As the holidays crept in I found myself planning a trip back to Wyoming to visit the family. Two whitetail doe tags still in my wallet from a September trip reminded me there was unfinished business in the Cowboy state. Upon checking the regulations it took just a minute to realize the end of the last deer season would come two days before I got home. I loaded the gear and threw the bow in "just in case" it might be a good year for rabbits. Rabbit hunting is one of those things that is really rewarding but with the rabbit population going in cycles, doesn't come along often enough. I hadn't seen a decent cottontail population in several years and thought, this might be the year; and man was that the case. With fresh snow on the ground I headed out with a friend hoping to take some pics of wildlife and maybe shoot at a rabbit or two. It was also bird season and the shotgun was along just in case we stumbled on to a few huns or chukars. As we drove along, there were many opportunities to shoot stuff with the camera. Eventually we started to see rabbits, and once we did the fun began. One of the problems with shooting arrows at rabbits in snow is finding the arrows afterward. The best shots were a little down hill so the arrows wouldn't go far but we did lose a few. A scoop shovel and yard rake actually came in handy and helped us recover some arrows we might not have found. After a bunch of near misses I finally got dialed in and started connecting. I think that one of the best things about the hunting was that you get so much shooting. Unlike sitting in the deer stand where I drew my bow three times in the last two seasons, I was presented with numerous shot opportunities, many of which I passed on. Bag limits are generous at 10 per day. It was serious fun! There were also plenty of opportunities to shoot at Hungarian partridges and we connected on a few of those too.
Looks like fun, but then I don't know how you could about anything outdoors there and not have fun. Whereabouts were you at? I grew up in Douglas and about 20 minutes from there is a state recreation area, just on the south side of the Glendo Reservoir. There's a trail that runs along the river that has a higher rabbit population than I've probably ever seen anywhere else in the state.
