Rabbit At 100 Yards!!!

[RemyBolt 420]

HAHA, now that I have your attention and you're going to read all of this...prepare for the best story ever! Okay, I've lied...twice now. The rabbit was actually only 40 yards and this is far from the best story ever! April fool!!!

 

Anyway, as the story goes...

 

I was out yesterday checking out the left hand slope of a field that's got a load of rabbits on it. So I scope up and get my cross hairs trained on a small but unnecessarily bright brown (pretty much ginger-red) rabbit around 40 yards from me. I was sat down doing my 'stealth stalking' (position yourself in a comfortable position, fall asleep, then wake up later on...hopefully surrounded by rabbits) and lined up my scope between the ear and eye of the red-rabbit. As I gently squeezed the trigger, no pellet left the gun. Was it broken? NO! The safety was still on. So I click that off, and get ready to shoot.

 

The rabbit suddenly dashes away into the hedges. Damn it. I turn my head and see a bounding-with-excitement black dog running at me. It was the farmer's new dog. So I turn round and wave at his wife whom was out walking the dog. Totally by accident I forgot that I was mostly camoed up and looking like a bush carrying a gun. As it turns out, the farmer forgot to tell her I was shooting tonight which was why she walked through that field and she nearly had a heart attack. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty certain that that's a good way to lose a permission (causing the farmer's wife to have a heart attack).

 

After a little chat with her, and knowing that no rabbit will be coming by that field for a while. I opted to change spot.

 

Up near the slurry pit was a pile of tired that a family of rabbits have build a nice little warren in. So I post up and start making a damaged rabbit kind of squeak sound. To imitate this noise, basically pucker up your lips and suck on the side of a knuckle. The idea is to mimic an injured rabbit. This should, in theory, bring out other rabbits to get them to check what's going on. As luck would have it, I managed to call out a rabbit from a hole near the tyres. Dumbstruck in my own amazement, I just sat there looking at this rabbit for about 30 seconds. After the initial shock that this actually worked, I remembered that I was meant to be hunting, and thus was, a the very least, meant to be pointing the gun at the rabbit. So I point the gun at the rabbit and make the squeak sound again. This bunny was nicely under 30 yards.

 

Looking at me with an air of scorn, knowing that he had been bamboozled, the rabbit darts back down the hole. Stupid rabbit...but even stupider me. If you're going to call an animal out, make sure you're ready to shoot it if it does come out.

 

After a while I was annoyed and disheartened, so started walking back. Out the corner of my eye a small white thing bobbed by. RABBIT!!!!

 

I scroll up and put my gun to where the rabbit disappeared into the trees up a bank. And...another one had gotten away. I look through the scope and realise that the rabbit was actually just hiding behind a tree with it's whole back end sticking out. That's right it had not gone into a hole! This one was still an option. What to do now? Do I try and circle around the tree to get a better shot, and risk spooking it, or so I wait it out? A battle of attrition...and boredom.

 

So I post up and start waiting. After a while the rabbit's memory started to fade and forgot why it was hiding. With this new confidence in it's surroundings it decided to pop itself out into the open. Little beauty, sneaking it's head out from behind that tree. Very cute.

 

I had one loud voice squealing in my head...."Time to squeak". I pucker up and suck on my right knuckle. The rabbit's ears pop up and it freezes in position.....the voice in my head changed catchphrase to "Remember...gentle squeeze". Bang, goes my Gamo Springer (yeah, I love my little Gamo and I'm not afraid to say so).

 

Rabbit drops down the side of the bank, twitches out for a few seconds, then lays there still. Dinner is served.

 

I get the rabbit down to the stream and start field dressing it (if you're new to hunting, that's a nice way to say skinning and gutting). Half way through the process I joke around to myself thinking 'There's not enough meat on this thing, I might as well throw it away' then I jokingly gestured to toss it into the stream. Out it slips from my hand and swept into the stream! CRAP!!! That was going into the pot. Now some stupid dog down stream will be wallowing in the water and come up with a half processed, water-logged rabbit. I felt so bad knowing I'd just killed the rabbit, and then needlessly thrown it away. Well, I say I felt bad, I was actually pretty hungry and looking forward to this rabbit for the pot. So really I wasn't feeling bad just hungry.

 

[chrismdd 787]

Great read, really enjoyed that, keep them coming.

[villaman 9,983]

Made me laugh any how , nice one

[reaper1064 285]

Nice one mate, sounds like something from mr bean sketch.LOL

[j j m 6,561]

Good laugh

[David.evans 5,323]

Great write up RB

All these little miss happs, is what makes going out some times so enjoyable

If the kits get any smaller up your end change there name to mice lol

Atb mate

Dave

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Rabbit McNugget!

[mark williams 7,561]

Great write up Remy.

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

A good write up remmy, thanks for sharing. What model is the gamo, is it a viper?

[random 659]

Good read,made me smile,these are the sort of trips we remember and tell about again and again for a while...

[Adrian Kenny 64]

Very good read that mate! Haha

[jok 3,325]

Happy with that little ditty. Made my dinner more enjoyable.