Anyone have experiences or info on Swamp Rabbits?

Don't know a whole lot about Rabbits and Hares other than the standard Cottontails/Jackrabbits.
Been seeing loads of wabbits this year and decided to pick up a few, didn't realize how big these buggers are until you get one in the hand, very surprised in the size/weight difference from a Cottontail.

I have shot my fair share of them over my lifetime. They are a species of cottontail, so I suspect a lot of people have shot them thinking they just shot a really big cottontail. I used to see them a lot while I was running coonhounds at night. I could always tell if I was in a good area for them by all the big rabbit poop on logs and stumps along the creek bottoms I hunted, but I seldom saw/see them during the day. My East Texas Hog hunting lease has them. The area my hog hunting camper stand is located my hunting partner there calls "the swamp". Them things are always setting off my Murs driveway sensors meant to alert me for hogs. For years whenever I clear brush and fallen limbs or logs around a stand feeder setup, I always pile it all in big piles near where I am hunting for small game and other animals to benefit from it. I have a few of those brush piles around my stand in "the swamp". I was watching some Swamp Rabbits with my night vision scope just last week and they are very much utilizing those brush piles I made. Between that, me trapping predators, and the natural population cycle, there are more Swamp Rabbits in my swamp this year than I have seen in the last 4 years. I will take them if I jump any while squirrel hunting. I am also convinced they can jump twice as high as a regular cottontail.

Swamp rabbits also known as cane cutters are generally like their name implies creatures of the wetter places. I have lots of them on my place in Mississippi and a few hillbillies as the locals call the standard cotton tail. Generally they look just a except for size. Swamp rabbits do not mind water and will often go to it to try and evade rabbit dogs or other predators, they do not mind swimming. Saw one this week go to a small brush pile near the stand.

At one of my Mississippi feeders I get more pictures of Swamp Rabbits than the little Cottontails. Thinking I will start taking the 22 with short hollow points with me when sitting there and after deer season get a couple friends in there with their beagles for a bit of rabbit hunting. At the feeder along the creek we have had pics this year with 5 rabbits eating corn under it at one time, all swamp rabbits.

One I killed as a kid seemed really big, weighed it and 9+ lbs is a big wild rabbit to me. Sure was good eating though.

Some of my favorite memories are from hunting Swamp Rabbits in NE Louisiana. That’s what a rabbit looked like to me back then, so when I moved to Texas and encountered Cottontails, they looked like midget rabbits.

I used a single shot 410 and 6’s for the Swamp Rabbits.

I have them on my property....in an area where a Spring Branch runs through it.

Locally....they are referred to as 'Cane Cutters' and are much larger than regular cottontails.

They live in wet areas with dense undercover nearby.

They look just like a cottontail except have a slightly longer ear and as already mentioned are markedly larger.

I have made several fishing trips to the Shell Beach /Delacroix LA area. Some years the road from Chalmette to Shell Beach is
lined with these big rabbits. I've wondered if they are good to eat, and if they hunt them down there.


MO

Thanks for the info guys.

I do vaguely remember hearing about them at my uncle's squirrel camp as a real little kid, guess I thought it was a local thing.
Here are some pics of the ones we got to reference if people are interested in them. Thanks

This is awesome. I never had a swamp rabbit.

Really cool thread reminds me of hunting swampies back hole in Memphis as a kid

Have some up to 5 on this camera every night

Hrre is one from early this am

Great memories walking the local bayou with my dad as a kid hunting them.

Hunted them as a kid on the Big Black, and Pearl River bottoms in Mississippi. Big cottontails, real good to eat!

Very nice!

Used to hunt them when I was younger on some creek bottom land that my grandfather leased. Had a couple dogs that did double duty as rabbit/cow dogs that we hunted with. Shot a few as they crossed back across the creek way ahead of the dogs. Let the dogs catch up to them smell them and they be off looking for another rabbit. Always hunted them in February/March after freezes.