5000 in 2 years? just a boy then! as far as 3 shots for one rabbit I was more thinking of your capabilities than mine since you are used to shooting longer rangers with .222 and 17HMR's etc you may be tempted to take longer shots than you should with the .22 and find it under powered. Anyway good luck with your endeavours mate.
When hunting think safety first
I agree with this when shooting rabbits. In my case I shoot mainly hares and then have a totally different perspective. I grow a lot of trees. I know a guy who lost 500 trees in one night to hares. At a planted cost of at least $2 each I say each living hare could cost me $1000/night, double that if you take into account replacement cost. So when I shoot hares (which are harder to kill than rabbits anyway) I pull the trigger three times each time I take a shot. If I hit it 3 times, fine with me. If I miss it twice, maybe I will hit it with the third. I use open sights as I've found rifles have a hard time in farm life and the scope was always getting knocked and next time I fired at anything I'd miss. Also I like the additional peripheral vision factor. I've been shooting with people with scopes and my 3 shoot rule means I am often hitting a lot more than they are with their more accurate scoped rifles. At a potential cost of thousands of dollars of damage a night the additional few cents for extra 22lr rounds is a very good investment.
This is my 10/22 which I've had for over 30 years. It's had a hard time but the only problem I've had was with the 10 round rotary mag sticking, and not chambering the next round. I grabbed a BX-15 mag as soon as they were available and since then it feeds perfectly.
The only non-standard thing on the rifle (apart from the bx-15) is the rear sight. The standard iron rear sight got broken off and I made a 10 minute patch up sight to keep it operational until I replaced them. I actually really like the ghost-ring effect sight. I kept it like this for a few years, then put a scope on, had endless problems, and went back to this diy aperture.
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Good shit. have you tried washing the mag out? The wax/lube on the 22 along with a bit of powder fouling can gum them up.
Bit odd about the scopes. My good mate who shot heaps of rabbits used to do a lot bouncing around on the bonnet/roof of a landrover. Even had a chain fitted between the stock and mag so you didn't drop it. Never had issues. Possibly get one of those cheap polymer recoil pins and try again.
A good scope doctor in CHCH reckoned they can be hard on scopes with the original one. Maybe it wasn't you or the scope but if you like how it works now why bother.
Where are you, I could come over and help shoot some of the pesky varmints for you lol?
I'm in coastal Hawkes Bay, so a long way to come! Yeah I cleaned that 10rd rotary so many times I can't count. Never made a significant difference, it failed to load properly maybe once every hundred rounds, enough to be annoying but not enough to cause extreme frustration. I should have bought a new one years ago but I'm too cheap. I prefer the bx15 anyway, the extra 5 make a difference with hares.
I took my new neighbour out for his first ever rabbit/hare shoot the other day. City boy from Melbourne, came to NZ and had the chance to get a firearms licence and his own rifle! Coming home we had a hare in the headlights, so I shot him out the door with my 3 shot technique. Driving up to him he wasn't finished off so I emptied the rest of the mag into him one handed out the door (hey it needed to be emptied before I got it home!). My ex-Melbourne neighbour went home congratulating himself on his first drive-by shooting.....
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