Ahhhh... That does my heart good to see!
I grew up on .22's and jackrabbits. My Dad enjoyed it a lot too. Spent many a Saturday with him walking up jacks and popping them with our rifles. Eventually moved on to doing the same with scoped centerfires. My first was a .270 that I started hand loading for right out of the gate. Case full of surplus 4831 my Dad bought from Bruce Hogdon at a gun show and a 110 gr. bullet to crunch it down with (no scale or measure, just stand up all my cases in a cake pan and pour powder from a coffee can until they were all full).
I don't think the numbers will ever be like they were in the 70's again. They were thick in Biblical plague proportions. Over a huge area. But there are some pockets to be found out there still, that hold some impressive numbers.
Best practical rifle practice there is, in my opinion. I know, I know, we were all great back in the day, and I'm no different. But, honestly, when I was in my 20's and even in my 30's, after a lifetime of steady trigger time on jackrabbits, I thought running coyotes were just big and slow and easy. It ain't like that anymore...
- DAA