Soo looking forward to Back-Flipping Bunnies!!!

[TheGDog]

Ugh... in the morning brought the wrong kind of seat. (One that sits flat on the ground with back-support like for predator calling) With all the growth that happened this year what I normally think of as "grasses" where substantially taller, so couldn't snipe at the 3 bunnies that presented in the morning. Also the Primos Trigger Stick has failed on one of the 3 legs of the tripod. Gonna have to send that back.

Then... with the morning blown... off to go fetch the TrailCam.

Did at least 3 good sets for predators. No takers unfortunately.

With the morning session f-d-up decided I wasn't going home empty-handed. After returning from fetching the TrailCam in what was forecast as 88 F weather. Grabbed the Tripod stool since it lifts ya up a bit, and the trusty Kwik Sticks shooting sticks, and switch back to the .17 HMR from the 1894 .44 Mag I'd brought along for the predator calling.

I had to shove myself deep into this scrub oak to find mercy from the sun. Was brutal waiting for sunset. Finally the shadows start rolling in. I transfer over to the better vantage point now that it's got shadow on it.

I'm sittin' there, rifle on the sticks, pointed more toward the most likely areas they tend to show themselves in this area at sunset.

Wouldn't ya know it.. I slowly turn to check perimeter, on the other side of the scrub oak I'm NOW backed towards... I can see a cottontail. Ugh. I don't dare move cause if he see's me and bolts, I imagine any bunnies watching him will bolt too. The gentle breeze was in my favor coming from him toward me, but I think he may have detected a trace of something like where I had to pee not long ago in some swirls of wind perhaps. He keeps inching up closer and closer to me! And it takes all my control I can muster to hold still! (Figure I'd try waiting to see if he'd cross enough in front of me to give it a try) He's literally like 8 feet away and my pulse is pounding though I'm trying my best to slow it down. He even stops... stands on his hind legs and really takes a lotta good sniffs of the air. I think maybe when he did that he caught a whiff of my pee, and probably my backpack and me... so he slowly retreats to behind the scrub oak I'm backed up near.

At some point I can no longer see him, so I slowly rotate back around so I can resume scanning with my eyes in front of me. Well... either he saw a little of that movement, or the wind changed briefly and he got a big whiff of me... or both! Here he comes, zipping thru the scrub oaks inner leaf-covered bottom area and then exits on my side and proceeds to bound maybe 25yds away, where he decide to briefly stop.

So I figure there's no way he'd stop long enough for me to take the shot with the sticks, so I wing-it and free-hand it. Took him out no problem... however..since free-handing it... and wanted to make sure I didn't miss, I hurriedly aimed more for the body behind the shoulder... and with the .17 HMR ... that made a mess. Think I probably jacked up one of the backstraps unfortunately.

The other one later I was able to take my time with the sticks and took him cleanly. Pics tomorrow. I'm tired and still gotta eat and shower before bed. They'll spend the night in the cooler.

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

What’s everyone’s favorite rabbit recipe?

Marinate overnight in buttermilk, into some flour, then into the fryer until golden brown. Whip up some mashed potatoes and gravy.. mmmm.

 

[WaterDawg]

Ugh... in the morning brought the wrong kind of seat. (One that sits flat on the ground with back-support like for predator calling) With all the growth that happened this year what I normally think of as "grasses" where substantially taller, so couldn't snipe at the 3 bunnies that presented in the morning. Also the Primos Trigger Stick has failed on one of the 3 legs of the tripod. Gonna have to send that back.

Then... with the morning blown... off to go fetch the TrailCam.

Did at least 3 good sets for predators. No takers unfortunately.

With the morning session fucked-up decided I wasn't going home empty-handed. After returning from fetching the TrailCam in what was forecast as 88 F weather. Grabbed the Tripod stool since it lifts ya up a bit, and the trusty Kwik Sticks shooting sticks, and switch back to the .17 HMR from the 1894 .44 Mag I'd brought along for the predator calling.

I had to shove myself deep into this scrub oak to find mercy from the sun. Was brutal waiting for sunset. Finally the shadows start rolling in. I transfer over to the better vantage point now that it's got shadow on it.

I'm sittin' there, rifle on the sticks, pointed more toward the most likely areas they tend to show themselves in this area at sunset.

Wouldn't ya know it.. I slowly turn to check perimeter, on the other side of the scrub oak I'm NOW backed towards... I can see a cottontail. Ugh. I don't dare move cause if he see's me and bolts, I imagine any bunnies watching him will bolt too. The gentle breeze was in my favor coming from him toward me, but I think he may have detected a trace of something like where I had to pee not long ago in some swirls of wind perhaps. He keeps inching up closer and closer to me! And it takes all my control I can muster to hold still! (Figure I'd try waiting to see if he'd cross enough in front of me to give it a try) He's literally like 8 feet away and my pulse is pounding though I'm trying my best to slow it down. He even stops... stands on his hind legs and really takes a lotta good sniffs of the air. I think maybe when he did that he caught a whiff of my pee, and probably my backpack and me... so he slowly retreats to behind the scrub oak I'm backed up near.

At some point I can no longer see him, so I slowly rotate back around so I can resume scanning with my eyes in front of me. Well... either he saw a little of that movement, or the wind changed briefly and he got a big whiff of me... or both! Here he comes, zipping thru the scrub oaks inner leaf-covered bottom area and then exits on my side and proceeds to bound maybe 25yds away, where he decide to briefly stop.

So I figure there's no way he'd stop long enough for me to take the shot with the sticks, so I wing-it and free-hand it. Took him out no problem... however..since free-handing it... and wanted to make sure I didn't miss, I hurriedly aimed more for the body behind the shoulder... and with the .17 HMR ... that made a mess. Think I probably jacked up one of the backstraps unfortunately.

The other one later I was able to take my time with the sticks and took him cleanly. Pics tomorrow. I'm tired and still gotta eat and shower before bed. They'll spend the night in the cooler.

That’s a serious effort. You earned those back straps.

 

[TheGDog]

Those Hornady NTX's can be vicious!

First one was a rushed freehand shot, so opted not to try for head.

The second one I had time, but it was last light, so moved a lil back for shoulder/neck region for some margin of error, slightly bigger target. That second one... the neckbone is just straight up gone! His death was as quick as it gets.

 

[Bowman]

Ouch, ruined meat bro

 

[TheGDog]

Yeah... I know! But I'm VERY leary of getting anywhere near their guts though cause they smell so foul if you pierce their guts.

I mean I usually try to do heads or front shoulder area usually... but I don't usually have to do freehand with the .17 HMR. Usually it's a fun exercise in precision with the sticks, and I can take my time, like with that second one.

 

[ilovesprig]

Nice play by play, 'Dog....Is this the 1st time you used "green" .17's?

 

[TheGDog]

Negative, used them last year with great success. But that was before all the rains created massive growth everywhere. This particular spot worked well early morning or sunset... if you're patient with it. So I'd just sit with ghillie-mesh or a "leafyflage" as you say, about 80yds back away from where they'd present themselves. So even if they did see me, they weren't nervous about my presence.

But the taller growth changed things a lil bit. Felt I needed to be closer to where they tend to emerge just in case the bullet would have to go thru some growth to hit the target. Being a lil .17 I figure deflection is probably pretty darn high with those little projectiles.

I've seriously laid waste to Ground Squirrels with those NTX's. Extremely accurate in my Savage 93R17. Like even the smaller young Ground Squirrels at 70-90 yards! The Kwik Sticks were the key. And with the .17 there's none of this fussing with hold-over. Sometimes a lil windage if it's like 100+yds and there's a crosswind. But you can usually just move a lil closer if need be, when they're that far away.

 

[HATCHET1]

Dog..whats with the ziploc tupperware? Gonna microwave um? Now im no professional..but id take the hyde of um first..get a bit chewy im thinking? ( by the way ,i have idea what im talking about, have not shot a rabbit since i was 9..cant bring my self to touch them..vermin!) Boys have though..fun times!

 

[TheGDog]

Well, I was initially planning on getting them all in the morning... so figured I'd just filet them out there like I'd done the last time. That worked much better. Leave all the mess out there.

But... since it didn't workout as planned and I had to stay until end of light. I didn't wanna fuss with trying to clean'em out there under flashlight and all that. And my old lower back / tailbone injury was hurting from all the sitting waiting for the sun to go down, and work the next day, so decided instead to just toss them whole into those containers I had brought to receive the filet'd meat.. that way I wouldn't have all the work of scrubbing out the inside of the cooler.

Worked well actually. Normally I use the blue ice blocks and then a frozen sealed gallon of water. But this time we'd hosted the Boy Scouts at our house that weekend before for the Annual Scouts Pool Party for my boys Scout Troop, so it already had some regular ice in their too, so there was water in there. So for sure I didn't want just the rabbits in the game bags. That'd just put the blood and dirt and smell all over the inside of the cooler.

 

[TheGDog]

Great practice for quail hunting too. Similar snap shot motion when they bust out of the brush.

The makes a lot of sense. Might just have to start doing it that way so I can practice up for Quail this year. With steel loads... about how far of a shot can ya make on a bunny realistically?

So far I've only ever shot Quail (and Dove) with an AirRifle. Not as hard to do as you'd think in the slightly more open terrains, like the Mojave. And I could probably do it a few times in D15 if it were a legal method of take. (Not sure if it is, just sayin') See them crossing on foot across openings in the PM Sunset most often. But out there is usually way to thick to be productive that way.

However, I did learn that with the Quail, for the bigger fatter ones... ya had to kinda aim for their neck area a lil above (or you might say in-front-of) their shoulder/fold-of-wing. If you hit them where their wings or shoulder are... very strong possibility of the pellet NOT penetrating the feathers sometimes! I was shocked by that! (Same can happen on Crow too.) It's freakin' amazing how strong their wing feathers can be!

My BreakBarrel is supposed to do 1000fps for Lead pellets, I've seen on vids people chrony'ing them at close to 900fps. So with a .22 cal 16gr pellet that's 28.7 ft-Lbs... so that's about 64% of the energy of those CCI QUIET-22's (710fps/40gr).

 

[TheGDog]

Dog..whats with the ziploc tupperware? Gonna microwave um? Now im no professional..but id take the hyde of um first..get a bit chewy im thinking? ( by the way ,i have idea what im talking about, have not shot a rabbit since i was 9..cant bring my self to touch them..vermin!) Boys have though..fun times!

P.S. funny you mention "Vermin"... on on of them...as I was going to open the container... I look in and I can see several Fleas just like fiending on the small amount of blood that dripped out of the cleaner shot one and pooled on the bottom.

Was gonna just process him normal/dry... but after I saw that I was like Oh Hell No... you are most definitely getting a hose-down! Ain't no way Daddies bringing Fleas into the house to get onto my lil ones (the dogs). The lil one has long fur, so it's a bit of a hassle if she picks up one. You can't really hunt them down and pluck 'em off. Gotta wash her well and all that. (The other ones has nice easy short fur so you can just pick one right off immediately)