Just got back from a weekend trip coyote hunting with my son to "ground zero" the blizzard area of South eastern Colorado. Pretty amazing sites there as the hard crusted snow that was four weeks old was still drifted up over many old homesteads. Often we were walking on five and six feet of hard packed snow over fences and farm equipment. We had a difficult time getting around with many roads closed and nonexistent in some cases. Large numbers of cattle are starved and dying and ranch life is pretty difficult out there. Very surreal as walls of snow right up to the road cut straight up 8 feet like driving around on a bobsled track.

We didn't ever get a chance at a coyote as only a few of our setup spots were accessible and walking 1/4 mile was a task that challenged even the toughest bastards.

One of the oddest parts of the trip was that all of the jack rabbits for miles were gathered in ranch corrals for access to food. Each farm we stopped at ranchers were begging us to shoot all the jacks we had ammo for. There were huge numbers of jacks that moved in a bio-mass thru haystacks. The big problem most ranches were dealing with.....as they were attempting to move round bales of hay to feed starving cattle the strings holding the bales had all been chewed off. It was ugly... I wish we would have taken several thousand rounds instead of the few hundred we did take. All total we shot about 300 rds. and probably killed 250-270 jacks. We didn't make a dent, not even a ripple.

My young son who has many, many opportunities to shoot prairie dogs at his aunts had a grand old time. He said this was much more fun and at least as many shots. We would just stumble around and take shots ranging from only a few feet to a couple hundred yards. All from field positions...great practice. I wish now we would have taken his 10/22 and a couple bricks of ammo. We would still be there.

Skb,

Sounds like going into hunters paradise!

You going to go back there ??

Dimitri

I am and this time I will be better prepared for what lies ahead. It is still very difficult to get a vehicle in and out of alot of these places. The current weather conditions are not allowing for any melting so the next trip will be a continuation of the last.

Skb,

All that matters is that you and your son have a good time shooting the jacks.

Bad conditions or not, its the hunt your son will remember with you more then the hard time to get to places to shoot.

Dimitri

My sister farms out there so I will be going every chance I get. In the spring and early summer we can shoot prairie dogs at any one of dozens of places so this is not new to us at all. This is the first time we ever dealt with so many jack rabbits in one place.

Skb,

Ah ok, well atleast your having fun shooting them.

Making them into a stew ??

Dimitri

These are jacks....I personally don't consider them table fare although some people do. This is a pest control mission and if they were decent to eat we could have fed a small country. These are big jacks too...probably 5-8 lbs...at least before we shoot them. They tend to lose some weight once shot.

Ah I see, different people different tastes. Personally I think Jackrabbits are alittle different then cottontails but in a stew it tastes pretty good.

Dimitri

No Big "D"...Jacks would make good souls for your hunting boots or you could card them and turn them into good bow strings. To eat them you need a big tenderizing hammer and a good set of teeth...The ones out West are so tough that bullets bounce of them...I think it's the sage brush, chaporel and meskete they eat...'course at least they are already seasoned for cookin'...

Bushmaster,

Eh I'm too lazy to tenderize like that with a hammer, I do got some good teeth to cut into tough meat though. Normally I just boil them for a couple of hours.

Dimitri

Some things just weren't meant to be eaten by us..............

Go to it. The shooting will not last long and sounds like you are doing good work for the ranchers.
Ed