Rabbit Hunt

[Dutch]

We used to find an occasional one with warble worms in it.  That one got fed to the dogs.

[Ketchup]

On 12/7/2023 at 6:28 AM, Quillback said:

Never looked at the liver or any of the rabbit innards for that matter.  Did the deal where you squeeze them from about the front shoulder, work your way about halfway down the bunny and the give them a whipcrack move.  The guts fly out.

If I could turn my clock back about 30 years, I would seriously consider getting a beagle or two.  

 A good way to start that clock in reverse is to get ya a beagle or 2.  The exercise coupled with the joys of hearing those bawls would definitely set ya back a few years. 

[Quillback]

14 hours ago, Ketchup said:

 A good way to start that clock in reverse is to get ya a beagle or 2.  The exercise coupled with the joys of hearing those bawls would definitely set ya back a few years. 

I'm done with hunting dogs.  I have been kicking the idea of squirrel hunting around.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

6 hours ago, Quillback said:

I'm done with hunting dogs.  I have been kicking the idea of squirrel hunting around.  

The guys at work are planning a trap shoot one of these Fridays if the weather is decent.   I may go to an indoor range a time or two this winter.  I really miss bird hunting.  

[Quillback]

54 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

The guys at work are planning a trap shoot one of these Fridays if the weather is decent.   I may go to an indoor range a time or two this winter.  I really miss bird hunting.  

I really miss it too.  My buddy's son who is now approaching 40, is still out there hunting chukars with his buddies.  He hunted with us when he was 12.  He tortures me by sending me pics of dead chukars on the tailgate.

[txdave]

I hunted rabbits in the St. Louis suburbs 55 years ago with my sheridan pellet gun. The rule is you had to have a hard frost this would kill the "wolves" this was the parasite that caused tumalaria

(sp). I  also had a beagle that you had to catch to stop him from running rabbits. I kept track one year and killed  112 rabbits with the pellet gun. The family eat everyone. My mother threaten to whip me if I went rabbit hunting again and brought rabbits home. I used to have to carry a copy of the hunting rules to prove to the St. Louis county police that I was not breaking the law. Those were great years.

[jdmidwest]

Wolf worms are bot fly larva that get killed off by the cold temps.  Aka Warble Worms, big swollen sores on the rabbit.

Tularemia is a bacterial infection that shows up as a spotted liver.  Can be spread by an open cut.

I miss the days of running beagles.  It was alot of fun.  Coon hunting was better.

[tjm]

I doubt that the cold kills the bots inside the warm host animal, the cold just might coincide with the maturity of the larvae and their leaving the host to pupate underground. Sources say the bot/warbles/wolf worms don't affect the meat and the larvae won't infect us, although there is human botfly. Different species of bots for different species of mammals. Cooking would kill any bot larvae that is a rabbit or squirrel and still to small for us to notice. 

We are probably most likely to contract tularemia from tick bites or deer fly bites than from rabbits, but using preventive measures when skinning and handling wildlife is never a bad thing. The only person I've known that got rabbit fever thought it was from a mosquito bite.

[jdmidwest]

9 hours ago, tjm said:

I doubt that the cold kills the bots inside the warm host animal, the cold just might coincide with the maturity of the larvae and their leaving the host to pupate underground. Sources say the bot/warbles/wolf worms don't affect the meat and the larvae won't infect us, although there is human botfly. Different species of bots for different species of mammals. Cooking would kill any bot larvae that is a rabbit or squirrel and still to small for us to notice. 

We are probably most likely to contract tularemia from tick bites or deer fly bites than from rabbits, but using preventive measures when skinning and handling wildlife is never a bad thing. The only person I've known that got rabbit fever thought it was from a mosquito bite.

It's the adult fly going dormate in cold weather.  That breaks the seasonal cycle.

I tend to toss away any animal that is sick or has a bad infection, just to be safe.

I have a hard time eating a deer now seeing them covered in ticks in the spring.

[snagged in outlet 3]

11 hours ago, txdave said:

I hunted rabbits in the St. Louis suburbs 55 years ago with my sheridan pellet gun. The rule is you had to have a hard frost this would kill the "wolves" this was the parasite that caused tumalaria

(sp). I  also had a beagle that you had to catch to stop him from running rabbits. I kept track one year and killed  112 rabbits with the pellet gun. The family eat everyone. My mother threaten to whip me if I went rabbit hunting again and brought rabbits home. I used to have to carry a copy of the hunting rules to prove to the St. Louis county police that I was not breaking the law. Those were great years.

Me too.   No dogs but I was a killer with my Benjamin pellet gun😂.   St Ann near the airport.  Where were you?