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Author Topic: What's with all the rabbits?!?  (Read 1008 times)

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Offline bikerbeans

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What's with all the rabbits?!?
« on: June 04, 2011, 04:26:42 PM »
I live 20 miles SW of Toledo and for at least 10 years I have seen very few cottontails, either in the woods & fields or flat on the highway.  Now for the last 2 months I see them almost everytime I get in my truck, and I don't drive much like I used too.  I just drove about 4 miles round trip to the carry out and saw 3 rabbits, five years ago I was lucky to see than many in a couple of months.  Makes me think about borrowing my daughter's beagle this season and see if I still remember how to lead one of these varmints. ;D

BB
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Offline jedman

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2011, 02:06:15 AM »
  BB,  I haven't noticed a increase in rabbits around my yard or neighborhood but raccoons  are EVERYWHERE for the past month or so.   It seems as when driving I have been seeing them hit every few miles along the roads , as in dozens of them.
  I know I have a family of 3 of them living nearbye because my wife and I seen them cross our yard a couple times and we had one on our porch the other night trying to steal sunflower seeds from a drum full I keep for the birds.   I guess food might be slim pickins in the spring for them ?
   Jed
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Offline DennyRoark

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2011, 05:17:57 AM »
I too have noticed more young rabbits in my woodlot this year.  I suspect my nesting pair of Redtails will soon have them back in check :'(
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Offline BBF

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2011, 03:37:40 PM »
 :o More this year around the house then the last three years combined and they aren't all that skittish.
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Offline chefjeff

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2011, 04:15:42 PM »
rabbit populations are typically cyclical.
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Offline lakota

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2011, 01:34:29 PM »
Quote from: jedman on June 05, 2011, 02:06:15 AM
  BB,  I haven't noticed a increase in rabbits around my yard or neighborhood but raccoons  are EVERYWHERE for the past month or so...
   Jed

I have a few of the masked maruaders raiding my bird feeders in the middle of the night. My wife doesnt care for my proposed solution-it involves a man named "Henry" and his ground breaking invention ;)
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Offline bikerbeans

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2011, 03:15:59 PM »
Quote from: lakota on June 07, 2011, 01:34:29 PM
Quote from: jedman on June 05, 2011, 02:06:15 AM
  BB,  I haven't noticed a increase in rabbits around my yard or neighborhood but raccoons  are EVERYWHERE for the past month or so...
   Jed

I have a few of the masked maruaders raiding my bird feeders in the middle of the night. My wife doesnt care for my proposed solution-it involves a man named "Henry" and his ground breaking invention ;)

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

Lakota,

I have to use a crossbow on these invaders because the southside of my barn is only 40' from my neighbors house.  My wife still doesn't understand why there is a 100 grain Thunderhead embeded in the base of her freezer. ::)

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Why be difficult, when with a little extra effort you can be impossible?

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MINE:  270W, 308x444, 44 Bodeen, 410 shorty rifled slug gun, 445 SuperMag Shikari, 45 ACP shorty,  45-70 Shikari, 45 Cal Smokeless MZ, 50cal 24" SS Sidekick, 50 cal 24" Huntsman, 50 cal 26" Huntsman, 50 cal 26" Sidekick, 50-70 Govt Shikari, Tracker II 20 ga shorty, 20 ga VR Pardner, 20ga USH, 12ga VR NWTF, 12ga Tracker II shorty WITHOUT scope, 12ga USH, 10 ga  Pardner Smoothbore slug gun & 24ga Profino Custom rifled slug gun.

Offline lakota

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2011, 05:02:35 PM »
Thats a good idea Bikerbeans. When I think about backyard pest control my bow never comes to mind. There is no one behind me so its safe to shoot straight back but I have neighbors to the right and left and the one lady complains when I shoot critters in the back yard in one breath and in the next breath is complaining about the groundhog that lives under my shed raiding her garden and is asking why I dont do something about it. Well I aint gonna call an exterminator lady!
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Offline Winter Hawk

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2011, 06:25:11 PM »
Ladobe,

How 'bout a good, strong slingshot w/ steel (or lead) balls?  Aught to put the smarts to the varmints!

Back to rabbits:  They have a cycle, usually 7 - 10 years.  You don't see them at the beginning of the cycle.  After 5 years or so you see them occasionally.  Towards the end of the cycle they are everywhere.  They eat everything consumable until there is very little feed left, then they are stressed by starvation, disease comes in and wipes them out and the cycle starts all over.

When I was in Fairbanks the snowshoe hare population peaked around the winter of 1973.  There were bunnies all over the place.  Anytime you went out in a car you were going to hit at least one, and the Richardson Highway was paved with little carcasses.  The following spring it was over.  You couldn't find a hare if your life depended on it.  The willow bushes had green tops, but if you squatted down you could see a long ways because the branches had been nibbled off as high as the bunnies could reach from the top of the snow.

The following year we had wolves coming in to town eating dogs and cats, since their mainstay had died off.  I even heard reports of lynx doing so, but those were second hand and I don't know how true they were.

-WH-
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Offline jedman

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2011, 02:56:48 PM »
  OHoooooooo Weeee, uncle Jed ....... all of a sudden I got rabbits UTA.  Didn't really notice them a few weeks ago but lately there all over the place.  They make the motion activated light on my pole barn come on after dark.     Jedman
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Current handi family, 24 ga./ 58 cal ,50-70,  45 smokeless MZ, 44 belted bodeen, 44 mag,.375 H&R (wildcat),375 Win.,357 max, .340 MF ( wildcat ), 8 mm Lebel, 8x57, .303 British, 270 x 57 R,(wildcat) 256 Win Mag, 2 x 243 Win,2 x 223 Rem. 7-30 Waters &20ga.,

Offline bikerbeans

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Re: What's with all the rabbits?!?
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2011, 04:02:30 PM »
I've got a few hundred rounds of 12 ga #6 shot if they are still makin' your light come on in late November.

BB
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RIP Tom: Tom Nolan, ( bikerbeans) passed away this afternoon (02-04-2021).

Why be difficult, when with a little extra effort you can be impossible?

Wife's Handis;  300 BLKOUT

MINE:  270W, 308x444, 44 Bodeen, 410 shorty rifled slug gun, 445 SuperMag Shikari, 45 ACP shorty,  45-70 Shikari, 45 Cal Smokeless MZ, 50cal 24" SS Sidekick, 50 cal 24" Huntsman, 50 cal 26" Huntsman, 50 cal 26" Sidekick, 50-70 Govt Shikari, Tracker II 20 ga shorty, 20 ga VR Pardner, 20ga USH, 12ga VR NWTF, 12ga Tracker II shorty WITHOUT scope, 12ga USH, 10 ga  Pardner Smoothbore slug gun & 24ga Profino Custom rifled slug gun.
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