But, it is not hunting pressure that has caused the decline. Hardly anyone hunts them anymore...

Do you not eat the front legs? That’s me favorite piece on a cottontail

We used to have them around my area until the 70s. Then their population dwindled to nothing. A result of habitat encroachment and increased predation.

He has a few in the cedar swamp on his spread, but he doesn't shoot them because he sorta looks at them as a scarce item!

The decline of hares in my area has been unbelievable when you remember back to the early to mid 70's. They were fantastically abundant then. There were folks hunting them by the zillion. I too, as someone above stated, switched to .22 rifle, then .22 pistols to hunt them because a scattergun was just too easy. I even hunted them successfully with a recurve bow at times. One of the favorite places to hunt them 40+ years ago, at least in this part of the state, was Christmas tree plantations. I don't stomp around in plantations much these days, but the few I have stomped were void of any hare tracks whatsoever. Even some decent sized green swamps in my area are sans hares. I can remember, back in the day, hares running ahead of the dogs in herds....literally. I personally have memory of seeing maybe a couple come by in front of the dog, but I've known guys to see a half dozen or more running ahead of a dog at once. Now I'm not talking all shoulder to shoulder, but within a few moments of each other. When my granddad was a pup he and his brothers would take apart my great grandma's broom to get wire to snare hares. They were thick then too. I don't remember if his and one brother's one-night record was 26 or 27 hares! Their mother cooked the heck out of them. Where have they gone, your guess is as good as mine. My own place here was prime hare shooting ground back in the heyday. Until 3-4 years ago I had only seen hare on this place 2-3 times since we bought it in '88. We seem to have a few moving in lately, as we have seen hare 3 or 4 times just this last year. It is a real puzzlement to me, and the professional wildlife folks don't seem to know either. I don't know how many hare I ate during my life, but it was bushels of them. My All Purpose Boy has shot exactly one and he is in his mid thirties. He has a few in the cedar swamp on his spread, but he doesn't shoot them because he sorta looks at them as a scarce item!