Disappearing bunnies

[gollum 1]

Hi folks,

 

Got a call from a farmer a couple weeks back to thin out an infested headland. It was a new spot for me on this farm and his description "I stopped counting after 2 dozen" sounded promising. Had a mooch around and counted about the same on the headland plus about 100ish on the borders of a couple of fields on the drive in... As the headland backed on to a hedge with an uncut and ungrazed meadow behind it I opted for snaring to give me a chance to shoot over the other borders at dawn and dusk before and after checking the snares. The meadow grass was about 18" with some beautiful runs heading out from the hedge and nice clear indicators on the stock fence meshes where the rabbits were passing through.

A couple of recently killed pigeons feathers lay in heaps nearby so I knew Raynard would be a factor but the runs were just too good to resist.

The snaring went ok, 22 over 3 nights, hoops working a treat to Woodga's design, and 4 lost to old red. The odd thing was that by the time I lifted the snares, the borders that had been heaving with bunnies when I started were as good as empty. I counted 2 on my way out on day 3. I had shot a dozen or so but nowhere near the quantity that were happily grazing the first time I checked the site. I had noticed them getting shy to the sound of the land rover after the first night and this got dramatically worse each day, also noticed 4x4 tracks about 20 - 30 yards in from the headland but hadnt investigated..... So I followed them around the field and found little piles of shotgun cartridges every couple of hundred yards. I havent seen any rabbits at all on the site since. So, question is, do you reckon the rabbits have all been shot, or that the survivors are just super spooked by being shot at for 3 days.. Not having tried shotgun lamping I am unsure of how effective it can be and if they are more likely to just be heavily spooked I'll go and check with the NV gear. Any thoughts or tales of experience lamping with shotguns much appreciated.

 

HH all.

 

G.

[moxy 617]

Lamping with a shotgun!! Are you having a laugh?

 

You maybe ok for the odd one or two, or a bonus with the a couple of blind mixy rabbits that dont have a clue whats going on let alone run.

By the time you have cracked off a few cartridges you may as well get back in the motor and go home.

Tried it but without much success.

IMHO

 

Get out with snares, traps, airguns, rimmy or a dog and leave the old two shooter in the cabinet

[glass22 0]

Once you start killing them off, they do go very timmid.

 

After shooting just a few where I had rabbit problems, they soon stopped coming out. It whent from always having 40+ out to only seeing the odd one.

[johnnyg33 0]

I always use my air rifle, weihrauch hw100 .22,14 shot,and take my lurcher pup with me to pick up any walking wounded,its bringing her on a treat too,try using filters on your lamp if the bunnies are getting shy,and walk around rather than drive,less likely to scare em off,and last but not least no shotgun lol.

[nod 285]

There is a keeper near me and i remember him going out last year on the mule, 2 on the back shooting with shotties they shot well over 100 but then they did cover alot of ground, which will be needed, they were going pretty fast down the fields shooting and then picking up on the way back.

[IanB 0]

Can account for good numbers with a shotgun ... Not clean rabbits like with a .22 though..

[salukiwhippet 6]

Can be deadly, even more so off a quad, when I was in Norfolk I shot 175 bunnies in a night off the back of a bike with the headkeeper's berreta semi. They do get wise to it though, best thing to do is hit them really hard when you do go out, but don't go that often.

 

James

[perthshire keeper 1,239]

Lamping with a shotgun!! Are you having a laugh?

 

You maybe ok for the odd one or two, or a bonus with the a couple of blind mixy rabbits that dont have a clue whats going on let alone run.

By the time you have cracked off a few cartridges you may as well get back in the motor and go home.

Tried it but without much success.

IMHO

 

Get out with snares, traps, airguns, rimmy or a dog and leave the old two shooter in the cabinet

hmm now its odd you should say that we had over 50 last week in one night and the same numbers the week before and me and 2 other keepers went out up at his ground (millden grouse moor) and got almost 300 in one night with shotguns so i cant see how you have come up with one or two then the rest run off maybe if the ground only holds a few rabbits then yeh but a 100 plus on the headlands you will be looking at more than one of two mate

[ellir0305 9]

i agree with previous advice hit them hard and not very often we went out last week and got well over 50 in just over an hour covered a bit of ground though. pick up truck and full beams plus a person lamping the field out the window and two gun on the back get the driver to floor it and jobs a goodun, dont stop as its harder to balance then, just keeping the revs constant is easy.