Thread: How soon should I process a freshly killed rabbit?

Originally Posted by Tall kiwi

Cheers mate. From what you and others are saying its probably easiest to gut in the field and continue skinning/breaking down the meat back at home base.

Even thought its a measly air rifle I will be using, I am itching to start sourcing some meat for the family. FAL couldn't come any sooner...

Im an air rifle shooter. Absolutly love it. Takes a lot of skill to use a springer. You got to get in close, a 55m shot is a long shot on average. You got to be accurate cause the shock wont bowl it over. You got to know the wind cause your pellet is light as. You got to know your pellet drop cause its a big arc over a relatively short distance. If ya need any info yell out or head on over to kiwiairgunners, lot of good knowledgeable ppl there who can help you refine ya knowledge as well. Lots of useful info in the forums.
Air guns are highly under rated in my view
What are you shooting and what pellets are you using ?

Originally Posted by kruza

Im an air rifle shooter. Absolutly love it. Takes a lot of skill to use a springer. You got to get in close, a 55m shot is a long shot on average. You got to be accurate cause the shock wont bowl it over. You got to know the wind cause your pellet is light as. You got to know your pellet drop cause its a big arc over a relatively short distance. If ya need any info yell out or head on over to kiwiairgunners, lot of good knowledgeable ppl there who can help you refine ya knowledge as well. Lots of useful info in the forums.
Air guns are highly under rated in my view
What are you shooting and what pellets are you using ?

Sorry, I couldnt tell you what air rifle it is. Been several years since I used it (belongs to my uncle). I was thinking of buying my own pellets so I don't use all of his. What kind would you recommend?

That question is not something I can answer as every air rifle likes what it likes,the gun tells you what pellets it uses.
Ive just yesterday gone through a heap of differnt pellets to find out what the new barrel on my gamo likes. Its not the same as the old one liked yet rest of gun is the same.
My best advice is the one that shoots the most accurate and groups the best. Also the heaviest pellet that shoots as above, for the distance you are shooting. You can by sample packs of a few differnt weights and styles to get you in the ball park.
A rounded nose one is a good all starting point for accuracy and penitration.
If your not aware of the artillary hold look it up on the web. Unforrunatly if your under the impression your going to go out and shoot like a powder gun, your in for a rude shock. They are incredably fussy about hold and pellets both can make very acurrate air rifle shoot awfully.
Trial and error. ( this is for springer or gas piston. Gas cylinder, pump up or pcp are a differnt story )
Oh and skip what i said about .22 traveling a km or 2 , I didnt read it properly and thought it was a powder .22 For an air rifle Youd be lucky if it hasnt plowed into the ground at 200m if not before.

if you want i can send you a dozen or so of from the tins of pellets ive got and you can try them for grouping. If theres any it likes and its not the couple I use I'll send you the tin/s I have.
First probly pay to hit the air rifle owner up and see how accurarte what he uses is. Chances are hes already using a good pellet for the gun.

I do very similar to MD but cut down the spine rip the skin out of the way and just take the back straps and back legs
everything I dont want stays in the carcass and I dont get guts on my hands

blood will strip the blueing off the slug gun you are using so becareful to keep it off it

pillow slips work good at keeping stuff clean once its seperated from the rabbit just hang them in the tree to keep the air cooling it rather than dropping it into a pack where it will sweat

We used to peel the skin off like a jersey using the cut across the back method described earlier. We did not bother gutting them, we simply took the back legs and back straps, and sometimes the front if there are no holes. That is almost all of the meat and you dont need to gut at all then. The back legs are a it like chicken drums and are 75% of the edible meat on the animal. The two back straps are nearly a sausage between them, and the rest is toothpicks with a bit of meat flavour attached - A bit like eating a sparrow. ........

Agree about the front legs and to be honest, I don't always take the backstraps if I have a lot of animals to process. I mentioned the front legs in my earlier post because the OP may only get one or two animals on his first outing.

An Idea, if you're shooting a slug gun, something we did when young was dip the slugs in a little diesel first, or pour a splash into the slug container lid with a bunch of slugs. Not so they're wet, but oiled up a bit.
Then put them in for a shoot...

Let's say... you'll get more velocity

I'm sure there are a few airgun fanatics who will swear against putting any foreign objects in blah blah blah.

Don't go overboard, but if it's a hack, have some fun.

Run the risk of stuffing ya seal if ya do that. Its called dieseling. It causes the oil in the cylinder to explode.
But yep it boosts the power for a few shots. Wont be hitting where ya sighted it in for, due to the increase of volicity. Probly not something to do to ya uncles gun either.

Originally Posted by kruza

if you want i can send you a dozen or so of from the tins of pellets ive got and you can try them for grouping. If theres any it likes and its not the couple I use I'll send you the tin/s I have.
First probly pay to hit the air rifle owner up and see how accurarte what he uses is. Chances are hes already using a good pellet for the gun.

Thanks for the offer. I am heading there tomorrow afternoon so they won't get to me in time

Originally Posted by Jukes

An Idea, if you're shooting a slug gun, something we did when young was dip the slugs in a little diesel first, or pour a splash into the slug container lid with a bunch of slugs. Not so they're wet, but oiled up a bit.
Then put them in for a shoot...

Let's say... you'll get more velocity

I'm sure there are a few airgun fanatics who will swear against putting any foreign objects in blah blah blah.

Don't go overboard, but if it's a hack, have some fun.

Sounds like a fun time but I probably won't do this since I don't own the rifle

Post how it goes. Good or bad, Id be keen to see how you get on.
Enjoy your hunt. Rember no hunt is wasted time, your learning more every time.

Originally Posted by kruza

Post how it goes. Good or bad, Id be keen to see how you get on.
Enjoy your hunt. Rember no hunt is wasted time, your learning more every time.

Collected the rifle this evening. In a previous post you asked what model it was? Its a Stoeger X20 in .22 cal. Last time I used the rifle the scopes were way off so will need to zero the scope. Whats a good range to zero it? I was thinking 25 yards to begin with.

Originally Posted by Tall kiwi

Collected the rifle this evening. In a previous post you asked what model it was? Its a Stoeger X20 in .22 cal. Last time I used the rifle the scopes were way off so will need to zero the scope. Whats a good range to zero it? I was thinking 25 yards to begin with.

Sight it in at what your average shot distance will be, say if 40m then go back and check at 25m and see how high the poi is there and account for this (hold under) when you hunting under your sighted distance. For longer distance you will hold over (great if your scope has mill dots or ref) also before you sight in make sure all the stock screws are tight (2 at the front and 1 behind the trigger) and make sure the scope mounts are tight too!

Ive never fired one. I use stoeger x-field pellets as one of three pellets the gamo shoots really well. Read and watched a few reviews on web. Looks like a pretty sweet gun.
Be keen to hear what you think of it .
Sight it in at 10m first then fine tune it to 20m/25m .
After that if you want to get a cardbord box put 5 1inch dots on it. The shoot the first dot at ten meters, the second at 20m etc to 50m, youll see how the pellet changes impact point, above or below the bulls.
Some where in the middle theres a place where the impact points are nearly the same. Thats the flat part of its flight. Thats the part you want set to the distance you'll do the most shooting at. ( or leave it at 20m/25m
The the rest hold over or under when aiming at those distances.
Tell me if im telling you stuff you know. As you said you were a newbie im sure how much you know.