# rabbits



## daisy1894hunter (Nov 27, 2007)

i have an old dried up swamp behind my house and i see lots o rabbit tracks in the snow but cant see any of the rabbits

please help :withstupid:


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## goosetalk (Jan 26, 2007)

Rabbits are generally nocturnal when its not bitterly cold outside, but they are also active early morning and late evening. During the day they tend to hold up in thick undergrowth and brush piles. In the winter months, hawks can pick them out easier. The snow also makes them easier to spot. It doesn't take much to hide rabbits from the human eye, and many times you practically have to step on them to bust them from the brush. With snow cover, I have found that rabbits love to hold up under compacted grass, where the grass is folded over from the snow, leaving space between the ground and grass. After a heavy snow that covers most vegetation, you may notice that the saplings and other woody plants have naw marks all over them.

Using dogs (we run at least 4 beagles, but some people use labs) is the best way to flush rabbits, but you can do it by yourself. Don't pass up any brush, because it very well could hold a rabbit.

I have also found that you can usually discover a slight pattern of what kind of brush the rabbits are hiding in on a given day. Some days you find most of them under the grass, other days they are in the briars and so on.


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## dfisher (Oct 12, 2007)

daisy1894hunter said:


> i have an old dried up swamp behind my house and i see lots o rabbit tracks in the snow but cant see any of the rabbits
> 
> please help :withstupid:


Often times, when the cover is right and there are a lot of bunnies, you can actually see trails that they've made through the grass as they travel from here to there. When I live in Ohio, my dad had a timothy, weed field behind his house and you could follow these paths all through that field. Check out the tracks, as I bet a lot of them are running the same path too.

Usually, when it's severely cold, they'll hole up in underground burrows or deep inside of brush piles. If these aren't available, look for them under the undercut banks of creeks or ponds too. If undercut banks are out, look for insanely thick, heavy cover. Briar patches come to mind, but cattails and swale type grasses are also hold promise.

When you find these places, hunt slowly and look close. Sometimes you can see them sitting, crouched in their nest. Usually it's that huge eye that gives them away. Also, watch in front of you at some distance. Oftentimes, despite not looking like the sharpest knives in the drawer, bunnies will move out in front of a hunter and slip away through the brush. Sometimes they run but many times they'll just hop away or move slowly. See them in time, you may get a shot.

Generally try to hunt when the temperature is moderating. On warmer, sunny days, they like to set out in more open cover. This is the time to really fill your game bag with bunnies, as they'll be easy to hunt then.

Hope this helps, and remember; a single bunny or two can make an awful lot of tracks from dusk till dawn.

Good luck,
Dan


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