When I was a boy, a friend and I would walk the rail road tracks out of town shooting rabbits. We would shoot as many as we could carry and then head back. He was a couple years older than I was and when he got old enough to drive, he bought and old pickup truck. We would take turns driving and the other guy would walk slightly ahead of the truck and off to one side and head shoot the rabbits with a .22 long rifle shell. We did this at dusk and only hunted them after the first snow or real cold snap, as that would kill off the sick ones.

We did this out in the country along the many dirt roads we had around here back then. Usually we would wait till the snow plows had pushed though the roads and pushed up large snow banks on either side of the road. It was best to pick an East/West road, if possible, because our prevailing winds usually comes out of the North in the winter. The Rabbits would burrow down into the snow banks on the North side to get out of the wind and we could shoot them there at very close range. Head shots only!

We did this at dusk and only hunted them after the first snow or real cold snap as that would kill off the sick ones. His Dad was laid off one winter and they didn't have much to live on. He and I filled their freezer with Rabbits, Quail, Pheasants, Squirrels, and Deer, they didn't eat too bad that winter! We would shoot rabbits till dark or till we got as many as we wanted to clean that night. His Mom would have a good hot supper ready for us, and after supper we would clean rabbits till almost bedtime. If I had any homework to do that night it meant a real late bedtime for me.

One of the things I loved to make was rabbit sausage, we would bone out several rabbits and cut up a bunch of pork fat into cubes, then run the whole thing though a grinder. We would buy packets of sausage seasoning at a locale store and would mix in about three teaspoons of that for each pound of ground meat. It was wonderful stuff to eat on a cold morning along with your eggs and homemade toast!
Bob