G'day Fella's
Well it all started with an email from a mate of mine Harb asking if I could take him out for a bit of rabbit shooting, (He and Michelle had been burning the candle at both ends for mths and mths now with a new business project) so a quick phone call to the property owner and it was confirmed - we'd go the next day.
Anway Harb rolled up around 9ish, I tossed all my gear in his Patrol and we were off for the long 15min drive!
We called in to have a chat to the owner who wasn't home, anyway we headed to a new little warren system I hadn't shot on before, after a bit of a search around to locate it - unbeknown to us at the time we were on one side of the bank parked looking for it glassing here there and everywhere wondering where the hell this warren was and as it turns out we were only a matter of metres away from it :rofl: :facepalm: which we discovered as we drove around said bank to go to another part of the property to have a bit of a look there.
After a bit of glassing we managed to spot a couple of rabbits so lined those up and promptly missed them :facepalm: Farking wind (thank god for windy days as we used that as our excuse for a s**t shot)
seriously though it was windy out there so we knew we had our work cut out for us, regardless we were up for the challenge/fun.
Anyway as we were heading back the way we came we discovered the bloody rabbit warren with 4 or 5 bunnies sitting there, drove straight past the bastards without even realising it at the time
how the hell did we do that?
We both had a crack at a couple of em and THANK FARK FOR THE WIND! we both missed em
well this was starting out well - both of us had a few shots with the 22's now and still couldn't hit the side of a barn.
anyway we waited another 20mins or so for them to re emerge but they thought better of it, so we headed off to see the property owner who had now come home.
Anyway here's a pics of the small warren system we'd completely missed - we were around 55m off it (Harbs Cooper and the Daughters Savage Mk2 in the pics)
Anyway after a quick chat to the property owner we set off up the hill to go to one of my favourite little places on the block that usually has a good supply of bunnies all over the place, well FMD the grass had grown since I was there a mth ago!
it was a good foot high or more in places! I'm thinking this is going to be rather interesting trying to spot rabbits in this!
We drove around for a bit looking for em as best we could but we couldn't see SFA the grass was way too long so we stopped and had a bite to eat and a chat. We'd decided to head down the hill to another little valley that usually has good numbers of rabbits and the grass seems to be shorter all the time, so as we headed off I spotted a couple of rabbits up on a bit of a warren system about 120m or so away, out came the 204 Howski, I put a sandbag on the bonnet lined up the only one left to have a shot at and sent a 39gn SBK on its way - the bunny did the acrobatic flip that is common when they get smacked down with the little 204 :boogie: finally we'd opened the bunny busting account.
We drove over there to survey the damage and this is what we found, one headless rabbit
After the photos we'd decided to try and drive up over the hill but seeing as Harbs front Diff Locker had blown a hose on his recent trip to the Simpson Desert, that was easier said than done, we'd had a couple of cracks to try and get up but no go, so we had to do a rather precarious sideways trip around said mountain until we could find a spot to cross over safely (not much fun being on those sorts of angles I can tell ya, the trucks slipping around a bit which put the wind up me and I'm sure Harb too.
not a good combo nasty angles and slippery grass! Anyway Harb managed to keep all 4 wheels the correct side up so all go.
We soon arrived at our new destination and the grass was perfect, you could see bunnies no worries at all in this spot so we were confident we should come across some sooner or later, we'd glassed around for a bit but none see so we figured we'd set up some targets and get Harbs 22, 17HMR and 204 Coopers all sighted in as he wasn't sure where they were up to in that regard (That's the prob when you own 21 million rifles ya can't remember what's been done to what)
Anyway we'd got all of em sorted good enough to poke holes in bunnies with which was good as the bunnies had decided to come out and see what all the shootin was about
We set about smashing a few of em which we did - max shot was 159m according to Harbs Swaro Rangfinder/Bino's (they are bloody nice to use for this sort of thing)
Duelling 204 (both these rabbits were shot at the same time :rofl: (Harb took the one of the Left and I had the one on the Right) we'd got into position and once everyone was set I did the ol 3 count and BANG FLOP both bunnies down.
that scenario happened a couple more times through the coarse of the day.
Here's one that was re COOPERated
Sniper bunnie getting ready for another shot
The Howso doing what it does best
All in all we'd have cleaned up close to 20 bunnies down in that spot, we were basically shooting them in a 360 degree arch, once the sun started going down a bit more we were seeing more and more of them emerging which was good. :auto:
We were sitting next to a warren and after a while the tiny baby rabbits would come out and have a look around which gave us some great amusement at times (we didn't bother shooting them as the were just too close to even worry about) plus they were fun to watch anyway. The hill in the background had a good foot or more of grass on it too but we were lucky as some bunnies were willing to stand on their back legs for a bit of a look around and as we know that's not a good idea when the Howski's around!
Harb missed one up there with his 17HMR then another one emerged soon after and I had a crack with the little HMR and nailed the bastard. :rifle:
After than we packed up as it was around 7.30pm at that stage and we headed for home, not before one last rabbit made the mistake of making himself known, the Howski 204 was out the window for a off hand shot - BANG FLOP that ones sorted and we made our way back to the property owner to thank them and set sail for home.
All in all it was a great day spent with a fantastic mate, what more could a bloke ever ask for? Life doesn't get any better than that for me