HABITAT Cottontails seldom range more than one-half mile and usually spend their lives on 10 acres or less. The cottontail rabbit is principally a farm animal and fares best on relatively small cropland areas. Usually, grown-up fence rows, ditch banks, and turnrows on farms provide adequate cover. For the past several decades, farm sizes have increased and "clean farming" has increased, as a result of better equipment. Also, much farmland that was once suitable for cottontails has been converted to improved pasture or loblolly-pine plantations. These enterprises are important, but they do not produce as many rabbits as when rows were being plowed with mules. Generally, diversification of habitats for cottontail rabbits is important, such as interspersing or mixing cover areas with feeding areas. Good cover is probably the greatest single factor affecting rabbit populations. Cover provides areas for rabbits to escape from predators, nest, feed, and avoid adverse weather and can be developed and maintained depending on the type of landscape involved. Where natural cover is lacking, such as in large, clean agricultural fields, cover can be increased by allowing natural vegetation along fencerows and ditchbanks to grow up into thickets. Fifteen-foot-wide strips of Kobe or Korean Lespedeza also can be planted. Hunting smart starts with hunting where the cottontails are. Late in the season as the weather turns from the last warmth of late autumn to the chill of winter, rabbits tend to concentrate in heavy cover close to feeding sources both wild and agricultural. To find numbers of cottontails, look for places where lush sections of wild foods or harvested fields butt up against swamps, thickets, downed timber, fallow fields, brushpiles or weed-choked gullies. For example, a patch of tender-barked blackberry near an overgrown sheltering fencerow may offer a bonanza of rabbits. Likewise, the edge between harvested fields of grain and thick brush can suddenly offer some fast shooting as feeding rabbits dive from the corn or beans for cover. The best place to hunt cottontails is likely to be on land that has a mixture of briar patches or other heavy cover, low grass and open fields nearby. Not that rabbits do not live on land covered with briars, but it is no walk in the park to hunt in spots like that. Look in and around brushpiles, especially in open country. Hedgerows, patches of weeds, cornfields, small wood-lots, orchards, nurseries, old graveyards and old homesteads are great places to look for "Bugs". Another fine place to hunt in the winter is a willow flat in the bottom land along rivers. Once the cold, frosty nights have cut down the weeds and grass that grow profusely in the bottoms, it is easy to walk and jump cottontails. They will be in there to eat the bark of young, tender saplings. Rabbits must eat everyday, they do not store food, like squirrels for instance. A conscientious hunter can almost always get permission to hunt rabbits from a nurseryman. DIET Rabbits are almost entirely herbivorous and eat nearly anything that grows above ground. In the growing season, grasses, sedges, sprouts, and leaves are used heavily. Fruits, branch tips, buds, and bark also are eaten, along with waste grain around areas that are farmed. During the winter, rabbits eat oats, winter wheat, clovers, and other green foods planted next to ground cover. Such plantings reduce the distances rabbits have to move to find food and result in reduced predation. Wintering rabbits dependent upon wild foods will eat the bark, buds and shoots of just about any species of small, tender, ground-level plants that have sprung up during the summer. On farm ground, the little piles of waste and spillage that dot most fields of mechanically harvested crops are also places where rabbits might feed. If you live in an area where rabbits proliferate, this will increase em, if you already have em this'll bring more. Rock salt. Rabbits like habitat where they feel secure. To begin with, they need shrubbery (bring us a *shrubbery*) and they also like bramble piles. Berry seedlings, mast trees, and fence rows are their favorite home areas. They can get nearly all the nourishment from this type of environment they need but the one thing that their diets require is salt. What you do with rock salt is go out with about a coffee can worth of rock salt chunks and spread a piece here and there around bushy areas, under hardwood trees, along tree lines. Anywhere that it might seem reasonable that, had a rabbit all it needed, it would live there. The salt will leach into the soil and rabiits take in a lot of dirt with their meals when they forage plant roots. They will be attracted to leached (high content salted soil) the same way deer are to salt licks. HOW TO HUNT The best way I've found is to pick a spot looking down a "run" or a treeline. In the woods, look for open areas and hunt from above them. You'll need about thirty yards to your target area. When you pick your spot be prepared to sit a while. Choose a spot in front of some bushes or put a large tree behind you to break up your silouhette. The best times to still hunt rabbits is daybreak or sundown. I don't know why, but they seem to be on the move a lot more at those times in the areas I hunt. Wear some camo and put something under you to cushion the seat you were born with. Relax. Take your time because rabbits will get used to you being there if you don't make sudden moves for about fifteen to twenty minutes. But don't expect them to appear like clockwork if you check your watch wondering where they are. LOL Another side of hunting smart for cottontails is to dress correctly. Of course, blaze orange is a must for safety, and temperature will determine how much layering is needed to keep warm. However, it is critical that the outer layer of clothing and footwear be tough enough to turn away brambles and burrs. Busting through thick brush is a given when you're hunting without beagles. Heavy canvas overalls or bibs and a stout pair of waterproof boots are the minimum requirements to keep your skin, your feet and your resolve intact. A third factor in hunting smart for rabbits is to follow the basics of block and drive. Simply stated, one hunter slowly walks through feeding or cover areas while a partner stands silently at ready on the outside perimeter. The driver's job is to make the rabbit move, show itself and present a clean shot opportunity to the blocker. Contrary to common practice, the best way to do that is to stay calm and keep the ruckus to a minimum. Shouting and stomping through cottontail country will actually work against you. I've watched rabbits being chased by men and beagles on countless occasions. Given opportunity and the perception of adequate cover, rabbits will run only a short distance when gently pushed. Then they will stop, watch, and listen. On the other hand, putting rabbits into full panic mode will typically turn them into gray blurs. Driving your quarry into the distance or into dens will not result in rabbit stew. Cottontails have exceptional hearing. Those big ears play a major role in keeping them out of harm's way. The constant commentary that is typical between most drivers and blockers keeps cottontails updated on the hunters' location at all times. On the other hand, if the only noise a cottontail hears is the driver working his way through cover, its efforts to keep ahead or circle around the driver will often put it right into a blocker's field of fire. A few agreed-upon hand signals can solve the conversation problem and can offer an additional advantage. With a stealthier approach, it's possible for a blocker to hear a rabbit coming through the brush so the hunter will be on full alert before the rabbit pops out into the open. This stealth and advance notice is especially critical if you share my passion for hunting rabbits with a .22 rimfire rifle. I'll be the first to admit that lightweight, loose-choked shotguns offer the advantage of quick shots and a reasonable margin of error. That makes them perfect for hunting rabbits behind a pair of bawling beagles. However, hunting with a snappy little pump or lever-action rimfire is great fun. The rifle hunter needs just a little more time to take aim and squeeze off a head or shoulder shot. That's where block and drive shines. For the rifle hunter, the slower pace and the reduced pressure on game adds up to more shot opportunities. The actual positioning of blockers and the path of the driver will vary with the individual situation. However, three scenarios occur over and over again. To ensure the makings for a delicious hasenpfeffer, each calls for a slightly different technique. For example, rabbit cover often involves narrow brush-filled gullies. These sometimes follow a small creek or seasonal trickle. This situation calls for a simple walk-through. Two blockers are best, and when available, one should be positioned on each side of the swale and at least 10 to 20 paces ahead of the direction of travel as the designated driver. The driver slowly works his way through the length of the cover. Everyone should remain in visual contact at all times. The driver should stop frequently. These short pauses apply to all block-and-drive situations, and they make a cottontail nervous. Thinking it has been spotted, the anxious cottontail bolts a few yards forward or off to the side. Sometimes that's all of the advantage an alert blocker needs. If only two hunters are running a block and drive, the driver should stay off to the side of the gully that offers the most open shot from cover. The single blocker will work the opposite side slightly ahead of the blocker, carefully watching openings in the forward cover and the open ground along the gully. As the end of the gully comes into view, the blocker should move forward to cover the possibility of any cottontails exiting out. The zigzag technique is a second block-and-drive variation useful anytime hunters must work larger rectangular sections of food or cover such as unpicked tenant farm strips on public land or brushy sections of intermittent marsh bordering a harvested crop field. Like the first technique, two blockers are ideal, and they should cover the outside edges. The major difference is that the driver cuts back and forth from one side of the area to another, gradually working his way to the area's end point. Areas much larger than 30 yards in width must usually be tackled in sections to ensure adequate coverage. Regardless of how these larger areas are sectioned out for a zigzag drive, each end point must be blocked well before the driver gets there. Be prepared to see everything from bobwhites to bobcats slipping out of cover on that far end. All of these techniques are more effective if blockers are able to take slightly elevated positions overlooking the drive area. Hillsides, small knolls, old barn foundations, a step-stool and other solid footing will offer blockers a much better view of the driver's movements, provide glimpses of any forward motion by cottontails and put the blockers above the normal line of sight of the prey. A rabbit's eyes are set far back on its head, which results in a wide field of vision. That's to their advantage in detecting motion at ground level. But I've noticed that, like deer, they tend not to look up unless something alerts them through one of their other senses. That knowledge can be used to the hunter's advantage. To gain that advantage, my father used to step up onto an oak stump near the center of one large dish-shaped rabbit haunt where we used a circular block-and-drive technique. From this elevated blocker position he could watch the cottontails try to sneak around me as I struggled in an ever-tightening spiral through the briars that choked the full diameter of this seasonal wet spot. I spent a lot of time in the role of driver in that bottom. Dad shot a lot of rabbits from that stump. Behind my place I know where they come out so I set up abt 30 yds from the "den". The den is usually in a briar patch or other tangle. When they appear,usually at dawn or dusk,i wait for them to relax and start feeding, and then blast em. When hunting them in the xmas tree farm, I stalk quietly til I see one. Sometime I see them 1st but thats usually not the case. I use a carbine w/ a scope no more than 4x cuz it allows me to see them thru the scope on the run. Admittedly, I miss alot more than I score when snap shooting, but it's great fun regardless. For snap practice, wait for a day w/decent breeze (not too windy) blow up some balloons to the size of a grapefuit, let the wind take em, and practice, practice, practice until you can consistantly hit your mark every time. Also decrease the size of the ballons as you get better. Scout for bunnies aftere dark if you can but dont scare em off, hunt em by day. Look for sign like scat. In the snow, look for prints. When the snow is real deep, they girdle poplars (eat the bark at the snow line) and also the moss that grows in the xmas tree farm under the trees. Remember, you've gotta scout to hunt. You can't kill them if they arn't there. Field care can make the difference between a good rabbit meal and a great one. Eviscerating the animal not only relieves it of the blood, but also allows the meat to cool faster. Both of these factors can improve the taste of the meat.