Rabbit Hunting- How?

[Buzzbaiter]

This is my first year hunting. My deer season was fruitless, so I decided to bridge the gap between now and turkey season by targeting rabbits with a bow. I just don’t know much about the process. What should I look for and how do I find them? All I really know is that rabbits like heavy brush. Also, do I need small game broadheads or will big game heads and field points work? 

[Smells like fish]

Go to where they are, move very little and slowly and look a lot. What few rabbits and grouse I’ve arrowed have been spontaneous occurrences. Shooting into the ground with broadheads makes for short lived broadheads. Adder points added to field points or blunts work. DO NOT USE FIELD POINTS BY THEMSELVES. I can recall a possum and fox I hit with a blunt and both dropped in their tracks being hitting in lung heart area. Rabbits are the easiest to die critter I’ve come across so a well placed blunt will do the job.

[TnRiver46]

They typically circle back to where you first saw them. You can borrow my

buddy, he’s itching to chase them all the time 

 

[jbsoonerfan]

I like a G5 SGH for squirrel. Not many rabbits around here, but we have a lot of tree rats.

 

Also, not sure what kind of arrows you use or how dispensable your income is, but I would not be slinging FMJ's, Maxima Red's, etc. at them.

[Jig Man]

You don’t need much for rabbits.  When I used to hunt tree rats with my bow I wanted to be able to find my arrows so I used judo points.

https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/1023162964?pid=568014&utm_medium=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Archery+-+Broadheads+and+Points&utm_content=568014&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjJOQBhCkARIsAEKMtO1DdqtAJ-hSn6X8zFne4N94b2SGkk4mk-6l72xNFASDr25QW9M6LRoaAjWFEALw_wcB

[TnRiver46]

Seems like the shock wave from a blunt tip would kill them like @Smells like fishsays. Rabbit is some of the best food out there 

[VolFan]

Stalk slow along edges - look for their eyes. They will hold remarkably tight in tufts of cover. I never did it with a bow but it was my favorite thing to hunt growing up.

[Jig Man]

14 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Seems like the shock wave from a blunt tip would kill them like @Smells like fishsays. Rabbit is some of the best food out there 

You hit them with a judo and they aren’t going anywhere.

[BassNJake]

 

very slowly

[12poundbass]

Never hunted them with a bow, but growing up my friends and I would grab our guns when we had a snow day at school, meet at the town dump and go right to the brush piles. We’d take turns being the dog and jumping on the brush piles. 
 

Those were the good old days. 

[VolFan]

I had to be my own dog most of the time but it was a dang good time!

[12poundbass]

1 minute ago, VolFan said:

I had to be my own dog most of the time but it was a dang good time!

Did your bark change when you saw a rabbit like a beagle does? Mine sure did! 
 

There’s nothing better than hearing a beagle bark change when they see the rabbit and it echoing through the woods on a silent morning after a fresh snow. 

[gim]

@Buzzbaiter, I assume you started this thread specifically referring to cottontail rabbits?

 

A snowshoe hare and/or a jackrabbit are considerably larger than a cottontail.  I've never actually seen a jackrabbit in person in the wild, but some of them look like they're the size of a small kangaroo at the zoo.

[Buzzbaiter]

6 hours ago, gimruis said:

@Buzzbaiter, I assume you started this thread specifically referring to cottontail rabbits?

 

A snowshoe hare and/or a jackrabbit are considerably larger than a cottontail.  I've never actually seen a jackrabbit in person in the wild, but some of them look like they're the size of a small kangaroo at the zoo.

 Yep, eastern cottontails

[VolFan]

You ever see swamp rabbits? The first one I ever saw looked approximately the size of a kangaroo. I missed. 

Twice.