Pick a vantage point either between security cover and a food source or in the middle of a patch of security cover that provides you with a good, clear view. You can use your favorite deer-hunting tree stand to get above the surrounding ground cover, but an old stump or fallen tree, or a spot at the rim of a hollow, will also do the trick.

For this type of hunting, you'd do well to carry a .22-caliber rifle or handgun. It's good to have a firearm that you can shoot out to 50 or 60 yards if you have to. Placing a scope on your rifle or handgun naturally will improve your accuracy at longer ranges, but open sights will do if you've done your work on the practice range.

If you want a little added challenge, try a bow and arrow. You'll probably want to replace your deer-hunting broadheads with points more suited for small game. Simple field points will do, or you can try blunts or judo points. Blunts are large, flat rubber or steel tips designed to break bones and crush internal organs rather than penetrate the hide. Judo points are similar to blunts, but they typically have four metal prongs extending out from the flat head, impeding penetration and increasing the arrow's impact area.

Undoubtedly, the most storied way to hunt winter rabbits is behind a beagle or two. This is the very game that beagles are born to play. For the most part when hunting with beagles, all you have to do is move through prime rabbit habitat and let the beagles' noses do the work. If you jump a rabbit that the dogs didn't detect, bring the dogs to the last spot you saw the rabbit and they should take over from there. Likewise, if you spot a set of rabbit tracks in the snow, lead the dogs right to the tracks and it's possible they will strike up a trail.

Some rabbit hunters working with dogs like to follow the dogs closely and try for a shot at a rabbit as soon as it bolts from cover. If that's your preference, you want to be equipped to handle a quick shot in tight quarters - light shotgun, open choke, No. 6 high brass shotshells.

When I hunt with beagles, I enjoy the chase. There's usually several of us hunting behind a pair of dogs, and when we know the dogs have gotten on the trail of a rabbit, everybody stops right where they're standing. We might move a few feet in either direction just to get a better view of our surroundings, but for the most part, we stand still and wait.

The dogs are left alone to go about their business, which is to stay on the heels of the rabbit. Naturally, the rabbit is able to move through its habitat much faster than a beagle, so its initial bolt from cover will put a good bit of distance between itself and the trailing dogs. This is where things get interesting, and where a good beagle will earn its keep.

Once its nose is put on a bona fide fresh rabbit trail, a good beagle will stay with that trail until the rabbit either goes down a hole or is shot by the hunters. Most often, a flushed rabbit being trailed by dogs eventually will pass very near the spot from which it was flushed. It might make a quick circle and return to that spot within a minute or two, or it might take the better part of an hour to get there. The hunter's job is to be there when he does.

Hunters need to sit tight, let the chase run its course and keep scanning the surrounding landscape for any sign of the rabbit. The rabbit is likely to be well ahead of the trailing dogs because they are following the rabbit by sight, they are following its scent, and the rabbit is usually not running full speed after its initial burst from cover. It will hop a few feet, stop and look around to figure out if it's still being trailed, and then it will dodge left or right, hop a few more feet and stop again.

Most times when we shoot rabbits over our dogs, the rabbits are standing still and checking their back trails. You'd do well with a .22-caliber rifle or handgun or even a bow and arrow under these conditions. If you carry a shotgun, your best bet is to have a little tighter choke than you would on a flush hunt. Put a modified choke in your barrel and load up with No. 4 high-brass shotshells. The tighter choke and larger shot will help you take rabbits up to 40 yards away.

When you're hunting with dogs and a flushed rabbit gives the hounds the slip or escapes down a hole, you'll know it. The dogs keep howling and stay interested when they're on the trail of a rabbit and as long as there's scent, they'll continue usually bawling like crazy. If they lose the trail or the trail ends at a hole, the dogs will typically stop barking and either return to you or start wandering around looking for another rabbit. If that happens, gather them up and move on or you risk wasting time on cold trailing (where the dogs start following the remnants of old trails). In the winter rabbit woods, there's always another spot worth checking out.

If there's a better way to spend a chilly January day than chasing rabbits, I haven't found it. Although hunting behind a good beagle or two is what most people think of when they envision a rabbit hunt, you don't need dogs to be successful. Get out there and hit the brush on your own or with a buddy - any rabbit you get will taste the same!