Rabbit hunting with a 22

It tough without snow on the ground, but we have snow coming Monday.
I really don't like picking shot and fur from my food so years ago I started hurting them with the 22
It's a challenge but I love watching them do a backflip when I squeeze the trigger
Anyone else hunt them this way

It's a fun way to spot and stalk with some snow on the ground! We got fresh snow yesterday so this evening I'm thinking of doing just that!
Sometimes a light shotgun is a better choice, but when you can spot rabbits sitting tight the .22 is perfect,

That's how I hunt them , just walk windrows with my 1022 ss Laminated

love hunting them with a .22

Its fun.Done it as a kid before we got our beagles.

I love still hunting rabbits. A sunny afternoon after a fresh snowfall. I have traded the 22 for a 36 caliber flintlock though. Regardless of the gun used, it is a fun time. Sharpens your eyes for sure.

Nice picture

Shot a lot of them with and without dogs back in the day with a ruger 10/22 I purchased in the late sixties and still have and use .

Great picture Danny

Great sporting way to get dinner.
I have walked a few snowshoe rabbits down , after a fresh snow

Perfect winter morning fun. Cold air, fresh snow, my .22 Marlin bolt action and rabbits and squirrels. Good idea.

I have but typically pack a shotgun inless there is snow on the ground . When I catch them sitting when shotgun hunting a handgun eliminates any shot in the meat. If I'm planning on hunting that's typically a rugar mark 2. But often opportunities present themselves and my glock 23 takes care of them Mice to horses have been killed with that gun.

I love tracking them in a fresh snow with a .22... Although I think most of the rabbits I've got I shot with a pellet gun.

Our family has a cottontail hunt every January. Tiebreaker for ties is who has the most eyeball shots, we typically have around a dozen or so two man teams. Lots of fun!! 22 is the only way to rabbits if you want in our group…

most of my rabbits/hare come as targets of opportunity while chasing birds so they get the same #4 shot as the birds.

when we do go for them it is at the farm and lots of equipment and buildings near by as well as a fair number of runners kicking brush piles

most of my 22 rabbits were garden rabbits

I would never want to use a 22 around beagles but is fine and alot of fun for stalking rabbits.

I really enjoy the challenge of spot and stalk. I use a Marlin 925 with a Lyman 4X all American scope on top.
It's the best shooting 22 I've ever owned, and I've had and still have quite a few different ones.
Hosinfeffer is great on a cold winters day

My boy has killed a lot of rabbits with a .22 over the years....







However, if you don't like picking shot out of your rabbits and want to hunt with a shotgun, use some #4 shot in a .410. The heavier weight pellets usually pass through the rabbit instead of hanging up in there and they take that little wad of fur out the back side of the rabbits with them.

Nice pictures

I seldom find #4 from the 12ga either , unless it is a long shot or hits bone then it is only a few pellets, full choke for everything and aim for the head any time offered.

Boring. LOL

The old timers carried a shotgun and a pistol. Some people would be surprised how many rabbits you can shoot that are just sitting right beside you and haven't took off yet.

The rabbit thinks you can't see them if they hold still.

somehow I find all the excitement I need being boring , it just finds me no need to ever go looking for it.

Pheasants also , they duck down in the ditch like if I can't see you ,you can't see me , boom as soon as that little white line pops above the grass again for a peak

Yep for sure.

My dad would come back and kick my … if he knew I shot a rabbit with a 12 ga.

There were a lot of cottontails around my dad's place. Used a 10/22 and limiting myself to only head shots and a limit of 4 I was usually back home in 15 to 20 minutes. Limited to 4 because that was all I wanted to clean. Cooked the meat and pulled it off the bones and mixed the bits with rice and mushroom soup. Been a while, I need to go rabbit hunting again.

Rabbit breakfast sausage is the best! Deep fried back straps split down the middle are great too.

Must not be hunting in stuff like this

If you can't kill a rabbit with a 2 1/2 #4 .410 you need to practice more.

I have killed several running rabbits with the .22 when they decide to bust and run. Slowly walking and catching them setting with a .22 in hand.

my dad isn't dead , and he never said anything about not using the 12 till he bought a 20ga when I was 11 for me to use all he had was a 12.

my grandpa shot everything he ever shot with that 12ga , he was the man with one gun 60 years of farming and everything and anything needed killing on the farm got a 12ga shell. those rare cases of shooting for fun , it was still the 12ga pheasants as the combine took the final rows of corn.

my other grandpa didn't own any guns , he would have pulled an envelope out of his shirt pocket and grabbed his pen and do the math that there were 25 rounds in each box but that a box of 12ga sold for 9 dollars and a box of 410 sold for 18 dollars , that it was a 9 dollar savings and compound that with you already owned a 12 so there was no need to buy a 410 to do what the 12 would do even if it was a touch of over kill.
he didn't need the paper and pen to do the math but that was how he would do it for us kids.
he did a lot of calculations for business deals however on the back of an envelope. he would work all the numbers out on the envelope then fold it up stick it back in his pocket and make the offer.

I typically find them sitting under multifloweral rose bushes
Just gotta find that small spot where I can see an eye
And knowing the tragedy of the bullet helps

I haven't taken my shotgun off of rack but to clean it in many years
I just don't like the scatter gun, one shot one kill

Where I trap and hunt there aren't many rabbits. If there were, I'd be using the 22! Love the slow stalk.

Nice looking bunch of fox squirrels

Done it a few times with a Ruger M77/22 It is one more reason to get out and do something different And get a shot at killing a rabbit is good practice for deer hunting And no one needs an excuse for having a Ruger in your hands

When I was 18, all I had was a 22. Hunted snowshoe hares to stay alive. I slipped along the edges of bogs. Whenever I jumped one up, it would take off and stop in the alders along the edge at about 50 yards, thinking that they were now safe. Wrongo fathead. I just need to see that giant eye and Bob's your uncle.

In my early years my dad had a Winchester 74 .22lr and taught me and my kid brother how to “bark” cottontails in a circle and shoot them with the .22. It was actually quite easy if you missed them on the jump with the 22. Being that humans track slower than a dog, by the time the rabbits circled back around they’d be just hopping & sitting making for easy head shots.