through the gate, we’d picked up a
few rabbits with the .22 already.
The grass was too high for rifle
use but perfect for the shotgun, so
we broke the 20 out and filled our
pockets with shells we just knew
we’d have a good time. With my
brother on the torch and me with
the 20 gauge we headed off. We
followed the track, skirting the high
grass, and that proved to be a good
move as we were cutting the rabbits
off as they were attempting to cross
into the neighbouring property.
The 20 gauge was running hot
with numerous rabbits being
encountered and all within the 20 to
30 metre range. It didn’t take long for
our tally to mount up so we dropped
the rabbits we had already taken off
at the top of the paddock to be
retrieved later on when we came
down to hunt this paddock.
The paddock in front of the house
is always good for quite a few rabbits
and this time was no different; they
seemed to be everywhere and were
not overly concerned with our
shooting. With brother Greg on the
20 now and me gutting and carrying,
we worked our way systematically
through this small paddock.
With the time getting on we
headed down to the final patch and
the process started all over again. It
was a nice calm night and the rabbits
seemed to be making the most of it,
that is until we turned up.
By the time our hunt was over
we had encountered practically
every aspect of the rabbit hunting
that we indulge in and I think at
long last, with my current selection
of firearms, I might finally have it
down pat.36 | SPORTING SHOOTER _ MAY 2018
.17HMR he muttered, “Don’t miss,
it’s costing me 50 cents a shot.”
While the standard Savage .17HMR
with the synthetic stock that we
were using was a pretty ordinary bit
of gear at least it was fairly accurate.
I thought I would start on the
rabbits sitting on the warren.
Working my way through them, the
other rabbits further out started
moving towards the warren thus
making it easier to move from one
target to the next.
Continually loading and firing,
the .17 resulted in four rabbits
from five shots. The missed rabbit
must have considered itself lucky
as it wasted no time getting down
its burrow. Then all was quiet,
even the young silly ones thought
better of it and were soon out of
sight. We moved from warren to
warren, scoring rabbits as we
ambled along. We kept it up until
it was too dark to shoot, scoring a
fair number in the process.
We could have placed the
Nitecore MT40 lights on the rifles
to keep shooting but we had
another property that we wanted
to try out just after dark. As we
drove through the front gate we
could see the rabbits were out in
force. Now a few hundred metresSavage .17HMR,
my 20 gauge Over
/Under and CZ
heavy-barrelled
.22 LR with 4x-12
variable.”
4
5
4
20 gauge ammunition is far easier to
obtain these days and the 20 gauge
is a great lit tle shotgun for using when
hunting rabbits.5
When rabbits are close Leon found
the Winchester Sub Sonic
ammunition a good choice but, when the
distance moved out a bit, he quickly
turned to the Winchester Power Point
High Velocit y ammunition.ON THIS PAGE
WABBITS
WEAPONS