Rabbit....how small is too small?

RICHIE.39

As above...a permission i have has alot of young rabbit on it that are about half grown id reckon. Im just wondering if its worth it to shoot them at this size for the pot or do i hold out til they are bigger. I have been asked to thin them out after all by the landowner. How long before they get to a good size and is there much difference in taste between young and older rabbit? Cheers for any opinions :-)

snipe02

leave them a week or two generally a younger rabbit will be nicer to eat about three quarter grown is my favourate a hardy grazer as the uncle says are the best. too small is a waste there is nothing on em . they grow like fu#k so if they are doing damage id say get out after them and plug away...

Chesapeake

it's a bit like a fox cub - if they are trouble to you do them once and do them right...........size is relative.............they'll only get bigger!

steyrman2

Hi there is a fine line between a few for the table and keeping the land owner happy if the rabbits were large amounts there is nothing nicer than a few 3/4 grown rabbits for the table if not sit out and shoot the bigger ones

extremetaz

There's only a few weeks in it - I'd leave them be. Should be plenty around besides to keep the bag at a good enough level for all to be happy.

It wasn't me!

Once they're out and grazing I'd just be knocking off the older ones as I see them, leave the young ones and they'll start coming into good edible sizes as you go along. You'll start hitting into the younger demographics pretty soon but by then you'll be on a maintenance sort of level and the farmer will be happier, while you get to keep shooting them as they get big enough to make it worthwhile. If they need getting rid of, they need getting rid of, but by planning and working at it smartly, you're not going to be wasting much effort or time or shooting too many rabbits that aren't worth eating.

RICHIE.39

Hopefully I'll be getting the time to do that. Plenty there to be taken. The only problem now is they are a wary bunch and the only way to them is 120m open sight in front of them. I'll have to get more organised along the camouflage way! And of course the last evening there was a cat feeding off the carcass of a rabbit somebody shot in the same field. This had the effect that as soon as i entered the gateway they were hopping closer to home haha. All about the challenge i suppose. Thanks for the replies folks.

Longfellow

If the Landowner asked ya to thin them lads out, that's what you should do. If you don't and his crops get ate, he just ring the next lad he knows to shoot them lads.

RICHIE.39

Longfellow wrote: »

If the Landowner asked ya to thin them lads out, that's what you should do. If you don't and his crops get ate, he just ring the next lad he knows to shoot them lads.

Land is only field....nothing sowed. His issue is they have burrow entrances nearly every four foot of the perimeter. Think he lets it for grazing during the summer , not sure.

Birdnuts

I've made a poor fist of skinning adult rabbits for the pot over the years - skinning a load of small ones wouldn't appeal to me at all. I suppose if you where ferreting and got a load of small ones you could feed them straight to the dogs or pass them on to falconry lads