Bagging the bouncers
Wild rabbits are less plentiful now but can still offer intriguing sport, which is best prepared for on clays. Just mind the bounce...
Make sure you look at the point where the clay is touching the ground
They’re probably the most discussed target in clay shooting and, in furred form, an agricultural pest to boot. I have had a close association with rabbits throughout my life. I’ve skinned thousands, shot even more and cursed them throughout my clay-shooting career.
As a young lad working in our family butchers’ business, I used the local rabbit population as a means of earning extra money to buy cartridges. We had several methods of controlling them but by far the most efficient was at night with a silenced rifle and a red lamp. I remember one warm July night when I was asked to control the rabbits on a golf course along the south coast. Three of us arrived in my old Subaru pickup, two in the front and one sitting in the back. One was to be driver, one lamper, with myself shooting.
We arrived in plenty of time and parked up near the 18th green. The greenkeeper turned up, we opened the flasks and had a coffee while waiting for darkness. Eventually we decided it was dark enough and everyone got into position. I climbed into the back and loaded the rifle, my lamp man turned on the light and I was just about to say into the walkie-talkie “we are all ready to go” when I noticed two rabbits no more than 25yd in front of the pickup, which I duly shot. In my peripheral vision I noticed more rabbits on the green and before we turned the engine on I’d shot 21. I knew the golf course had a problem. We only managed four fairways that night but the final bag was 262. We had to stop shooting because the dead rabbits were now level with the top of the pickup.
Huge bags of rabbits were shot in the country pre-myxomatosis, which is now with us constantly. When winter approaches the rabbits start going back into their burrows, rather than living above in the corn, and the disease is quickly transferred by fleas. There is nothing worse than seeing the aftermath of a bad dose of myxomatosis in a healthy stock of rabbits. There are still places here where one can walk-up rabbits but few places shoot them driven now. When you are walking-up rabbits, keepers tend to use spaniels to flush them and labradors to retrieve. I have done this in the Borders and it is tremendous fun – except the walking bit.
jinking rabbits
When you are shooting rabbits in this manner, your feet are usually unstable and quite often one above the other. A lot of people panic when the rabbit is flushed but there is no need to. Like snipe, the rabbit’s jinking is normally done in the first 10yd – they then tend to run in a straight line.
There is an optical illusion when you shoot down on any target. Most guns shoot a 60/40 pattern, which means 60% is above the exact point of aim, with 40% on or below. Because you are looking downhill, you need to look at the rabbit’s feet. This puts the rabbit and its head in the middle of the pattern. Try to keep your weight forward, which will keep the gun lower, and open out the leg in the direction the rabbit is taking. This allows you to clear your hip (as in golf) and keep your shoulders square.
Come through the rabbit from behind and when you get to its whiskers, squeeze the trigger and keep the gun moving. Make sure you keep both eyes open so you can see any possible hazards in your peripheral vision, such as flints or rocks for ricochets, or errant spaniels chasing the rabbit.
Due to its fur and layer of skin, the rabbit is hard to penetrate so I would suggest using a minimum of No 6s, my preferred load being a No 5. If you are shooting during the summer, make sure you paunch them fairly quickly as it will not take them long to go off.
If you are looking to get into this as a sport, I suggest you train on some artificial rabbit clays at a shooting ground. These simulate the movement a real rabbit makes well.
We shoot them in competition at most events nowadays and in my mind they are the most unfair target going, as clay rabbits will bounce. You can have the soundest technique and greatest ability but if the clay bounces as you pull the trigger, you will miss it and there is nothing you can do.
The technique for shooting clay rabbits is the same. Make sure you look at the point on the rabbit where the clay is touching the ground (feet), keep your shoulders square and let your eyes follow the target, which means you’ll be swinging your gun at the correct speed (hand-eye coordination).
Shooting rabbits is fun, relatively low cost, can be done outside of the game-shooting season and helps control an agricultural pest. But always remember that you are shooting down into the ground, so constant awareness of safety is paramount. If you think the shot is unsafe, don’t take it.