Has anyone shot or seen jackrabbits this year?

I think I spoke about this a few years ago, but I'll tell again. 3 or 4 years ago Opening weekend our group ran into 8-10 guys from the East coast. They were here hunting Jacks and had them piled up. They stayed in Kansas long enough to stock the freezer and had shot something like 150 or so in the week they were here. Had them marinating in buckets of red wine before freezing them. Didn't see much this year out West, except tumbleweeds.
 
I didn't see a single jack-rabbit in my 2-day trip out west. We usually see a couple in each milo field we walk, but didn't this time around. In fact, there weren't even any cottontails around my dad's homestead and it's usually got 5 or so in it. Not sure why we didn't see them. Dad assures me he saw quite a few before bird season started.
 
How are Jack Rabbits for eating? Do they taste at all like Cotton Tails?
 
Seen quite a few while we were out west, more than years past that is for sure.
Just happy none of my dogs took off after them. :thumbsup:
 
1pheas4 said:
How are Jack Rabbits for eating? Do they taste at all like Cotton Tails?
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Eaten may on cottons and love them. Never had a jack. But, the Portuguese guys I spoke of were restaurant owners and they swear by them. Use them in their dishes all the time.
 
I saw two out west of Hays on opening day. Watched them run off.

I shot one in Texas years ago. Browned it, simmered it in gravy for a few hours. Maybe if I had simmered it for about a week I would have been able to chew it. Last one I ever thought about shooting.
 
Years ago it seemed like Jacks were just about done. Last 5 years or so started seeing them again. Did not see one this year but did see several cottontails. Coyote hunters, when I was a kid, used to work their dogs on Jacks to prep them for coyotes.
 
Jubilee said:
Seen quite a few while we were out west, more than years past that is for sure.
Just happy none of my dogs took off after them. :thumbsup:
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See you're from Thayer, grandpa told stories of growing up around Neodesha and a classmate would bring ground jackrabbit sandwiches to their one room school house for lunch. I wonder when the last jackrabbit was seen around those parts-
 
Didn't see one life for years, but my grandads old 5# cat used to bring them in dead, in the 1960's, in Greenbush Ks. I saw thousands in The Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the 1970's and again in Wyoming around Baggs, in the 1980's. Sad to see that the Iowa D.N.R. say's they be gone in the next 5 years.
 
They used to have a rabbit round up every year in my home town. They would kill jacks and cottontails by the thousands to send to San Francisco to be processed and sold over seas. Now I see maybe 20 a year in the grape vines. I hear they are good eating if you prepare them right but I've never shot one to see.
 
I guess I should mention the round ups ended around the 30s lol.
 
I havent shot any but saw 4 or 5 each field we walked last weekend. Definitely more jack rabbits many times over than pheasants where we were at.
 
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