DuckSouth.com

When I was a kid, my granddaddy was a jacklighter. For those who don't know, jacklighting is basically headlighting rabbits at night. He had an old headlight screwed to a texaco cap. At night he would slip around and kill rabbits by the ton. Yes I know it's illegal now. I didn't at the time. Gosh it was fun though.
I guess it was one of those poor folks way of putting food on the table. I can remember him talking about using an old carbide powered light and doing it before he got a 6 volt.
Am I the only one who ever did this or heard of being done. Or is everyone else just to asshamed to admit they did something illegal?

It is still practiced in this modern day and age.

Not my cup of tea, but I got a neighbor who does it all the time. The man's a rabbit slayin' fool. We're talkin' 15-20 a night. I tell him "You know if the man catches you, you're in big trouble right?" He says to me "I aint got caught yet."
Not YET.

An old client of mine who grew up in the depression said that when his dad would leave the house at night with a gun and light, "dem rabbits better cover dey eyes!"

my dad has always said he didnt know you could kill rabbits during the day, jokingly of course. But he knows its illegal now and doesnt do it, but he talks about when him and his papaw used to do it, sounds fun to me!!

It is a huge deal in West Tx where I grew up. I have many a memory of bustin those big "Jacks" at night with a 22. My dad would shoot them with his recurve...lotta fun

Wingman, do you ever bust anyone? I figured everyone now days would be hunting deer. Back then we didn't have any deer around our place down south. But you talk about a blast! I kno wnow that it was illegal but back then as kids we just thought it was how you hunted rabbits.

Rabbit in my opinion is the best tasting wild game there is....gotta get it somehow!

We did it out on our place in Tx.. We didn't shoot em.. Most of the time it was just to see how close we could get to them.. It was my goal to see if I could catch one by hand.........Not sure what I was gonna do if I caught one, but I just know my Dad and my Uncle would have for sure gotten a good laugh out of it.

I PLEAD THE 5TH.

gator

My dad, back in his college days, worked at the airport in Jackson (Hawkins Field). They used to shoot them on the runway at night!

That would probably be frowned upon these days... shooting a guns at an airport...

I'm with Gator.......

I know my dad has told me him and my grandfather used to do it when my dad was a little kid.

Use a .177 cal pellet rifle, Kills them dead and cant nobody hear what you doing, I am just sayin of course I aint never done it myself...

The story I always heard from my Grandfather is about them riding on the fender of a 1950 something pickup with the headlight shining between their legs. They usually shot them with shotguns. He also likes to talk about bow hunting before there was a bow season. He finally quit coon hunting at night by himself a few years ago. Oh did I mention he turned 83 in December?