Sako 17HMR rifle involved in massacre.

[Bill Douglas]

I heard stories about the hills moving with rabbits in Central Otago, New Zealand and being only 500 miles away I thought I’d take the 17HMR with me and have a look.

The stories were not quite true, and I did have to put some work into it, but got 33 rabbbits in six hours of hunting. The rifle has a good quality moderator/silencer but it still made a pretty big bang and any rabbits within a few hundred yards fled. I had a bi-pod on the gun so I took my time and most shots were head shots at about 100 yards. I supect a better stragery might have been a .22LR with silencer and sub-sonic ammo.

I had a bit of fun at the end of the day on a hill overlooking a field that had been freshly plowed and cultivated to be as smooth as a billiard table. Through the binoculars I could see rabbits about 300 yards away so I set the Nikon scope to 20x and got the bipod setup to be positioned well and steady. At that distance and being on a hill overlooking the field I aimed about 36 inches high and a foot to the left for breeze. I fired about 10 shots at various rabbits and the closest missed by about 2 inches. LOL It sure gave them a fright and theyt took off at full speed once they figured out what was going on.

I enjoyed the shoot and spent the rest of the week driving around Cromwell, Queenstown, Wanaka, Lake Tekapo and other sun scorched (it’s summer here now) alpine places.

[motion]

Nice scenery and story, but I feel bad for the 33 rabbits.

[vash]

i watched a show about new zealand. they were hunting stag. the rifles were all suppressed. they were still loud, but i guess "not as loud"? the show made no mention of the suppressors.

what's the deal. they mandatory? or not?

[scottmandue]

Be berry berry qwitet...



So what do you do with 33 rabbits? Eat them? Make a jacket? Leave them for the vulchers?

[Bill Douglas]

I feel sorry for the rabbits too, but it's a battle between the rabbits and the sheep as to who gets to eat the grass. They have an organised shoot each year as the rabbits are bad for the economy in the area Easter Bunny alert as 39 teams gather for annual hunt | Otago Daily Times Online News Keep Up to Date Local, National New Zealand & International News

Vash I just thought a suppressor would make the gun nicer to shoot. I wore ear plugs too as I'm a bit deaf, I SAID A BIT DEAF and don't want to lose any more hearing. I've got one on the .22 too.

Yes the scenery is nice. Much nicer than where I'm from.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

So what do you do with 33 rabbits?

132 keychains.

[Jeff Higgins]

Serious question for those of you who feel bad for the wabbits - how do you think they die in nature, left to nature's devices? I'll help you out by eliminating one answer before we even get started - I don't believe a wild rabbit has ever died of old age.

As far as suppressors, I do have a fair amount of experience with them. Think of an RSR style muffler on a 911 vs. open megaphones - they take the edge off, but not much of it. Suppressed firearms are, for the most part, still pretty damn loud. One still needs hearing protection to shoot them. The only exceptions are closed breach (bolt action, single shot, etc. - no autos or revolvers) guns that would be "quiet" anyway. Sub-sonic ammo in a full length .22 rimfire rifle, and stuff like that.

What we see in the movies is simply impossible. A high velocity rifle emitting a muffled "pop" is just not ever going to happen. The sonic boom of the bullet passing is every bit as loud as the "bang" from the exiting gas pressure, and a suppressor only addresses the latter. And not all that well at that. Even the "silenced" 9mm pistol is pure Hollywood myth. A suppressed 9mm pistol is still louder than an unsuppressed .22 pistol.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

So what do you do with 33 rabbits?

I left them there. They make a meal for the hawks.

[VINMAN]

My Bun bun does not find this amusing...

[aigel]

Rabbit is one of my favorite table fare. The young end up as fryers and the old ones in gumbo or stew. I like our cottontail rabbits best here but don't shy away from a jack either. I target them early in the season with the rifle when they aren't educated yet. The ones still out during bird season ending up as by-catch will also go in my pot though. They are a good substitute for chicken.

G

[Bill Douglas]

When I take my Border Terrier pup for his morning walk he knows where he can see a rabbit in it's hutch. The sad thing is the rabbit is so pleased to see him it comes bouncing over to see Rooney, and Rooney is squealing with excitment and wants to rough him up LOL

[lisa_spyder]

Eat him more likely Bill!

We have had pet 'wabbits' for some years now. One 'wabbit' has outlived all the others. Bonnie is 8; a big NZ White. He's gorgeous; a bit of a grump as he's getting on though.

We did this (got wabbitty bunbuns) because the kids MADE us...so I refrain from telling them too many stories about our shooting trips when I was a kid . I also cannot put a wabbity bunbun meal on the table...given that my kids love all sorts of meaty meals I will refrain in the future from having pet lambs, calves, kids, chooks etc. I do not want a vegetarian family!

FWIW the 'wabbit', the pup and the fatcat all get along really well . The cat jumps in his cage with him and snuggles up - very cute!

Bunnies are sweet - but the wild ones are in profilic population here as an introduced species and cause major headaches. For years the wild ones were subjected to mixamytosis in an effort to control their numbers (virus carried by mosquitos). Having seen many bunnies with mixo I can say it's not pretty. They started to develop a resistance to mixo; so now we have calicivirus as well. A vaccine for the calici is available for domestic rabbits, but the Law says no vaccine for mixo...

With our historically wet summer, there are many more mozzies around and the Vets are warning about the very real threat that domestic rabbits may succumb to it. Trying to mozzie proof a very large hutch for us is nigh impossible (Taj Mahal of bunnydom)...so I'm just hoping that Bonnie-boy doesn't get bitten by some nasty little mixo-ridden mozzie. I'd like him to just fade away of old age...

[lisa_spyder]

Oh and Bill....

Silencer and sub-sonic ammo....definitely . Works a treat