Shooting Rabbits

As a one-time keen shooter, I would tend to go for something like a 222 Remington, 223 Rem , 5.56x50 RWS or even bigger - 22/250? The main reason is there is virtually no chance of ricochet - as soon as the bullet hits something it breaks up - so does the bunny if its in the way. Not much good eating for people but the cats & dogs like them. And the noise may convince the neighbours to do their bit to reduce the numbers over the fence.

A .22 or .22 Magnum rimfire can ricochet a fair way with bad luck - even a shotgun may break a window or two.

And I've brought in rabbits by the hundred with .22's, 222's, 32/20( shot the ears off!) - only ever got 'close' with a shotgun.

There is a product called RAB-BAIT. I know you dont want to use poisons. But if, like I'm thinking your a "blocky" and have heaps of neighbours thats not the best place to be firing a rifle.

You wouldn't want to shhot a hole in the water tank either:doh:

Damn - and I thought this thread was going to be about planing long rabbets on a shooting board.:D

Grunt - my 2c - I was the treasurer of a golf club with a rabbit problem - they really stuff up tees, greens, fairways and bunkers, so there was a real maintenance cost. Some of the members had licences and thought that they would like to be rabbit shooters. They did it in turns every night for 6 months - they were getting 250-500 bunnies a night. But they gave up - they really weren't making a dent in the population. Then we got pro shooters in - same result, only it cost money. I stepped in as Treas and said - enuf, it's costing too much. I went to the AGU and they said use 1080. So we put in a big 1080 campaign over a year and problem solved for 3 years - then new bunnies came in and 1080 had to start again and now it is just an annual baiting. No wildlife or domestic animals killed. It may not be organic (but so what - being blown apart by a lead projectile ain't very organic either).

I remember when my late brother was a cop and they were allowed to buy a weapon of choice. He bought this beautiful nickel plated .357 Colt Magnum from the USA. The rabbits had nowhere to hide. If they hid behind a tree Leon just put a round in the tree and when it fell on the rabbit we had somethin' to eat....true....:D

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Damn - and I thought this thread was going to be about planing long rabbets on a shooting board.:D

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I tried that but the fur kept getting stuck in the plane. Also, I could only find short rabbits.

.22's do seem to ricochet a lot. However they do have a lot going for them though, mainly that they are cheap as dirt to buy and shoot. The Marlin 60 is a fun little gun and very quite accurate as well. What you might do is get a light high speed hollow point that would breakup upon impact with anything.

Another caliber you might consider is the .17 Its rather new but I've heard a lot of good things about it as a varmint caliber.

.410 is a good choice.

A 12ga is a lot of gun for dispatching bunnies, hard on the ears and shoulder as well. A bit on the overkill side IMO.

There are a lot of airguns on the market that would more than dispatch a rabbit, but the trouble with them is they are usually single shot spring guns that need to be loaded and recocked every time which, if you have a lot of bunnies, might get tiring. But if you are just shooting one or two at a time this would work. There are quite a few on the market though that will push a .177 hollow point pellet at 1000fps+.


Here's my latest little toy I picked up over the weekend at the Wanenmacher's gun show. 30/30 so it would be a bit much for bunny hunting though.
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Originally Posted by Matt88s

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Here's my latest little toy I picked up over the weekend at the Wanenmacher's gun show. 30/30 so it would be a bit much for bunny hunting though.

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I had one of them once, but mine had an octogon barrel.

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I've got 11 acres. Are they likely to give me a hunting license with a property that size?

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Grunt...as far as I remember in NSW if you use pest control as a"genuine reason" to own a firearm you needed a property of more than 20 acres. I could be wrong.
Theoretically your laws should be the same in VIC...however from experience they usually are'nt. So much for Little Johns "uniform gun laws":roll:

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Originally Posted by Matt88s

.The Marlin 60 is a fun little gun and very quite accurate as well. What you might do is get a light high speed hollow point that would breakup upon impact with anything.

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Unfortunately we Aussies are no longer allowed to own such dangerous guns as the leathal 22 semi auto:roll:


cheers
BD:2tsup:

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Originally Posted by Shedhand

An OCTOgon barrel. Is that so you can kill 8 people at once. :C:no:

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Ok people, lets not go down this road again, please.

Keep it on topic.

Al :2tsup:

Grunt,

A .22 will cover the 700 metres in about a second or two. Get a Shotgun, use a reasonably small shot and always shoot on a downward trajectory and you wont bother the neighbours with anything but noise. Best practice is to not shoot in the direction of any house/person that you can see, regardless of distance. You don't want to be that bloke in the paper (or coroners inquest) saying 'I didn't think an SG would go that far'.

Dan

.30cal target rifle. :2tsup: (Single shot bolt-action, unfortunately.)

Only ever took a couple of pot shots at 300 yards with peep sights, but made one hell of a mess out of the bunnies. :cool: