Thread: Shooting Rabbits

All my neighbours are on 100+ acre properties so the nearest house is 700 metres away but they still are plenty of livestock around which I'd rather not shoot. Also, there is a dirt road on one boundary so I'm thinking the .22 or .223 mightn't be such a good idea.

Shotgun might be the go.

I am interested in direct seeding. I planted 200+ seedlings on my last property and damn that was hard work.

Big Shed love to see the before and after photos. I've got to join Landcare. I've got a dirt road and a dirt track as two boundaries. On the verge of these I'm going to plant lots of natives, particularly Wattle and bottle brushes. These are for wind breaks as well as trying to improve the soil.

On the block itself I'm going to be planting a lot of Tree Lucerne as well as Wattle's and a few other fodder trees like Poplar. These will work as wind breaks, fodder for the horses and cows, firewood and fence posts. The Tree Lucerne and the Wattle are excellent nitrogen fixers.

I'm not a primary producer, at least not yet.

I have done a bit of shooting over the years. I at least was a reasonable shot back then.

Rich, I think I'll try the car exhaust idea. Unfortunately, a lot of the rabbits that come on to my property live next door.

Stick an add in the local rag asking for someone to shoot rabbits.
When somebody rings, ask for licence number etc etc etc. See if the are a member of the S.S.A.A.

This saves you from the red tape of getting a licence.

My mate and I do just this up here. We started with one property and now shoot on 6 all due to word of mouth from one property owner to the next.

We use 12ga and .22 with 22/250 and 25/06 for long range stuff.

Well worth a try Grunt, talk to the neighbors, maybe they will cooperate.

Originally Posted by Grunt

I have done a bit of shooting over the years. I at least was a reasonable shot back then.

Rich, I think I'll try the car exhaust idea. Unfortunately, a lot of the rabbits that come on to my property live next door.

Set out a few random hay bales and the like, and have an open weekend for your new archery range.

Grunt, whats wrong with those two strapping big bulldogs that you own?

Now theres an idea, start a rabbit coursing group, get all the local bogons to bring their dogs.

Al

Originally Posted by ozwinner

Grunt, whats wrong with those two strapping big bulldogs that you own?

Al, we weren't going to be rude about his boxers because the rest of us knew he'd already worked out how useless they are

223 on rabbits and head shots? Mate, you don't even have to HIT a rabbit to kill it with a 223.

Get in touch with the local rabbit shooter/trapper/whatever. There should be one around, even these days. Let him do the hard work, have the licenses, worry about shooting that annoying cow from next door, etc. You won't eradicate the things on your own so unless you want the fun of chasing them yourselves, let someone else do the mucking about.

Richard

Get some rabbit proof fence and run it around the block, at least the rabbits will be yours, then you can gas them.

Its way too much trouble to get the gun licence, this is what the gunverment wanted.

Al

I live on 125 acres of mostly bushland surrounded by pasture and with the assistance of the pasture protection board laid 1080 carrot bait last spring. This killed 99% of the large number of bunnies. The only collateral damage was a big drop in the number of brush tail possums running over my roof. The roos and all native birds are resistant to the 1080. Some foxes died also from eating the bunnies. The only risk was I had to keep my cat inside for a few days afterwards.
Unfortunately the hares seem pretty immune to it and are still present.
Another option is calicivirus baits that has absolutely no collateral damage but it isn't quite as effective. Give your local pasture protection board an ring. They are very helpful.

The thing with rabbits is they become very gun shy and after a while you will find it difficult to get them all by shooting them and as you will not be able to sit up all night getting them because that is the time they like to feed and they will travel a fair way to get a feed and they will be coming from all your neighbors places and then go back home.

How do I know all this? Well I lived next to my brother in law for 28 years and when he had a rabbit problem we could go out spotlighting at night and get 400 rabbits and still be gutting them as the sun was coming up the next morning and then go out a week later and get another 400.

The other thing you might think about is fencing the property with rabbit proof netting and unless you do the problem will not go away because rabbits will do what rabbits do they breed like rabbits any thing up to 10 to a litter at least twice a year.

I know your going to say fence all that area. Well my brother in laws only solution was to net his boundry and it was 1400 acres once he did that he could keep the neighbours rabbits out and it then took him over 10 years (because it took him that long to get in front of their breeding cycles) to eradicate his own rabbits by trapping them, shooting them, blowing up the burrows and ripping the burrows with a D2 bulldozer.

And the problem is they are still on the property. Just leave one male and one female and you are doomed to failure but you have to keep them from coming in from outside first.

Originally Posted by Barry_White

... we could go out spotlighting at night and get 400 rabbits and ....then go out a week later and get another 400......

Geeze Baz... you & the BIL must have been going to eat 200 rabbits each a week.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Geeze Baz... you & the BIL must have been going to eat 200 rabbits each a week.

Nah that was in days when there was a rabbit freezer in every town and village, all we had to do is gut them and pair them up and you would get 80 cents a pair. The rabbit carcases went into the delicatessens and all the skins went to Akubra to make hats from the fur and when the freezers disappeared we just skinned them and got 10 cents a skin.

Grunt,

On 11 acres and with the nearest neighbour 70 metres away I'd probably stick to the 12 guage, a .22 will carry around 1.6k I'm told and a .223 can probably kill over that distance and go a good deal further. I used to go out every couple of weeks and get rabbits for dog feed (a long time ago), one shot one rabbit but if the little bugger was a bit far away you usually had to wring its neck. The 410 is great, very short range for the pellets and little chance of injuring anything but the bunnies. Safety is every thing, and accidently knocking off the neighbours stock does not go down well.

I stopped shooting because the rabbits gave the dog shocking wind which smelt worse than burnt rubber, and went back to bought tucker. These days I might of considered using him for paint stripping, correctly aimed I'm sure he could have delaminated ply .

John.

Originally Posted by Daddles

Al, we weren't going to be rude about his boxers because the rest of us knew he'd already worked out how useless they are Richard

Unfair Richard!

I've got two boxers on our property, we used to have a brushtail possum problem with the buggers getting on the deck and making a mess as well as trying to get into the roof.

Then one day one "fell" off the deck into the back yard - before it could get to the nearest tree/fence both boxers had it pinned, then they took turns running around with it in their mouth and throwing it around the backyard!

The poor bugger only escaped within an inch of its life when I managed to corner the boxer with the possum and whacked the dog with a broom.

The brushtail ran away and we have not seen or heard of another one for 5 months.

Oh yeah - and I say get a shotgun for the rabbits. Nowdays they have invented pellets that have "seasoning", nothing better than roast rabbit for winter!!