Been hunting? First annual juniors jackrabbit camp
By Doug Burt, public information officer, AGFD

In late January, Game and Fish’s Tucson regional office hosted its first annual Junior Jackrabbit Camp in southern Arizona, and it was hit.

The camp consisted of just that, a good ole-fashioned campout with the department providing hot meals – including a jackrabbit stew, refreshments, snacks, campfires, safety instruction and of course – guided rabbit hunting.

Recent graduates of the hunter education program in the Tucson area (nearly 300) were notified of the event. The interest level far exceeded the maximum number of kids the camp could support, and registration filled up quickly. For all of those that missed the cut-off, keep your calendars marked for next year’s event.

The National Wild Turkey Federation provided all the funding to cover the food costs and it is a good thing, because those young kids eat a lot of food. The Sportsman’s Warehouse in Tucson provided each participant with a gift bag consisting of a $10 gift card, targets, and other items. It is only through the support of sponsors like these that the department can host these events at no charge to participants.

To say each kid had a good time is an understatement. Every kid harvested at least one antelope jack, and some shot three, four, even five rabbits. Some kids went home with more meat than they would after a successful javelina hunt – and some would argue better meat!

In the end, the final harvest was 29 lagomorphs in 36 hours (25 antelope jacks, 2 black-tailed jacks, and 2 cottontails). Nearly all of the jacks were weighed, with the two blacktails weighing more than 4 pounds and the antelope jacks averaging 8.0 pounds (range: 6.97 to 9.175 pounds).

But don’t take our word for it, here is what a father of one of the participants had to say.

“In all my years of participating in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Brownies and Girl Scouts events, the family and I have a lot of good memories, but none of them can compare to the memories made last weekend,” said Lennie Lockhart.

Lockhart added, “My son Zack has not stopped talking about the event. I believe he has told his hunting and rabbit cleaning stories to every one of his friends and family members over the past several days, and I certainly know what he wants to do this coming weekend – hunt jacks. Thanks so much for making such a big difference in Zack’s life.”

Each year, the department conducts a number of regional small game hunting camps throughout the season to increase hunter appreciation, recruitment and retention. These events are very self-rewarding. The goal of the Hunter Heritage Work Group is to increase these efforts with the assistance of sportsman’s groups, conservation organizations and other outdoor groups.

Event organizer Jim Heffelfinger, Tucson regional game specialist, had this to say about the success of the event.

“I heard almost every family say that they are definitely going to be doing this [rabbit hunting] again on their own. I felt like the kids/parents left with the knowledge they needed to know how to hunt jacks, where to hunt them, how to clean them, and how to cook them.”

Mission accomplished – rewind and repeat.

To learn more about small game camps or just hunting in Arizona, visit:

www.azgfd.gov/hunting.