Rabbit hunting tips for cottontails: the best time of day and season to hunt rabbits, where to find them, hunting with beagles or without dogs, snow, weather, moon and safety.
Rabbit hunting is how a lot of us started: a cold morning, a brush pile, a shotgun and maybe a beagle bawling in the distance. It's cheap, close to home and still one of the most fun ways to spend a winter day in the field. These rabbit hunting tips focus on the eastern cottontail, the most widespread rabbit in the US, with notes for snowshoe hares.
Most states open cottontail season in fall (October or November) and run it through late winter (February in many states). Many hunters wait until after the first hard frosts: cold weather thins the cover, the population is stable, and the meat is better. Check your state's dates, bag limits and blaze orange rules.
Cottontails are crepuscular: they feed most at dawn and dusk and spend the middle of the day sitting tight in a "form" (a shallow bed in grass or under cover).
| Time | What rabbits do | How to hunt |
|---|---|---|
| First light | Still feeding near cover edges | Walk edges slowly, still-hunt |
| Mid-morning to afternoon | Sitting tight in cover | Kick brush piles, run dogs |
| Last hour of light | Moving back out to feed | Edges, field corners, clearings |
With beagles, midday works fine: the dogs do the work of jumping rabbits. Without dogs, early and late are better, and on sunny winter days rabbits often sit on the south side of cover to soak up warmth.
Rabbits want food and protection from hawks, owls and coyotes within a few hops. Look for:
Public land with active habitat management (young forest, field edges) is often excellent. For snowshoe hares, head north to conifer swamps and spruce-fir thickets in Maine, the Great Lakes states and the Rockies.
A rabbit chased by a dog runs in a circle and comes back close to where it was jumped. That's the whole game:
Fresh snow is the best tracking tool you'll ever get. The morning after a light snowfall, tracks show exactly where rabbits fed and where they went to hide. Rabbits also move less in deep snow and hold tight, which makes them easier to jump. Very cold, windy days push them deeper into thick cover.
A 20 or 12 gauge with #6 or #7½ shot and an improved cylinder or modified choke is the classic setup. A .22 works for sitting rabbits where legal. Wear blaze orange when required, and briar-proof pants.
Wear gloves when cleaning rabbits, and cook the meat thoroughly. Tularemia ("rabbit fever") is rare but can be passed from infected animals. Many hunters wait for colder weather for this reason. Discard any rabbit with spots on the liver.
Solunar shows sunrise, sunset, moon phase and solunar periods on a single 24-hour dial with a 1–4 star day rating, for your location and offline. Use it to time the dawn and dusk windows when rabbits are on the move.