Hoop snare pulled out of the ground, dangnabit.

[Coote 5]

My cousin knows that I like to trap, so she told me about a field full of rabbits near her. I committed myself to having a go at getting a few.

 

Well yesterday I decided to I should look at getting the rabbits seeing folks had been kind to arrange it for me. I did this instead of going after a pig, which I would probably have rather done.

 

The area was far from ideal... there were allegedly up to fifty rabbits living in a little strip of thick brush alongside a road and a drainage ditch. I couldn't use my greatest strength - sniping from a long distance with my Anschutz and silencer because of the houses and adjacent road. The field is now for sale as land to be subdivided and the grass was mown to the ground. Furthermore the place is miles from home and I couldn't leave traps unattended because of the protected Pukeko birds in the area (swamp hens) and domestic pets.

 

Anyway, I felt confident. There were plenty of rabbits, and I was now an advanced student of the Masters at TheHuntingLife forum. I only had eight hoop snares with me, and as I set them, I marvelled at how simple and quick it was to use these hoops. I had to set the snares on the bank of the drainage ditch which was fairly steep in places, as this was the only place where I could see any pathways. Identifying beats was virtually out of the question because of the nature of the ground, my inexperience, and the probable fact that the rabbits were scrambling up these banks instead of using their normal gait. I also set nine traditional split tealer snares with pegs.

 

I retired to the car to wait, and to scan the place with my binoculars. After a while I saw rabbits emerging from the scrub. At one time there were seven on the grass. I figured that if so many were on the grass, I must have full snares by now because I had covered all the exits. I checked, and I had only one small rabbit.

 

Hmmm.... maybe I hadn't covered all the exits. I watched where a rabbit emerged from, then examined the scrub. Here was an exit I hadn't covered, but it was far from obvious. It seemed to be quite a new 'tunnel'...not nearly as trodden down as the others where I had the snares. So I stuck in a couple more pegs and tealers. Maybe they could see the snares at the normal exits, and chose to use others.... dunno.

 

I had watched their behaviour. After being disturbed by a passing dog and a horse they bolted, but re-emerged after maybe ten minutes. I took my air rifle and lay down under the edge of a macrocarpa hedge and waited like a sniper, knowing that in ten minutes about five rabbits would emerge from the scrub at an easy range. Well they bloody didn't. My elbows and arms were aching when one tiny bunny popped up its head. I missed it, but afterwards realized that it actually may have been a bigger rabbit at a distance far greater than I had been convinced they would appear at.

 

I then got right out of the immediate area and waited until after dark.... then went to pull my snares. I'd have plenty of rabbits now surely. It was just a small area, and I'd taken careful note of where the snares were...but hell those snares were hard to find in the light of my LED headlamp. I didn't have any more rabbits, but I couldn't account for one of the hoops. Oh yes, and while all this was going on I got a text message from my missus' daughter saying that she would be bringing her boyfriend to stay at my place that night. I like her, but I also like to be prepared. House was a mess, not many groceries, and the bed wasn't made up yet. Added frustration.

 

I spent ages looking, and figured that it must have been wrenched from the ground. I crashed through the gorse, broom, blackberry and other assorted noxious weeds and finally found the hoop with snare and rabbit attached. Heck that rabbit put up a fight. It could pull like crazy with its legs anchored against the scrub. No match for the Dynex cord with a breaking strain of 130 kg though... and my determination to get the job finished and get home. I reckon that because the hoop was set on a steep slope, and because the rabbit was determined to get uphill, it was putting a more direct pull 'upwards' on the wire hoop to pull it from the ground. Plus this seemed to be an exceptional rabbit.

 

I took my small harvest home and eventually got around to cleaning them. Well I somehow managed to burst the gut on the big rabbit which made a mess and didn't please me. Plus it was tough to skin, so that was a bad omen for the state of the meat. Then the second, smaller rabbit had funny-looking white lumps in its liver. Disgusted, I buried the lot then thoroughly washed myself and my gear.

[Hob&Jill 258]

All in all a good day out then

[danielt 1]

I bust the shit sack when i gutted my first rabbit, hell of a mess and stink. oh well, learnt my lesson now.

[Coote 5]

Aye Hob&Jill, it was a good day out when I look at the big picture. A disastrous day trapping is better than most days working.

 

Dang Danielt, you got me thinking about my first rabbit. I'm told I shot my first one when I was five....and I wouldn't be surprised if I bust the crap sack on that one with the bullet. That was a long time, and many animals, ago. I've busted many crap sacks in my time on various animals. I try to be really careful nowadays, but occasionally the knife goes in deeper than I intended...or I pull too hard... or I simply do it right from the start with a bullet - either landing in the wrong place, or having to go there because I took a quartering or frontal shot.

 

For no other reason perhaps than I like photos, here is a picture of me with some rabbits in the early days. The rifle leaning against me in an unnaproved fashion is a Colt single shot .22. My Dad got one that had been run over by a bus and had a bent barrel as a result.... so he chopped it off to suit us kids. The rifle lying on the deer is an under and over in, I think, 7x65 caliber. It was a gift to my Dad, I believe, from Alfred Krupp of the well known engineering works in Germany. Dad used to do business over there. But having shown the flash gun in the picture, most of our pigs and deer in those days were shot with the good old Lee-Enfield .303 British. I still use one from time to time.

[Mitch 0]

The rabbits i have snared on the uphills are normally dead when i get to them.