Bunny Season Opener

After being skunked on the July 1st cottontail rabbit opener here I thought I'd try my luck once more tonight. As I was loading up the .22 WMR Marlin rifle and slinging the Badlands hydration pack on at the truck on I noticed rabbits and "squeaks", (ground squirrels), running across the road about 150 yards down from where I was. There was a small dirt levee to the right of the road and I love peeking over them since animals on the other side can't hear or see your approach.

Peek-a-boo time.

I wish I would have had a camcorder rolling because as soon as I poked my head over about 15 rabbits that were right out in the open exploded like a quail flush. They went everywhere and I all could do was sweep back and forth with the .22 and hope one would stop for a shot. Finally one did stop for just a second and I shot and missed a bit left. Curses. The rabbits continued to run everywhere and another one screeched to a halt just short of the brush and I shot him in the head at about 50 yards. I'm not sure what all the bunnies were doing together, might have been the evening hootenany I guess. Tracks were everywhere like it was some kind of dance.

Walking out I saw another rabbit way down the end of a clearing but he hightailed as soon as he saw me. The last rabbit I saw crawled up on that same levee, he must have heard me coming as his ears were twitching back and forth as he attempted to pinppoint where I was. I had a clear shot at him but it would have been shooting up toward the road so I let him go.

It was a good stretch of the legs and an awesome sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains as usual. It has been over 100F the past couple days but some monsoonal weather blowing up from Baja Norte cooled the temps off today and that may have explained why more animals were out this evening.

Did anyone else make it out for the bunny opener? How'd you do?