548 
Forest and Stream 
RABBIT SHOOTING GUNS AND LOADS 
A WIDE, EVEN SPREAD OF MEDIUM-SIZED SHOT IS DESIRABLE 
FOR SUCCESS WHEN HUNTING THE ELUSIVE COTTONTAIL 
F or a good many years past, rabbit 
shooting has been the principal 
field shooting where quail and 
grouse have become scarce, or 
where they have been placed on the 
song-bird list. From one to three mil- 
lion rabbits are annually shot in each 
of several of the more thickly populated 
Eastern states. They form the principal 
part of the game-bag for thousands of 
hunters, yet the idea still persists in 
many places that anything in the way 
of a gun or load is good enough for rab- 
bit shooting. 
Full-choke duck or trap guns, left 
over from duck, quail, trap or even 
Over the fence to the next field 
goose shooting are all turned loose on 
the inoffending cottontail. The result is 
often a hard-luck tale about the diffi- 
culty of hitting rabbits in the brush, a 
line or two about blowing two or three 
of them into shreds and a general howl 
that rabbit shooting isn’t what it ought 
to be. The reason is rather obvious. 
Cottontail rabbit shooting should, from 
the standpoint of guns and ammunition, 
be divided into two distinct classes : rab- 
bit shooting with rabbit dogs, and rabbit 
shooting without dogs. The latter should 
include all miscellaneous rabbit shoot- 
ing that occurs while hunting quail, 
grouse, pheasants, woodcock, squirrels 
and even ducks. 
When hunting with dogs, especially if 
some of the dogs are fox hounds and are 
very fast, the hunter will frc(|ucntly be 
faced with the necessity of making very 
long, hard shots across a hollow, along, a 
ravine or possibly across a stream or 
swamp. 
This requires a moderately close- 
By C. S. LANDIS 
shooting barrel and heavy shot. A 
charge of 3% drams of powder and 
ounces of No. 4 chilled shot is a great 
favorite for this style of work in the 
hills and mountains where I have done 
most of my rabbit hunting. Unfortu- 
nately, the hunter will often kick up a 
rabbit w’hile moving along after his dogs 
to save a shot from being taken in by 
another hunting party, and then his 
game is usually badly mangled. 
A heavy duck load will blow a rabbit 
all to pieces if it is hit inside of 15 
yards, and up to 25 or 30 yards the leg 
bones will be so badly splintered that 
the best of the meat will be rendered 
unfit for the table. 
A double gun, bored improved cylin- 
der right and three-fourths or full choke 
left and loaded with No. 6 or / j /2 chilled 
shot in the right barrel and 5’s or 4’s 
in the left, is a good combination to use 
with fast dogs. It takes care of both 
the close and long shots. A modified 
choke pump and 6’s is about as near as 
we can come to it with a single barrel. 
'^HE beagle hound is to my mind the 
ideal rabbit dog. The rabbit seldom 
runs very far ahead of a beagle, most 
of the shots are between 25 and 45 yards, 
and the game is generally cleanly killed 
after providing the maximum of sport — 
and noise. Of what use is a fire with- 
out a general alarm and a mad race of 
the city’s whole fire department? With 
a beagle, ideal rabbit shooting conditions 
are provided. Moderate range, a swift- 
ly-moving mark and you know about 
when to look for it. 
An improved cylinder and strong. 
Read this article carefully. It con- 
tains some practical advice that will 
change that “tough luck” alibi you 
have been in the habit of framing 
up to tell your friends while you 
were walking home after a long day 
afield in quest of the alert little 
cottontail. 
modified double or a modified choke re- 
peater loaded with 3 or 3j4 drams of 
smokeless and 1J4 ounces of No. 6 shot 
make the ideal combination. Of course, 
there are a few extra long-range shots 
and a few close-range shots at rabbits 
that w'ere almost stepped upon, but the 
average is just right for 6’s. The mod- 
erately wide, evenly-distributed pattern 
of the modified choke, when filled with 
1 or 154 ounces of 6’s, is just right to 
make the proper distribution on a rabbit 
which ordinarily presents a vital mark 
about 6 inches long by 4 inches high. 
While a couple of slow - working, 
howling beagles provide the maximum 
excitement in rabbit shooting, still the 
man who hunts them without a dog has 
his share of fun. For one thing, he gets 
a better idea of what constitutes a “dog’s 
life” after he has tramped the briars 
and brush for a couple of days than he 
ever had before. He probably gets 
more fun out of the actual shooting 
when it occurs unexpectedly and sud- 
denly than when much of it occurs after 
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Each stack of cornstalks contains a possibility 
