Rabbits
- Thread starter Leec6.5
- Start date
theshedtinkerer
Active Member
Couldn't agree more. The 17 Mach 2 is often overlooked. It is a cracking little round ... forgive the pun.
Danny25790
Well-Known Member
I hope they pick up a bit more down here as the butcher's are gagging for them apparently
Overlay
Well-Known Member
VHD really has cropped rabbit numbers on some of my permissions, I still have a couple of really good ones, the others I just take enough to keep the dog food topped up
Having said that just done a reduction in a new Plant orchard where the damage was up to over 400 trees all rabbits
They are about but selective shooting will help keep numbers stable
Having said that just done a reduction in a new Plant orchard where the damage was up to over 400 trees all rabbits
They are about but selective shooting will help keep numbers stable
A few places with decent numbers but overall very, very, few.
Haven't even seen a rabbit in very rural East Kent for some months - we used to have a fairly healthy population but they've declined dramatically in the last 3 - 4 years. On a mates ground in North Kent inside the M25 its the same. We used to enjoy a night out with the lamp, or sneaking round on a Summers evening with the rimfire for a few, but alas not been able to do it for years now.
Brittany boy
Well-Known Member
Pleasant surprise the other night out with the thermal and 22lr, the rabbits were back in good numbers after a poor year last year. Think the mild weather has helped numbers plus the reduced shooting past 2 years with the covid nonsense. Had a dozen for fox bait and a small dog fox who seemed attracted to the sound of the rabbits being shot and wandered into the old photon 6.5 x50 scope.
I have been out a fair bit at night the last month or so. The increase in rabbit numbers continue at our place and this has accelerated even more since the badger cull has finished its second year.
I have seen no badgers at all in 2022 and in 3 different locations last night on just over 300 acres, I saw touching double digits of rabbits chasing each around. Lovely to see. Control will start if numbers grow too much but for now we are happy to see them.
I have seen no badgers at all in 2022 and in 3 different locations last night on just over 300 acres, I saw touching double digits of rabbits chasing each around. Lovely to see. Control will start if numbers grow too much but for now we are happy to see them.
Sorry I can't answer either question
For me, I have been shooting the same farm for over 10 years.
Usually out weekly Feb to Oct and, outside mid summer, I shoot 10 ish per week
Mid summer have taken 40ish per week but last couple of years more like 20.
Only get the odd mixy Mid to late Sept and never seen VHD in surface rabbits when out shooting rabbits - but cannot say what has happened in the warren,
I can only offer the thought that controlling numbers keeps the colonies healthy
bobthedug
Well-Known Member
We are now on another variant VHD 2 which is just as deadly. I’m friendly with a chap who has spent his life looking after and breeding pedigree rabbits and had built up a reputation as a breeder of quality bloodlines. Works in construction but has a lifetime of knowledge of pet rabbits.
Before Covid, he was paying over £50 for each rabbit to be inoculated against this disease and along comes the just as deadly variant 2. He tells me it’s a naturally occurring disease but 10 years ago, he had never even heard of it causing such devastation in thr rabbit population.
It has devastated rabbit numbers around me and unlike Mixy, the rabbits simply vanish and die.
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