started bunny bash yesterday

sniperman

went out yesterday for a look round with the .22lr,,got these 10 nice half growns,i feel a stir fry coming the weekend:D,no sign of mixi yet,

Damoeire33

yum, what time is dinner??

Eddie B

Nice to see there's still numbers in some parts of the country. Don't know when I last seen a rabbit.

sniperman

Eddie B wrote: »

Nice to see there's still numbers in some parts of the country. Don't know when I last seen a rabbit.

yep,plenty round here,seems more so this year than last.

Kiltris

Nice shooting. Crazy amount of rabbits around my area, causing havoc to be honest. Went out Friday night for a spin around, had a buddy on the lamp, bagged 67 bunnies in 3.5hrs. All we did was drive the farm road ways on 3 farms.

J.R.

Kiltris wrote: »

Nice shooting. Crazy amount of rabbits around my area, causing havoc to be honest. Went out Friday night for a spin around, had a buddy on the lamp, bagged 67 bunnies in 3.5hrs. All we did was drive the farm road ways on 3 farms.

Your very lucky - we had some rabbits on one permission and lots & lots on another but they seem to be wiped out.....vanished....very lucky now to see the odd one when out & about.

Pity - I used to love the walk around on a summers evening looking for them.

sniperman

Kiltris wrote: »

Nice shooting. Crazy amount of rabbits around my area, causing havoc to be honest. Went out Friday night for a spin around, had a buddy on the lamp, bagged 67 bunnies in 3.5hrs. All we did was drive the farm road ways on 3 farms.

wow,id say that was some night,great to see them in those numbers.

Chiparus

Very few around me,
Would Buzzards take rabbits?

Seems to be plenty of those around.

J.R.

Chiparus wrote: »

Very few around me,
Would Buzzards take rabbits?

Seems to be plenty of those around.

Plenty of buzzards where I shoot as well.

I'd imagine rabbit would be high on the buzzard's diet.

I've seen them take dead ones - ones left behind in the field hedge with signs of myxo.but never saw them taking a live one.

Twice while out pigeon decoying a buzzard dived down to take a decoy. As soon as its talons hit the plastic shell it realised something was wrong and dropped it.

Surprisingly, we had dead birds among the decoys propped up with a kebab stick to make the picture bigger & more realistic.
You'd imagine they would have gone for the dead birds.

I was happy that our set-up must have appeared very realistic.

Eddie B

Chiparus wrote: »

Very few around me,
Would Buzzards take rabbits?

Seems to be plenty of those around.

As said, buzzards do take rabbits. But their not responsible for the decline in rabbits. Fox's are way more plentiful, and would take far more rabbits than buzzards.

Rabbit numbers have declined considerably in many area's throughout Ireland, and the UK over the last numbers of years due to a virus known as VHD or RHD. There is also a new strain known as RHD2.

This virus is very contagious, and can be spread to different area's by hunters, dogs, and ferrets. It's far worse than the Mixi. It can wipe out the rabbit population in whole area's, with very slow recovery rate, if they recover at all.

I can't even recall the last time I saw a rabbit killed on the road.

Kiltris

We would have regular nights out where we will take out over 100 a night, but they are all farms that are being over run. We can't ever seem to to get ahead of them as we have to return to most of these farms on a yearly basis.

The only common thing I can see between these farms is the type of ground (easily burrowed).

I must throw up a nights shooting for one of ye when we get going properly at it.

RossiFan08

Kiltris wrote: »

I must throw up a nights shooting for one of ye when we get going properly at it.

Fair play, not a lot of lads would do that. Would definetly be interested when you get going

cookimonster

Kiltris wrote: »

We would have regular nights out where we will take out over 100 a night, but they are all farms that are being over run. We can't ever seem to to get ahead of them......

Be careful what you wish for... my father and I had great rabbiting in Meath for many many years (15+) over a very large area. Mixi would come and go and areas would go dry while others flourished but then the numbers just fell away and kept diminishing. All down to the hemorrhagic virus. Spots in Cavan are the same the rabbits never came back. Neither predator population or hunters will do much to a healthy population of rabbits but the VHD is devastating.