Small Game
Sylvilagus floridanus
Photo: Crisco 1492 via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0) · CC-BY-SA-4.0 · Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Conservation status
Least ConcernTag difficulty (general)
Over-the-counterVaries by state and unit.
Methods generally used
The eastern cottontail is the small-game animal most American hunters cut their teeth on. A medium-bodied rabbit at roughly 2 to 4 pounds, brown-gray above with that diagnostic white powder-puff tail, it lives essentially everywhere humans have cleared a little brush — farm edges, fencerows, suburban thickets, regenerating clearcuts, old strip-mine reclamation. Cottontails are crepuscular but huntable through the day in winter when low temperatures keep them tight to thermal cover. Walked-up in heavy briar with a partner or run with beagles, they hold tight, flush short, and circle back to home ground within an acre or two — which is what makes hound hunting work. Hunters take them in their first year more than 80 percent of the time; cottontail populations are built on volume, not longevity. The bird-dog crowd will tell you they're a kid's quarry, but plenty of grown hunters will spend a December Saturday in honeysuckle for a rabbit-and-dumpling supper and call it the best meal of the year.
Continuous across the eastern two-thirds of the United States from southern New England through Florida and west to the eastern slopes of the Rockies; absent from the Pacific states. Northern limit pinned by deep snow; southern limit reaches central Mexico and parts of Central America. Tolerates fragmentation extremely well — often densest where farmland meets brushy cover.
Edge habitat: brushy fencerows, briar thickets, regenerating cuts, brush piles, weedy ditches, suburban yards with cover. Avoids closed-canopy mature forest. Needs woody escape cover within about 50 yards of feeding areas. Old-field succession one to ten years post-disturbance is peak.
The classic eastern method. A small pack of beagles (two to six dogs) jumps the rabbit in heavy cover and runs it in a loop; the hunter posts on the line and takes the rabbit when it circles back. Hound work is the social heart of cottontail culture in the upper South and lower Midwest. Standing-shot, often into vegetation, so shot size and pattern matter.
Twelve or twenty gauge with #6 lead or steel is the standard. Walked up in heavy cover by one or two hunters working line abreast through briar, honeysuckle, brush piles, and creek-bottom cane. Shots are short — 15 to 25 yards — and fast, often quartering. Improved cylinder or modified choke.
Slow walking through brushy edges on cold, clear mornings, watching for the dark eye or the white edge of the tail in the briar. Works best where snow cover lets you read tracks back to the form. Single-shot or pump in the hands of a patient walker.
Legal methods, weapons, and seasons vary by state and unit — confirm with the issuing agency before you hunt.
Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0) · CC-BY-SA-4.0
Paul Danese via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0) · CC-BY-SA-4.0
4 states