A quick half dozen

[Scully]

I know it’s a bit late in the season, but as I was all ready and packed for a stint away tomorrow for the rest of the week, I thought I’d take Fergus the ferret for a quick runabout underground on a mates farm. 
Gave him half his usual feed then boxed him and off we went. 

Half way there realised I had no ear protection so popped into local hardware spot for some of those expandable sponge thingies. 
Was armed with my Benelli M1 Super 90 ( which I intend to upgrade to S1 status if and when variation comes through 🙄) and a hand full of steel cartridges in one pocket and a few lead in the other. 
Rain was forecast but it hadn’t transpired so far, and after a quick catch up with one of the landowners set off round the silage pit.
Scattered a few sheep and as Sod’s Law would have it a rabbit bolted before I even got to where I was going, and my empty gun was slung over my shoulder, but it was good to know there were some about. 
Anyhow, a few holes in the soft sandy soil which we’ve ferreted in the past is a good place to start as there is a good twenty yard gap with no cover whatsoever, between this burrow and the abandoned railway track.
The first two holes were a no go with Fergus coming straight back up, but after running around underground for a spell in a considerable burrow, and appearing again to sniff the air I knew he was onto something, and sure enough a rabbit bolted. 
It never fails to amaze me how fast and suddenly this happens; one second there’s nothing and then in less than the blink of an eye as if by magic, a rabbit appears and is off and running! It headed straight away from me and my first shot slowed it and a second even more, but by now it was up to the fence line of the railway banking perhaps 25 yds away where it rolled over and disappeared into a hole where it would no doubt die. I wasn’t chuffed, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. 
When Fergus reappeared we moved halfway to the hedgerow, well away from the lost and dying rabbit, and down he went again…and stayed down long enough for me to decide he’d killed underground, so I sauntered off to recover spent cases and when I came back he was up again. Assuming he’d bolted the rabbit unseen by me, I put him back down under the fence line at the base of the railway banking, in substantial fresh diggings and I sauntered back some way to give myself a good view of all holes.
I was now reloaded with lead cartridges and telling myself to ‘get upfront’ I knew it was only a matter of time before something showed, and I’d have to be quick to react as I expected a rabbit to appear and disappear just as quickly as it had appeared, and sure enough a rabbit bolted but headed up bank, which I shot just before it made it the five yds to the railway track where it would have disappeared. It rolled backwards and promptly disappeared from view but I knew it was dead. Before I had time to reload, and with Fergus still down, a sorry looking rabbit hobbled into view from I’m assuming, the previous hole we’d visited. It was very unsteady and had obviously had a terrible time at the hands of Fergus, so I quickly finished it off. 
A few minutes later up he came and I boxed him, paunched the rabbits, the first of which I found dead in a hole, hung them on the fence to cool, and headed across the marsh and up a steep banking which was another good place to bolt rabbits as it was bereft of cover. 
I grew weary of popping him down promising looking holes, and stepping back many yds only to have him pop back up again as soon as I’d done so, but eventually we found a hole he liked, from which a rabbit bolted uphill. It had gone about 10 yds when I killed it and it too rolled down the hill and also disappeared.
Then another appeared but shot down a nearby hole before I had time to react, so when Fergus popped up I called him and dropped him down this one. Up popped a rabbit about 5 yds away and I killed it as it bolted uphill, where it too rolled back down but thankfully not into a hole. It had barely stopped moving when another took off uphill and it too was shot after about 10yds where it rolled back down to me.
I’d been out less than two hours but had things to do in town, so boxed Fergus with a nice drumstick after thoroughly examining it for traces of lead, and called it a morning. 
Thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable little morning, and six rabbits for seven shots. Was very happy with that.  
I like the spongy ear plugs; I used to wear them in the unit underneath my ear defenders when using Paslodes etc, and they drowned out all the noise and the wittering on of other workmates or a radio station I wasn’t keen on, to a satisfying drone. The sound of the auto going off was a dull thump from what seemed a long way off.  🙂
 

[Weihrauch17]

Great write up 👍

[Krico woodcock]

Another great write up Scully👍 .I only shot bolting rabbit's using ferrets once. A long time ago.  But was brilliant sport,  and as you say they would bolt like a bullet.  But I have shot plenty using springers in whins (gorse) and briars, rough ground. I always looked forward to the rabbit's after the shooting season ended ,end of January and spend February and first couple of weeks in March at rabbit's  As good a sport as any and lovely eating and was another month or so for the dogs to work. But rabbit's have gone very scarce, this last few years. RHD has more or less left rabbit's extinct in areas where they always were plentiful.it will wipe a area of rabbit's out in a couple of weeks, frightening really,  and sad..Also enjoyed shooting grazers on summer evenings,  using a .22 .. I had a morning at them a couple of weeks ago, working my young Springer bitch ,with a friend of mine, on his land, an hours drive,  but well worth it..  I hope your ground that holds rabbit's doesn't get hit with RHD..why did you swap from steel to lead? Surely a steel cartridge makes short work of a rabbit to 30, 35 yards? 

[islandgun]

Great stuff,  enjoyed your couple of hours, good ratio as well, obviously the Bennelli suits but do you ever use a small bore for this

Edited March 12 by islandgun

[Scully]

2 hours ago, Weihrauch17 said:

Great write up 👍

Thank you. 👍

[Scully]

1 hour ago, Krico woodcock said:

Another great write up Scully👍 .I only shot bolting rabbit's using ferrets once. A long time ago.  But was brilliant sport,  and as you say they would bolt like a bullet.  But I have shot plenty using springers in whins (gorse) and briars, rough ground. I always looked forward to the rabbit's after the shooting season ended ,end of January and spend February and first couple of weeks in March at rabbit's  As good a sport as any and lovely eating and was another month or so for the dogs to work. But rabbit's have gone very scarce, this last few years. RHD has more or less left rabbit's extinct in areas where they always were plentiful.it will wipe a area of rabbit's out in a couple of weeks, frightening really,  and sad..Also enjoyed shooting grazers on summer evenings,  using a .22 .. I had a morning at them a couple of weeks ago, working my young Springer bitch ,with a friend of mine, on his land, an hours drive,  but well worth it..  I hope your ground that holds rabbit's doesn't get hit with RHD..why did you swap from steel to lead? Surely a steel cartridge makes short work of a rabbit to 30, 35 yards? 

Thank you. I totally agree, it is fabulous sport. 
A mate and me would spend many a happy hour sniping rabbits with a .22 on a summers evening, as well as lamping. 
Fortunately ( and fingers crossed it doesn’t )  RHD hasn’t reached our parts, and there is a plentiful supply of rabbits to go at, and I just picked up another permission this morning, where there are oodles of the things. 
You’re right, steel is more than capable, but I swapped to lead when I realised the steel I’d brought were a variety of lengths and I didn’t want to risk a stoppage as experience has taught me can happen when inconsistent lengths are mixed in a magazine. Cant say it’s happened with the Benelli, but has with other autos, and I didn’t want to take the risk. 

[Scully]

1 hour ago, islandgun said:

Great stuff,  enjoyed your couple of hours, good ratio as well, obviously the Bennelli suits but do you ever use a small bore for this

Thanks again. It’s weird really, as I’ve played around with the comb height on the Benelli, after a really bad day with it last year I believed it was too low, and had a sight picture familiar to that of my trap guns which I shoot well with, but it didn’t transfer to the auto. 

I recently removed the comb raiser and put everything back to factory settings and didn’t miss a thing with it today! 

Bolting bunnies is a very quick reactive type of shooting, so the Benelli obviously once again fits me well! 🤷‍♂️

As always, it’s not the gun, chokes or cartridges, but the user. 

Have never tried it with a small bore, even when I owned a .410 pump, but it would certainly add interest to the day. 🙂One of the other lads who brings his ferrets uses a 20 bore Sable. 
I think if he and another mate had been there today there would have been many more rabbits; some of the burrows were substantial, and rabbits can run rings around a solitary ferret underground in those circumstances.