Halloween Jack Hunt

[QVTom]

Dana, my son Nicholas and I set upon a halloween morning jack rabbit hunt.  We arrived in the Los Padres national Forest as the morning sunlight was just breaking the eastern horizon.  As we were driving looking for a nice spot to pull over and get geared up the first jack rabbit of the day darted in front of my truck and I instinctively hit the brakes allowing the rabbit to sneak by unharmed.  Why are more rabbits spotted driving to a hunting site when you aren't looking for them?

It didn't take too long to get geared up and set out on foot in search of the monster jacks that are known to taunt many a hunter in this area.  I was carrying my 30 cal FX Impact that I won at EBR raffle last month, Dana had his trusty 22 caliber Marauder and My son was carrying Dana's Co2 powered 22?? Franken gun.  I should add that this was Nicholas's first hunt!

It didn't take long for Nicholas to spot the first Jack with his fresh 12 year old eyes.  We tracked that rabbit over a small hill and Dana swung wide to the left, Nicholas and I stayed to the right following as small arroyo when I heard Dana Take a shot.  I hiked up a small rise to see what Dana was shooting at when a Jack ran right past me at full speed.  It was now obvious what Dana was shooting at!  It couldn't have been more than a second until I had the Impact shouldered and took a shot at the Jack running full tilt.  A clean miss!  I quickly levered in another pellet and tracked the rabbit thru the scope as he dodged and disappeared in and out of cover.  Tracking him the best I could I held my shot hoping he'd stop for a quick look and rest after a bit and sure enough he did, he was about at 40 yards presenting a perfect head shot. Well  he roll over and kicked his legs for a couple of times; I knew I had him.

Here he is.  A nice healthy rabbit about 5 lbs.  Not a monster jack but a nice harvest just the same!




This is Nicholas with the cleaned rabbit in the bag and the tail against his cheek! LOL!


Dana giving Nicholas some shooting pointers after the Hunt.


Father and Son on our first hunting trip together.


Tonights dinner Rabbit Ragu


All in all a great day the will be remembered by all.  Nicholas said to me while we were out stalking jack rabbits, "Dad it's cool walking around the forest with a gun.  Is that Weird?"  Oh how that warmed my heart     Of course he is already asking about our next hunt!

Tom

[Gertrude]

Great story,
Great pics,
and Great times shared with family and friend.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

[dk1677]

Great hunt Tom! So good you had you son out!

[shadow]

Outstanding day from the looks of the great pics. It is great to see young ones getting into airgun hunting. Ed

[BenjiHunter]

Sounds like you had great hunt.
Great story and pics.

[Butchhe]

Congrats.  Your son will remember that hunt for a lifetime.

[nappyman]

Nice story Tom, father son bonding by way of hunting 👍🏻 and nice haul😀

[WolfyW]

Great to see this!

[stonykill]

 Perfect day! It just does not get much better than that!