Dennis H

Been tellin you about the mange in our local coyote population and how it's all but wiped em out. This is part of the effect of their demise, we're covered up in bunnies. This was a half hour or so in my 2 acre yard, never even went in the pasture. Got home 2 nights ago with 5 min of legal shooting light, the yard was crawlin with em, took out a half dozen then another 8 the next mornin! I can see a half dozen from the windows as I type this. I'll give em a few weeks to settle down and more to move into the yard and do it again. That's the gamo 1400fps springer that I've been tryin to master. It's about the perfect yard gun for bunnies imo. Plannin on cannin some of these as I've heard small game cans well as far as tenderness. I'll keep some of the younger ones for frying and maybe a stew. Don't let the pic fool ya, I haven't dented the pop. My neighbors don't shoot em and their yards are as full as mine! Haven't even started on the Jacks yet!

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Terry_P

What's all that white stuff on the ground? Rabbits are scarce in NH these days, looks like they all packed up and headed to Colorado. I'm probably spoiled but I never got into eating rabbit. Looks like you have a pretty good supply of fresh meat though.

north country gal

Nice shooting, Dennis.

As kids, our grandma would cook up all the rabbits we could shoot. She loved them. Told us rabbit meat helped to get them through the Depression and WWII years when meat was hard to get. My north woods side of the family was big on hunting and fishing, anyway.

We did very well using pump Sheridan 20 cal air rifles for both rabbits and squirrels. Nowhere near the power of your Gamo, but very easy to shoot guns and very accurate. Good memories.

RidgeRunner

During WWII the British raised rabbits to help them eat through the war. Looks like you have a fine herd. I would not be too eager to deplete the clan. You may need them later.

Dennis H

I'll be sure and leave plenty of seed ridgerunner, and canning them will give me a long shelf life! I really wish everyone could see the shear number of em we have! I'm reminded of the old boy on the documentary "the black blizzard" about the dustbowl yrs during the depression and the jackrabbit round ups they'd have and the # of Jacks they'd pen up in a drive. He said they'd save ammo and just club em. He was just a boy and said he couldn't stick around for that part of it. I can't imagine the numbers they had then to make that possible. If you haven't seen that documentary I highly recommend it!

daytime dave

Dennis
Good shooting. Around here we have plenty of healthy coyotes and hardly any bunnies. Good luck with the canning. I'll be interested in how it turns out.

RetiredSeabee

Just hope they don't turn mutant. You'll need a bigger gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wduI...nnel=cheapbrat

gunjunkie

Those sure would make nice coats and blankets though.

north country gal

Let me know if they do. I have plenty of big bones I can loan you.

RidgeRunner

Survivalist will be comforted from this movie. Food....clothing....and targets.
Around here it seems game is getting scarce.

SPsix

That's funny. Last winter I was shooing my 44 mag pistol at my steel targets, this is up on the mtn near me, Lake Desolation. I stopped to reload (or something) and out of the bushes came the biggest rabbit I have ever seen. I think it was a big snowshoe/jack rabbit. It went across my makeshift range like business as usual. I just watched it go into the brush on the other side with big eyes and jaw dropped. It was not your average bunny !

Terry_P

I saw a rabbit come out on the machine gun range at Fort Dix when I was there in 1967. We were firing at large pop up targets at 400-800 meters and we were supposed to fire 6 round bursts from a bipod while prone. All of a sudden guys were ripping off 20 round bursts. The rabbit was never touched and the range cadre were screaming. It wasn't record fire so we didn't care. I didn't shoot at it as he was on the left and I was on the far right but I did stop and watch. The rabbit found another gear and made a quick exit out the back. We all got our butts reamed as the cadre figured out what was going on.

moakes58

Very nice target posting Dennis. The way they breed, I would not worry about thinning the herd, they will need it again in the spring.

What is the rifle, .22 or .177 & what pellet brand & type did you use?

gunjunkie

Watch out for them rabbits!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCI18qAoKq4

Machinist

Well played, Sir. Love that movie.

Dennis H

It's a .177 moakes and I was usein Crossman premier 10.5g pellets. They were the heaviest I could find, not fancy or expensive, just heavy for .177. And it just hit me, I noticed it wasn't nearly as loud as with the pba raptor ammo it came with. To a smarter person that would mean somethin. Think it has to do with that magic speed # so I'm bettin I'm considerably lower than the supposed 1400fps of the raptor ammo. Probably under that 1050fps number be my guess.

north country gal

Dennis, I grabbed a Benjamin Nitro XL in 177 a few years, back, on closeout because the price was good. It had an advertised 1500 fps velocity. First time I shot that with a standard 177 pellet, it was honestly as loud as a 22 LR. The gun had so much recoil that I never did get it to shoot very well, but going to a heavy or extra heavy 177 really helped with the noise and the accuracy. There are even heavier pellets in 177 than that Corsman 10.5, but you'd have to order them. Not likely you'll find them, locally. Most of the guys that are using air rifles for serious hunting step up in caliber to get heavier pellets, but keep under the sound barrier. Pretty obvious, though, that a 177 is very effective for hunting, too. Nice work with that Gamo.

Dennis H

That's it! The first time I shot it i thought the same thing! Was hoping for something quieter when I bought it, couldn't believe how loud it was! If my memory serves me, looking back now, I think I had it sighted in with rws Diablo basics 7g and this was the first time shooting the crossmans 10.5g. In fact I'm surprised the zero was the same! I did notice beyond 20yds it was shooting low. And the recoil as well as the sound was considerably less like u said. I think I purchased those crossmans based on something similar you said on another thread. Glad I listened as my hitting percentage under 20yds was close to perfect due to that reduced recoil!

Terry_P

My wife and I took a weeks vacation one summer in the 90's when we were working and went to an Island 10 miles off the coast of Maine. A water taxi dropped us off and we were the only ones on the island (with the exception of Martha Stewart filming one of her shows one afternoon out there but that's another story). Someone had brought out rabbits and let them go and they were plentiful on the Island. I guess they did so as a food source. They weren't little bunny rabbits but were big boys so I suspect they were hares. We had to lug all our food and water out for the week but had a generator for short term use and radio communications if we needed it. Never touched the rabbits as we never got hungry enough.

north country gal

Dennis, it's been my experience that the Crosman Premiers do very well in most air guns. It's not until you get into the high end stuff like a Weihrauch or Air Arms that the guns become fairly pellet selective, given that these guns are typically made with premium pellets in mind. The Crosmans, though, are typically the best pellets in our traditional American pump up air guns. The Crosmans also tend to be harder than a lot of imported pellets, so the penetration tends to be very good. Great pellet for the money and you can buy them, anywhere.

One tip. If you need to shoot out past 30 yards, go with a domed pellet, not a hollow point or spire point. Have never found any pellet that can compete with a domed pellet at 50 yards for accuracy, no matter how much you pay.