Rabbit hunting.... what did you hunt as a kid?

[cloverleaf]

Bretzels post about his sons recent rabbit hunt got me thinking about all the countless hours I spent rabbit and squirrel hunting. And then there was the "bounty" we got for sparrows shot out of the "car shed". Oh man the air rifles we tried to wear out..... Eventually I saved up some money and bought the Crossman below. Dad gave me the scope for Christmas and so began my passion for long range shooting. Sparrows mostly....

Way more memories than I could write chasing rabbits and jacks. So I'll stick with my favorites. Had a Collie Shepard cross that was my hunting partner when I was a kid. Over time I figured that if I let him start down one side of a shelter belt and I pushed my wheelchair into the other side on the same end,the rabbits would try and circle around behind the dog by running down the othe side of the shelterbelt. Id be sitting there waiting for them. When I missed or the rabbits saw me and tried to cut back into the trees they would often run into "old smoke".
Shinning Jacks was considered acceptable night time entertainment for high schools aged kids after a movie on Sat. night. I did my share. The story goes around in my family, that years before, Grandpa had ropes tied to the opposing sides of the steering wheel and run out through the windows of the old '54 Ford. He would sit on the hood, with the model 10 12ga. and "drive" through the big pastures at night shinning Jacks. When he got to the end of the section or need to turn to get the lights just right he'd pull on one rope or the other to turn the car. I inherrited the '54 as a graduation prsent back in '81. When I asked about the screen door spring wired under the hood, Dad said that it was the "governor" grampa used when he was shinning Jacks. There are so many other rabbit hunting stories..... So what did you do that got you "hooked" as a kid?

Pic of Grandpa and "smoke". Oh, Grandpa loved to fish too. Picture is too bad to tell but I think that was a big catfish he caught. That dog was such a camera hound......

 

[SJB358]

Great story buddy! It was always fun to hunt rabbits, squirrels, partridge and pretty much any other small game that would hold still. Scotty

 

[JD338]

CL,

Good story. I used to have a Crossman 760 too.

I hunted rabbits, squirrels, partridge, woodcock, and phesants with a Winchester M190 22 autoloader and a M870 20 ga Light Weight.
In addition, the 22 also shot countless racoons, possoms, and a couple woodchucks. I also used the 22 bird shot and shot a bunch of river rats at my friends house.

JD338

 

[Guest]

CL, you've got me running down a number of trails in my mind now. Dad used to take us hunting all the time when I was a kid. We hunted squirrels, dove, quail, and deer. Never did get much into rabbit hunting, but I think that's mostly because all the dogs we were ever involved with were deer dogs, and you just don't let them get rabbit in their nose - they'll never get it out.

Small game hunting mostly occurred when I was still too small to carry a gun, but I'd sit with my dad and my brother would sit 50yds away. I remember many mornings of sneaking into a woodlot off the edge of a cornfield or a hayfield and finding a good tree to lean against. Those poor bushytails never knew what hit them. Dove hunts continued well into my college years, and were always a treat. I still love the social aspect of a good dove hunt.

We ran deer with dogs in the Apalachicola National Forest outside of Crawfordville, FL (just south of Tallahassee). I started going along with my dad when I was three. We rode around the woods in an old Willys Jeep station wagon for years, then Dad sold it and bought a 1971 GMC 4 wheel drive pickup from a repo sale. It was great to hear the dogs run, and the social aspect was always big. We'd get together and have lunch on the tailgate. It was always something healthy and delicious, like Dinty Moore Beef Stew, sardines, Beech Clif Fish Steaks, smoked oysters, pork chop sandwiches, or the like. Every thanksgiving we had a big feed at lunch at the camp - a place called Pope Still. It was good time.

Probably my favorite kind of hunting growing up was quail hunting. I learned on pen-raised birds, but eventually ran across a number of wild coveys. Those little buggers were fast as lightning. Every February we'd all go over to a friend of my dad's old home place. He called it "Possum Hill Manor" and there was a sign up by the gate reminding us. We'd eat too much, play guitar, hunt morning and afternoon, and hang out and do boy and man stuff, like ride 4-wheelers, build campfires, and generally get into whatever mischief we could find. It was there that I discovered (without my dad knowing) that a couple of beers and some peach cobbler were a terrific breakfast, and could produce some of the rankest burps of all time. Bear in mind, this was all while I was in middle and high school - the breakfast was definitely in high school.

I'm much reformed now, of course, but I still recall the great times, watching my dad and his friends cut up, and getting to do things that most kids my age weren't doing. Plus, we got to eat a bunch of quail, which is never a bad thing.

I'm slowly getting back into small game hunting, along with some coyote and hog hunting plans for this spring after deer season. Thanks for reminding me why I love small game hunting so much.

 

[DrMike]

I pretty much hunted squirrels and rabbits as a boy. There were no deer or turkey in Kansas during the 50s & 60s, but there were plenty of squirrels and rabbits. We tagged a few 'coon and 'possums. All counted as meat for the table. We did have a big contest in FFA each year, dividing the group into teams for "Pest Eradication Week." At the end of the month, the losing team had to provide a big dinner for the winning team. It certainly generated some intense competition to win. As I recall, each sparrow or starling was one point. Mice added one point and rats gave you two points. Skunks, now they made the night worthwhile, provided you didn't agitate the skunk too much before you dispatched it; polecats brought fifteen points. Each of us had a rifle of one sort or another. I borrowed my dad's single shot Winchester. It was rugged and ragged, but it did shoot .22 shorts quite accurately. There was always a few air rifles represented. Few of us had the money to afford a lot of shells, so if we could collect the vermin without the expenditure of a shell, all the better.

A friend, Larry, cornered a skunk in a barn one evening. "You need a rifle?" we called. "No. I can get him with this brickbat." Well, ol' Larry did get that skunk with the brickbat, but not before the skunk got ol' Larry with some of his eau d'skunk. Mercaptans provide a horrible foundation for building close relationship. All those in the car took a quick vote, and though we assured Larry that we were his buddies, we decided it was a lovely night for an extended walk back to town ... carrying his prize to collect his fifteen points.

When Larry got home, his mother threw him out of the house, admonishing him in her motherly concern for the welfare of the remainder of the family, that he would undoubtedly find it expedient to spend the night on the porch. Early the next morning, ol' Larry awakened from his reveries of slaying skunks and other critters that harassed the farmers of southeast Kansas. Hungry, as he hadn't eaten much since the previous evening, he assayed to enter the house only to be driven from the domicile and into the yard. There, his mother advised him to wash, tossing a bar of Ivory soap into the yard and pointing to the hose. "But, Ma, I cain't wash right out here in front of the entire neighbourhood!" His protestations were unpersuasive, and so ol' Larry stripped down to nature's best and proceeded to scrub away in hopes of making himself presentable so he could enjoy some of the culinary delights whose aromas were even then beckoning each time the door opened slightly.

I can tell you that someone sprayed by a skunk can wash with Ivory soap, and they will smell like a skunk scrubbed with Ivory soap. I'll go a step farther, you can wash said individual with tomato juice, and they smell like skunk drenched in tomato juice. Frankly, they bear the aroma of an Italian skunk, and that isn't all that appetizing.

Long story short, ol' Larry was not allowed into the school (something about not want to gag the entire high school). Finally, wandering home and pleading pitifully for his mother to relent at last permitted Larry to enter his house, but only after burning his clothing (including his letter jacket that he had saved and purchased with his own money). His mother scrubbed him with lye soap and vinegar until at last his odor was minimally offensive. It was a great lesson to me, as I learned that though I had to pay for the .22 shells, the price paid was far less than the trials that would attend using a brickbat on skunks. I'm not certain my dad would have ever let me back into the house had I attempted to come home in such a fashion.

 

[cloverleaf]

Long story short, ol' Larry was not allowed into the school (something about not want to gag the entire high school). Finally, wandering home and pleading pitifully for his mother to relent at last permitted Larry to enter his house, but only after burning his clothing (including his letter jacket that he had saved and purchased with his own money). His mother scrubbed him with lye soap and vinegar until at last his odor was minimally offensive. It was a great lesson to me, as I learned that though I had to pay for the .22 shells, the price paid was far less than the trials that would attend using a brickbat on skunks. I'm not certain my dad would have ever let me back into the house had I attempted to come home in such a fashion.

Reminds me of the time I tried to take after a skunk with that old Crossman :shock: Fourtunately for me he was already dead in that hole thanks to a #2 jump trap. "Smoke" wasnt around fo that one fortunately. But then there was that Badger ...... Seriously.....CL

 

[Oldtrader3]

I lived on an island in Maine and in southern Quebec when I was a kid and we had red squirrels, rats (wharf type) as pests, plus snowshoe rabbits and ruffed grouse as serious eating game. I had an old Winchester single shot .22LR and a single shot shotgun (12 ga) as guns. We ate the grouse and snow shoe hare. My great grandfather ran a general store on the island and would pay me a nickel per rat that I killed under his wharves. Long rifle shells were about $.75 for 50 then. Red squirrels were pests and were good practice shooting.

We had a few lobter trap lines (a friend and I) in the summer and got $.35 a pound for lobsters. Between that and shooting rats, we kept ourselves in shells and gas for the boat.

 

[FOTIS]

Was there anyone who did not have a Crosman?

Mine was confiscated by NYPD for shooting it in the park.
Others got in trouble for drinking smoking and drugs, I got in trouble for sportsmanship! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[bullet]

I loved the story and thanks for sharing. Hunted any bird that came in sight with my bee bee gun and me and my brothers would pop their breast out after we got a little mess of them and build us a fire and roast the bird breast and have a ball eating them. Sure miss those days. Hunted rabbit and squirrel a lot growing up with a single shot 22, I believe that is where I really learned to shoot good.

 

[CatskillCrawler]

Another proud 760 owner. Still have mine and someday will replace those seals! Maybe...

Grey and Fox squirrels, Bobtail, Pheasant, Cottontails and ducks helped expend my youthful energy.

 

[SJB358]

I had a Daisy Pump .177 but one Christmas around my 10th year I got a Benjamin .22 caliber air rifle! That was like the 416 mags of the air gun world. Still have that rifle somewhere, but oh man, did I shot alot of squirrels with that rifle. I loved it. Carried it everywhere. A buddy and I practiced with ours so much I think we almost wore the pump loose! Scotty

 

[tecumseh]

The old 760, Those bring back the days :lol: I had a Daisy 880 I used for squierrl's and went to a 22 after that.

 

[cloverleaf]

Another proud 760 owner. Still have mine and someday will replace those seals! Maybe...

Grey and Fox squirrels, Bobtail, Pheasant, Cottontails and ducks helped expend my youthful energy.

Replace those seals....I did a number of years ago and it still does pest control duty for me....This guy was creepin' me out last year so the crossman went into action.....still works. CL

 

[257 Ackley]

CL -
What are bringing those jack-a-lopes back here to Minnesota for? :lol: Thought you couldn't cross the SD border with them!!

 

[Guy Miner]

When I was a kid, Dad was great about taking me afield for dove, pheasant and ducks/geese. Now and again for quail as well. He wasn't really very interested in hunting deer, bear or boar, and not much of one for rabbits or squirrel. We did shoot a mess of muskrats with our .22 Marlin, as they would dig under the levees and ruin the irrigation ditch walls.

I used to venture out for rabbits and squirrel with my bow. Dang that was fun. Just me and my beagle, or sometimes two or three of us with hunting bows.

For an air rifle, I had an old .22 cal Benjamin. Pumped up 10 times, it would penetrate a 1" pine board at 25' - I was impressed.

Good stuff. My own sons haven't done as much small game hunting.

Guy

 

[Mooswa]

My first rifle was a single shot Cooey .22 that I got for my sixth birthday. I started going on duck hunts with my Dad when I was about 3 years old and my Dad got me shooting a .22 when I was five, so by the time I turned six I was ready for the little Cooey and my cousin and I were hell on gophers and crows around my uncles farm.

We also potted the odd jack rabbit, but everyone kept us in .22 shells during the summer to lay waste to the gophers. When cattle were rotated to a new pasture we would hit the old pasture hard as the cattle had eaten the grass down so that it was pretty hard for a gopher to hide anywhere but in the burrow.

I remember the freedom of those days fondly. Kids these days rarely get those opportunities at that age............... parents and society in general have a different view of things. We also use to get on our horses and disappear for the whole day........... most parents would never allow such a thing now.

Times have changed and not for the better. They try to keep children safe but at what cost? Glad I grew up when I did.

 

[6mm Remington]

Nice story CL. I started hunting rabbits at about 5 years old with my dad when he would check his trapline. We used the rabbits for bait. When I got my BB gun (Fotis I never had a Crossman ) I worked it on the starlings and magpies near our home. Later I got a .22 and still hunted rabbits and gophers with it a lot. Some really fond memories from those times!
David

 

[cloverleaf]

CL -
What are bringing those jack-a-lopes back here to Minnesota for? :lol: Thought you couldn't cross the SD border with them!!

yeah, Wierd huh?!? Did a little research. DNR says they are OK to eat etc. Dont think I will be. This one was creepin' me out and was just plain dumb. (Almost stepped on him a time or two) He started workin on my garden and that was the last straw. Sad that a kid from SD has to live in MN for 25 years to get a "jack-alope" CL

 

[35 Whelen]

When I was a kid [wife says I still am!] I used to hunt for "Bigfoot" and was hoping to bring him down with my 1892 in 38-40 Winchester, but never could get a fine bead; on him.......... I did wound and then loose a few big bucks with it; and finally swaped it off on my first car!!! I think its a good thing, I never caught up with him, as I think he probably could have almost caught them; in his hand!

 

[Songdog]

Ruger 10/22... best jackrabbit rifle ever made... shot a lot of the old Remington Gold Box shells out of mine... and bought an occasional box of CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers when I was feeling rich.