Thread: How to hunt rabbits?

I quite often will do them the next morning if I'm out late and it's a cold night, the smell isn't too bad to me.
The gutless method is the way to go, try keep your shots to the head or front end if you can makes harvesting a lot easier and cleaner

Last time I did this I walked the area in the daytime and divided the area up into "stations" where I could walk a circuit and be presented with different shooting opportunities

Say if you were to pop up an escarpment that gives you a view of a clearing then it is an idea to customise your shooting area eg use some tiewire to put two branches of a tree together into a V shaped shooting rest with a view of the clearing

IMO you can scare bunnies and they will be back into it a couple of hours later

If a rabbit goes down a hole, it will come back out about 15 minutes later. Less for smaller ones, up to half an hour for big ones.

If you've seen a few around then start shooting them now because they will die down over the winter. That way you can take\ credit for "great pest control" and get some good shooting in. Don't leave them for later. They are a renewable resource (over summer).

When spotlighting for rabbits, there are several techniques you can try:
Stalking: Walk along with the spotlight on, scanning the area for rabbits. When you spot one at a distance, approach quietly to get within shooting range. This method requires patience and stealth.


Spotlight and Stalk: Walk along with just a headlamp on to see the ground, then use the spotlight intermittently to spot rabbits. This can help avoid spooking them with constant light and allows you to approach quietly when you spot one.


Ambush: Find a spot where rabbits are known to come out, such as feeding areas or burrow entrances. Sit quietly and patiently, then use the spotlight to illuminate them when they emerge. This method requires knowledge of rabbit behavior and preferred habitats.


Drive and Spotlight: Have someone drive slowly while you use the spotlight to scan for rabbits along the edges of fields or roadsides. This method covers more ground quickly but may spook rabbits if the vehicle is too loud.
Experiment with different techniques to see which works best in your hunting area. Remember to prioritize safety and legal hunting practices at all times.

I have a reasonably large battery setup for my maxtoch mounted on my .22, so just leave it on all the time. Full power for scoping out all of the rabbits at a distance, then it gets switched to a lower setting for walking around and shooting.
This allows me to plan the shoot, with the wind in my face, and cover to stalk up on the rabbits.
Most shots end up being 25M or less, so can be done standing.
The maxtoch light allows me to illuminate up to 1km away at full power, so I can clearly identify when there is other stock around, or buildings etc.
Because I shoot around orchards and market gardens with lots of equipment around, ricochets are very undesirable. I find that the CCI Segmented subs limit the ricochets a lot.

Thanks guys, I'll probably go for a wonder tomorrow night and see how many I can get

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I found it best to use a low powered and very wide flood angle head torch while walking around - this makes it easier to spot the eye shine, and a powerful led spot mounted to the scope to use once you have seen the eye shine.

Some good advice already. Sounds obvious I know, but you simply need to know where the rabbits live. Once you've established where their warrens are, whether its a proper one, or under a building, or in hedgerows, then you can nut out a plan of attack. The best way to do this is to recce the farm a few times, watch where they run to, then go have a look for their home. As soon as you find holes, you're in business. Most rabbits will remain within a shortish dash of home but some will venture further, usually younger animals being pushed out from the warren.

Productive rabbiting is all about anticipating where you'll see rabbits, and being prepared. For rifle shooting, the best method is to work out the best places to shoot from, and set them up in advance. I've placed two stacked milk crates with a plywood top in likely places under trees, with good cover, good field of view from slightly elevated positions. I them there for the spring & summer, so I can walk in, sit and have a ready to go rest. I have a half dozen spots set up like this on the farm at the end of our road. Makes it so much easier. Knowing your ranges from each spot, remembering them for each shooting position, makes .22LR shooting a much higher percentage game than having to constantly range (or guess). Rabbits that know you're there will give you a chance, but not for long.

I had the wife laminate my drops table for the .22, a dozen copies, and I've stapled them to the posts or crates and they stay there... otherwise I'll forget it. Its very satisfying knowing you can reliably pick off 100m++ bunnies without too much bother.

If the grass is a bit long, it makes it very hard if you just plan on walking around, you'll spook them and they'll run. Good fun if you have a shotgun but useless with a rifle. But if you know roughly where they'll be, you just have to sit up and glass the grass... you'll see them, even if its just ears. I love picking off rabbits when all you can see is ears.

I do occasionally shoot rabbits at night but to be honest its not my preference, just a personal thing. Used to do it for hours on end as a kid with a ute and lights and shotties, a blood bath. Industrial level rabbitting. These days a late afternoon/ evening is more fun for me, with a good plan and some advance prep.

Agree with the guys saying to shoot in daylight if possible, especially if public thoroughfare is a possibility.

Depending on where you are, be conscious that rabbits and cats eyes shine difference colours, so (unless feral cats are a legitimate target where you are) you aren't shooting the farmer's little miss fluffy.

If you are shooting there for a while, make an effort to notice how the seasons change the foliage/ ground cover and what that means for where rabbits go/ hang out.

The thing I found that made the biggest positive difference for me was sidelining my LED lenser (P7.2), in favour of an 8 dollar AliExpress LED torch using 18650 batteries.

The el cheapo was just so much more powerful. I ended up getting two, mounting one to the scope, using one handheld to sweep paddocks every now and then to pick up eye shine, and a low power headlamp for finding my way around.

I went out for a few nights spotlighting with a very experienced guy.

He'd spot the rabbit with the light, the rabbit would sit or run.

If it sat, he zapped it through the scone with a 22. ( he was a commercial shooter, doing petfood, so didn't do body shots.)

If it ran, he swung the light in front of it till it was out of the beam, then it would stop.

He'd keep doing this till he had it still, then swing the light back on and zap it through the scone.

Depending on the ground as well, rabbits and hares have a tendency to stop at fence lines and other obstacles to look back at you to see if you're still chasing/a threat. I have also had success making them stop and look back long enough to take a shot by whistling/yelling at them

I find that they learn your route too so I tend to mix it up a bit to catch them unawares.

Went out for a walk tonight and of course because I had the .22 saw a lot less rabbits than previous nights!
Got 3 and recovered 1. They dash of into the gorse and disappear quickly even when hit well, spent an hour looking for the ones I got.
The recovered one is now brinning in the fridge.
Realized I need to practice more shooting standing and shooting quicker.

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If your going to use the meat, as soon as you can, squeeze it's stomach to push the pee out.

Yep gutted it with the push method as soon as I got over to it

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