Rabbit hunting - Page 4

ezearln · 07-18-2007, 10:56 AM

Dang A.H. you know out here we use .22's on rabbits never shot one in my life with a shotgun, of course out here most times when you scare one up or spot it in some brush you're a lil past the effective range of most shotguns, plus I hate like heck wasting my time picking that shot out of the meat for "Bugs" hits the fryer....

Oxford · 07-18-2007, 11:51 AM

While you're talking about rabbit hunting, I did that early last week using my .177 Daisy pellet lever pump rifle which had a 3X 10mm scope mounted on top.

First of all...I have a garden which is about 15' x 20 ' with eight huge tomato plants and other vegetables growing like mad because I've got good soil.

Anyway, gardens and rabbits don't mix. I could say the same thing for squirrels, too, because they're taking one tomato at a time off, taking one or two bites and setting it down. So this has gotten old fast.

Therefore, I've been trying to zero in my scope without much luck. I would guess that it is probably as close as I'm gonna get it to being accurate. Those round bb's simply don't spiral through the air like rimfire or centerfire rounds do. They take off in strange directions occasionally.

So...I spotted the hare sitting about 30 ft in front of my back porch last week so I grabbed the pellet rifle, took careful aim, squeezed the trigger slowly, and $%^&@! Rabbit didnt jump or anything. He just sat there chewing on something, probably another tomato. Ok...time to be even more careful with my aim...so did the aim, pull again with the same results. Rabbit was still chewing and probably smiling at me. Well...it's "man against beast time!" I said to myself, "forget the zero point on my scope and hold the rifle either up about 6" or down about 6". Did that and the rabbit jumped straight up about one foot, obviously either injured or almost scared to death.

Then it ran directly to my garden, sqatted down looking squarely at me as it continued chewing my forage. I changed my firing position so that I was about 20 ft away this time, took even more careful aim, remembering which way I had moved my aim during the previous shot, and fired off another .177" cannon of zinc coated, round steel. He jumped straight up again, ran away from me with his dangling rear foot, and eventually found his way through my chain link fence and stopped about 10 foot later. At that point I had to finish him off fast because it was the right thing to do...so I put another 3 or 4 rounds in him till he stoped moving.

The final act was to bag it up tightly, put it in my trash barrel, and hope it didn't start stinking too much before the trash man came two days later.

I should add that this was the 2nd rabbit that was killed in my neighborhood during the past week. The other was shot by my nieighbor with his .177" Crossman pump air rifle.

My next targets are gonna be to try getting rid of the many squirrels that are doing the same kind of damages as those two rabbits. So that means finding a live animal trap somewhere.

ezearln · 07-18-2007, 12:09 PM

Shift to a good Pellet rifle Ox far more accurate and usually it gets the job done, now if I can only find a way to keep the dang deer outta my garden!

Oxford · 07-18-2007, 01:31 PM

ezearln...Geeze...I must have paid at least $30 for that Wally Mart .177 air rifle. It'll shoot pellets, too, but I was under the impression that the round BB's were more accurate than the other pellets.

ezearln · 07-18-2007, 01:38 PM

Not at all Ox, we had a break open pellet rifle here for a bit I could knock squirrels outta the top of our big Pecan tree out back. Most BB rifles aren't all that accurate to begin with much past 10-15 ft.

Oxford · 07-18-2007, 03:42 PM

That's good news for me...but could spell diaster for those squirrels. Another reason I've used bb's is because the other pellets have to be inserted in the chamber one at at time. By using the BB's I can probably load up to 15-30 at a time...but it still has to be pumped up for each shot.

This is getting to be a serious war against my squirrels. He's got to learn not to mess with my garden.

billy · 07-18-2007, 04:23 PM

uh oh ox has a vendetta!
just like in sicily.
the black hand of oxford!
the kiss of death...

Oxford · 07-18-2007, 04:49 PM

Billy...I need you here because you were the winner of the last shooting contest on G&G. Now if I didn't have close neighbors I'd use my Henry .22 lever action rifle. That gun has good possibilities for hitting small varmints.

Oh, by the way, one more possibility for another varmint in my garden is a racoon because of it's digestive deposits on the garden soil. They seem to be full of small seeds which is usually a good indiction of coons.

jerry · 07-18-2007, 05:21 PM

Hey Ox hows it going. I looked at the blog thing for the first time and seen you were down in the back. Hope all is well.

I did get a new critter getter on order, RWS Panther 34 combo 1200 fps with PBA ammo 1000 fps with regular lead, nice 4x scope & fiber optic sights on the irons. 33 lbs of coking force, yup a single loader, but sizzli'n & accurate. I love my powder burners, but may try it on squirrell come august. Thse pesky ground squirrells at the campgound are in for a rude awakening

billy · 07-21-2007, 05:56 PM

hey ox,
you should get some subsonic ammo and go somewhere and see how loud it is in your .22 rifle.
in my CZ its as quiet as a pellet gun.
ive been braining prairie dogs with it.
you wouldnt need so many follow up shots.
and you would get to use that cool as can be henry!

i buy mine at walmart

billy · 07-25-2007, 09:16 PM

wait until yer buttcheek grows back of course!

mike dakota · 07-28-2007, 08:45 PM

I've been scanning some old photos...a perfect winter day...December 1992.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...ttontails2.jpg

jerry · 07-29-2007, 05:35 PM

Very nice Mike.

mike dakota · 07-30-2007, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerry

Very nice Mike.

toolman · 07-30-2007, 02:18 AM

Ox, look for some Aquila Super Colibri's. These are serious garden rat eliminators and the neighbors will prob. never know. Besides, wouldn't you rather be shooting a .22 than an overgrown BB gun?

OZHUNTER62 · 07-30-2007, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kagome

Rabbit hunting I think is not a good thing, I raise rabbits and I know how they are and I have learned to love them, I can't see how ayone can kill such a cute little thing for as little of meat they have on them, but thats just me.
Poor things

I love rabbits too!! I love em fried, stewed, BBQ,smoked, any way you please,and theres more meat than u think on a good rabbit my freind,there could be at least in my mind no more natural act than to humanely and conservatively hunt and consume animals for food,but as you so rightly say"thats just me".

Regards.

Burke · 07-30-2007, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZHUNTER62

I love rabbits too!! I love em fried, stewed, BBQ,smoked, any way you please.

Well said..I still haven't tried skillet fried yet..dipped in egg and then flour and crackers..omg..I can just taste it..

OZHUNTER62 · 08-01-2007, 09:57 PM

Ahhhh.....the memories of a childhood in the early 70s born and raised in rural South Western Australia, mostly sheep and cattle production with large tracts of broadacre wheat, barley and oats.
A heavily cleared light sandy country coupled with the available broadacre dining areas was as close to the ideal rabbit breeding environment as you could want for, and they abounded.
Some of my earliest memories revolve around the control of rabbits in our part of the world,they were everywhere!,we ripped thier burrows with tractors and dozers,we poisoned them in thier burrows as we went.
We shot them on sight by day,sometimes from the tractor as my father drove,sometimes from a good vantage point as he attacked them with his machinery.
Initially too young to be given the rifle, my brother and I trapped them with steel traps and snares,laying lines of traps 30-40 long though the heavier scrub,setting them at dusk and checking them at dawn.
At night with my dad we shot them by the hundreds in open land and young crops or recently harvested fields, by spotlight with rifle and shotgun.
At times in the mind of young boy we were at war with them rabbits!,they were the enemy!,all the while spurred on by the old black and white slide shows and 8mm reels my father took in the 50s and 60s of the great rabbit plagues,when dams were netted and literally thousands of rabbits captured and clubbed in a single night.
Pictures of dozens of men driving hordes of rabbits through the bush and shooting them as fast as a man could reload,my father standing as a young man proudly posing in front of piles of rabbits as tall as he was.
It seemed my life might be spent battling the hopping hordes!
Then suddenly news spread of a disease to be released by the agriculture dept,Myxymatosis(prob spelt wrong),the sickness spread like wildfire.
Where there were healthy mass populations of rabbits they quickly succumbed to the symptons,seemingly overnight they all had a sickness that seemed to attack thier eyes and noses causing severe discharges that usually killed them en mass in a few days from first seeing the signs in a particular area.
Although not the nicest sight to see,the effects were devastatingly successfull,much to the relief of many landholders.
Of the hundreds wed shoot we always selected the best for the pot,the next best for the dogs and at different times meat and skins provided much needed pocket money for us kids and even supplemented my fathers income,at other times many stayed where they fell.
Its fair to say the humble rabbit while cursed by many,was an absolute saviour for many families in terms of meat on the table during hard times be they national ,global or local.
My own hunter instinct and education in all things gun and game were born of these early rabbit days and continue strong to this day and onward until I gather my gun for the last time and pass on to that happy hunting ground in the sky.(hopefully full of rabbits)
With time the effects of myxymatosis seemed to have wained and populations have gained a foothold in some earlier eradicated ares, thankfully nowhere like the old "plague" days.
Subsequent methods seem to keep them at bay.
A fine example of game meat the rabbit remains on my menu,and all though I risk the ire of many, I for one would hate to see them gone for good.
Ahhhhhh.....The memories.

Regards.

ArkansasHunter · 08-01-2007, 10:12 PM

Thats a nice story. Thanks for shareing your memories...A.H

Burke · 08-02-2007, 12:46 AM

My friend that was an awesome story..

Well written and full of great visuals..

I want to see the bunny piles..

My girlfriend would poop..and then forbid me to come to these forums anymore..

So the visuals will stay vivid for approximately 23 mins. in my ADD laced mind..

07-18-2007, 10:56 AM	#61
ezearln Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Texas Hill Country Posts: 3,175	Dang A.H. you know out here we use .22's on rabbits never shot one in my life with a shotgun, of course out here most times when you scare one up or spot it in some brush you're a lil past the effective range of most shotguns, plus I hate like heck wasting my time picking that shot out of the meat for "Bugs" hits the fryer.... __________________ "You can have my Freedom when I'm done with it!"

07-18-2007, 11:51 AM	#62
Oxford Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Gladstone, Missouri Posts: 13,022 Blog Entries: 4	While you're talking about rabbit hunting, I did that early last week using my .177 Daisy pellet lever pump rifle which had a 3X 10mm scope mounted on top. First of all...I have a garden which is about 15' x 20 ' with eight huge tomato plants and other vegetables growing like mad because I've got good soil. Anyway, gardens and rabbits don't mix. I could say the same thing for squirrels, too, because they're taking one tomato at a time off, taking one or two bites and setting it down. So this has gotten old fast. Therefore, I've been trying to zero in my scope without much luck. I would guess that it is probably as close as I'm gonna get it to being accurate. Those round bb's simply don't spiral through the air like rimfire or centerfire rounds do. They take off in strange directions occasionally. So...I spotted the hare sitting about 30 ft in front of my back porch last week so I grabbed the pellet rifle, took careful aim, squeezed the trigger slowly, and $%^&@! Rabbit didnt jump or anything. He just sat there chewing on something, probably another tomato. Ok...time to be even more careful with my aim...so did the aim, pull again with the same results. Rabbit was still chewing and probably smiling at me. Well...it's "man against beast time!" I said to myself, "forget the zero point on my scope and hold the rifle either up about 6" or down about 6". Did that and the rabbit jumped straight up about one foot, obviously either injured or almost scared to death. Then it ran directly to my garden, sqatted down looking squarely at me as it continued chewing my forage. I changed my firing position so that I was about 20 ft away this time, took even more careful aim, remembering which way I had moved my aim during the previous shot, and fired off another .177" cannon of zinc coated, round steel. He jumped straight up again, ran away from me with his dangling rear foot, and eventually found his way through my chain link fence and stopped about 10 foot later. At that point I had to finish him off fast because it was the right thing to do...so I put another 3 or 4 rounds in him till he stoped moving. The final act was to bag it up tightly, put it in my trash barrel, and hope it didn't start stinking too much before the trash man came two days later. I should add that this was the 2nd rabbit that was killed in my neighborhood during the past week. The other was shot by my nieighbor with his .177" Crossman pump air rifle. My next targets are gonna be to try getting rid of the many squirrels that are doing the same kind of damages as those two rabbits. So that means finding a live animal trap somewhere. __________________ "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right".

07-18-2007, 12:09 PM	#63
ezearln Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Texas Hill Country Posts: 3,175	Shift to a good Pellet rifle Ox far more accurate and usually it gets the job done, now if I can only find a way to keep the dang deer outta my garden! __________________ "You can have my Freedom when I'm done with it!"

07-18-2007, 01:31 PM	#64
Oxford Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Gladstone, Missouri Posts: 13,022 Blog Entries: 4	ezearln...Geeze...I must have paid at least $30 for that Wally Mart .177 air rifle. It'll shoot pellets, too, but I was under the impression that the round BB's were more accurate than the other pellets. __________________ "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right".

07-18-2007, 01:38 PM	#65
ezearln Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Texas Hill Country Posts: 3,175	Not at all Ox, we had a break open pellet rifle here for a bit I could knock squirrels outta the top of our big Pecan tree out back. Most BB rifles aren't all that accurate to begin with much past 10-15 ft. __________________ "You can have my Freedom when I'm done with it!"

07-18-2007, 03:42 PM	#66
Oxford Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Gladstone, Missouri Posts: 13,022 Blog Entries: 4	That's good news for me...but could spell diaster for those squirrels. Another reason I've used bb's is because the other pellets have to be inserted in the chamber one at at time. By using the BB's I can probably load up to 15-30 at a time...but it still has to be pumped up for each shot. This is getting to be a serious war against my squirrels. He's got to learn not to mess with my garden. __________________ "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right".

07-18-2007, 04:23 PM	#67
billy spiritual counselor Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: a secret lab on the shores of lake titicaca Posts: 11,996 Images: 9 Blog Entries: 146	uh oh ox has a vendetta! just like in sicily. the black hand of oxford! the kiss of death... __________________ just leave britney ALONE! she's going thru a hard time snivel sniff....WAH

07-18-2007, 04:49 PM	#68
Oxford Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Gladstone, Missouri Posts: 13,022 Blog Entries: 4	Billy...I need you here because you were the winner of the last shooting contest on G&G. Now if I didn't have close neighbors I'd use my Henry .22 lever action rifle. That gun has good possibilities for hitting small varmints. Oh, by the way, one more possibility for another varmint in my garden is a racoon because of it's digestive deposits on the garden soil. They seem to be full of small seeds which is usually a good indiction of coons. __________________ "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right".

07-18-2007, 05:21 PM	#69
jerry Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 10,871 Images: 9 Blog Entries: 1	Hey Ox hows it going. I looked at the blog thing for the first time and seen you were down in the back. Hope all is well. I did get a new critter getter on order, RWS Panther 34 combo 1200 fps with PBA ammo 1000 fps with regular lead, nice 4x scope & fiber optic sights on the irons. 33 lbs of coking force, yup a single loader, but sizzli'n & accurate. I love my powder burners, but may try it on squirrell come august. Thse pesky ground squirrells at the campgound are in for a rude awakening

07-21-2007, 05:56 PM	#70
billy spiritual counselor Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: a secret lab on the shores of lake titicaca Posts: 11,996 Images: 9 Blog Entries: 146	hey ox, you should get some subsonic ammo and go somewhere and see how loud it is in your .22 rifle. in my CZ its as quiet as a pellet gun. ive been braining prairie dogs with it. you wouldnt need so many follow up shots. and you would get to use that cool as can be henry! i buy mine at walmart __________________ just leave britney ALONE! she's going thru a hard time snivel sniff....WAH Last edited by billy; 07-21-2007 at 05:57 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

07-25-2007, 09:16 PM	#71
billy spiritual counselor Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: a secret lab on the shores of lake titicaca Posts: 11,996 Images: 9 Blog Entries: 146	wait until yer buttcheek grows back of course! __________________ just leave britney ALONE! she's going thru a hard time snivel sniff....WAH

07-28-2007, 08:45 PM	#72
mike dakota Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: northern great plains Posts: 48	I've been scanning some old photos...a perfect winter day...December 1992. http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...ttontails2.jpg __________________ regards mike

07-29-2007, 05:35 PM	#73
jerry Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 10,871 Images: 9 Blog Entries: 1	Very nice Mike.

07-30-2007, 02:18 AM	#75
toolman Mr. Fixit Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: abilene,tx Posts: 5,566 Blog Entries: 22	Ox, look for some Aquila Super Colibri's. These are serious garden rat eliminators and the neighbors will prob. never know. Besides, wouldn't you rather be shooting a .22 than an overgrown BB gun? __________________ Don't be messin' with my gun!

08-01-2007, 09:57 PM	#78
OZHUNTER62 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 174	Ahhhhh..... The memories Ahhhh.....the memories of a childhood in the early 70s born and raised in rural South Western Australia, mostly sheep and cattle production with large tracts of broadacre wheat, barley and oats. A heavily cleared light sandy country coupled with the available broadacre dining areas was as close to the ideal rabbit breeding environment as you could want for, and they abounded. Some of my earliest memories revolve around the control of rabbits in our part of the world,they were everywhere!,we ripped thier burrows with tractors and dozers,we poisoned them in thier burrows as we went. We shot them on sight by day,sometimes from the tractor as my father drove,sometimes from a good vantage point as he attacked them with his machinery. Initially too young to be given the rifle, my brother and I trapped them with steel traps and snares,laying lines of traps 30-40 long though the heavier scrub,setting them at dusk and checking them at dawn. At night with my dad we shot them by the hundreds in open land and young crops or recently harvested fields, by spotlight with rifle and shotgun. At times in the mind of young boy we were at war with them rabbits!,they were the enemy!,all the while spurred on by the old black and white slide shows and 8mm reels my father took in the 50s and 60s of the great rabbit plagues,when dams were netted and literally thousands of rabbits captured and clubbed in a single night. Pictures of dozens of men driving hordes of rabbits through the bush and shooting them as fast as a man could reload,my father standing as a young man proudly posing in front of piles of rabbits as tall as he was. It seemed my life might be spent battling the hopping hordes! Then suddenly news spread of a disease to be released by the agriculture dept,Myxymatosis(prob spelt wrong),the sickness spread like wildfire. Where there were healthy mass populations of rabbits they quickly succumbed to the symptons,seemingly overnight they all had a sickness that seemed to attack thier eyes and noses causing severe discharges that usually killed them en mass in a few days from first seeing the signs in a particular area. Although not the nicest sight to see,the effects were devastatingly successfull,much to the relief of many landholders. Of the hundreds wed shoot we always selected the best for the pot,the next best for the dogs and at different times meat and skins provided much needed pocket money for us kids and even supplemented my fathers income,at other times many stayed where they fell. Its fair to say the humble rabbit while cursed by many,was an absolute saviour for many families in terms of meat on the table during hard times be they national ,global or local. My own hunter instinct and education in all things gun and game were born of these early rabbit days and continue strong to this day and onward until I gather my gun for the last time and pass on to that happy hunting ground in the sky.(hopefully full of rabbits) With time the effects of myxymatosis seemed to have wained and populations have gained a foothold in some earlier eradicated ares, thankfully nowhere like the old "plague" days. Subsequent methods seem to keep them at bay. A fine example of game meat the rabbit remains on my menu,and all though I risk the ire of many, I for one would hate to see them gone for good. Ahhhhhh.....The memories.Regards.

08-01-2007, 10:12 PM	#79
ArkansasHunter Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: South Arkansas Posts: 10,681	Thats a nice story. Thanks for shareing your memories...A.H

08-02-2007, 12:46 AM	#80
Burke Ahh..Cordite. Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Gun City, Arizona Posts: 514 Images: 23	bunny piles.. My friend that was an awesome story.. Well written and full of great visuals.. I want to see the bunny piles.. My girlfriend would poop..and then forbid me to come to these forums anymore.. So the visuals will stay vivid for approximately 23 mins. in my ADD laced mind..