Hunting techniques for the shy bunnies...

[petemacsydney]

Hi all
After some advice. I've been doing some pest control on a permission.
The farm has mostly bunnies, foxes, cats etc and the occasional roaming pigs.
The challenge i have is with the bunnies. They have been shot at for years and are very very shy. I've been hunting them with my 22LR between 50 and 150m. There's tons of the little fella's around, but they just don't want to play when i'm around.
I am careful to be downwind, I use a scent blocker, tried a hide, used night vision, hugged the terrain when stalking, camo gear etc etc etc.
The problem is, as soon as i turn up to the farm, the buggers obviously know its danger time and just go to ground.
Trail cams show a truck load of bunnies around at all times of the day and night when no one is there, so i know they are there, i just cant lure them out of when they do come out, one take sends them all to ground again.
I'm not a very experienced hunter, so i guess i'm after some advice?
I've tried to google some advice but haven't really found anything beyond what ive already tried.
Any thoughts you have would be much appreciated.
cheers
p
(p.s. i don't eat them, so happy to go longer range with a higher calibre)
(p.s.s. to make my suffering worse, i was at a non permission farm on the weekend and went for a stalk of their bunnies (without rifle). i was easily stalking up to 1 or 2 meters close to some of them (i could almost reach out and pat them). Wish i could shoot there, as the buggers have got no idea!! But that wont be happening as it was a rental for a family weekend trip.. ;-(

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[Title_II]

This product works:

www.youtube.com/embed/0mOJe8jJIKQ

[happyhunter]

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[wrenchman]

have you tryed setting up a blind and leaving it there for them to get use to then come back and sit in it.
if it is a pest issue you can make some box traps and catch them.

[petemacsydney]

thanks ya'll, love the video! classic!
yep, tried the hide and had some successes in summer, but even with a subsonic it clears the field after the first take down and they don't resurface for hours. Mind you, i put the hide up the same day as i shoot (probably an hour or two before hand), so perhaps i need to look at setting it up more permanently?
thought about box traps, but i'm more in it for the hunting practice. It's a mate's farm and he's not bothered how fast i take them down (but he does want to manage them over time). i guess i'm just frustrated with the slow progress.. Perhaps my patience needs work
Good to know about scent, that surprises me, i was really worried my stank might be putting them off, so i made some home made stank killa (scent remover). It is amazingly effective, even after a full day work on the farm my pits go from insanely inhumane smelly to zero stank after two squirts of the stuff !!

[Title_II]

The video is a real product, and it works. You can take out burrows up to 50 feet long with a single shot. It's called the Rodenator and you can order them online.

You talked about pest control earlier but now you say you are more in it for hunting practice so I guess it might not be the answer at the moment.

Anyway, happy hunting!

[wrenchman]

did you try some 22 shorts or air rifles might not be as much noise but it sounds like they head to cover with any noise.
i was killing rats with a 177 air rifle my kid got good at it and cleaned them out.

[brett1868]

Pete, take me with you I'll set the thermal up on the 22LR and we can take them out 2 at a time. 22 Target Pistol ammo is what I used as a young fella as it was very accurate and reasonably quiet. I'll see if it's still made when I shoot at St Mary's tonight and if available I'll get you a couple packs to try out.

[NuZo]

Try to find someone with a ferret! flush them out of their holes real quick! Just make sure you have a shotgun handy haha.

You can also try smoking them out. Light a fire at the front of the warren and wait.

Cheers,

Nuzo

[petemacsydney]

yeah tried quite a few really quiet subs mate and also tried a really quiet air rifle with next to no noise (accepting the impact noise of course) and got same results.
All done with clean head shots, but they do dance around a bit even after a clean head shot kill, so maybe the suggestion above around head to neck shot will help with the post mortem fit reduction. Personally I reckon they've done a Bear Grills survival course or something. Little f***ers.. lol

[petemacsydney]

hhmm, smoking them out with an adler on standby might work well!

[Gwion]

If he really wants them gone, plough the warrens in.

Maybe you need some ninja lessons

Try spending time out there and not shooting. Set up a scarecrow so they are conditioned to a 'human' presence with no predatory threat. Still, if it is one main warren and you can't swap and change locations, they will respond to the predictors pressure by getting cagey.

[tom604]

are you taking too long to take the shot? a place where i shoot, if you take much longer than three seconds they are gone

you may have to take offhand shots at them, your hit to miss ratio will go down a bit but if they are close,30 to 40 meters you should get a few

i try to get down on one knee if i can, more stable, and if they are just hopping slowly ill take a moving shot, moving quickly i let them go ( not that i would have a hope of knocking one off if its in speed mode )

night time you can sit and wait,they will come out eventually, take one out and then move to the next warren and do the same, slow but steady

drive with a mate spotlighting,best in a ute, the extra height helps a lot and if you are only getting one at each spot go for the body, if it starts screaming a fox may pop over for a look always better to dump them in one spot or at least clean them in one spot then have one last look at the dump site before you go home,maybe a fox maybe a cat getting a free feed

[YoungBuck]

Am in such a similar position, it's funny that a topic like this has popped up!
I've got a relative with 20 acres that backs onto SF and he has a couple of smallish warrens on his property. I've tried a few times to shoot the bunnies there but they always seem to be on super high alert and spot me way before I spot them in the distance...

[Oldbloke]

Try to find someone with a ferret! flush them out of their holes real quick! Just make sure you have a shotgun handy haha.

You can also try smoking them out. Light a fire at the front of the warren and wait.

Cheers,

Nuzo

Yep I did that yrs ago when I was first married and took the wife out. ( all stopped when pregnancy come along. )
It is great fun.
You have the same problem everyone who shoots a few bunnies has. Its called the game of "man and bunny" not to be confused with "cat and mouse" I think thats why shooting bunnies is still so popular. Always a challenge in their own way.

These days I "sit and wait" a lot. BTW for every one you see above ground there heaps under the ground, perhaps as many as 9 or 10.

PS a lawn mower with a hose attached to the exhaust should do the job.

[Strikey]

A few sticks of Powergel, couple of kg's of ANFO should sort out their shyness, might be a tad noisy but its fun

[petemacsydney]

are you taking too long to take the shot? a place where i shoot, if you take much longer than three seconds they are gone

you may have to take offhand shots at them, your hit to miss ratio will go down a bit but if they are close,30 to 40 meters you should get a few

i try to get down on one knee if i can, more stable, and if they are just hopping slowly ill take a moving shot, moving quickly i let them go ( not that i would have a hope of knocking one off if its in speed mode )

night time you can sit and wait,they will come out eventually, take one out and then move to the next warren and do the same, slow but steady

drive with a mate spotlighting,best in a ute, the extra height helps a lot and if you are only getting one at each spot go for the body, if it starts screaming a fox may pop over for a look always better to dump them in one spot or at least clean them in one spot then have one last look at the dump site before you go home,maybe a fox maybe a cat getting a free feed

nah, not taking too long on the sot, they just dont come out of the warren.
good point about moving between warrens/shots. i'll try that. i presume you recommend i go get the kill before i move on? (wasnt sure if a dead bunny would put others off?

[petemacsydney]

A few sticks of Powergel, couple of kg's of ANFO should sort out their shyness, might be a tad noisy but its fun

sounds like fun.

i'm sure my mate would not be pleased to come back to the farm and find massive craters everywhere!!

[Title_II]

You forgot "smoking." Massive smoking craters everywhere

[petemacsydney]

i can see it now... smoking bunny parts spread across 200 acre's
Some of them still intact, but most not...

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[sarki]

A ferret and a shotgun is great fun

Must be a trick in not hitting your ferrets?

Do they stay right on he bunnies or just flush them out and let em run?

[tom604]

nah, not taking too long on the sot, they just dont come out of the warren.
good point about moving between warrens/shots. i'll try that. i presume you recommend i go get the kill before i move on? (wasnt sure if a dead bunny would put others off?

yeah mate, put them all in one or two spots that you can see from a good snipping spot, if a fox or a cat is around they will turn up for a free feed

do it on a regular basis and they will stop at the spots just to check if anythings there, just dont miss, they get wise quickly

[petemacsydney]

nah, not taking too long on the sot, they just dont come out of the warren.
good point about moving between warrens/shots. i'll try that. i presume you recommend i go get the kill before i move on? (wasnt sure if a dead bunny would put others off?

yeah mate, put them all in one or two spots that you can see from a good snipping spot, if a fox or a cat is around they will turn up for a free feed

do it on a regular basis and they will stop at the spots just to check if anythings there, just dont miss, they get wise quickly

perfect, there's a nice Mr Fox (and family) around, so that's a great idea. i missed him once though, so i think he's already suspicious..

[Farmjer]

The smoking ones like the above pic are easier to hit coz they run slower and get puffed quickly

Looks like he's too stoned to care about a ferret to move