Rabbitting
- Thread starter Nickb
- Start date
It was an invite to an island. Population impact, absolutely nothing! I've never seen so many rabbits in the thermal in my life!
Nickb
Well-Known Member
Any pics ?
Unfortunately or fortunately not enough time
Sandy25
Well-Known Member
Too busy pulling the trigger.......
Put it this way, if/when I go back, I'll be getting more 10 round .17hmr mags as all 10 shots entering a field was not uncommonToo busy pulling the trigger.......
Nickb
Well-Known Member
That's a shame..
I went out again tonight and the strangest event in my shooting so far happened. A wind coming across towards the setting sun and so I left the car and flanked around to the far side of the shoot. Stalking along into a wheat field and spotted two ears 20m from me in the blades. The thermal confirmed it… a rabbit. 17HMR up and onto the sticks. Parallax wound down. You could see through the scope the ears and outline of a rabbit. I cranked the old Hawke up to 16x mag. It was going to have to be a shot into the wheat and so I judged where the chest would be and, accounting for close range, aimed high. Crack. The rabbit cartwheeled and started to scream. I cycled the bolt and got back onto aim. The screaming was dying off and you could see the rabbit was now in its death throes and so clicked the safety on to give it a moment to expire. It went montikess but I realised that this may be the perfect opportunity to call in a fox so started fussing at my collar to take hold of my call but before I did,… a big dog fox burst from the woods and out into the field scooping up the rabbit! I lowered onto the rifle and whoosh! The bloody young dog ran in! Clicked safety on and lifted my head off the rifle to see possibly the most surreal proceedings. The fox froze. For a moment I thought, Christ he’s going to have this! The dog grabbed the rabbit effectively from the fox’s jaws and the fox ran off 10-15 metres or so. The dog ran back to me, dropping the f-ing rabbit! From bad to worse! He has never ever ran in on the rifle before, I was so surprised. With the dogs behind me again I dropped onto my he rifle. The fox was out of focus but almost filled the scope. Centre of mass and bang. Stupidly I didn’t account for close range or have the composure to go for a head shot. The fox made it into the woods but was retrievable.
Two very bad shots and a very naughty dog inside possibly 20 seconds. I had absolute buck fever afterwards and my hands were shaking. Didn’t bother carrying the fox with me as it was just the start of the evening.
After that it was a long time before I shot anything. Too distracted by keeping an eye on the young dog. Eventually I made it up to a ridge overlooking a field. Rabbits sat out all below me.
I could have used my sticks but fancied a change. With no bipod I used my elbows and alllowed my weight to flatten me out into a steady position prone on my belly. Three kits on the edge of the nettles so took one, the other two I expected to freeze but they scarpered off. Three more in the field succumbed at moderate range.
Last shot was off sticks over a small valley, measured on Google earth at 175m. A light bit of drizzle broke and I needed to get home and ready for bed before early meetings tomorrow.
Two very bad shots and a very naughty dog inside possibly 20 seconds. I had absolute buck fever afterwards and my hands were shaking. Didn’t bother carrying the fox with me as it was just the start of the evening.
After that it was a long time before I shot anything. Too distracted by keeping an eye on the young dog. Eventually I made it up to a ridge overlooking a field. Rabbits sat out all below me.
I could have used my sticks but fancied a change. With no bipod I used my elbows and alllowed my weight to flatten me out into a steady position prone on my belly. Three kits on the edge of the nettles so took one, the other two I expected to freeze but they scarpered off. Three more in the field succumbed at moderate range.
Last shot was off sticks over a small valley, measured on Google earth at 175m. A light bit of drizzle broke and I needed to get home and ready for bed before early meetings tomorrow.
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BenBhoy
Well-Known Member
You wanna try thinking how good it'd be to win national lottery!!
Nickb
Well-Known Member
Loved reading that , strange things happen when out hunting. Going to enjoy this thread , keep em coming.
Flash G 74
Well-Known Member
Hello, A few years back i use to shoot rabbits on a small sheep farm around 50 acres, Most were on the boundary fence line to my other shooting perm, It is thick hedge and stream bank full of rabbit holes, One evening a few rabbit were feeding so i shot one only for a fox to pop out the hedge grab the rabbit and leg it down the field , It must have been watching 
A local lad joined SD, I’ve taken him out a couple of times and he’s just been granted his FAC and purchased a used CZ in 22LR. We went out to blood it last night. He shot 7 rabbits, I was really pleased for him. Some very nice shooting. A very cold wind and too much cover to see the meteor shower. Lots of simple tips that he’ll learn from for next time: empty mag, dead man’s click, wearing aftershave, forgetting illuminator, walking quietly, keeping the scope on base mag etc. We have all done these things, and he was able to sort them all out with no issues on the night. It is great to get them out of the way and get some experience to prepare for foxes and deer.
Had 3 hang fires on the 17hmr recently. Stopped using that box and been fine sinceThe dreaded dead man's click
How long before they went off?
Felt like an age, but probably 1/4-1/2 a second
Shame the producers won't sort their QC issues, was a great round when first on the market, launched my .17 HMR when the first cracked cases started appearing.
They'll be fairly old and probably from before covid. Everything else was fairly new and fine
Maybe a bit of damp ingress due to slack necks.
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