The Great Rabbit Plague of 1982

[newstart2k]

All the talk about the swine flu pandemic got me remembering another "plague" that I was privileged to live through. The "Great Rabbit Plague of 1982" in the SE region of Idaho. I'm not making this up, honest. I've still got an "I survived the Mud Lake Bunny Bash" T-shirt somewhere. Don't fit into it anymore but that's another story.

Anyone have any stories they remember from then & there? I'll try to post some as my memory and typing skills allow.

[hillbill]

i remembr a bunny infestation like what yur talkin bout here in missouri, seems like it was aroun 87-88.i live by a 40 acre brush patch, i remember several time shooting 3 bunnys standing in the same spot.shoot one and another jumped up, shoot it and another jumped up.i was really poor then and ate lot of them and the rest fed to my dog, a big female rott.she actually became a pretty good rabbit dog that year.she wud yip once and take off after them, just look in front of her fer the bunny and shoot.still live in the same spot but have never seen the bunny hunting anywhere near that good here.it was kind weird cuz yu could go out in the brush and look around and there would be bunnys ghosting thru the brush everywhere yu looked.if im not mistaken it kind of coincided with high point in the coyote fur market.we were trapping and shooting yotes and foxes as fast as we could, either one was worth a days wages per here in hillbilly heaven.

[rex6666]

Back in the late 50's in southwest Okla. their was a year that the jack rabbits were so thick every alfalfa meadow was over run with them it was like hunting
rats only lots faster.

[newstart2k]

We would park our truck out in the sage brush near Mud Lake, ID and walk out about 500 yards. We would then circle the truck at about that range emptying and reloading our Ruger 10/22's (the absolute weapon of choice) each time we would top a rise. There were usually 4 of us. As we would top a small rise there would be more rabbits than we could shoot at. A complete circle of the truck would take a couple of hours and a brick of 22's. We'd then walk back to the truck to get something to drink and grab some more ammo. Then, without changing locations, we'd do it all over again and again until sunset. Once the sun went down we pulled out the pistols. While one guy drove our topless Chevy Blazer, one guy handled the spotlight and the other two stood behind the roll bar shooting the jack's that were attacking the truck as we drove through the desert. A day's kill would total into the hundreds.

[rickt300]

I lived in Green River Wyoming at the time and the bunny numbers there were also incredible.  It seemed anywhere north of there you couldn't drive at night without hitting a couple.  The numbers are at normal levels as to jackrabbits but the cottontails are a bit thin.

[Mack in N.C.]

beware of the lepus................

[Mack in N.C.]

ok...no one got beawre of the lepus or didnt care ...it was amovie in the early 70's about a rabbit plague but these rabbits were the size of cars...............mack

[puma4440]

I thought it was called "Night of the lepus", I could be wrong. If only we could electrify railroad tracks to hunt...

[Mack in N.C.]

you may be right...i do remember that they had bumber stickers that said "beware of the lepus".....your title may be right......man they was sum big wabbits

[rokefert]

My beagle and I pray everyday that we get a plague of snowshoe hares.  I dont think anything could be better than that.  Id start a bunnyburger stand!!!