2012 NZHS Small Game Hunting Competition

2012 NZHS Small Game Hunting Stories Competition

Small Game must be LEGAL, can include Rabbits, Hares, Goats, Possums, Stoats, Ferrets etc etc

Stories must be in by the 30th of April, the story that gets the most "likes" wins. Old storys posted before is not what we are looking for.

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First prize is a Bushnell Trophy XLT 3-9 x 40 Rifle Scope with flip up covers, kindly donated by Lindsay at Shooters World, Gore

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Second prize in a 22 cal bore snake, kindly donated by spanners, Shooting Supplies

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Couple of mystery spot prizes I have to give away.


Open to all, young and old and take plenty of photos to add to the story.


Keep coments limited because I'll be trimming the thread to keep storys etc together.

Well the opportunity for some of us city slickers to spend days at a time laying in wait in a rabbit infested farm just doesn't come along very often.

But when it does, by crickey it's a shit load of fun !

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So when the chance comes along, it's time to grab the suppressed Howa 1500, Mueller 8.5 - 25 x 44, Hornday 55gr ammo and hope for good weather. It wasn't just good, it was perfect.

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Lay up on a hill, listen to a spot of music and spend the day watching the gullies, and the thyme for Mr Rabbit to hop along, blissfully unaware they're being watched.

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And about every couple of minutes, there's a snap sound, followed by the thud as Mr Rabbit says hello to some fast flying lead.

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Shoot, relocate every 30 minutes or so, and keep watching and shooting.

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Wandering around through the thyme, well at least everything smells nice haha.

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Sometimes some mad buggers come along as well, here fellow Aucklanders try a new method of attracting rabbits.

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Worked though, as the not-so-lucky rabbits foot decided to part ways with the rest of the body. But there just seemed to be a rabbit along every couple of minutes.

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A few stoats were nailed too, including a pure white one by another shooter. This fellow however was just incredibly dumb, walking directly towards me, and nailed at a range of only 20m or so. Hornday 55gr ammo at great speed just opened the fellow right up along the spine and chest cavity, I suspect the bullet carried on pretty much unaffected for another 200m or so.

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I think this one is just called gun porn :)

And sometimes we even have a video camera with us - Youtube video of a rabbit being nailed with the Hornady ammo, the travel of the shock wave is quite interesting.

Holy crap KScott... that shockwave was amazing. Must have broken every bone in his body.

That SPS tactical is one nice looking gun. ;) The bunny in the video didn't like it much though.

Well there were some really fluky shots :P as seen here.

The Kids First Bunny Hunt.

Over xmas I managed to get away with the wife and kids and the opportunity arrose to get the kids into a few bunnies.
The magnificent weapon was a dirty old magtech semi auto .22.

The kids had a blast as we drove and stalked our way up an old dry riverbed littered with bunnies, the kids loved retrieving and holding there dead prize.

Ashton and his rabit

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Jordyn and her rabit

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These bunnies dont have a future

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Ashton got very attached to this one, its the next morning, he wanted to keep it for school

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Here's a tale of an epic bunny shoot I wrote for a magazine about 15 months ago but didn't get round to sending.. a fabulous night.

THE BIG SHOOT


Last winter was a long wet season in Canterbury. Ask any cantab hunter. Rain, rain, rain - and then just for a change, heavy rain. Stations and shooting sites turned to bog and very little rimfire or centerfire hunting was possible for several months. This tends to build up a bit of frustration, and after tailing was finished and with the arrival of summery weather, a plan was hatched - a BIG BUNNY SHOOT. Now Canterbury doesn’t have the rabbit populations you find in Central Otago, but our team has been blessed with a great site we’ve been shooting for years. We’d topped 400 in a night at best, and in some months averaged just over 300 per visit – very respectable numbers. Maybe it was a touch of stir craziness from all that staying-at-home during winter, but we decided on a mighty challenge – to nail 1000 bunnies in a night.

The Plan

The core of our team has been together for years and shot tens of thousands of rabbits. We’ve done a lot of experimentation with many makes and models of firearms, tested out alot of equipment including rifle and truck spotlights, and refined our gear over time. We’ve also adapted our Canterbury 4WD Club trucks for bunny shooting. But 4 men on foot were not going to get the numbers so we added a couple more competent shooters to make a team of 6.

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The squad: Brian (gadgetman), James, Andrew (11), Neil, Rob and Graeme. Mike (mudgripz) missing.


The plan – get out to our station by 4pm on the Saturday afternoon, set up in the shearer’s quarters, have a good yarn and a few pizzas for tea, then out into our zones by about 6.30 and shoot hard for 6 hours. We’d shoot in the evening light till dark at about 8.45pm, then change to headlamps and the rifle mounted lights till midnight, and finally spotlight from the truck on the way home. Once back at the shearer’s quarters round 1am, we’d nail a few more pizzas, tell lots of stories and have an ale or two. It was going to be a hell of a night.


The Station

We arrived at the station, and after trying to pick the less bony bunks, we had a good chat and prep session for the night to come. The evening would be fine and clear but we would face serious problems with strong 40 knot winds which badly affect 22 accuracy, and we wondered how the night would go. Safety was a big discussion point and we had picked our zones carefully along a 6 km valley. Sites were at least 1 km apart and divided by hills, but we still used fluoro vests where necessary and all had google earth maps and R/Ts to keep in constant contact especially when moving within our zones. And we had one absolute rule – 100% firing zone safety with every shot. Finally after a good briefing and a pleasant hour or two, and teenage son James had devoured most of the pizza, it was time to set up the rifles and the gear - time to go hunt something.

The rifles

We’ve spent a few years trialling rifles to suit our exact uses and have arrived at a few makes which stock standard will deliver the reliability and precision shooting we need. In the daytime we tend to use mostly bolt action sharpshooters – and our requirement is that they can all shoot under ½” 5 shot groups at 50 meters. For this role the Norinco EM332, most JW15s, Brno, CZ, and Marlins make the cut. On this shoot some of the rifles were :

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From top: Graeme’s Marlin 2000 biathlon rifle with a Nikko Airking 4-12AO, Brian’s Marlin 980 with the very good Mueller APV 4.5 – 14AO, Neal’s CZ with its Leupold VX 3-9, and Mike’s JW15 shorty with a little Huntsman 3-9

For night shooting with very high bunny numbers we use accurate semiauto 22s for very fast off-the-truck shooting. The shotgun of course is king for night shooting, but is expensive when shooting 150+ rabbits so the semis are preferred. Most of the team now operate Marlin semis – model 60s and 795s – almost all of which will also drop under 0.5” for groups at 50 meters with a club shooter and the right ammo. Some of the semis on this trip:

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Neal’s Ruger 10/22 with 3-9 Bushnell, James’ superb Marlin Marlin 60DL with 3-9 Tasco, Brian’s Marlin 795S with 4-12AO Huntsman, and Rob’s borrowed 10/22 with Nikko 4x32

And the accuracy champ of the present sharpshooters – aside from Graeme’s biathlon rifle which it would also match – James’ beautiful Marlin 60DL. Featured in a recent NZGuns and Hunting article, this semi will touch ¼” with 5 shot groups at 50 meters and recently averaged 0.295” CTC for a series of groups. Of all the standard rifles we’ve owned/tested, only the Norinco EM332 will beat it – and then only at its preferred 75-100 meter distance. The norinco Em332 shot 0.4”, and many 0.5”s groups at 100 meters.

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James’ sharpshooter champ.



Heading Out

6.15 and we’re into it. Smiles all round, clips being loaded, gear checked, and real excitement in the air. The trucks wind out of the yards and out onto the station. Neal, Rob and Andrew go north in one truck past a woolshed, up the front face of the station and head out to their designated spots about 6km away on either side of the main valley. After tonight Rob’s spot will forever be known as Rob’s alley.

Graeme, James, Brian and I are in the Isuzu, with James taking the shots on the left as we drive in, Graeme on the right. After following the river we pop the truck into 4wd, climb up onto the flats and cut left up onto some ploughed and harrowed paddocks. We hug the grassy fenceline next to a matagouri gorge and straight away we’re into rabbits. Graeme nails a couple on the right, and James with a huge smile on his face nails 15 in about 10-12 minutes. The kid loves his Marlin. The signs are very good. We arrive at James’ site – a lovely little spot with a duckpond surrounded by green hills and sparse matagouri. A few last minute safety instructions, a double check of his chocolate supplies, his ammo brick and his R/T, and he’s off. He’s been shooting for years but just got his licence, and tonight is a very big night for him – his first time by himself. But he’s ready for it and we drop him off at 6.50, with arrangements to meet again sometime after midnight. The young fella will not forget his first night alone.

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Part of Brian’s block where Mike recently shot 101 in 95 minutes

Then its on to the drop point for Brian who will shoot a big flat area, then up over some steep hills with some good four-wheel driving to Graeme’s zone just beside some small yards. As we drive up the hill and look over the brow into Graeme’s spot, the hill seems alive with rabbits – about 40 of them across the hill face. The biathlon rifle is about to go to work. The wind is roaring past at 40 knots and cuts accurate .22 range to just 40 meters, so a lot of stalking will be required during the night. I head off to my own site several ks away – a less heavily populated zone – but as I drive I go past a few scrubby spots and pick up 17. All in all it’s a hell of a good start.

Into the night


I wind up the long valley past Rob and Neal’s zones, but no-one on the R/Ts yet. I get to my own zone and the wind makes the shooting very tough indeed. It’s hard yakka. You have to get close in to get a reliable shot, and after a few misses I have to stop shooting at anything past 50 unless its in a quiet valley. The little 15” barrel JW15 shorty is shot in for 75 meters and is normally very accurate, but tonight it’s a different ball game. But the bunnies are there and I keep covering ground.

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Near evening and time to set up the lights

By 8.45pm the sun has set and I fit the torch light onto the JW. It’s a little DX unit out of HongKong and it’s a beauty with full 100 meter night range. Soon after dark I notch 50, and now the advantage is starting to turn to me as I get the drop on them with the torch light. I continue shooting into the night and by 10pm I’ve nailed about 70, but its still tough work. By 11pm I’ve got 88 bunnies, and its time to wander back towards the boys. No news on the radio yet, but I may be out of range.

I drive a few ks back down the valley and finally contact Neal and Rob. I pick up a few on the way and I have 95 by the time I get to Neal’s truck. The tallies they report are massive: Neal is on 108, and Rob has nailed 166! Between us we have nearly 400 already, and there’s more shooting to come. They will stay out for another hour before heading down to the quarters.

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Rob’s alley and hill-face.


The pickup:

I collect Neal’s boy Andrew (11), tired out after hours walking the hills, and take a longer route across the station to meet James and the other boys – doing a bit of spotlighting on the way. By the time I get down to them its ¼ to 1 in the morning, and I’ve declared and put my rifle away on 108. I finally reach James on the R/T and this is one helluva excited kid. He has cracked 172 on his first time alone. I then get Brian and he’s also nailed a huge score – 164. They climb into the truck and we head up over the ridge to get Graeme. He’s waiting for us at the yards with a smile you can see in the dark and announces he’s on 199. The tallies are huge.

We head home through the paddocks and tonight there seem to be rabbits everywhere. Graeme goes past his 200 as we head off the higher ground and down towards the shearers quarters. When we get there the lights are on at 1.15pm and the other boys are sitting round waiting for us. The pizzas are thrown into the oven and out come a couple of beers. Fairly tired faces, but big smiles – because something special just happened. We do the tally. Our previous best was 400+ for 3-4 men shooting for a few hours, but there’s shock and amazement round the room as we discover that tonight we’re on 991.


A thousand

A short silence… then seconds later the beers we hoped to drink are back on the bench, Graeme (Canterbury trapshooting champ) grabs his Browning, Rob and Brian grab.22s and they’re heading for the truck. Its nearly 2am but nobody wants to quit on 991 rabbits. The truck heads out through the yards as the rest of us enjoy a quiet drink and many tales. They are not away too long before we hear the Navarra returning and in come the troops with big smiles – this time to stay. This time the beers, and the pizzas. For Canterbury its an epic performance.

The tally for the night is 1,030.

Morning

Well …we had intended to get up and shoot in the morning, but after a very late night it just didn’t happen. Tired boys wandering around with cold pizza and toast at 9am, but all happy. A few of us headed out to the valley to test out the 1950s recoil-action Breda shotgun Neal is restoring, and also to nail some bunnies with a Weihrauch 22 magnum I’m testing.

It’s a beautiful morning, the wind has come up very strong again, but we soon get into some bunnies. Neal gives himself a red shoulder with the Breda and some peppy trap loads, and Rob takes the Weihrauch. We find a nice spot with some cover and Rob puts the .22 magnum to good use. It is quickly confirmed this is a very accurate rifle, carries a lot of smack, and is not affected anywhere near as much in the high wind as the 22s. Rob comes back with a smile and comments the Weihrauch is a beauty. He doesn’t want to part with it.

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The Weihrauch .22 magnum - exceptional rifle


Home-time

11am now on Sunday morning, we are back at the quarters and ready to head home to Christchurch. Great feeling amongst the guys because we know we’ve done something very special - a high point in our rimfire shooting careers. This is not Central Otago with its limitless numbers, and we’ve had to work hard in tough shooting conditions. We know that in still conditions we would have got 1300-1400, but the huge goal of 1000 for the big shoot has been nailed. The farmer’s happy, and the boys head home with plenty of stories and alot of quiet satisfaction. A bit of instant folklore - a story to tell the grandkids in years to come.


The team:

Mike Anderson 108 (declared)
James Anderson 172 (cleaned up his old man)
Brian Reid 164
Neil Elkington 132
Rob de Voer 224
Graeme Everett 230
Total 1030



PS: two weeks later we went out and did it all again – 1004 bunnies!


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Brian in the high country in the early evening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mudgripz

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Part of Brian’s block where Mike recently shot 101 in 95 minutes

Then its on to the drop point for Brian who will shoot a big flat area, then up over some steep hills with some good four-wheel driving to Graeme’s zone just beside some small yards. As we drive up the hill and look over the brow into Graeme’s spot, the hill seems alive with rabbits – about 40 of them across the hill face.

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That bit to the right of the cleared hill paddock was the BEST... And around those top yards Graeme had.

Not as good as a spot I seen in the Mackenzie on Tuesday, hundreds of rabbits on only a few hectares!!

Great report mudgrips. Good to hear people still useing(and to good effect) the ol 22lr:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by ex-rabbithunter

That bit to the right of the cleared hill paddock was the BEST... And around those top yards Graeme had.

Not as good as a spot I seen in the Mackenzie on Tuesday, hundreds of rabbits on only a few hectares!!

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You're not wrong there. I knocked over 110 in 40 minutes from a 50m triangle. I didn't have to move and when I turned my lights off to eat in the dark all I could hear was this ripping sound all around me. The little buggers tearing off and chewing on the grass? Had sore fingers from constantly refilling mags.

Kscott, mate, whereabout is this? Beautiful country!

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Originally Posted by n777k

Kscott, mate, whereabout is this? Beautiful country!

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It's a farm just out of Alexandra. 15,000 acres or so, and we're going back for the Easter bunny shoot at the end of March. Yippee...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kscott

It's a farm just out of Alexandra. 15,000 acres or so, and we're going back for the Easter bunny shoot at the end of March. Yippee...

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Very envious of SIers

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Originally Posted by n777k

Very envious of SIers

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Me too. Which is why we fly down from Auckland twice a year for a few days shootin' . Would be nicer if I could just get in my car and drive for 30 minutes to places like these, alas the job and $ don't exist for me down there, so I'd probably be on the dole or serving fries to someone, and wincing every time I take a shot because of the cost.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kscott

Me too. Which is why we fly down from Auckland twice a year for a few days shootin' . Would be nicer if I could just get in my car and drive for 30 minutes to places like these, alas the job and $ don't exist for me down there, so I'd probably be on the dole or serving fries to someone, and wincing every time I take a shot because of the cost.

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hahaha I heard the Chch rebuild brings a lot of job opportunities, you may be pleasantly surprised:)