Trip to the farm. Not many rabbits about, but turkeys out of control!
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Trip to the farm. Not many rabbits about, but turkeys out of control!
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Hmmm nice big forest in the back ground.Ne game.?
I've seen feral sheep in there, and rumour has it that there are a few pigs around. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the forest itself, but the farmland runs right up to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trout
Went out a bit earlier today and did some work getting sighted in and used to shooting through the Guide TS450. Got to a point where I was pretty happy so went for a walk to test it out.
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One of the ones from last night had a load of babies on board, and two of tonight's were nursing mothers, so I'm counting another couple dozen that won't go on to eat sheep food :thumbsup:
Is the guide a full time scope?
Yeah it is. It's mounted with wingnuts, so it's pretty quick to pop it off & on if you want to use it for glassing, but I leave it attached as I have an Axion handheldQuote:
Originally Posted by Trout
Man this dog is a softcock. Show him a cold wet deck, he'll turn right around and go back inside.
Come have your photo taken with dead birds, I said.
No.
Yes.
Why?
Just bloody do it, dog.
[Barely audible insult]
Good dog.
Great to find a box of ammo that works. These birds were shot at 90m-98m, using a couple of decoy birds stood up with wire and an occasional squawk from the Bluetooth speaker. The ammo was a random box of the CCI subs that have been misbehaving so badly. This 50 box only had two go supersonic, the rest were fine. There's another dozen or more birds out there, hung up in the pines or plucked, scoffed by the hawks, or destroyed by this stupid mutt's sister, who isn't at all scared of the cold rain. She will not, however, have her photo taken thank you very much.
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Got this little one near the house with a .22 airgun. Bird screaming gave it away. You can really hear the desperate chilling screams of the birds when possums are near :XD:
This magpie had been terrorizing our free range chicken and taken some of their chicks. Finally put it down today, at 70yards. Another one to go.
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Looks like hes been beamed in like Mr Bean!:XD:Quote:
Originally Posted by alanpyc
No NV, just a normal bicycle LED touch
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Bo gets another retrieve following a shot with the .22 Stirling.
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Enjoyable bunny shoot last night out on farm by Birdlings Flat - on way to Akaroa.
Lovely calm evening - real pleasure to be out actually. We were spotlighting from the truck with maxtochs - team of 4 including @gadgetman with his 22WMR. A very pleasant 4 hour wander across 2000 acres during which we popped 55 hares and rabbits. A fine evening and boys came home with smiles. :) Reminds us why we hunt..
Dinner:
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Might pay to cook it first:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Flyblown
Fur on or off?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseman
Interesting little article in Stuff today about rabbit numbers in the Hawkes Bay
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/...untry#comments
Can't help but feel a lot of it is due to hysteria about shooting and using firearms in general as well as a large proportion of the population who think rabbits are too cute to kill.
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Went for a walk after lunch as i had seen couple of rabbits running around a building on the property, this little one jumped out to say hello, gone. Out in the paddock was this plover got him at about 45m which i thought is not bad for a air rifle.
Seen this hare on my way home from work.Attachment 178725Attachment 178726
Rushed home to get Bo and the Stirling .22
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As we got back to the hare it gapped it up the hill towards the pines.
Shot it on the run,with Bo doing the leg work for another retrieve.
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You got a good dog there Dundee.
Don't think the Hares think soQuote:
Originally Posted by Trout
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And obviously a good rifle as well.
A small (11,000 sqm) lifestyle block and an hour of my evening. The rabbit numbers are definitely creeping up in the area!! Pook is permitted too.
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It’s amazing what good quality ammo will do for you. And equally amazing how dumb magpies can be. It’s a strange one because they are intelligent birds, especially if you educate them by shooting at them and missing, but their curiosity will often override their common sense, especially at this time of the year.
There’s a relic post in the horse paddock next to the water trough that is a favourite perch for magpies. If you look out over the paddock on a busy magpie day you can pretty much guarantee there will be a bird sitting on it; if there isn’t you only have to wait a few minutes and one will turn up. They seem to use it for some kind of one-upmanship game, a bird will sit on it and try and defend his perch from his mates. It’s also a good spot for them to perch and look for grubs as the grass is always short and pugged up from the stock. The post is 105m from my normal shooting position, sitting in the hedge resting the rifle on the fence wire with my right elbow on a log positioned just so.
There are dozens of the bastards this spring and if we let them breed up then we will have a plague. There seems to be more of everything this year, we are overrun with pheasants, hares, there’s quite a few rabbits and much higher tui and other natives than usual.
Anyway long story short I sat in my spot in the hedge yesterday evening and smoked 11 magpies one after the other, all off the top of that same 105m post. As the pile of dead birds grew, the more curious the fly-bys became, one or two landing every 5 minutes or so. Suddenly they stopped coming when a harrier turned up, he’s going to have a feast I thought but I didn’t really want 1 million feathers everywhere so me and the dog went and picked them up.
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Stunning and still evening in Central, barely moved for 30 odd shot. 17hmr is a total weapon in those still conditions.
On the prowl again in the nana wagon with Bo.
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Seen a few tonight but a chopper flew over and sent them scarpering.
This one was spotted on my way home from work.
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Took the dog a while to sight it after the shot,but he was onto it after getting thru the blackberry and another nice retrieive.
30 shots for that pile of rabbits @viper? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by viper
Four hours worth of spotlighting….4 possum..total value of fur n carcasses $29(approx). I’d be going hungry if I was doing it for a living..[emoji51][emoji848]…$7.25/hour…
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Another cruise with Bo.
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Spotted one there.
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Job done
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And another
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Good dog.;)
Managed to get a walk in on Sunday arvo, have not pulled a trigger in 8 weeks due a buggered back and then covid levels.
After some less than average first couple of shots, I came away with 6 of these fellas....
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More than once we've shot over 1000 in an evening. Other times it might be 50-70, and then on other sites its just 5-6. All of these outings - regardless of numbers - can be thoroughly enjoyable.
And wandering along with the pooch popping a few - good fun!
Finally caught up with a couple of the wee culprits ploughing up the lambing paddocks.
Should be good eating, young and fat just like I like them.Attachment 179416Attachment 179417
Jeezzz....1000 you say, can't even begin to imagine shooting 1000?Quote:
Originally Posted by mudgripz
And yes, always a great time!
Mmmm - many Otago and Canterbury guys will be familiar with big numbers. One site alone in north Cantab yielded untold thousands for us.. and we had three.
On thousand bunny nights we started shooting at about 6-6.30 in the evening wandering terrain, swapped to headlamps and rifle mounted lights after dark, into the trucks later in evening to cover big acres with torches, then back to shearer quarters by 1.30. Boys popped 1030 in one evening and two weeks later 1004 - that was more than the top Alexandra bunny shoot weekend totals for the year - and in just 6-7 hours.. :)
Rimfire heaven... and a beautiful site to walk too which made all the more special. We had an informal competition to see who could pop the fastest hundred - mine was 105 in 95 minutes, but @gadgetman had the record with 100 bunnies in about 43 minutes. Lucky bugger.. We still have that site after 15 years though now it shoots just 40 or so couple of times a year. When its time to go shoot that one all the old team want to go - its like a pilgrimage site for us :)
One point - there was not an expensive, 'name' brand 22 to be seen. None. All the boys using polished, usually chopped, very accurate wee workers - CZ/Brno, JW15s, EM332s, Marlin 925/980/795s etc. Cheaper but absolutely deadly. And epic fun..
Sent Bo on a flying retrieve after the .22 pill was sent on its way.
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Funny you should mention that. Was just looking at some photos and had one of the line up of the bunny busters. Top was @Bob Da Browning's Marlin, My Marlin before it's chop, another members CZ and lastly your JW15 shorty.Quote:
Originally Posted by mudgripz
113/11/2010
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Graham seemed to like the heavy barrel things like his biathlon Marlin top above, though they never lasted long..
There were odd stock 10/22s in the team at first too but they also disappeared. Simply not accurate enough for longer distance shooting. Average distance was 70m, rifles were shot in for 75m, and all expected to pop bunnies accurately at 100m - which they did. The wee 15" barrel at bottom of pic above is typical of the little hunters used. Small, light, deadly out to 100+. That little one shot gazillions.. Here a pic from 1000 bunny site - some strange sod up in the hills...
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My truck at the time - excellent isuzu with 2" body lift, 2" susp lift, motor tune etc, and a stand up shooting cut out in the back with frame for very quick 360 degree night shooting. Worked very well..
