Advice on rabbit shooting.

[ashley c]

Hi all I'm after a bit of advice on rabbit shooting

I've recently got a hw100 air gun as a friend has permission to shoot a fue acres of fields

We went and walked around the fence looking but not seen any yet. I've only been a couple of times but we go around mid day and there's not a lot of rabbits about.

I am a complete novice in field craft as all I've been shooting is clays for the last 4 years

 

But what's the best times to go shooting to find rabbits. And pigeons. We tried a bit of decoys but not had much luck getting them in to land.

Any advice is welcome weather it be decoying tactics or rabit shooting.

Thanks Ashley

[welsh1]

Try early morning or late evening,rabbits will be down the burrows during the hot weather keeping cool.Walk the field with the wind in your face so they don't catch a whiff of you before they see you and walk nice and slow keeping to the hedge line.

If you can see places where there are lots of rabbit activity,droppings, small scrapes ,it may be worth getting there and laying down under some cover and be patient and wait eventually they will come out to play.

[ashley c]

Thanks Welsh I thought early in the mornings would have been better for them think Ile have to go and study the land a bit for droppings and scrapes to see if I can find a aera I'm most likely to find them

[Davyo]

Good advise from above,also it might be a good idea to go NV,but I would only advise to do this once you know your ground well enough back stops being in mind all the time.Again you always need to have the wind in your face.But a bit of reckying will pay dividends by just keeping tabs on their movement ect.Early morning or early evening is a good start point and as welsh1 said just stake em out.Get you self a set of telescopic tri sticks so you can shoot standing or sitting.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Davyo

[lakeside1000]

I shoot rabbits with my air arms S400 with an 8 shot mag, on two farm fields which are overrun with bunnies, the warrens are under heavy bramble covered banks along the edge of the fields, the fields are normally in crop, either wheat or barley,ive tried walking / stalking but its a waste of time with air rifles as you cant get close enough and I don't want to shoot in the dark / cold, so I spend time spotting the most dense populations , then around 12 ish on nice warm sunny days I set up a pigeon hide in the hedge in range of the most dense populations, then settle down and wait, keep quiet, don't move about, they can smell and hear you but they also pick up ground vibration, in the last four visits I've had a total of 58, once i've thinned out one area I just move on to another, there is no shortage of rabbits, just time and sunny days. A good tip, even though you may have knocked over several rabbits, don't be tempted to go out and pick up, leave the bodies where they are, other rabbits will climb over them to get to feeding spots, if you move out of the hide it will be 20 minutes before you see another rabbit as the vibrations of you walking will put them down the burrows . I find they like to get a warming and a feed from 1.00 ish through to about 4 or 5 o'clock, then they disappear until it gets dark. best of luck ,

[roadkill]

I find that late evening into dusk is always a great time, i normally sit in a middle of a grass field with two hedge rows about 100 feet one in front and one behind, then just sit wait and take them out as they show. Very relaxing

[kent]

You need to be getting out of your car while its still too dark. Pick a day with a definite breeze into your face for stalking them and sit out near the warren if its still. This time of year dusk just isn't long enough, might as well leave it another few hours then use the lamp (summer proper is dusk rabbiting as it can last for hours when there might only be a few short hours of true darkness). Remember at dawn rabbits will still be out away from home after a nights feeding at dusk they might well wait you out in their beds having a lie in and another brew. All said and done you can shoot an odd one at noon though if its a good it of sport hit dusk in high summer and break of light now then start on the lamp once the evenings really draw in

[ashley c]

Thank you all for the advice going to talk to my buddy and come up with a game plan. I was trying to tell him that shooting mid day is a bit pointless lol

[pistolgrip]

If your patient and quiet you can take one or two around the warren throughout the day, but as stated first light and last light is the best time for them, not only do bunnies have good hearing they also have a good sense of smell, so remember the wind direction, when you can stalk up on a bunny you can stalk up on anything good hunting.