Rabbiting is the sport of hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

s, often using ferret

Ferret

The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...

s or dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s to track the prey and various trapping and shooting

Shooting

Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...

 methods to catch them.

Hunting of rabbits involving dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s (usually beagle

Beagle

The Beagle is a breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound, but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears. Beagles are scent hounds, developed primarily for tracking hare, rabbit, and other game...

 or basset hound

Basset Hound

The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog of the hound family. They are scent hounds, bred to hunt rabbits and hare by scent. Their sense of smell for tracking is second only to that of the Bloodhound....

s) is called beagling

Beagling

Beagling is the hunting of hares, rabbits, and occasionally foxes with beagles. A beagle pack is usually followed on foot. However, there is one pack of beagles in the U.S. which are distinguished as being the only hunting pack to hunt fox and be followed on horseback...

.

Hunting

Hunters without hound

Hound

A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. It can be contrasted with the gun dog, which assists hunters by identifying the location of prey, and with the retriever, which recovers shot quarry...

s have the following options. A hunter, alone or with a partner, walks through the possible locations of rabbit hiding places, kicking or stomping possible covers to chase the rabbit out. In winter an advantage is visible rabbit tracks after fresh snow. Unraveling tracks allows the hunter to locate the hiding place: if no tracks leave out of a suspected location, then the quarry is located. After this, hunters with short range arms (archers or the ones with small calibre) may scrutinize the location to find the rabbit and shoot it immobile. Alternatively, one may just as well scare the animal out and shoot it on the run.

Trapping methods

Typically, long nets are placed around burrows so that a bolting rabbit (that is, one leaving its burrow while being chased by a ferret or other animal) will become ensnared, allowing the hunter to dispatch it. Another method is to use a purse net, which is a net with a draw string at the opening. This net is placed over the burrow, so that when the rabbit bolts, it will run into the net and cause the draw string to pull the net shut.

Rabbits are occasionally killed by a priest

Priest (tool)

A priest is a tool, often resembling a blunt weapon, used for quickly killing fish. Priests usually come in the form of a heavy metal head attached to a metal or wooden stick. The name "priest" comes from the notion of administering the "last rites" to the fish. Anglers often use priests to...

, but may also be killed with a sharp blow of the hand to the base of the neck, or by holding the neck between the thumb and first finger and using a whipping motion.

Ferreting

Ferret

Ferret

The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...

s tend to be the primary animal used in rabbiting, due to their ease in moving about burrows. A jill (female ferret) is more typically used in a hunt than a hob (male ferret), as the hob is more likely to "lay up" (killing and eating a rabbit in the burrow, resulting in the hob falling asleep) due to it being stronger than the jill. In modern rabbiting, ferrets may wear a locator collar, and the hunter will use a device that emits a faster clicking noise the closer it is to the ferret's collar. When the ferret lays up, the hunter uses the device to locate the ferret, digging down to remove it and the trapped rabbit.

Some hunters now rely on firearms to take the prey, rather than laying down nets. Three or four hunters with shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

s will attempt to shoot the rabbit as it bolts from the burrow while being chased by the ferret. A method used to determine when the rabbit is preparing to bolt is to listen for thudding sounds coming from the burrow.

Spotlighting

Spotlighting can refer to any form of rabbit hunting performed at night with the aid of powerful hand-held, rifle mounted or vehicle mounted search lights. The light is often used in conjunction with a dog such as a sighthound

Sighthound

Sighthounds, also called gazehounds, are hounds that primarily hunt by speed and sight, instead of by scent and endurance as scent hounds do.-Appearance:...

, (or lurcher

Lurcher

The lurcher is a type of dog originating in Ireland and parts of Great Britain. While not a pure breed, it is generally a cross between a sighthound and any other breed, usually a pastoral dog or terrier, dependent on the attributes desired by the breeder; originally stealth and cunning...

) alongside an air rifle, or some other firearm such as a .22LR.17 HMR

.17 HMR

.17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, commonly known as the .17 HMR, is a rimfire rifle cartridge developed by the ammunition company Hornady in 2002. It descended from the .22 Magnum by necking down the .22 Magnum case to take a .17 caliber bullet, and it is more costly to shoot than traditional .22...

 The rabbit is illuminated by the light and then shot, or in the case of the dog chased and captured. (See coursing

Coursing

Coursing is the pursuit of game or other animals by dogs—chiefly greyhounds and other sighthounds—catching their prey by speed, running by sight and not by scent. Coursing was a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, the landed and wealthy, and commoners with sighthounds and lurchers...

.)

Historic rabbiting

In medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 times, a hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

 or falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

 would have been used to catch the rabbit as it exited the warren

Warren (domestic)

A domestic warren is an artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. It evolved from the Anglo-Norman concept of free warren, which had been, essentially, the equivalent of a hunting license for a given woodland.-Architecture of the...

 burrow. For this type of hunt, an albino

Albinism

Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...

 ferret would typically be used, allowing the bird-of-prey to more easily recognize it. While this hunting style is still occasionally used, especially in the UK where it remains popular, (see Falconry

Falconry

Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...

) the above methods have almost entirely replaced it.

United Kingdom

In the UK the hunting of rabbits rarely involves dogs. The rabbit population is endemic in the UK.

The use of ferret

Ferret

The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...

s (domesticated polecat

European polecat

The European polecat , also known as the black or forest polecat , is a species of Mustelid native to western Eurasia and North Africa, which is classed by the IUCN as Least Concern due to its wide range and large numbers. It is of a generally dark brown colour, with a pale underbelly and a dark...

s) in rabbit hunting is common.

First the hunter finds the rabbit warren. Once located the hunter lays down catch-nets over all the rabbit holes. The next step is to place one or two ferrets down the rabbit holes without disturbing the catch-net. Now the hunter waits, for a rabbit to run out of the warren into a catch-net.

Other methods include shooting with air-rifles or shotguns, the latter requiring a license.

United States

In the U.S., many states have hunting seasons for rabbits. In Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, the season lasts throughout November, December, and January.