Today's Rabbit, a Bluebird and a Doe.

TheGDog

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Nov 28, 2018
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Sigh... so surprisingly the Rabbits didn't come to this familiar spot to sun themselves like I figured they would once the sun finally peaked over the ridge behind us to warm themselves back up from 32 F.

Oh well, no worries, let's try calling for predators.

I walk back in on this popular trail, figuring since it's 32F the low and 52F the high supposedly, figure the usual riff-raff of hikers wouldn't be pestering me today.

Tried to find this off-trail spot I called-in a Gray Fox before. Wasn't quite finding it, said screw it..hopped back on the trail and just went in a lil bit deeper to some spot I remember had a good hiding spot to look out over the decoy.

Pssh... long story shorter bunch friggin hikers end up ruining it. All of em with dogs too.

Sigh...ok.. fine... go back to trailhead then find this other trail I remembered that never has footprints on it and eventually goes over to another flatland area.

This time tried to eCaller for a bit, curious to see if maybe can get a Bobcat or Yote to come in. Eventually the batteries die. I don't remember using em a whole bunch, but it was June when I last put in fresh ones, so oh well, mouth calls it is.

Follow this trail a bit more to these other flatlands. Setup the decoy and give it a sincere attempt with the mouth calls for like an hour. It's getting to be like 2-something pm, so figure I'd better start heading pack so I can sit on the rabbits spot and try to catch them in sunset and last-light when they seem to like socializing with each other and playing grab-ass type behaviours.

So I'm sitting there, tucked-in pretty good up against a large scrub oak. My areas of interest are located "on the clock" at like 12, 2,4,5 & 6.

Had a bunny run past the smallish gap at 12p. This is the spot that they typically come out into first as sunsets to meet up with each other. He didn't give me enough time to move the .17 HMR over on the Kiwk Stix before he was already across the gap and out of sight probably hanging out inside the other scrub oak like the one I'm hiding behind. Dang it. Well, now we'll try to just keep pointed that direction and wait.

So cool, a second rabbit that briefly went into that open space but then turned back into the bushes from which he came, not long after that first one... I wait around.. and thankfully he eventually comes back and makes the mistake of stopping in that narrow space between.

Again like last year at approx 80yds. The .17 HMR blows a whole in him just a little back behind his tiny rabbit diaphragm. Unfortunately this is causing him to writhe a bit. I then try to put one in his head... but unfortunately because of his attempts at writhing...he still ends up occasionally spastically moving his head again and again right as i would attempt to squeeze-off one pointed at his brain.

Eventually he expires. Then curiously... a Blue bird eventually lands nearby, His demeanor is reminding me of watching RoadRunners who are about to cautiously approach left-overs laid-out with care. Son of a BEEP! He starts trying to take pot-shots at his danging entrails! No, no, no... this my kill. i'm leaving out there just a littl bit longer in hope of coaxing that other one to go check on his friend. But oh well...had to regulate on this theivenous Bluebird!

So then I keep the rifle on my shoulder, and crank my head around to view the other positions of the cock at which in the past other bunnies have come into this field. As I look over... because her ears are soo long and have light colored tips... I at first thought this one was some young buck staring back my direction, so I silently gasp and play the freeze game. Eventually figured out it was just a Doe with VERY long ears. Got to watch her for quite some time. And that's always a pleasure. While I'm watching her she eventually settles-in on the idea that I'm not a threat. And oddly... moments later.. I dunno what the hell she saw and was looking at... but all of a sudden she dipped herself downward like as if she saw something horribly terrifying for a split-second. Would have loved to know what it was she thought she saw.

Eventually as she's here--and-there browsing off a clump of low brush... eventually she's worked her way more at my 6, but way over there where she is at. And then I guess at some point she must have caught a whiff of myself AND the blood from this rabbit which I had collected and set near my own feet.

BOING! BOING! BOING!!! She didn't waste any time at all Stott'ing away from that location (where I imagine she'd caught a whiff of the blood), back toward the thick chaparral.

Had a few more minutes to end of last light, but unfortunately that other rabbit never came back. Got to watch a covey of Quail, one-by-one hot-foot it across that gap opening towards the scrub oak. I don't have a upland stamp, so they get a pass.

On way back over there to pickup my Rabbit, I get startled by that whole entire covey of Quail beating wings and taking to the air together flying out of that scrub oak. Ya gotta just grin and laugh at yourself at those times. :)

So yeah... a lil bit of a bummer on the quantity of Rabbit. But getting to spend some quality time with that doe seemed like a fair trade and made the night worth it, and kinda neat :)

P.S. soo hard to be a good boy and fight the desire to not just take this gimme of a doe nature is throwing my way with my .17 HMR.

Sigh... sometimes it sucks having to play by lifes rules. :( Bet for sure I could have dropped her. Love that .17!
 
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Had a scrub jay pecking the eyeballs of a rabbit I had shot earlier this season. Opportunistic critters they are.
 
Just did a Google search on "Scrub Jay" Yup... that's exactly what kinda bird it was!
 
Yes it never fails, no doe tag, and I see lots of does. LOL I have been in a dry spell. Seriously bad luck.
If I had an A22(either sex) tag this year
Would of scored the first day.
a little forked horn all most ran me over,and yet would not stop to give me shot.
Last year bow hunting the 30-50 MPH wind just
Would cause me problems. Arrows would not fly straight.
Ok sorry yes I know whining like a
#@#@#@ LOL.
All part of Hunting.
 
This year? NO lie... I get a barely legal forkie... and S.O.B.... he manges to duck-the-string right as the arrow approaches him at about 35yds. When he ducked... it was on a lil slope and his downside leg slipped its footing for a second! For a brief moment I was super jazzed thinking it was from the hit. NOPE! Then... he meanders a lil bit and the only other shot opportunity I have involves trying to shoot him thru a bush. Yup, didn't work. And by then he realizes something is up and takes off full-tilt. That's IT! OMG... did not see another buck for the rest of the two seasons. HAd two Does lazily pass by at 35yds. Which is nice. But that was it.

So yeah... I NEED to get that Bobcat I blew it on out there last year. I'm in a kill deficit, and these Tags taste horrible.

BTW... did I mention how the Earth in this area swallows up arrows whole? (at around $17 bucks a pop! For Maxima Reds and G5 Montec's, FACK!!!)
 
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Well I go to D15 in the northern CNF so there is even less. They are there. It's just a question of getting your body out there enough times so that probabilities can do their thing.
 
I think Lungpopper (Daryl) one of our best of the best on this board.
Said it best. Find that area that was private then became public.
For sure a sweet spot.
I am pretty good hunter. I know where deer should be.
Public land in San Diego is very pressure.
I like my wife's theory.
If Aliens landed every weekend
To hunt humans in you area.
Would you stay.
Hell no right.
I been studying tactics of big time solo hunters and they go deep.
Beyond all the rukus by the roads.
Deer Density in public is sparce.
They are there. But not many and you have find them. Those that are go nocturnal. Until it makes a fatal mistake. This just my take and observation. But not set in stone.
 
Also seems like they like to use gullies and gulches that keep them down out of the line of sight when they want to travel a bit of distance, I've noticed.
 

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