Welcome to New Mexico—Land of the Flea, Home of the Plague.
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When I lived in Carlsbad, ca 1960, NM asked folks to kill off as many jackrabbits as possible to slow the transmission of plague.
Every night, four of us guys would hop in my car and drive out into the young alfalfa fields along the Pecos River. Each of had a .22 handgun and a spotlight; we'd stop, turn off the headlights, wait quietly for a minute -- and, on command, light 'em up and cut loose...
When the spotlights came on, the fields looked like they were studded with white, black-tipped posts. After the first shots, the JRs would flatten out and crawl through the alfalfa, leaving a visible "wake".
Then, we would aim at the head ends of the wakes. (Curious fact about jackrabbit physiology: if you hit one in the head with a .22 bullet, it will, invariably do a backflip...) So, every few seconds, a jackrabbit would explode up out of the apparently-empty field!
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Sad fact: Those were the days before commonly-available hearing protectors and -- if you think about it -- with 4 guys shooting out through the windows of an automobile -- everyone has one ear next to the muzzle of someone else's firearm. :-(
Now, 56 years later, my ears are still "ringing" (severe tinnitus...)
But, .22 ammo was plentiful and cheap, and we four did our parts to thin the jackrabbit population and slow the spread of plague...