chasechicken Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Hi all, I haven't masses of experience rabbiting, recently shot one from about 25-30 yds with my sub 12 air rifle. Always go for a headshot - this was no exception. It was hit just between the ear and eye, but just ran around in circles for a moment, seemingly in shock. It settled and I placed another shot which did the job. Both pellets entered the same point (I could see the first shot through the scope) but one exited the top of the skull. I wonder if this exit was the first shot and so as I was lying prone and shooting up a very slight incline, the pellet hasn't actually gone through the brain, causing the rabbit to go into shock...? This all happened very quickly but I don't feel too thrilled about it.. Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? Am curious to hear your thoughts. I guess next time I need to just place the shot a bit lower in these situations. I honestly didn't expect it to make that much of a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 You're right, it isn't nice to injure a rabbit but I'd be very surprised if that was the case. I'd say the first shot either clipped its ear or missed completely as even a glancing blow to the skull which misses the brain completely would make the rabbit leap a foot in the air and scarper. I have seen rabbits run several yards after clean heart shots, only to drop dead seconds later and it is possible to head shoot a rabbit and it act strangely for several seconds - usually walking/hopping in slow circles or leaping all over the place, but I've never seen one settle back down afterwards, they will certainly looked blank or brain dead rather than normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyska Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 On a golf course my shooting buddy hit a rabbit in the eye, it came out the other eye and it just sat there, we walked to collect it and it was just sat, but very alive, wondering why the lights had gone out. Poor little ****** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasechicken Posted August 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Thanks for the comments - I probably wasn't quite clear enough in my description - it did circle in a dazed fashion and by 'settle', I mean it stopped spinning around for long enough for me to take a second shot - this was all split second stuff really... nothing normal about the rabbit other than it stopped spinning... I'm 99% certain I could see the hole in the right place - I could be going mad..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Yes, do enough and it will happen even with a lr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Thanks for the comments - I probably wasn't quite clear enough in my description - it did circle in a dazed fashion and by 'settle', I mean it stopped spinning around for long enough for me to take a second shot - this was all split second stuff really... nothing normal about the rabbit other than it stopped spinning... I'm 99% certain I could see the hole in the right place - I could be going mad.....Sorry, I think I misunderstood. If its any consolation the little fella probably didn't know much about it, its brain was probably mostly scrambled after the first pellet. Well done on the quick follow up pellet though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salop Matt Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 It’s a fact of hunting, not all shots are perfect but it is your job to do the very best you can. Don’t get hung up on it. Just for your own piece of mind check the air rifles power output and accuracy.It sounds like just bad luck. The angle of the head on shot may have been a contributing factor but even so at 25-30 yards I would have expected it to smash straight through destroying the brain and likely exit the back of the head! I never take anything but a head shot with a rifle on bunnies regardless of the calibre. ATB Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasechicken Posted August 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Cheers guys - yea, it probably didn't. I suspect if it did know much it would have scarpered. It's a new BSA Scorpion PCP - have probably shot 300 or so pellets through it and at home am getting nice groups no problem. Power on the other hand - I don't know how to check that to be honest.... I always keep the pressure where it should be - never overfilled nor left till almost empty. It won't put me off but if it keeps happening........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Cheers guys - yea, it probably didn't. I suspect if it did know much it would have scarpered. It's a new BSA Scorpion PCP - have probably shot 300 or so pellets through it and at home am getting nice groups no problem. Power on the other hand - I don't know how to check that to be honest.... I always keep the pressure where it should be - never overfilled nor left till almost empty. It won't put me off but if it keeps happening........ You need to buy a chrono , to check the power , its in your own best interests . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Its a fact of hunting, not all shots are perfect but it is your job to do the very best you can. Dont get hung up on it. Just for your own piece of mind check the air rifles power output and accuracy. It sounds like just bad luck. The angle of the head on shot may have been a contributing factor but even so at 25-30 yards I would have expected it to smash straight through destroying the brain and likely exit the back of the head! I never take anything but a head shot with a rifle on bunnies regardless of the calibre. ATB Matt taken plenty via heart and lung shots buddy. Have I done it wrong then ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savhmr Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 (edited) I always shoot rabbit with heart/lung shots as on occasion head shots, especially near burrows, have resulted in said bunnies kicking themselves back down the rabbit holes! It's quite common with head shots for the central nervous system to make the rabbit (very much stone dead) kick around for a while. At least with heart/lung shots, they tend to drop instantly and don't kick about. You don't have to be any more accurate either, just pick the right spot, just behind the foreleg at the shoulder. Edited August 20, 2015 by Savhmr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasechicken Posted August 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 I've not body-shot a rabbit before - I have rats and it works fine. I know our butcher won't take body-shot rabbit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 That's the only reason I don't take body shots too - they work but make a mess of a perfectly good carcass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secretagentmole Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Cheers guys - yea, it probably didn't. I suspect if it did know much it would have scarpered. It's a new BSA Scorpion PCP - have probably shot 300 or so pellets through it and at home am getting nice groups no problem. Power on the other hand - I don't know how to check that to be honest.... I always keep the pressure where it should be - never overfilled nor left till almost empty. It won't put me off but if it keeps happening........ Buy a Combro http://www.chronoscopes.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salop Matt Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 taken plenty via heart and lung shots buddy. Have I done it wrong then ? No not at all, its personal preference and I would never threw choice take a shot other than a head shot threw choice, again personal preference. If I were using more power than sub 12ftlb and if I didn't want to sell the bunny, ie. It was a mercy thing with a mixi and the wind was up I would take heart and lung. Horses for courses and this is what suits me. ATB Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darno Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 I have hit them in the eye before and they have just ran around in circles, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 Yes, do enough and it will happen even with a lr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 You know I have actually directly hit the brain in a rabbit with an fac air rifle and had it jump around from nerves you think? Yes yhats normal but squeeling isnt! Sometimes if you shoot enough things go wrong. The solutions are a .22 lr which at like 80 ft lb might seem overkill but the fact is it works better. Yhe guy who once stated it takes 3 ftlb to kill a rabbit was likely talking usually! In ay live quarry situation this dort of thing can happen thats why gundogs were thought of A guy once told me to chest shoot undersized bunnies imstesd of brain shooting - all I can say is it tends to give as good or better kills with liluns but on full grown they will generally run often a long way before the brain is starved of oxygen and desth occurs. I shot my first airgun rsbbit like this over 35 years ago and I can still smell the patch of wild garlic it ran into and was recovered from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 I have never subscribed to the "lights out if you hit the right part of the head" with xyz calibre at any xyz range simply because I have seen this happen with sub 12 hence why I believe more is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted August 22, 2015 Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 (edited) nothing wrong head shooting rabbits with sub12ftlb and with head shots, so much so I will take them out to 60yrds with ease, wether people like me doing that I honestly couldn,t care, if people want to do heart and lung shots then that's up to them, me personally I prefer head shot bunnies all the time, certainly agree with salop, does it really matter what shot you take and with what calibre you shoot it with ? my answer is no it doesn,t the important thing is as long as you have the confidence to shoot at whatever distance your rabbits are then go for it,. plenty of rabbits will bounce around when head shot but believe me they are DEAD and it is basically their nervous system shutting down,, head shot all day for me and at any distance up to 60yrds, but all my bunnies are eaten Edited August 22, 2015 by evo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghosthunter Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I still remember my very first experience of shooting a rabbit... Bloody unsettling it was too... It wasnt the actual shooting of it because it fell like a sack of coal from the head shot. It was the twitching muscles which continued for a few minutes later. I wondered how it could possibly still be alive so just to be 100% sure I necked it (no tongues before someone says it!!) and it still twitched away for a little while on the chopping board. No way could I cut it while it was twitching away even though it wasnt breathing and had no blink reflex (I checked everything just to be sure). Headshots only on bunnies for me because I like to eat them. Getting a chunk of lead in my rabbit mcnuggetts isnt an option Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin lad Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 I still remember my very first experience of shooting a rabbit... Bloody unsettling it was too... It wasnt the actual shooting of it because it fell like a sack of coal from the head shot. It was the twitching muscles which continued for a few minutes later. I wondered how it could possibly still be alive so just to be 100% sure I necked it (no tongues before someone says it!!) and it still twitched away for a little while on the chopping board. No way could I cut it while it was twitching away even though it wasnt breathing and had no blink reflex (I checked everything just to be sure). Headshots only on bunnies for me because I like to eat them. Getting a chunk of lead in my rabbit mcnuggetts isnt an option i once head shot a rabbit with the hmr took half the head off, that night i was being very efficient and gutting and skinning as i went but when i gutted this rabbit it's heart was still beating in my hand even though i had pulled it out, quite strange colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew f Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 Was plotting revenge Colin have you seen the video of the rabbit and snake on here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kent Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 Squeeling is not possible via nerves I have never done a blink response with a shot bunny as it takes more time than just giving them a pull if in any doubt I must say I have always got more kicks and bounces out of airguned rabbits than those shot with rf The fact remains that the rabbit is the biggest quarry that should be tried with a std air rifle Also field target comps even at the highest level use target discs three times as big as the clean killing zone on a rabbit and only go out to 55 yards. With so many on forums claiming better skill levels you can't help but wonder why they don't enter as they could all lift the silverware and some great prizes often worth over a grand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 Squeeling is not possible via nerves I have never done a blink response with a shot bunny as it takes more time than just giving them a pull if in any doubt I must say I have always got more kicks and bounces out of airguned rabbits than those shot with rf The fact remains that the rabbit is the biggest quarry that should be tried with a std air rifle Also field target comps even at the highest level use target discs three times as big as the clean killing zone on a rabbit and only go out to 55 yards. With so many on forums claiming better skill levels you can't help but wonder why they don't enter as they could all lift the silverware and some great prizes often worth over a grand I don't for a minute doubt that there are some incredibly skilled shots out there with PCP airguns who can hit the right part of the head with a .177 pellet at 60 yards but anyone who tries to tell me it's a "reggler" thing is wasting his time. Field shooting is just so different from targets, rabbits move and there always seems to be either an obstruction in the way or they're at the wrong angle. Besides all this there simply is no need to shoot rabbits with sub 12 at silly ranges, you're only feeding your own ego but taking big risks with regards to wounding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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