About a week ago a good friend of mine gave me a call and asked me if I'd like to come out to his farm and give him a hand with a problem he's been having and, of course I said yeah I'll help. He questioned me that I didn't even know what he wanted and I just laughed saying that I figured it involved guns and that I was always up to help him - although mending fences sucks. Anyway, he confirmed the problem, rabbits, and asked me to bring my shotgun and help him take care of some of them.
Rabbits dig burrows and on a crop farm that's not a good thing because each square metre of ground needs to be money-producing; they also eat the crops which reduces yield. Soil erosion, caused by their burrowing tenancies, is also a major issue along with the spread of noxious and invasive weeds. There's other reasons but you get the idea. Also, as if that wasn't enough, rabbits are an introduced species so upset the delicate balance that exists here which negatively impacts native flora and fauna biodiversity. Anyway, enough about rabbits.
I was going to take my shotgun but decided I'd take one of my other firearms instead, it's been a long time since I've taken it out for a run.
Shooting rabbits with a shotgun is easy as the shells contain lots of little pellets that spread and only one or a few need to impact the rabbit to gain an effect. So, I took a rifle instead meaning I'd need to be far more accurate considering it sends a single bullet on a single trajectory, in the case of the rifle pictured it's a WFA1 .223 calibre - similar to the military .556 round but with slightly less pressure.
It's a fast gun and super accurate. You can see it mounted above with a Nightforce scope but I demounted that and put my Aimpoint red dot scope on it knowing I'd be closer to the targets and would not need the magnification the Nightforce provides. As a trained long range shooter I'm not super-keen on the close up stuff but, of course, know how to do it so operating with this WFA1 with the Aimpoint red dot was not going to be a problem. You can see the Aimpoint pictured below.
My friend and I headed out on foot just before sunset (but after he provided a legit BBQ) both carrying our kit, lightweight packs with water, first aid and snake bite kits plus some snacks, I had 100 rounds of ammunition and he had around 50 shotgun shells. We both carried high-powered hunting spotlights as well...we went to work for about four hours and got a lot achieved. On our return I counted up what ammunition I had left, 37 rounds, so I'd used 63. I know I missed a couple shots, let's call it 10 rabbits, so it was a pretty productive night.
I'll be honest and say I'm not sure we made much of a dent in the population but with some follow up shoots and his plan to do a little 1080 baiting should clean it up nicely.
The law here is that to use 1080 products (what rabbits are baited with) one needs to have over 5 hectares (12 acres) of land and because he has over 500 hectares (that's 5 square kilometres of land, of which 400 hectares is arable) he's good to go. It's also a good time to do the baiting as other feed is in short supply during/after the summer. We've had almost no rain so with summer over and the land still quite barren those little hungry buggers will be more easily controlled.
I had a great time to be honest, not so much the shooting because I don't really like killing things, but hanging out with my buddy, chatting now and then and walking around his property that lies 50 kilometres from the nearest town...so it's quiet. I'm also glad I took the WFA1 out for a run, it's such a fun rifle to shoot. A good time was had by all, except the rabbits I guess.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
Hello.
Well it sounds cool. Guess that's one of the things I won't shortly do, I mean hunting or shooting things, not that I like killing things either but do like the adventure and the shooting.
Snakes scare me a bit though. I would kill a couple of those if they charge poisoned fangs against me, of course, I'd use a machete rather than a gun.
I've only fired an AK -47 at Military and some other of less caliber. That's it.
Snakes are part of the deal when one goes into the Australian outback, and even in the cities in certain circumstances as well. We learn to live with them and there's some things we do to minimise the risk of a bite. It's just how it is here. There's loads of deadly ones but we all manage to get along. I fucken hate snakes though; creepy bastards.
We didn't see any the other night although they were there I presume. Many like to hunt at night. It was a pretty good night out though, had fun hanging with my buddy and getting some productive work achieved.
Yeah, it sounded like a nice night. Hey, have you been bitten by a snake before?
I guess that's how it is in Australia, and as you were born there I understand you get use to live with the creepy bastards as you called them, that they fucken are, if I may underline, bit I've just seen them on TV, documentaries and stuff, they have some cousins here though, they don't bite and are no poisoning, they are also creepy though and they use to ate eggs and little chickens when I lived at the countryside years ago.
I've not been tagged thankfully, it's not a very nice experience considering we have some of the most venomous snakes in the world. Plenty of people have been bitten though.
Are the rabbits edible after being shot? I'd assume not with a shotgun or 1080, but maybe with the rifle? I'm not actually sure I've ever eaten rabbit.
The .223 is a slightly larger calibre than is required for the job but depending on shot placement will leave most of the rabbit intact but I'd not eat them anyway. Not that have disease (as far as I could tell) but I'd not want to risk it. Best that they supply fertiliser.
Hi @galenkp, Sharing moments like these, with a friend, where you share and solve problems as if they were your own, are great moments. That's what friends are supposed to be for. I hope that plague problem is on its way to being solved.
I'm off to a birthday now, see you tomorrow.
It was a good night for sure, just the camaraderie of friends, the country air and all...I value moments like this.
Have a good time out.
I have watched various documentaries, Australia has some of the most venomous species of snakes. That would probably put me off being in nature to a large extent, without the proper equipment and antidote in my backpack 🙂
I didn't know you had such a big problem with rodents (rabbits).
You did a good job.
Do you leave those killed rabbits in the field where they were shot, to be eaten by other wild animals, or do you collect them and bury them?
I remember when my friend went hunting for rabbits with his father (sport hunting), to learn to shoot with a carbine, he mounted the optics, but his father took them off and told him: "This way is fairer, we'll give the rabbit a little chance, and you'll learn to shoot too".
The result, he returned home with zero hits.
One doesn't carry the antidote in the back pack as one doesn't know what snake will bite and they need to be refrigerated anyway.
The process is:
As for the rabbits, the stay where they lie, digging graves for them isn't time effective. They get taken by other animals, birds, ants and all and when foxes come around to eat them they get shot too if seen.
Definitely sounds like it was a productive them. The rabbits have taken over our back yard a bit since our dog passed away. I live too close to the city to really do anything about them though. We have a state police post near where I live and you can occasionally hear them shooting guns, but anything in my neighborhood would be quickly reported to the authorities. Plus it probably wouldn't be very safe anyway. I do have access to a high powered air rifle that I might try to use one day.
The air rifle would work pretty well I'd say, depending on the situation with neighbours of course. I know someone who was expert with a slingshot (not myself unfortunately) and he'd knock then on the head with a ball bearing which was pretty effective and silent.
Best not to alert those State troopers by firing some rifles or shotguns in your backyard. ☺️
I have thought about getting a slingshot. I think that would be pretty cool and very primal to learn and master. I was watching videos of an Asian lady the other day who was knocking hornet nests out of trees with her slingshot.
I'm reasonable with a slingshot (but not great) and enjoy it a lot. It's an excellent option for cost, knockdown (or pain infliction for humans) and it's silent which could be good in certain situations. Well worth a few bucks to have one I think.
All great reasons to consider it!
I had a close encounter with one of your faves this last week. No not this...
Nor this...
Just a snake...
He lost his head. Literally
Clowns, fucken spiders and snakes bro...three of my most hated things. I saw a little baby Eastern Brown a week ago...little fuckers are more deadly than the adults as they don't yet understand how much venom to inject so when they but one gets a fuck load and that never ends well. Little asshole was going the other way thankfully but gave me the creeps.
Scorpions and Black Widows are the things I most come in contact with here. Well ok 2nd to those miserable fucking fire ants.
Snakes not as much as one would think. Maybe the ferals do keep them away?
Clowns..? I pretty much see them whenever I see a politician.
Introduced species, if not controlled, are a big problem because of the negative effect they cause to the ecosystem and, not only animals, but also introduced plants have negative effects.
I did not know that rabbits were introduced species in Australia because you have a great diversity of fauna, some of which are unique in the world.
Since I started reading the post I figured you would have a good time because having to use some sort of weapon would be fun because they are one of the things you enjoy most.
Happy Saturday and better Sunday.
Cheers and best regards.
Introduced species such as rabbits, foxes, (wild) pigs and cane toads do a lot of damage to what is a pretty fragile balance here as do introduced plant species also. It makes sense to control them.
Have a good weekend.