Not sure what gear you need to hunt rabbits, or if it can even be done successfully without a dog? Or maybe you want to learn how to get started hunting with a rabbit dog? You’ve come to the right place!
Gear Basics
- Good Boots: you will cover a LOT of ground when you’re out rabbit hunting
- Game Vest: to carry your harvested rabbits, and can double as your blaze orange or pink
- Firearm (with appropriate choke) and Ammo
- Heavy-Duty Brush Pants or Chaps: Rabbits like to take shelter in areas with thorns, burrs, and thick underbrush
- Printed/physical copies of your IL Hunting License, Stamps, and Permits as well as your FOID card
- Any other blaze orange or blaze pink you need to meet your legal square inch requirements (varies based on whether you are on public or private land. See the Illinois Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations for details).
We have a more detailed rabbit hunting checklist available for you to download and print here, with sections that include nice-to-have tools for processing rabbits, a section for those hunting with dogs, and more.
Methods: Hunting Without Dogs & Hunting With Dogs
Hunting Without Dogs
Hunting With Dogs
In the U.S., scenthounds are traditionally used to hunt rabbits, which is done by using the dog to find the scent of the rabbit and chase (or flush) it out of thick cover and keep it moving for the hunter to then dispatch it. In other parts of the world, sighthounds are actually used to run rabbits and hares down to dispatch them, but that is not the goal of hound hunters in the U.S.! It is rare for rabbits to be caught by scenthounds.
The main breed used to hunt rabbits in the United States is the beagle. Basset hounds were also traditionally used, although they are much less common today, and the harrier is another scent hound that was used in the U.S., although was much more commonly used in England.
The Pros and Cons of Hunting with Dogs
Pros
- You are able to hunt much more thoroughly — the dogs will flush rabbits from spots you will mostly likely never be able to kick up yourself and keep them moving!
- The dogs sound great and are a lot of fun to watch and work with.
Cons
- It takes a lot of time, energy, space, and often money year-round to get a good rabbit dog trained up and keep them in shape, especially if you have more than one, and hunting accidents do happen.