raised in Iowa and we NEVER shot rabbits until after the first snow fall, as rabbits infected with Tularemia were believed then not to survive a snow fall. We did check the livers, anyway, but never found any bad one when hunting that way.

Here in Virginia, Tularemia hurt a LOT of people during the Depression years, when folks took them at the wrong time of year, just trying to survive.

Gus

 

[COTNTOP]

You fellas bring back memories of my first dog Hawkeye. Most yard dogs were hunting species and played a dual role as pet and hunter. Hawkeye was a chow mix and would run a rabbit as good as any beagle. Even back then we knew not to shoot or handle squirrel or rabbit because of wolves until cold weather.

 

[troy2000]

When I was growing up in the California desert, we followed the 'no rabbits in months without an R in them' rule - sort of. Any cottontail we shot during the summer months got fed to the dogs, instead of winding up on the dinner table. I'm not sure why we figured something not safe for humans was OK for dogs, aside from the fact they seem to survive (and enjoy) eating a lot of things we wouldn't dream of touching ourselves...

 

[Stumpkiller]

I'd always heard it was oysters that you avoided in months without an "r" in the name.

Rabbits, wild, got a season of September to February. Raise your own? Anything goes.

 

[toot]

I can't say how they eat, but like I mentioned, I don't hunt rabbit and its hard to tell if its a fallow doe and so otherwise the bucks are very rare.

I think that they taste like CHICKEN?

 

[Packrat]

I remember while stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 60's, during season we had rabbit at the mess hall.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I remember while stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 60's, during season we had rabbit at the mess hall.

It was cheap back then. It's cheap in the UK..., didn't find rabbit in LeJeune in the 1980's I can tell you..., today a domestic "meat" rabbit will fetch as much as $8.00 a pound at the local Amish Market, AND for me, if it's that expensive it better be saying MOO when it was alive! I find the wild rabbits are more tasty and more satisfying when I get them with the trade gun.

Funny though..., the R in the month ONLY applies to the Northern Hemisphere of our planet. The warm months where you'd have problems for the oysters, or for rabbits when taking your muzzleloader out in say Australia would be Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb.

I wunda if downunda..., they say ONLY eat the bunnies in months without the R....,

LD