Rabbit with a knife?

[10 Bears]

Reminded me of an incident with my brother in law.
He and I were hunting bunnies, either jacks or cotton, which ever we saw.
It had been a poor day, we were both one for one.
One shot one bunny.
Then he missed, shooting at a cotton bunny.
I said, "Uh oh, now you have to subtract one, so we're at 1 and 0!
He says, "Hold my rifle."
He goes down the embankment and headed for the sagebrush clump where his "missed bunny" had hidden.
With his trusty Smith & Wessing, multiple fold pocket knife he crept up on that bunny.
I thought to myself that this would sure be funny on film, the way he was crouched and creaping.
Then he was behind the bush and suddenly went through it with his knife in hand on the down stroke.
I heard, "Got 'im!"
No shit, he lifted up a wiggling cotton tail on the end of his pocket knife.

I just talked to him on the phone, a few minutes ago.
He is now confined to a wheel chair, MS, and has had his esophageus removed, with part of his stomach pulled up and stitched to where they removed the bad shit.
He is in his early 60s, but still has a hell of an upbeat attitude.
In charge of "Computer Security" for the VA hospital in Boise.

The above has to be one of my favorite "Hunting Stories!"
Sure miss hunting with him, he was wierd, in a lot of ways, but good to have around.

[Desert Rat]

Good story, 10B. I can sure relate to the loss of a hunting partner. The "Dave" from my fish hunting adventures (and countless others) died of cancer two years ago. And of course my father is gone.

The loss of someone like that diminishes the shine on large areas of our lives.

But back to your topic. I've never done it with knife. Killed one with bow and arrow once but not because I was great archer. Silly rabbit ran as I shot and just happened to run into my wildly twanged arrow. I figure it was bad rabbit karma.

And my brother's father in law, whom I hunted with a lot, showed me how to kill cottontail rabbit with my boots. Huh?

These little rabbits originated the term "rabbit warren" with lots of intersecting tunnels etc. Down in NM where I lived, these were usually located in the tops of small sand dunes or such with just enough mesquite brush to hold things together.

Said FIL was pretty good at walking up on top of such a rabbit hangout and start systematically caving in their exits. Bit by bit he would collapse their world around them and when they tried to get out it was death by boot.

I tried it several times and always the rabbits bolted out open door and got away. I think the only thing I ever flushed at my feet was a bull snake.

[10 Bears]

You flueshed the Bull Snake from his restaurant?

[Desert Rat]

Originally Posted by 10 Bears

You flueshed the Bull Snake from his restaurant?

He damn near flushed my bowels.

[OldBob]

Youngest boy and I used to hunt cottontails with our bows a lot. We live in a seasonal camp area that is deserted in the Fall, the bunnies come out early AM and just before dusk to "mow" the lawns, a careful stalk and a good shot with a judo point and you had a nice dinner .