Fried Rabbit

Rabbit season is always the last to end, going through the end of February here. I had the chance to walk a few ditch banks one day last week with the 20 ga. Kicked up quite a few and didn’t take long to get 4. Carried them home skinned them warm. They are absolutely the easiest hide to peel from the carcass-much different than cousin squirrel! Soaked the meats in salt water for few days. Quartered and fried, dang good table fare! Kids and wife really enjoyed them, we don’t eat rabbit often, it’s always a treat. Mild flavor, very tender.

Anyone rabbit hunt anymore? Used to be quite a few guys around here with beagles that ran rabbits. Not anymore. And rabbits seem to be plentiful than I can ever remember, even with the alarming amount of predators, mostly hawks/eagles. Rabbit meat is as good as any wild game, top of the list in my book.

Fried cottontail is chicken X10!

I like it on the BBQ pit too!

Rabbits scarce here. See twenty deer to one rabbit

Go out at night with a thermal…they’re everywhere it seems.

I have a pack of beagles.
Hunt quite a bit come winter time.
I’d rather skin squirrels, and would 10 to 1 rather eat squirrel.
But a meal of bunnies is purty dang good. Rabbit gravy ain’t bad either.
Our rabbit season closes February 15. I wish it ran later.

Not too many around here. I see one once in awhile. After having raised and eaten a lot of domestic rabbits I don't really care for wild rabbit as much anyway.

On a typical year we kill quite a few, well my boy does mainly. I like to remove the back straps and slice them the long way and deep fry them breaded. The legs get deboned and ground for rabbit sausage. Ever once in a while I fry a couple young ones too. Good stuff.

Squirrel aren't that hard to skin, I just do em like a mink. Of course I put up their fur too.

Love me some young fried rabbit. Also fry the old ones and simmer down in gravy made from the drippings. I used to catch quite a few in my sets. Saved them all.

rabbit hunting with dogs has taken a upswing around here the last few years more and more guys doing it a great way to get the kids outside

Great memories hunting rabbits as a kid. We had a small beagle that would fit in the pack basket, and we always got our limit. She ran them so slow that we used .22's.

Fried rabbit is one of my favorite meats. Squirrel isn't far behind.

We used to be able to fill a limit of four with ease while pheasant hunting 40 years ago. The loss of habitat and increase in predators, especially the avian variety, have made them scarce around here.

I flushed and killed one while grouse hunting two years ago and we flushed one ;last year while pheasant hunting. It's notable because it's so rare anymore.

I have 2 beagles and a bassett. Mainly listen to them. Very therapeutic. Seldom kill a rabbit anymore unless someone wants one to eat. Pretty scarce around here.

Jayme,
Is that breakfast seasoned or Italian style for pasta recipes?

Fried with shake n bake. Thats how we used to do it when we had rabbits around here.

I shake and Bake mine but Shake and fry instead. Love the gravy over the Taters with fresh Green Beans.

I've a pair and beagles and spend lots of time between Oct and Feb rabbit hunting. Our limit is 6 a day but a couple each time is plenty for me as dead rabbits don't run. That said I still took 84 this year and like ADC ,I make a lot of rabbit sausage both breakfast and Italian.

Rabbit habitat is easy to create. Build it and they will come. People are too obsessed with making everything look "clean". Excessive use of herbicide and winged predators are problems too.

I have a pack of 4 beagles. I let them chase rabbits year around, come November the 28ga comes out and we start shooting them.
I have GPS on my hounds, my 4 year old has 1147 miles chasing rabbits, my 2 year olds have 780 and 840 miles.
Nothing beats Beagle Mountain Music

57 rabbits on 6 hunts this year. I'm assuming that the trapping is helping. Fun hunting and great eating.

Rabbit is one of my favorite tasting wild game.Also my favorite to hunt with our beagles.Some years we will save a bunch of the backstraps and a bunch of the cheeks from our Walleyes,,and have a little feast of Rabbit backstraps and Walleye cheeks."Surf and Turf" at its finest.

It has been 5 or more years since I have heard a beagle in the woods. And I trap most every day, I see very few rabbits and NO grouse. Pheasants, what are they? This state was know as a pheasant state when I was a kid, not now.......jk

Bingo!
I have 6 properties, 2 of which are my own, that I do rabbit specific habitat work on yearly. A chainsaw and a little time will see abundant rabbits in the cover created come fall. It’s not necessary to hand build brushpiles. Basically clearcut and walk away. Don’t treat the stumps. Stump sprout is good.

I can't be too far from you here in lower DE, but we have very few rabbits here anymore... mainly due to loss of habitat from over development and cleaning farming practices, like clearing all hedgerows and cutting all ditch banks yearly. We're knee deep in hawks and eagles and automobiles... quail long gone years ago, rabbits on their way out too... most of our rabbits live in town limits these days. This comes from diehard beagle guys that love to run dogs and hunt... now they hardly shoot, preferring to keep the low rabbit count intact to run another day.

Breakfast. It makes wonderful sausage gravy and my wife and I like it better than pork sausage. They are really easy to debone too once you get the hang of it.

My nephew used to love fried rabbit livers as well. Claimed they were the best livers you can eat. I myself don't care for any liver fried.

Season them good because rabbit plain is bad.

Plain rabbit has a great flavor to me Guss.

I dump all the branches from apple trimming jobs during the winter and dump them near my firewood pile. The rabbits have a hay day and most of the limbs have no bark left.

I think I’ll take notion and work on some rabbit habitat this year. Everywhere we have brush , seems like there’s rabbits. Have a 60 acre clear cut neighboring our property, probably cut 6 years ago. In the early morning you can ride by and count a dozen rabbits easily along that clear cut/road edge. Most of our property is fields for farming grain. With ditches that we mow annually. Sounds like I need to create some habitat, I’m thinking rows of brush to create cover. Can you guys who do this elaborate? Thanks

And as far as eating rabbit vs squirrel, both are good but rabbit wins for me. My daughter whooped up on the squirrels this year and we ate a bunch. We eat a lot of game. But it’s amazing how easily the rabbit peels compared to squirrel. Clay why would you rather skin squirrel?

I agree that the hide tear’s right off a bunny.
I despise hair, any hair, left on the meat after dressing.
I have to be much more careful keeping hair off the meat when cleaning rabbits.
A single pellet in a rabbits guts makes for a dang nasty mess.
We shoot rabbits with.410’s. Not many have a busted gut, but it happens.
Squirrel are .22’d. Head, shoulder, rib cage shot. No gut busted.
Not bragging, but I can peel a squirrel mighty quick, and I guarantee there’s not a hair on them.
And then there’s the thing that I’d 10 to 1 rather eat squirrel lol.

A lot of people wait until they're done hunting squirrel , to clean them!
Big mistake , they skin fast and cleaner when skinned as soon as you shoot them.
A friend of mine shot a deer , and wanted it skinned as soon as we got it to his barn.
Landowner , forgot to add.
It was the easiest deer I ever skinned.
Still warm and the hide came off like I couldn't believe , bet it was skinned in under 2 minutes from first cut to final cut.

Have to add the same with rabbits, clean them as soon as you shoot them.
Carry Ziplock bags with you.

I am with claycreech. I much prefer squirrel. Young squirrels skin much easier than old. Does anyone use 13" beagles?

I’ve got a pack of five. It’s a motley crew lol. All different sizes and colors. Black and tan beagles, tri-colored, liver and white beagle. Even a 1/2 basset 1/2 beagle.
Much like when I had coonhounds…….I’d hunt a poodle if they do a good job.
If they don’t perform to my specifications, they don’t stay in my kennel.
I can pet a good dog easier than a deadbeat hound.