Advice needed, I must be worlds worst hunter!

[owillingham]

Hi, appologies in advance as this will be a long post...

 

I'd like to start by listing my kit, describing my permissions, the tactics i've used and the (lack of) success i've had, with hopefully someone giving me sound advice to where i'm going wrong or better still if live nearby invite me on one of their shoots or join me on mine to give me some pointers.

 

I have a .22 air arms S410-TDR with an AGS 4-16x56 IR scope and a deben stinger lamp that i have made a modified bracket for so that it sits under the airchamber. I wear an army camo jacket and baseball cap, black gloves, black trousers and old trainers that are very quiet.

 

I have a couple of permissions, the main being a garden centre nursery which is sevreal large fields with rows of young trees with grass between and a rough track around the perimiter, each field is divided by hedge, the fields are pretty much on level ground. I believe the warrens are under the hedges.

 

My other permission is a field with a slight gradient with raised lumps in the middle, surounded on three sides with hedge and the fourth side wire fence. A track runs straight through the middle to a farmhouse. Friends of mine live at the farmhouse and are always complaining about the rabbits and are keen for me to dispatch them, almost as keen as i am to eat them and obviously not as keen as they are to prevent me. Steve sits on his porch to smoke, and every morning and dusk has them within 20yards in his garden, he has to throw gravel at them to get them to scarper. I spent three hours sat on his porch tonight throughout dusk and into darkness without seeing a single rabbit, the breeze in my face and me without twiching or making the slightest sound, my **** is killing me from sitting on the concrete step - should have taken a cushion.

 

I have read john darlings book air rifle hunting twice cover to cover. I am happy with my rifle, i am very confident about where the pellet will hit between 20-40 yards providing i'm shooting pretty level. I have tried going out at dusk stalking, i have great difficulty in spotting them before they spot me. I move slowly, stop, look, and move again, keeping close to hedgerows etc and keeping very quiet. Breeze on my face. It often happens that a bunny will pop out of nowhere 20yards from me and bolt. If only i had seen it first at 30yards! Most of the bunnies i see are running away from and often just out of range (40 yards+). My one success was when i spotted a bunny at the bottom of a slope in front of a hedge. I spent about 15 minutes slowly clsing the distance by crawling down the side of another hedge towards it. I got to 45 yards and it spooked jumping into the hedge behind it. I quickly got up and ran to within 30 yards of where it had been and layed down prone on the grass. I picked out a leaf and checked my zero and decided to wait till it came back out. Suprisingly i only had to wait about 3minutes and i spotted it sat in the same spot it had been in before. Nice swift head shot and it was on its back with its feet up twitching stone dead. At this poing i though my luck had changed and i would be harvesting them, but no...

 

I have tried stalking the ground at night too with my deben stinger lamp and pressure switch. I have both red and amber filters but tend to not bother as limits light output, and john darling had prefered not to bother with filters aswell so figured he knew best. Seems to me they run no matter what colour the light. I often spot bunnies about 30 to 40 yards from me, i know that distances can seem greater than they really are in the dark. They often sit still for a couple of seconds before hopping away. Unfortunately by the time i've seen them with the lamp, brought the scope up to my eye and found them in the scope (only using 6x mag) and allowed for holdover/under they are already moving. I wouldnt dare take a shot on the move, i would hate to wound it. I have however on two seperate occosaions seen the bunny, aimed, watched through the scope as the pellet hits the head (as far as i can reasonably tell), heard that definate pellet on bone smack, and immdeiately see the bunny leap forward. I don't see any other movement other than that one leap. Convinced i have killed it i go to collect my dinner and find it nowhere to be seen. I never saw it run off, was sure i had a clean headshot and was equaly sure it should be lying where i'm standing, only its not. I have heard that a dead bunny can run, but i didn't realise they became invisble as they do it.

 

I'd like to mention that i have a 3year old balck lab dog aswell. I havent used him yet as i need to develope my own skills as a hunter first but ultimately would like to take him with me lamping at night to retrieve my kills. I know john darling had a lurcher that he went shooting with.

 

I also should mention that i had heard that rabbits will more likely feed in the middle of the night (rather than dawn/dusk) when the moon is near full as they prefer to see by moonlight. That they will eat their droppings inside the warrents until its dark before venturing out. I heard the best time to go out lamping is therefore on a full moon night that is covered by cloud with a strong breeze masking scent and noise. I have tried a few night like these and again only seen a few bunnies, this is late august/early september when hunting should be good and everyone else tells me that they see hundreds of the ******** on the same piece of land.

 

I think i have rambled on a bit now, any advice would be great, especialy if it could be tailored to my individual needs - ie. the best way to go about hunting the nursery etc. I don't actualy know where the warrens are, i can only assume they are under the permiter hedges, i have looked for holes, droppings etc but nothing that would pinpoint a warren.

 

I live in guilsfield, near welshpool in powys, and i would love it if someone would either accompany me on my permission or invite shooting with them to give me some guidance.

 

Many thanks, owen.

[Devon Fox]

I don't use an air rifle myself, I would try a dimmer light, you don't

want to spook them outside of your shooting range, I would aim to

scan your 40yards ahead - switch off move and then scan again try

not to scan the otherside of the field as you will scare the off! They

will learn to fear the light if you pot shot at them.

 

The best advice is make sure you know your ground/warrens inside out

and then get to know there movements and lay up in ambush!

 

Good luck & keep at the targets as well.

[artschool]

get a dimmer for your lamp. stick with red filter.also i find that once you light up a bunny you should keep the lamp on it.

but the easiest thing to do is get someone to lamp while you concentrate on shooting.

[Peoown]

You've defo got all the gear mate.....whats already been said should help. If your sitting on the porch waiting for them, then your sat in plain view and you can forget it if their shy to start with, keep out of sight as much as possible. If you want to shoot from a single location use a hide and get someone to spot for you. Never leave your lamp on for more than 5 secs when scanning. As for 'when' to try for them, you'll just have to suss it out. I shoot on a farm were the best time (this summer) is right in the middle of the day

Good luck dude, us know how you get on.

P

[Alpha Mule]

Owen, your plight sounds pretty similar to mine, so I'll tag on here and wait for the replies.

Can I add that I use different filters (none/amber/red/green) and it doesn't seem to make any difference. I also use a 'cheap' LIDL NV monocle, which helps a bit, but not massively.

[bullet boy]

Firstly I wouldn't go lamping Rabbits on a full moon especially if your trying to get within 35 yards with your air-rifle!The Rabbits will deffo see you coming,so whoever told you that IMO is wrong!

Your rifle is zeroed so that's not a problem.John Darling was a legend IMO,and you've done the right thing in reading his book.

Keep at it and I say and let us know how you get on.

ATB.

[airarms]

find out where warrens are and set up ambush point 25 to 35 yards away

[UKPoacher]

find out where warrens are and set up ambush point 25 to 35 yards away

 

Yep! And look out for their toilets too as they habitually use the same areas.

 

When you are scanning with the lamp it sounds as though you are using it low then once you see a bunny youput it up to your shoulder. It could be that movement that spooks them. Scan with the rifle mounted.

 

Also, if you are spooking bunnies that you haven't seen close up then you might be moving too fast or not paying enough attention. Go out with binos and no gun and sit and watch.

[edr]

I find that if you aim the lamp underneath them, then just use the light from the edge of the 'spot' then it doesn't spook them quit as much.

[Elm0]

as above red filter ,use a nice tight focus beam but dont put it directly on the lil **** ,just clip em with the very dim outer edge of the beam ,you will see them sparkly orange eyes very easy ,and as above dont leave light on for more than a second or 2 it's the shadow that light cast's which spooks em , if stalking i will scan area very quickly and as soon as i get a location i flick light off immediately and move in very quietly to range

 

Stalking is a very hard thing to get good results from ,best results i have is in fields with cattle ,stay tight on the edges and lamp inwards ,rabbits think it is cows moving ,but you do get the odd dosy cow wants to follow you round the whole field

 

Best results you get are from the ambush tactic & patience ,but yeh can get very boring need to know the grounds and the habits of the rabbits that live there ,but once you have this sorted you will get plenty

 

I've tried many lights but finally settled on the scope mounted clulite master supreme led ,it has a very tight focus beam and is super bright even filtered ,but best of all can be dimmed to a very subtle glow

 

good luck hope things improve for you buddy

Edited September 20, 2010 by Elm0

[maverick123]

I started air gun hunting a few years ago now and id say i am only really starting to get bigger bags, its all about learning the permission, practice and then implement what you learn from mistakes! I wear cammo and cover my face if i am sat up and for lamping i try and wear darker clothes. As has been said try and stick to the edges if stalking so you dont stick out, move slow and dont be worried about crawling up through nettles! Personally it just sounds like you are being unlucky more than anything, stick with it and let us know how you get on!

[vampire]

I find that if you aim the lamp underneath them, then just use the light from the edge of the 'spot' then it doesn't spook them quit as much.

Above is the correct way to lamp

I would suggest

.177

.22 lr

shot gun and a 4x4

 

Other than that you aint doing anything wrong,i would however advise you to find out where they are likely to be and where you will be shooting from,then work on your range skill and or how you could get closer or different shooting position.

Remember they will see you well in advance unless you can be competely hidden or approach around corner,if your not seeing any then you have gone at the wrong time,wrong weather or they seen you,if its the latter then just go and lay in the middle of the field,within 15 mins you will see how many are there and where they come from and feed,if you have a multi shot then thats two in the bag.

Put sticks out to mark your range finding from your shooting point.

Dont give up,stop reading about it,you have read it twice from the master so just keep getting out there as its numbers game and pellets are cheap so practice shooting longer range.

[owillingham]

Thanks for all the advice, especialy with how to use the lamp. The stinger doesnt seem to be very powerful anway, its a very small lamp, certainly with the red filter on i dont think i would need to dim it. I didn't realise you dont aim the lamp straight at the bunny, i thought the idea was to blind/dazzle it so its confused and sits still, i will try to keep the light off the bunny instead and look for the eyes more. I think with the lamping at night, they have probably seen or heard me beofre i've seen them and they have scarpered. I'd like to try the ambushing approach but with such a large area at my disposal (probably 100 acres accross all of the nursery fields) i have no idea where to set up. I dont really know what signs to look for in finding the place where they will usualy be. I cant see any warrens, i think they are completely hidden by hedges.

[apache]

Stalking is a very hard thing to get good results from ,best results i have is in fields with cattle ,stay tight on the edges and lamp inwards ,rabbits think it is cows moving ,but you do get the odd dosy cow wants to follow you round the whole field

I actually think it's really irresponsible to use any firearm in a field with any livestock. Even an air rifle, especially at night.

 

[Alpha Mule]

I actually think it's really irresponsible to use any firearm in a field with any livestock. Even an air rifle, especially at night.

 

 

That's a bit of big brush you're using there, isn't it?

As long as you are certain of you're target and shoot responsibly (so no livestock are near enough to be hurt (or scared even) by a miss or ricochette, what's the harm?

I often hunt in fields that have sheep in them (the cattle are too nosey, or ****** off that someone is in their field). The biggest trick is moving amogst them without getting them all fired up. I find I get better results when the field is inhabited as the rabbits are more forgiving of noise and movement.

 

Re. the full moon thing: unless it is cloudy, I don't bother and even then, I don't have much luck.

[FalconFN]

Thanks for all the advice, especialy with how to use the lamp. The stinger doesnt seem to be very powerful anway, its a very small lamp, certainly with the red filter on i dont think i would need to dim it. I didn't realise you dont aim the lamp straight at the bunny, i thought the idea was to blind/dazzle it so its confused and sits still, i will try to keep the light off the bunny instead and look for the eyes more. I think with the lamping at night, they have probably seen or heard me beofre i've seen them and they have scarpered. I'd like to try the ambushing approach but with such a large area at my disposal (probably 100 acres accross all of the nursery fields) i have no idea where to set up. I dont really know what signs to look for in finding the place where they will usualy be. I cant see any warrens, i think they are completely hidden by hedges.

 

Have a walk around one day and look out for piles of droppings, scrapes and grass that has been nibbled down; You don't need to see the rabbits to know where they feed most often. They tend to go to the same place and don't venture too far from cover especialy during daylight hours. When you go to shoot the land you'll know where rabbits should be and even if you can't see them you will be able stalk the prime areas without spooking any that may be there but you can't see.

 

I don't go lamping very often as I find that judging distances in the dark is much harder, I see more but shoot fewer. I find it most productive to go very early - just before the sun is fully up - and catch them before they expect to see humans around. Also rabbits have amazing hearing so a breeze will help disguise any noise you make.

 

You sound as though you know what you are doing but just need that little bit of luck to get you going.

 

Good luck.

[pabs]

^^^^^^x2

You seem to be doing all the right things. I shoot A LOT of rabbits, and don't do much different to you. When lamping, use the light sparingly. When you do get one in the beam, hold it on him as steady as you can, otherwise he will spook.

You've been unlucky is all.

[dirtdigger]

when you said 1 will bolt out from 20 yards away ,i too have had this happen and decieded my stalking was better than my eye sight now i gave myself a rule which is eyes go in first , have a good look round after every step then take another . learn your shooting ground intermately and you will soon notice the slight changes when a rabbit is hiding

[Elm0]

I actually think it's really irresponsible to use any firearm in a field with any livestock. Even an air rifle, especially at night.

 

no.gif

AIr rifle with a quality silencer is of no harm to live stock ,and if i cant tell the difference between a 2 ton cow and a 12" rabbit i have no business owning a cigerette lighter let alone a gun ,outer edge of a field lamping inward away for cattle is not causing any stress to live stock, common sense prevails here also

Edited September 22, 2010 by Elm0