Thread: What little pesties did you bowl over today?

Originally Posted by Mooseman

Might pay to cook it first

Fur on or off?

Interesting little article in Stuff today about rabbit numbers in the Hawkes Bay

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/...untry#comments

Can't help but feel a lot of it is due to hysteria about shooting and using firearms in general as well as a large proportion of the population who think rabbits are too cute to kill.

Went for a walk after lunch as i had seen couple of rabbits running around a building on the property, this little one jumped out to say hello, gone. Out in the paddock was this plover got him at about 45m which i thought is not bad for a air rifle.

Seen this hare on my way home from work.
Rushed home to get Bo and the Stirling .22

As we got back to the hare it gapped it up the hill towards the pines.
Shot it on the run,with Bo doing the leg work for another retrieve.

You got a good dog there Dundee.

Originally Posted by Trout

You got a good dog there Dundee.

Don't think the Hares think so

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And obviously a good rifle as well.

A small (11,000 sqm) lifestyle block and an hour of my evening. The rabbit numbers are definitely creeping up in the area!! Pook is permitted too.

It’s amazing what good quality ammo will do for you. And equally amazing how dumb magpies can be. It’s a strange one because they are intelligent birds, especially if you educate them by shooting at them and missing, but their curiosity will often override their common sense, especially at this time of the year.

There’s a relic post in the horse paddock next to the water trough that is a favourite perch for magpies. If you look out over the paddock on a busy magpie day you can pretty much guarantee there will be a bird sitting on it; if there isn’t you only have to wait a few minutes and one will turn up. They seem to use it for some kind of one-upmanship game, a bird will sit on it and try and defend his perch from his mates. It’s also a good spot for them to perch and look for grubs as the grass is always short and pugged up from the stock. The post is 105m from my normal shooting position, sitting in the hedge resting the rifle on the fence wire with my right elbow on a log positioned just so.

There are dozens of the bastards this spring and if we let them breed up then we will have a plague. There seems to be more of everything this year, we are overrun with pheasants, hares, there’s quite a few rabbits and much higher tui and other natives than usual.

Anyway long story short I sat in my spot in the hedge yesterday evening and smoked 11 magpies one after the other, all off the top of that same 105m post. As the pile of dead birds grew, the more curious the fly-bys became, one or two landing every 5 minutes or so. Suddenly they stopped coming when a harrier turned up, he’s going to have a feast I thought but I didn’t really want 1 million feathers everywhere so me and the dog went and picked them up.

Stunning and still evening in Central, barely moved for 30 odd shot. 17hmr is a total weapon in those still conditions.

On the prowl again in the nana wagon with Bo.

Seen a few tonight but a chopper flew over and sent them scarpering.
This one was spotted on my way home from work.

Took the dog a while to sight it after the shot,but he was onto it after getting thru the blackberry and another nice retrieive.

Originally Posted by viper

Attachment 178892

Stunning and still evening in Central, barely moved for 30 odd shot. 17hmr is a total weapon in those still conditions.

30 shots for that pile of rabbits @viper?

@Joe_90

Four hours worth of spotlighting….4 possum..total value of fur n carcasses $29(approx). I’d be going hungry if I was doing it for a living..…$7.25/hour…








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