Since I was about 8 years old I have enjoyed hunting rabbits and always get excited when July comes around for the Cottontail opener. This year I was able to get away with Marley for a short trip up the hill from me where I planned to camp for a quick overnight. The temperature has been near triple digits so my plan was to arrive to the location a bit later in the afternoon, and to hunt into the evening with cooler temps. This area as most all is a bit remote and does offer some good opportunities for both Jackrabbits and Cottontails. Marley and I arrived around 4:00pm and were able to find a nice little spot to park the Jeep with a small area to setup a tent.
For this trip I brought the Brocock Sniper XR .22, this is the Safari edition that I have had on loan from Airguns Of Arizona for about 8 months now.
I have really enjoyed shooting this rifle, it's very well made and the Safari stock is beautiful. I have the rifle outfitted with a Hawke Sidewinder, Tactacam and 0dB moderator. The rifle is currently configured to shoot the Daystate Howler slugs at 940fps producing excellent accuracy, I have really enjoyed using these for hunting in several of my PCP's. Coming up on 5:00pm it was still up over 90 degrees out, super hot with very little shade. When I come to these types of locations I always make sure to pack plenty of water for not only myself but Marley.
After getting my pack all setup Marley and I headed away from camp where we followed a Jeep trail for awhile before heading into the sagebrush. This area is mostly flat with a few small hills that I planned to get onto that may give us a bit more advantage to be able to look down over some of the dense sagebrush.
This is one of the most difficult areas I hunt rabbits but Marley and I are both very familiar with this location as this is where we did most of her training as a puppy. Once we made our way to the top of the hill we had a pretty nice vantage point that offered near panoramic view of the desert floor.
After sitting in the shade under a large Juniper it didn't take long for us to spot a Jackrabbit at 82 yards bed down in the shade of some sagebrush.
I was able to make a perfect headshot that put the Jackrabbit down with authority with little more than a few kicks and some dust flying. Marley sprinted out, it took her a bit of time to find as 82 yards is a ways in this thick sagebrush.
Although Jackrabbit wasn't primarily what we were after I had been planning to document how to clean and process the meat along with my favorite way of cooking it. I know plenty of people think the meat is undesirable but this is simply not correct, it just takes a bit more work to cook than say a Cottontail. Moving on I loaded this dog into my pack and we continued on into the evening where I did get a short glimpse of a Cottontail scurrying through the sagebrush in the distance. This area really is beautiful and as it started to cool down made for one heck of an awesome sunset.
Marley and I made our way back to camp just in time to pull some gear out of the Jeep and to setup the tent. As hot as it is you really don't need a tent other than to keep the mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies off you at night. I in the past have had just about every type of critter you can imagine try to snuggle up while I'm sleeping, even rattlesnakes. haha Yes this is what I call a life of luxury and wouldn't trade it for any amount of money in the world, this type of camping is absolutely priceless.
That night I kept things simple as far as the cooking goes and tried out a new backpacking meal my good friend Luke sent me, some Reindeer Stew....it was FANTASTIC and convenient.
The night was dead silent and the stars were out in numbers, Marley passed out early and I stayed awake for a few hours just relaxing and filming for a few other videos.
The next morning was a bit cool with the temperature being 53 degrees at 6:00am, we slept really well and was excited to get out and hunt for a few hours before packing up.
We hiked not to far from camp into a similar area as the day before and it didn't take long for me to spot a Cottontail at just 15 yards in front of us down an embankment.
Whenever I'm out hunting I think it's sometimes natural to want to look further out, around 40 or 50 yards, over time I have learned to look close as sometimes these rabbits will be right in front of you. Cottontails blend in so well with the ground and generally stay so still you will many time just pass right by them.
After bagging up our first bunny of the day we headed back the other direction where I quickly spotted another Cottontail at just over 50 yards.
After spending another hour hiking around it was beginning to warm up so we headed back to camp to pack things up and head down the long trail to home. This was a really successful trip and am excited to share my process of cooking all this meat we harvested. These adventures do take loads of time to document but I feel as though it's totally worth it as we do have a great time. I really want to thank AOA for helping us with some of the gear it takes to get out in these areas, without them I simply couldn't do it. Enclosed is this adventure I have documented to the best of my ability in video form and will be sharing the cooking portion in the next week as it does take some tremendous time to edit everything. Hope you enjoy and Cheers
For this trip I brought the Brocock Sniper XR .22, this is the Safari edition that I have had on loan from Airguns Of Arizona for about 8 months now.
I have really enjoyed shooting this rifle, it's very well made and the Safari stock is beautiful. I have the rifle outfitted with a Hawke Sidewinder, Tactacam and 0dB moderator. The rifle is currently configured to shoot the Daystate Howler slugs at 940fps producing excellent accuracy, I have really enjoyed using these for hunting in several of my PCP's. Coming up on 5:00pm it was still up over 90 degrees out, super hot with very little shade. When I come to these types of locations I always make sure to pack plenty of water for not only myself but Marley.
After getting my pack all setup Marley and I headed away from camp where we followed a Jeep trail for awhile before heading into the sagebrush. This area is mostly flat with a few small hills that I planned to get onto that may give us a bit more advantage to be able to look down over some of the dense sagebrush.
This is one of the most difficult areas I hunt rabbits but Marley and I are both very familiar with this location as this is where we did most of her training as a puppy. Once we made our way to the top of the hill we had a pretty nice vantage point that offered near panoramic view of the desert floor.
After sitting in the shade under a large Juniper it didn't take long for us to spot a Jackrabbit at 82 yards bed down in the shade of some sagebrush.
I was able to make a perfect headshot that put the Jackrabbit down with authority with little more than a few kicks and some dust flying. Marley sprinted out, it took her a bit of time to find as 82 yards is a ways in this thick sagebrush.
Although Jackrabbit wasn't primarily what we were after I had been planning to document how to clean and process the meat along with my favorite way of cooking it. I know plenty of people think the meat is undesirable but this is simply not correct, it just takes a bit more work to cook than say a Cottontail. Moving on I loaded this dog into my pack and we continued on into the evening where I did get a short glimpse of a Cottontail scurrying through the sagebrush in the distance. This area really is beautiful and as it started to cool down made for one heck of an awesome sunset.
Marley and I made our way back to camp just in time to pull some gear out of the Jeep and to setup the tent. As hot as it is you really don't need a tent other than to keep the mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies off you at night. I in the past have had just about every type of critter you can imagine try to snuggle up while I'm sleeping, even rattlesnakes. haha Yes this is what I call a life of luxury and wouldn't trade it for any amount of money in the world, this type of camping is absolutely priceless.
That night I kept things simple as far as the cooking goes and tried out a new backpacking meal my good friend Luke sent me, some Reindeer Stew....it was FANTASTIC and convenient.
The night was dead silent and the stars were out in numbers, Marley passed out early and I stayed awake for a few hours just relaxing and filming for a few other videos.
The next morning was a bit cool with the temperature being 53 degrees at 6:00am, we slept really well and was excited to get out and hunt for a few hours before packing up.
We hiked not to far from camp into a similar area as the day before and it didn't take long for me to spot a Cottontail at just 15 yards in front of us down an embankment.
Whenever I'm out hunting I think it's sometimes natural to want to look further out, around 40 or 50 yards, over time I have learned to look close as sometimes these rabbits will be right in front of you. Cottontails blend in so well with the ground and generally stay so still you will many time just pass right by them.
After bagging up our first bunny of the day we headed back the other direction where I quickly spotted another Cottontail at just over 50 yards.
After spending another hour hiking around it was beginning to warm up so we headed back to camp to pack things up and head down the long trail to home. This was a really successful trip and am excited to share my process of cooking all this meat we harvested. These adventures do take loads of time to document but I feel as though it's totally worth it as we do have a great time. I really want to thank AOA for helping us with some of the gear it takes to get out in these areas, without them I simply couldn't do it. Enclosed is this adventure I have documented to the best of my ability in video form and will be sharing the cooking portion in the next week as it does take some tremendous time to edit everything. Hope you enjoy and Cheers
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