Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Patience reaps rewards
A few rabbits is one thing, but when scores of them start burrowing in under a holiday cabin, Mat Manning is sent for to thin them out
Rabbit shooting in my part of the West Country took a serious nosedive towards the end of last summer. The simple fact was that the local population of bunnies seemed to disappear almost overnight, with the result that very few landowners had any need to keep their numbers in check.
Not so long ago, myxomatosis — which has been around for decades (see Vintage Times, p54) — was the main culprit when it came to sudden plunges in rabbit populations. The disease took a heavy toll over some years, but there always seemed to be a few resistant rabbits that made it through. And given this mammal’s deserved reputation for rapid breeding, colonies quickly bounced back.
Far more devastating over recent years has been the impact of rabbit haemorrhagic disease — usually referred to as RHD or RVHD. This highly infectious illness kills extremely quickly, leaves barely any obvious signs on its victims and has an incredibly high mortality rate. Rabbit populations that appear stable at the start of the week can literally vanish by the weekend when it strikes.
I am fairly certain that RHD caused last year’s sudden decline in rabbit numbers where I live. Thankfully, it appears that the local bunny population is making a comeback. This resilient little creature is living up to that reputation for rapid multiplication and there were plenty of young ones to be seen around the field margins during the latter part of March.
Thriving
Though some areas sadly still remain devoid of rabbits, there are places on my patch where they are now present in sufficient numbers to cause problems. One such place is on a friend’s farm, where the offending bunnies have established a thriving colony in a meadow that surrounds a holiday cabin. A few rabbits are usually tolerated here, but during their spring boom, their burrows have started to encroach not only in the garden of the holiday let but also beneath the timber building.
Add the fact that the bunnies have developed a taste for the bark of newly planted trees and shrubs, and you can understand why my friend asked if I could help to thin them out. This particular farm is one of my regular haunts, but my time there is usually devoted to grey squirrel control.
I have spent the occasional evening there bagging bunnies and, in the most part, it has been easy shooting because the constant presence of people around the holiday cabin soon caused the animals to grow bold. The biggest snag used to be timing my visits to avoid the periods when holidaymakers were staying in the cabin, though that wasn’t an issue in early April because lockdown rules prevented anyone from staying there.
Assuming that it wouldn’t require the entire rigmarole of a night-vision sortie to bring these cocky bunnies to book, I arranged a midweek visit,
“RHD is highly infectious, kills extremely quickly and leaves no signs on its victims”
kicking off a couple of hours before nightfall. There was a pair of rabbits out feeding when I parked up, but it was no surprise that they bolted for cover as soon as they saw me.
I hadn’t intended to attempt to stalk in for a shot anyway because the best tactics here are usually simply to sit and wait for them to creep out for their evening grass munch.
A quick snoop around the garden quickly confirmed that the rabbits were indeed starting to become something of a hindrance. The excavations and droppings in the vicinity of the holiday cabin suggested that there were quite a few of them around. I also spotted numerous shrubs showing serious signs of bark-nibbling around their bases.
Ambush
Opting for my usual ambush tactics, I decided to set up in a barn that’s used as a wood store. Standing about 30m from where I expected to see rabbits emerging from their burrows, the open-sided building provided me with a reasonable amount of cover. There was even a comfortable seat in the shape of a log-splitting block.
Gun choice for the session was my Fac-rated FX Impact MKII. Though you can get high-powered airguns producing well over 60ft/lb these days, I set my Impact to run at just under 30ft/lb with 16-gr .22 pellets.
This is a relatively low-powered set-up, running light ammunition by modern standards, but I find it more
targeting rabbits at around 30m, but there was quite a breeze pushing through. The extra grunt of FAC power makes for more predictable shot placement in the wind.
With the Impact loaded up, I sat back and waited for the rabbits to venture back above ground, which I didn’t expect to take very long.
I don’t usually get in the least bit bored while awaiting my quarry’s arrival but I must admit that I started to get a little impatient after about 45 minutes without a glimpse of a bunny.
My lack of patience could probably be attributed to two main factors: first, I had expected the shooting to be quite busy and, secondly, the breeze was colder than I had anticipated. It was doing a remarkably good job of creeping through my layers.
Concentration
As my attention was starting to drift to other things, my concentration was snapped back by a subtle movement near one of the burrows. A large rabbit had emerged and was trundling out on to the lawn.
I slowly raised the butt of the gun up into my shoulder, and the artful bunny turned and disappeared back down its hole before I had even got my eye behind the scope. I muttered a few expletives before settling back down for another wait. About 15 minutes later, another rabbit popped out from behind a mound of earth just to the left of where the first one had vanished. I sat dead still and resisted the urge to move the gun while the rabbit crept further out, until it dropped its head and began to feed.
Sensing that the rabbit felt safe, I gingerly raised the gun and framed the unsuspecting bunny in the sight picture. At about 25m, the shot needed about 1in of hold-under and a touch of aim-off to the side to compensate for the stiff breeze. I touched off the trigger as the cross-hairs came to rest and the rabbit flipped into a somersault as the pellet smacked into its skull with a crack.
Having one in the bag always takes the pressure off, but it didn’t exactly herald the start of a purple patch.
I did manage to add one more bunny later on but, though it was great to be back on them, I left feeling a little disappointed not to have accounted for more than two.
My guess is that the rabbits have learned to be distrusting because they have grown unaccustomed to the presence of people around the cabin. So much for it being an easy job — it looks very much like I’m going to have to head back for a graveyard shift with my night-vision gear.
“The rabbit flipped into a somersault as the pellet smacked into its skull”