Got jackrabbits?

Originally Posted By: Infidel 762Very nicely done. Do you eat them?

Typically not, but Fursniper's jerky recipe has me rethinking that...
 
Made another quick trip out into the desert tonight. This time the wife and the little one came along. Good times for the whole family.

I don't get it. The photo on Photobucket is nice and crisp, but here, nope, out of focus...

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Thanks Dave.

I used last night's hunt partially as an excuse to try out the .17 WSM with 20 grain bullets to see if they would be acceptable for fox and bobcats on an upcoming trip to Arizona. I learned that, no, the 20 grainers are probably not going to work. Fox aren't much more robust than these big jacks, and the 20 grainers tore these guys up. Maybe 25 grainers will be better. I guess I'll have to take the kids out next weekend and find out.
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Originally Posted By: LazerusDig the pink cricket!

That's a Savage Rascal. All the size benefits of the Cricket with much better peep sight and Accutrigger!

ETA - And the boy is shooting the Savage .22 that he shot in the Youth Egg Shoot last year and ended up with later as part of the big raffle (thanks Kerry and Kim). The eldest in the back is sporting her new Henry Golden Boy. Happy, shootin' kids all around.
 
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Originally Posted By: RustydustBuick Electra and shoot those ugly bug eyed jacks out the window. Shot a running one once with a Sterling .22 pocket pistol while steering with one hand and shooting out the window with the other. What fun! Likely I had a cold beer clamped between my legs as well. Ah youth.

Lmao! Sounds familiar! Haha
 
half grown jack is really good eating, with gravy. in the 50's we hunted alfalfa patch's at night (north of Kalvesta Ks.) mink farms were paying .50 a pc, would pike them up in a shed (freezing weather) haul them in 2-3 hundred at a time.
 
I haven't hardly seen a jackrabbit, in my area, in 30 years.
When I was a kid (and into my very early 20s), I used to shoot a few in the winter months.
During the warm months, if I came across one out in our pastures...and happened to be on my motorcycle...I would chase it, just because it was fun.

In my area, jacks are kind of like prairie chicken...rarely seen anymore.
 
Looks like great fun. Blowing up jacks is one of my favorite things to do. They were thick this year out in some areas of the mojave. Shame I did not have time to get out and hunt. I was just driving through.
 
Originally Posted By: sscoyoteonce tenderized it's the best game meat I've ever ate.

I can't go as far as saying it's the best I have ever had, but when it comes to Rabbit it is .
 
Originally Posted By: killahogOriginally Posted By: sscoyoteonce tenderized it's the best game meat I've ever ate.

I can't go as far as saying it's the best I have ever had, but when it comes to Rabbit it is .


sscoyote must not of ever had a broiled chunk of elk back strap.
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Back in the late 70's we killed a thousand of more in a Summer, Each!

My next door neighbors were a precious older Mexican couple, they were like my Mom and Dad. Lina begged me to kill her some rabbits. So, I shot 5 in the head with a 22rf and cleaned them for them. I would usually go over for coffee on Sat morning. Lina and John had a surprise for me that Sat morning, the pressure cooker was whistling when I walked in the Kitchen, Lina told me that it would be ready to cool off in a few minutes.

When I opened the pressure cooker, I could see rabbit backs, legs, thighs, onions, and a two halves of a clove of garlic.

I was hesitant to eat, but they are all grins and excited. I chose a the back of the rabbit of course, and the meat was just falling off the bones. The meat was simply delicious! I ate till I thought I was going to pop.

The next Sunday, there was a big family get together with all enjoying Rabbit taco's, they were the best I have ever had.

Many do not eat wild game anymore. If you do decide to try cotton tail or Jack rabbit, always check the liver for spots and if the rabbit has a wolve growing out of the skin, don't eat it, it is a large worm. These two things are easy to check for, and rabbit is a delicacy. Fried rabbit with gravy is nothing short of awesome.

In Arizona, they have a pigmy cottontail rabbit, they never get tough. I used to sit on the top of a river bed and shoot them in the head as they came out to sun after the morning sun rise, limit at that time was 10 per day. I would cook them basted with pork shake and bake for some fine eating.

Rabbit stew is better than beef stew, seasoning is always the key.

Eating wild game has been associated with poor people, and I have to admit that my dad was a Depression child where hunting and fishing provided much scarce meat as his father was a preacher that was a pastor of several churches at one time and was paid in slabs of meat, chickens, as animals were slaughtered. Today, we are seeing that squirrels and rabbits are not on the dinner plate anymore, they are delicious to say the least.

A few years ago I went to Texas on a hog hunt. Dad and I got a free hunt because I cleaned the hogs and dad and I did the cooking for the group. Hogs were being slaughtered but the general idea was that boars were not fit to eat. A 200 lb boar was killed, I butchered the hog, and slow cooked the hog in a pit. Those guys ate on that hog for two days, including the owner that told me that they would taste horrible. Lots of game animals are really good eating, knowing how to cook it is another story.

Two animals that I can not eat, Javelina and bear, they are horrible tasting to my way of cooking.
 
Great read, Keith. You made me hungry! Of course, everything makes me hungry.
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Back in the late 70's I was working for Western Electric and one of the guys on the crew told everyone not to have breakfast the next day as he was providing it. Sounds good what we having? You'll find out he said.

And find out we did. Fresh cooked biscuits heaped high with the best gravy I ever tasted. Big chunks of delicious meat and all of it seasoned perfect. Dang- now I am making myself hungry thinking about it.

Anyway, after much prying he gleefully stated that we all all been eating cottontail rabbit that he and his brother had taken in his (big) back yard. I had never had rabbit so good before or since. He later brought me a ziplock bag of it (after much begging) and my wife chicken fried it. Dang that was good. Sure wish I had some right now.
 
We have quite a few Jacks in Western and southern Wyoming. I haven't eaten any but I will now thanks for the recipe's and the motivation. Pygmy's are protected here. My dog was good friends with one in 2013-14. He has since passed on but it was really touching to see a dog let a rabbit (wild) cuddle In the sunlight. Good memories. Fat Lab by the way.
 
Excellent job there!

I have been taking my daughter out this spring, letting her get used to shooting jacks. We shine them at night out of the pickup and she is shooting them with her CZ 223. The first night was a little shaky until she started getting the hang of it, but she is doing really good now. Her first night out she killed 6. It is great practice for her getting on target quick and staying with a moving critter. It has helped her shooting a bunch already.

We had really good numbers of them back in the 80's, we shot them all the time. Then populations crashed. Maybe they came back a time or two while I was in the Navy or moved away, I don't know. There were plenty of years I didn't really pay attention to it. But the last few years they have come back again pretty good. I sure do enjoy seeing them and being able to shoot decent numbers of them again.
 
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