Rabbit shooting.

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Bunny burgers and taste damn fine as well


Paul
 
and when the head is down in the undergrowth but the body is exposed ? :-P headshots are fine body shots are also fine and the correct target areas are comparable in size so no loss of manliness ensues :old:

In having shot for the meat trade its head shots or nothing..btw that has got nothing to do with your stupid comment re manliness..rabbits put their heads up when the correct sound is made..BANG! but you didn't know that :old:

It never hurts to be able to shoot better!
 
Your both right

And there is more than one way to do something usually


Can we move on without another thread becoming a tit for tat spat and I’m right your wrong ?
Becoming the norm on here 🤔


Paul
 
Every batch different seasoning wise and I’m afraid there are no measurements as such I just throw stuff in, I almost always add in some fat via pork belly or pack of cooking bacon
So
Was approx 70/% rabbit to 30% fat ( cooking bacon in this case)
A good lashing of seasoning, this one was some kind dry bbq rub powder / marinade
Bit of butchers rusk to bind ... others don’t do this, I do when you do burger by hundred etc
And bit of water or sauce ... this case bottle of spicy bbq sauce to get the butchers rusk going .
Mix well till you get the right feel / consistency then burger them
And taste real fine if I say so myself

I know some purists will say you lose the rabbit or natural meat flavour .... true .... but I do often take a batch of burgers back to basics for the natural flavour.... for me it’s about using what I shoot, not wasting a life .... and often when doing large numbers it’s more bout I know what’s gone into them rather than keeping it true to natural flavour ... variety is key [emoji846]

Paul
 
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For that same reason, I rarely use the .22 for rabbits. In the 40-120m range I reckon it is hard to beat the .17HMR for reliable accuracy. That plus you can get frangible 17gr rounds for it. These pretty much explode on the first thing they hit. If you hit the bunny it is toast. If you miss, the first blade of grass [let alone earthy backstop] initiates the projectile sundering. Zero richochet with these ballistic tips.

Agree - HMR is my tool of choice when noise isn't an issue. Range and accuracy is spot on albeit slightly antisocial.

PS - those burgers looks yum
 
Every batch different seasoning wise and I’m afraid there are no measurements as such I just throw stuff in, I almost always add in some fat via pork belly or pack of cooking bacon
So
Was approx 70/% rabbit to 30% fat ( cooking bacon in this case)
A good lashing of seasoning, this one was some kind dry bbq rub powder / marinade
Bit of butchers rusk to bind ... others don’t do this, I do when you do burger by hundred etc
And bit of water or sauce ... this case bottle of spicy bbq sauce to get the butchers rusk going .
Mix well till you get the right feel / consistency then burger them
And taste real fine if I say so myself

I know some purists will say you lose the rabbit or natural meat flavour .... true .... but I do often take a batch of burgers back to basics for the natural flavour.... for me it’s about using what I shoot, not wasting a life .... and often when doing large numbers it’s more bout I know what’s gone into them rather than keeping it true to natural flavour ... variety is key [emoji846]

Paul

+1

Much like the way I do venison burgers/ / sausages

Gonna give your recipe a try with rabbit

:finger:
 
+1

Much like the way I do venison burgers/ / sausages

Gonna give your recipe a try with rabbit

:finger:


Half fun is trying different flavours / mixes

Forgive me for those who know this already,but once rabbits skinned on each side of its ass cheeks beside where anus would be will be two beige coloured looking “ nodules” these are scent glands and need nicked off ... otherwise you get that smell that folk complain about when cooking !

Secondly I take carcasses and place in a fish box with salted cold water overnight in my coke fridge chiller .. when you remove them the layer of silver skin will have gone really jelly like and not nice but lot easier to remove 90% of it like this .. then debone

Paul
 
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I wish we had some rabbits, they were just making a comeback and the beast from the east seems to have hammered them, either that or it’s disease again. Haven’t seen one for a few weeks now and normally there’d be babies running about by now. 20 years ago you could shoot literally thousands round here.
 
For that same reason, I rarely use the .22 for rabbits. In the 40-120m range I reckon it is hard to beat the .17HMR for reliable accuracy. That plus you can get frangible 17gr rounds for it. These pretty much explode on the first thing they hit. If you hit the bunny it is toast. If you miss, the first blade of grass [let alone earthy backstop] initiates the projectile sundering. Zero richochet with these ballistic tips.

I also use .17 HMR for all my Rabbits (unless trapping). However I must disagree with you in your last two sentences as the 17gr rounds do not explode on a blade of grass and I have had quite a few ricochets. Luckily these have been in very isolated places. Lewis Potter did a very detailed report on the ,17HMR and it will surprise you regarding bullet frangibility etc.
 
I wish we had some rabbits, they were just making a comeback and the beast from the east seems to have hammered them, either that or it’s disease again. Haven’t seen one for a few weeks now and normally there’d be babies running about by now. 20 years ago you could shoot literally thousands round here.

Know that feeling. I used to be able to pick up the air rifle and go for an evening stalk for a coupla hours and shoot more than I could carry, whereas now I struggle to get a couple in three hours picking them off from 250yds with a .22CF.

I have noticed way more fleas on shot rabbits the last couple of years and this has coincided with dropping numbers. They do normally come round full circle but I am not convinced it is mixy that is doing them in, as you visibly see this when you shoot them as regularly as I do on the same patch. It is that RHVD that is nailing them I reckon.

Promisingly, I did shoot a couple the other day which were very good size, plump and in particularly good health with not one flea anywhere on them. I am not going to shoot many this year and let them be, whilst concentrating on getting fox numbers down. Hopefully this will see numbers grow again. Doesn't take them long to recover but I agree, it is a shame to see numbers down. It is my favourite type of up close and personal shooting. The smaller calibre the better. I really enjoy rabbit shooting with a standard air rifle if conditions allow.
 
...I have noticed way more fleas on shot rabbits the last couple of years and this has coincided with dropping numbers...

My permission still has fairly high numbers, and mostly healthy, but I did bag a flea ridden one the other night. Not seen that on this patch before. I do hope that is not a harbinger of ill health in the population. All other animals gralloched are clear eyed and healthy, good weights and there are plenty of young ones. Agree 12ft/lb air rifle stalking is rewarding as it demands more fieldcraft than does the .17HMR.
 
Fleas here mean that any myxomatosis is being well vectored generally,do you have much 'myxo' in the UK?
The mixy went round a good few years ago now, it dropped the population big time, but then they came back and you’d only find the odd blind one around. Then the VHD came and wiped them out completely in many areas. I was talking to a mate who has 1500 acres of hill ground, the road in to the farm is a couple of miles of single track, years ago he said you couldn’t drive in there without hitting a rabbit. Now there’s not one on the whole farm.
They were just making a come back down at my bit, there were a few in the fields arong my yard and lots in the yard around the wood piles , there’s none now at mine either.
 
I’ve heard that a lot of game dealers only accept headshots on rabbits.

As for mixy I’ve seen a few cases but not many, as unpleasant as it is. It’s not transferable to humans which means you can still eat the meat, or so I’ve been told.
 
I’ve heard that a lot of game dealers only accept headshots on rabbits.

As for mixy I’ve seen a few cases but not many, as unpleasant as it is. It’s not transferable to humans which means you can still eat the meat, or so I’ve been told.
Would you really want to !:scared:
 
Lewis Potter did a very detailed report on the ,17HMR and it will surprise you regarding bullet frangibility...

I tried Googling for that name and none found. If you have a link, please post it.BTW, not all .17HMR rounds are frangible, and I never said that. I fully expect the 20gr hollowpoints to have the potential to richochet. My experience with the 17gr ballistic tips is that they do not. Like I say, hundreds of rounds and counting...on the same land where I experienced two .22 richochets. I can only say as I find.
 
The mixy went round a good few years ago now, it dropped the population big time, but then they came back and you’d only find the odd blind one around. Then the VHD came and wiped them out completely in many areas. I was talking to a mate who has 1500 acres of hill ground, the road in to the farm is a couple of miles of single track, years ago he said you couldn’t drive in there without hitting a rabbit. Now there’s not one on the whole farm.
They were just making a come back down at my bit, there were a few in the fields arong my yard and lots in the yard around the wood piles , there’s none now at mine either.

It comes every year here,knocks a few over then the rest become more immune.

Would you really want to !:scared:

I have seen some myxo rabbits that were so bad that an Aussie blowfly wouldnt land on them...erk!
 
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