What is the most efficient way you've trapped rabbit?

[Guest USMC 2013]

I've never set a snare, or any type of trap with the intention of catching a rabbit. I have noticed an abundance of white tails in my rural type subburb this year. I would love to learn a good technique to trap them and employ that method this fall.

What are your tried and proven ways? Anyone have a link to a video? Anyone in the Clarksville area want to show me in person? I'll buy lunch and/or the beer for some lessons. Semper Fi,

Joe

[Caster]

Most efficient way?

Down at the Co-Op, a week before Easter.

[gjohnsoniv]

LOL @ Caster. Are you meaning a trap to catch them live or kill them?

[Guest USMC 2013]

That did make me laugh Caster. Dead, or alive, doesn't matter as I intend to eat them. They are thick in my neighborhood and eating good from all the lawns, gardens, etc... so I want to harvest a few come fall.

Joe

[gjohnsoniv]

You could try one of those "Havahart" traps or however it's spelled. Neighbors might not like seeing a rabbit in a snare, then there is always the pellet gun option.

[Spots]

Pellet gun would be my preferred option, I use .22 shorts off my back porch, but I live in a very rural neighborhood, and that is completely ok here. I'd love to have one of these for rabbit and squirrel suppers on the sly.

http://www.airgundepot.com/benjamin-marauder-pcp-air-rifle--22-cal-repeater-1000-fps.html

[Guest USMC 2013]

I have a pellet gun, not an option. There are some discreet areas that I could set a trap and/or snare. That's why I am asking about them.

Joe

[f3joel]

Some traps and snares you can try

http://www.eseeknives.com/traps.htm

[mikegideon]

Dig a pit in your yard, and get my girlfriend to plant flowers in the bottom of it. I don't know what she does, but the rabbits love it.

[RichardR]

When I was a kid I used to have a lot of luck running a string of leg-traps, made quite a bit of pocket money doing it, however since then a lot of states, counties and localities have restricted or even forbidden the use of them since, so make sure you comply with all of the trapping ordinances, licenceing, etc, in your area prior to buying a bunch of leg-traps.

[NRA]

pellet gun

[DaveS]

Not sure that rabbit trapping is legal, but if it were, I'd use a box trap. If your in an area where you can shoot, well, everyone give you good weapon choices already. By you wanting to trap them, I am assuming you can't shoot. I've not had a whole lot of luck trapping rabbits, maybe you'll fare better!

[mikegideon]

Used box traps when I was a young 'un. As I recall, a shotgun worked much better.

[DaveS]

Not sure that rabbit trapping is legal, but if it were, I'd use a box trap. If your in an area where you can shoot, well, everyone give you good weapon choices already. By you wanting to trap them, I am assuming you can't shoot. I've not had a whole lot of luck trapping rabbits, maybe you'll fare better!

I am like totally recalling this post, as rabbit "Trapping" is NOT permitted in this state, live traps or otherwise.....sheez.....Tennessee!

Shoot them when in season....

[DaveS]

Reference:

http://www.tn.gov/twra/smallgamehunt.html

[Handsome Rob]

I used to have a LOT of luck running snare lines back in England, in my youth. To successfully set, you need to find the 'runs' the rabbits are using daily, preferably under a hedge or fence. Set your snares about 3" off the ground & big enough that your fist will pass through without touching the wire.

I used to have more luck setting with the snares attached to the bottom run of a barb wire fence. You need to be looking for rabbit sized 'tunnels' through long vegetation & set them there. Make sure to wear rubber gloves when you handle your snares & if you can, store them outside for a month before you use them. I twisted my own up out of brass wire. I made the snare roughly 12" long, with a further 12" of strong string on the end to tie to stakes or fences. I remember the school summer break of '87, catching enough to buy my first shotgun (A Baikal SxS 12 gauge) If I remember correctly, they sold for £249 & I was selling rabbits for £1.50 a brace!

However, you'll have a lot more luck with an air-rifle, if you want to eat them, or a cat if you don't!

EDIT: Sorry, just read WD's post above. That blows

Edited June 11, 2012 by robtattoo

[DaveTN]

What is the most efficient way you've trapped rabbit?

Opened the back door to let the dog out as a rabbit had the misfortune of standing in the middle of the yard.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'm too ignorant to know if this fella is above average but Bandit is an excellent mobile automatic rabbit trap. If he scares up a rabbit he will catch the rabbit. He doesn't like to share and eats whatever gets caught. The old hound (the fella in my avatar) I think Travis was a working coonhound before he got lost and I eventually got Travis from the rescue agency. If Travis sees Bandit catch a rabbit he will come inside and tattle. One time Travis managed to take away a big ole brown bunny after Bandit killed it and brought it into the house for me. But Bandit will eat em as quick as he can. He's faster than Travis though Travis ain't slow. If Travis witnesses the crime then Bandit will "eat on the run". Maybe could train Bandit to bring me the rabbits, but only a few get inside the fence.

Bandit doesn't have a rabbit hunting license so maybe he breaks the law hunting out of season without a llicense. Even if Bandit doesn't break the law, wonder if I would break the law to cook and eat what he catches? Am guessing yes but haven't a clue.

[E4 No More]

Dig a pit in your yard, and get my girlfriend to plant flowers in the bottom of it. I don't know what she does, but the rabbits love it.

I call BS here! I don't buy that you have a girlfriend.

Joking!

[DaveS]

AWESOME dogs Lester!

[DaveS]

Just reap in your dogs bounty...fried rabbit is awesome.

[whiskey]

When I was a kid, in Alabama, my grandfather and I would set rabbit boxes in his garden every year. They were built out of 2x6's or 2x8's with a drop door in the front. a notched stick was the trigger about midway down the box. We caught a few rabbits, a few cats, a couple possums and 1 skunk.

A slingshot is another effect rabbit weapon. My grandfather told stories of being too poor for shotgun shells, so him and his brother hunted with slingshots. He always seemed disappointed when I pointed out that we were not too poor to buy shotgun shells anymore.

I have used archery equipment in the past also.

If trapping were legal, a box is an easy system. Easy to build, easy to monitor from a distance.

Ours were similar to these:

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Just reap in your dogs bounty...fried rabbit is awesome.

Thanks WD-40.

If I lived out in the country with more land (and more wabbits) maybe could figure out how to train the boy to bring em home to poppa. Old Travis apparently knows they are sposed to be brung home, but he is more interested in his nose and treeing stuff. He's fast in spurts and will expend the effort to chase down a cat or possum (or tree it, whichever comes first) but he's not up to catching rabbits. Got a couple acres of suburban woods but only about half fenced good enough for the dawgs at the moment. If Bandit got convinced one time to bring me a wabbit of his own accord and he got to see it skinned and cooked, and got some wabbit dumplings then maybe he would get the idea? He might like wabbit dumplings better than raw rabbit, fur, bones and most everything else down the gullet. Or maybe it tastes better raw with fur and bones. OTOH Bandit's never been known to turn down a cooked meal either. Luckily there don't seem to be any coons in my neighborhood. If they spy a coon all bets are off that they would stay in the fence.

I like dogs but don't know much. Saw a TV documentary about arab rabbit hounds. Apparently there are "redneck arabs" in north african and middle eastern nations who love hunting hounds as much as any hillbilly ever loved a hound. Having bred those skinny long-legged hounds thousands of years for catching desert rabbits. The documentary was shot in several countries, showed various arab dog-lovers trading their prized dawgs, explaining the fine points, spoiling them rotten, etc. The show followed an "old fashioned back to the desert" campout in Saudi Arabia where the guys set up tents and camp out in the desert to run their hounds. Looks similar to AL or N. GA coonhunts or foxhunts where the good ole boys release the hounds then sit around the campfire eating and drinking, listening for the hounds in the distance to know if they tree something.

Complicated by (according to the documentary) Saudi Arabia having declared desert rabbits an endangered species, so the hunters have to carry on rabbit hunts where the rabbits survive. Wish I could find the documentary and watch it again. IIRC, they would muzzle the dogs on the no-kill rabbit hunts so the rabbits would survive to be chased another day. Judging by the speed and efficiency of those long-legged skinny hounds, guess the wabbits really could become endangered if enough folks went hunting thataway.

Accidentally adopted Bandit because he was too much of a handful for the neighbors as a pup and they were getting ready to take him to the pound. They said he is "descended from champions". Sometime I ought to ask for more info. The neighbors said he is a treeing walker but he is bi-color black'n'white, not a hint of brown or red and the fur is shorter than most walker pictures. His fur is barely long enough to pinch and supposedly beauty-pageant walkers are sposed to have a little longer fur than that. Bandit is a little longer of snout than many treeing walkers. The walkers who win the beauty contests tend to look like tricolor fox hounds. Spent a bunch of time lurking coonhound forums trying to learn but dunno nothin about it. You fellas who know about it please let me know.

Maybe one picture out of fifty on the web, identified as a treeing walker, will be a black and white ticked animal who looks like bandit, similar to a a german shorthair pointer or whatever.

Accidentally found a flickr photo page youtube videos from a young Massachusetts couple, dog lovers who apparently adopted a hound pup that might as well be Bandit's clone. One of these days ought to contact em and ask questions because they posted pictures and video but no explanations.

Anyway, the flickr photo album and the videos are titled "Tennessee Coonhound Reunion" dated 2010. Looks like a bunch of families had a picnic bringing their pups of the same bloodline back together to play. Dunno if they are Treeing Walker or whatever but that is a big pack of dawgs that might as well be Bandit's clones. Maybe those dawgs are Bandit's relatives, dunno. Apologies this is boring but I'm easily entertained.

http://www.flickr.co...157625258819599

A couple samples from the album--

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[Guest Lester Weevils]

I located the rabbit-hunting hound documentary but didn't locate a legit way to watch it fer free and generally shy away from torrents.

It is National Geographic "The Hunting Hounds of Arabia" and youtube has a four minute clip--

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[zapfbroad]

Yay for a slingshot been meanin to pick up one. Would like to become good at it again, more so than the passing interest we had as kids. Wewould launch smoke bombs. Marbles flew with a special beauty. Might be useful in a shtf situation.

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