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A few Bunnies and Basil

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:31 am
by Drew Jaeger
It was Thursday evening, I was finishing up at work, the wife was staying in Sydney visiting her Grandmother and our daughter was staying overnight at her cousins. I was home alone, Being a firm believer of never letting an opportunity go by, I made the usual arrangements with the Cocky for a spotlight with the 204. I was informed the rabbit numbers finally had exploded (yay!) and the odd fox is still lurking about.

Upon arrival early evening, I was greeted by scampering bunnies crossing the access track. My good ol' and faithful mate, Brno came along for support.

Initially concentrating in the front paddocks, Brno had bagged six bunnies. All head shot with Winchester 40gr SSHPs, but unfortunately I lost four kicking their way back down burrows. There were way too many sheep near the hayshed for me to take any safe shots on the mass of rabbits present and too close to the house to use the 204.

Moving onto the open sheep paddocks, the Brno was substituted by the 204. Like all previous trips, I briefly saw Mr Basil near the flock of sheep on same the hill near the same dead tree trunk, and as usual when the light hit him he was off like a rocket!

Moving onto a gully with a bit a blackberry, rabbits were running everywhere and very skittish in the light. I belted the first bunny and reloaded for the next only to see Basil pop his head up from an erosion gully approximately 20-30yds behind the steaming furry red bunnypat. Within a second, he became very open minded! Interestingly, where he was dropped was only metres from the skeleton of a vixen head shot with the 204 back in May.

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The 204 took another seven rabbits in the vicinity with some spectacular misting action.

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On the way out I swapped hardware again and bagged another three bunnies with the Brno before calling it a night.

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There were no extreme range shots taken on this trip which indicated (to me) a higher concentration of small game. Rabbits bagged with the 22LR ranged from 10yds to 80yds and rabbits nailed with the 204 ranged from 90yds to 180yds. The fox was the longest shot being a whisker over 200yds.

It was good (for me) to see a lot of kittens about too. I can see an afternoon of casual bunny bustin' coming up soon(ish).

Re: A few Bunnies and Basil

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:11 am
by foxwhistler
Very nice shooting on the rabbits and the fox.He or she looks a very healthy fox(or did)!
Just wondering if you ever use a sound moderator on your rifles,or is Australia another country where they are difficult to get hold of?
Also do you have any problems with mange on your foxes over there?
The reason i ask is that we used to have a lot of mange problems here in Britain but it seems to have improved a bit in the last couple of years.Or at least in my area it has.

Re: A few Bunnies and Basil

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:19 pm
by Drew Jaeger
foxwhistler wrote:Very nice shooting on the rabbits and the fox.He or she looks a very healthy fox(or did)!
Just wondering if you ever use a sound moderator on your rifles,or is Australia another country where they are difficult to get hold of?
Also do you have any problems with mange on your foxes over there?
The reason i ask is that we used to have a lot of mange problems here in Britain but it seems to have improved a bit in the last couple of years.Or at least in my area it has.
Thank you foxwhistler, the fox was a reynard (or dog). Sound moderators are verboten in Australia. However, there is a special (and extremely difficult) licence for a sound moderator for Registered Pest Destruction Companies in urban areas.

Mange is prevalent problem in Australia too. I have nailed a few foxes with mange. Some animals are in such poor condition, with no fur and bleeding scabs, shooting them was do them a favour. I rarely take photos of foxs with mange, but this vixen has the early stages of mange and was taken with my old 223 in western New South Wales in late 2005.

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