shooting rabbits behind the shoulder

[Guest hyperion]

i was going to post this under a different title as a write up of our trip out lamping the other night but thought this would be of more interest!

so any way we went out the last night to miss a few rats up the farm and bagged two pretty quickly, and even though i explained we didnt stand much chance on such a calm night we decided to try for a bunny, so afer we had wandered aroud scaring every thing away james went for a wander to try out his night vision and i decided to tuck myself into the hedge and wait with my eyes shut and ears open (i wasnt snoozing, honest!), i gave it about half an hour then flicked the lamp on to see a rabbit about twenty yards away, so after reading some of the posts about the chap on the telly shooting rabbits behind the shoulder and watching the program myself i though id give it a go! GULP!

i picked the shot as carefully as i could and placed the pellet just behind and above the elbow joint, WAP!, bunny back flips and its belly up in the grass without a twitch!

now this is where it gets interesting!

when i got home and skinned the rabbit and openned the chest cavity i found that,

on taking the skin off the entry wound was very badly bruised, in fact not only that but the shoulder joint tissue was a mass of fresh blood and bruising almost to the neck!

the pellet had gone through the lungs clipping the heart and exited through the other shoulder joint smashing it to bits and lodging in the bone!

the front end of the rabbit was a right off with regards to eddibility and jointing it was a much more bloody buisiness than usual!

though its end was undoubtably quick i wouldnt have taken this shot if the rabbit had been at thirty yards simply due to possible lack of penertration and at twenty or closer the amount of meat damage seems to excessive!

the rabbit was shot with a logun penetrator pellet!

that will be the first and last time i shoot a rabbit any where other that the head!

hope this is of interest and answers some questions

cheers

hyperion

[Guest buster321c]

Head shots always best

[DevonHunter 0]

i was going to post this under a different title as a write up of our trip out lamping the other night but thought this would be of more interest!

so any way we went out the last night to miss a few rats up the farm and bagged two pretty quickly, and even though i explained we didnt stand much chance on such a calm night we decided to try for a bunny, so afer we had wandered aroud scaring every thing away james went for a wander to try out his night vision and i decided to tuck myself into the hedge and wait with my eyes shut and ears open (i wasnt snoozing, honest!), i gave it about half an hour then flicked the lamp on to see a rabbit about twenty yards away, so after reading some of the posts about the chap on the telly shooting rabbits behind the shoulder and watching the program myself i though id give it a go! GULP!

i picked the shot as carefully as i could and placed the pellet just behind and above the elbow joint, WAP!, bunny back flips and its belly up in the grass without a twitch!

now this is where it gets interesting!

when i got home and skinned the rabbit and openned the chest cavity i found that,

on taking the skin off the entry wound was very badly bruised, in fact not only that but the shoulder joint tissue was a mass of fresh blood and bruising almost to the neck!

the pellet had gone through the lungs clipping the heart and exited through the other shoulder joint smashing it to bits and lodging in the bone!

the front end of the rabbit was a right off with regards to eddibility and jointing it was a much more bloody buisiness than usual!

though its end was undoubtably quick i wouldnt have taken this shot if the rabbit had been at thirty yards simply due to possible lack of penertration and at twenty or closer the amount of meat damage seems to excessive!

the rabbit was shot with a logun penetrator pellet!

that will be the first and last time i shoot a rabbit any where other that the head!

hope this is of interest and answers some questions

cheers

hyperion

 

Hmm. Interesting read Hyperion.

[Timelord 0]

Great post Hyperion and thanks for clarifying what so many people see on TV too. This only goes to show that people should not believe what they see on the TV and other media like Youtube etc. I totally agree that rabbits should always have the head shot, for humane reasons and also not to spoil the meat.....

[Guest hyperion]

phew! have to say it wasnt with out some missgivings that i put this post up!

[davyt63 1,845]

hi Pete

yeah i watched the same program and thought what shoulder shot has to be head shot all the time.

most humane way respect the quarry you got it all sorted down at the farm now is there many bunnies there if so save some for me on my next visit keep at em mate .good read by the way

regards

 

Davy

[Guest hyperion]

hi davy!

yeah plenty of bunnies and the place is swarming with pigeon at the moment too!, plus we went for a wander the other evening and counted nine roe in just four fields!

cheers

[Malt 379]

I posted in another thread, that the shot is an effective way to stop a rabbit. If you were doing it purely for pest control reasons, and have no use for the meat, then fair enough. It does tend to spoil the meat though.

[spud gun 16]

i got told always go for the head and as you say you can not eat the bit of rabbit where the pellet went. it was a very good read too.

 

spen

[shaun sale 0]

what a gud post mate i totally agree ive taken afew shots like that and found that the pellets smashed on bone and travelled right down to the base off the tail.headshots all the time for me now.