Jan. 23, 2012

Hunting Rabbits with Don Hansen

One of my favorite things to do after school during the warmer parts of the spring and fall was to meet Don Hansen, my best friend, and go rabbit hunting. I used my father’s old single shot .22 caliber rifle and I still remember the day Don showed up with a new semi-automatic that could shoot 9 or so bullets before having to reload. Of course with a single shot I had to reload each time after I had fired off a round. I learned something very valuable however and that was that I had to make the shot count and I would go through a lot less ammo since I could kill the rabbit with one bullet rather than shooting the dirt up behind it for 8 shots or 9.  We would go up on the bench and could shoot almost any direction except toward town that was three miles away. We would go up to the Big Hollow and walk along the top and sometimes drop down a little and walk along the little hills. It was not uncommon to see 5 to 10 rabbits at a time. That was part of the reason for hunting them was due top their numbers and the damage they would do to the hay crops. I got to be a pretty good shot but now sometimes can only remember the suffering and pain that I caused a lot of rabbit when I didn’t kill them with the first shot. I really have no desire to hunt them now but gladly take a camera out and shoot them with it instead.