Well, if you want to keep a raptor, and don’t want to deal with all of that FUN - you can buy frozen weanling rodents, or chicks. Keeping a stock of those in your freezer is a lot more reliable these days, than relying on your gun :-)
This was in the late 50s and there were so many jackrabbits that they were considered a pest. My uncle would take us out to the desert and we’d ride on the fenders of his pickup and see maybe 4 or 5 sitting within easy range each time we stopped. We (my cousin and I) were maybe 12 years old and did not look upon this as a chore at all.
But when summer was over, I took my owl on the train in a big cardboard box back to Southern California. My dad let me keep it for only a couple of days before he made me turn it loose. He said he wasn’t buying hamburger for some owl.