I found this to be very interesting.
Guess I never heard of it before.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...daf886d53c4aa5d3f6fb6d3b2a85b6&ei=13

Sportsman’s clubs did big hunts years ago in SD as a fund raiser for the clubs the rabbits were all over and truckloads were sold to mink farms. Every now and then a area will have a population explosion and a guy could cover the bottom of a pickup in a evening hunt.

Can't make myself shoot one around here.
Suburbs are crawling with feral cats and yotes.
Lucky if I have a breeding pair come spring.
I do love eating them.
Are Jack Rabbits table fare ?
.

There’s lots of history of rabbit drives around here. This article is about the last one.
Mud Lake bunny bash

I guess the link didn’t work. Just google mud lake bunny bash and look at the post register article.

I saw five Jack rabbits on my driveway eating grain that I put out for a covey of Huns. There seems to be a pretty good population of them here by the tracks. They get a pass as long as they don't start bothering apple trees of the garden this summer.

Here's an old photo I have on the wall

From South eastern Oregon

Nobody here that I know has ever eaten one

Prolly one step up from eating coyote

Thanks for sharing that.

Interesting read.
Not that many yrs ago.

https://www.postregister.com/news/l...f50c6ea-5688-11eb-9006-5f2919a371b6.html

My GGF had pics of many rabbit drives in the 30’s and a few in the 50’s. The killed the by the thousands

Thx Pawnee

I'll be up half the night reading on this,
Very interesting how much different times were back then.

Jacks aren’t like other rabbits they thrive in dry weather. Jacks on their own much earlier than cottontails and other rabbits so they are more susceptible to moisture. Dry weather is a multiplier for them.

Fur buyer here had truckload photos of some big hunts from the past. You can find all kinds of track in places around the house but to see a Jack is pretty rare. I know when they are breeding they hang out on the roads a lot it’s tough getting around them they are not very bright.

The hunt in that post register article took place on a Saturday near the mud lake airport on a triangle of laned between 2 roads and the air strip, they killed something like 25000 jacks and myself and two other buddies ended up there on Sunday and shot a brick of 22 shells apiece and some high powered stuff and still had plenty of bunnies to shoot at.
We shot jacks on Sundays for about 3 years, then at the start of winter they just disappeared, you could not find a track in the snow even. figured some disease hit them and with the population what it was they just died off.
Very interesting times.

cool read thanks guys

Had jackrabbit just the other night. Cooked right, it's dang good.

Very cool Read
Thanks

I give them the right of way too. Only animal that will run a mile zigzagging from ditch to ditch at 40mph instead of just making a hard right or left and relaxing

good read , the guy said he wasn't to proud of it , I would be proud , that is what made things work people banding together to deal with the issue and not waiting for some buricrat to spend millions on half measures that are ineffective while hamstringing anything that could work with bad policy.

as for table fair , I guess it would beat starving , I am sure there would be some way to make them edible , maybe canning

I too have enjoyed some nice jackrabbit stews. We used to head to the Oregon desert to coyote hunt with a sack of potatoes, a sack of onions and lived on rabbit stew back in the days when NewHouse 114 and I were still bachelors and living the dream.