AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: Seth Isaacson on January 03, 2017, 07:34:24 PM
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Who here hunts rabbits with traditional rifles/shotguns and what do you use in terms of caliber/gauge and loads? I still don't have a muzzle loader despite working with them regularly and my strong interest in them. Finances keep putting it off. Every time I get enough set aside I end up needing to re-purpose it for something for the house, my son, my wife, or one of our cars. I definitely will get around to it at some point either a mostly finished kit or perhaps pick up something used. Regardless, I'd probably only use one for hunting small game and target shooting once I finely get one in my hands. Here's hoping for a good bonus this year or some extra overtime coming up.
I haven't hunted rabbits since I was a teenager, but now that we live out in the country again I am considering doing so again. I've always liked the way they cook up, but nowadays I also like watching them around the yard and out in the pasture. Therefore, I'm torn about whether to hunt them. One of dogs broke one's back this weekend, but got chased off by my wife before they finished the deed. She didn't know at the time that they had critically injured it already. When I came home I shot it with a target load of 7 1/2 steel shot from a few yards away to put the poor thing out of its misery; it basically took the head clean off but left the rest in fairly good shape. I figured the meat was not going to be any good since the animal had been injured for quiet awhile, so I just disposed of him. I should have still saved the meat and fed it to my Blue Tongue Skinks if I had thought of it at the time. I'm sure they would have enjoyed it.
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I normally hunt rabbits with my .40 cal flintlock rifle, however use my 20 bore fusil once in a while. I load the smoothbore with either #6 or #4 shot
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We don't have rabbits out here in North Central British Columbia, but we have the Varying Hare or Snowshoe Hare. This year they are very plentiful.
I have an original .36 cal English rook rifle that is deadly on bunnies, but I've used most of my guns including a 10 bore Brown Bess musket and shot. The scatter guns are fun when bunnies break cover and zig-zag allover the thick bush. I have also used a .36 1861 Navy Colt. In the case of rifles with a single projectile, I load the guns down to basically pistol loads. The shots are always very close and I go for the little raisin eye ball.
I make a fine sweet and sour casserole that has proven very popular at wild game banquets. It involves brown sugar and maple syrup...and of course, lots of bunnies. Our rod and gun club black powder section used to do a harvest every late winter on snow shoes. It was always a good time for us...not so much for the hares.
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That sounds delicious Taylor. It sounds like you both basically go for head shots with the usual "squirrel" calibers but also sometimes use shot. I'd be worried shot, especially something as large as #4 would ruin a lot of the meat if some hit the body instead of the head. Has that proven to be much of a problem? How many pellets are you usually firing?
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As I said, we load the guns down. In the Bess, I used 50 gr. of FFg GOEX and 7/8 oz of 7 1/2's again trying for head shots. I always removed the shot from the flesh prior to cooking. No meat was lost.
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Gotcha. That makes sense. Definitely one of the advantage of muzzle loaders vs modern weapons: control over exactly what you are loading.
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With the rifles, head shots only. Last time I hunted the bunnies, buddy Keith used his .75 English rifle and I, my .69 rifle. Keith used 40gr. 3F and I used 30gr. 3F. I had to use my 100 yard leaf sight, NP. The shots were close, no more than 30 yards or so and my little springer Lady Jessica retrieved them for us. with the low velocity and light report, you could actually hear the bones breaking in their little heads - rather interesting.
That was a mid March hunt with over 6' of snow on the ground. Lady tripped me a few times, stepping on the backs of my "shoes" when she got tired of fighting through the snow. going ot have to do that again, but getting less snow, these years.
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Where I live now, we haven't seen much in the way of rabbits and I suppose they'd have to be hunted with dogs. When I lived in Ga I used a pellet gun on rabbits. We do have squirrels and I use either a .36 or a .32. We should be moving north this year and be in snowshoe hare country. I'll be ready for them.
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With the rifles, head shots only. Last time U hunted the bunnies, buddy Keith used his .75 English rifle and I, my .69 rifle. Keith used 40gr. 3F and I used 30gr. 3F. I had to use my 100 yard leaf sight, NP. The shots were close, no more than 30 yards or so and my little springer Lady Jessica retrieved them for us. with the low velocity and light report, you could actually hear the bones breaking in their little heads - rather interesting.
That was a mid March hunt with over 6' of snow on the ground. Lady tripped me a few times, stepping on the backs of my "shoes" when she got tired of fighting through the snow. going ot have to do that again, but getting less snow, these years.
.75 Cal.,.69 Cal.wow them bunnies must be huge or very vicious.I'm now picturing that scene from a Monty python movie ;D
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I use my 20 g smoothbore and #4 shot.
K
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I have hunted bunnies with ML shotguns and ML small bore rifles. Also the same modern equivalent. Now I just go pull one out of my rabbit pens. :P
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a lot depends on how good of shot you are and the rabbits you hunt.
In February I will be hosting our 20th annual rabbit hunt on my farm with 5 or 6 friends. We hunt rabbits, target shoot, drink beer, eat steaks, play poker. All in that order.
The only two rules are you can only use a rifle and no shooting after you start drinking.
We dont get many rabbits. My rabbits are trained by the best coyotes in the world. They run like the devil is after them. I can tell you my rabbits do not circle back. We have used a beagle in the past and that just made them run faster way.
So, if you wanted to really get very many rabbits on my place a shotgun would be in order. If you are in it for high sport use a rifle.
Fleener
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That sounds delicious Taylor. It sounds like you both basically go for head shots with the usual "squirrel" calibers but also sometimes use shot. I'd be worried shot, especially something as large as #4 would ruin a lot of the meat if some hit the body instead of the head. Has that proven to be much of a problem? How many pellets are you usually firing?
Ruin a lot of meat ???
You'll ruin a lot more than the meat ... You haven't lived until you bit down on a piece of that shot ...
And, size DOESN'T matter!!!
Cheers,
Smoketown
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My neighbor waits untill be get alot a snow and big drifts then goes out with a gunny sack and pulls them out of their holes in the snow drifts. He can usually get 6 or 8 a day. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. :o
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I use the spot and stalk method for rabbits here in CT. Binocs come in handy for dissecting the brush. Look for the eye or the rounded form of the hind quarters. Sometimes the ears give them away. I'll use a mouse squeaker to get them to raise their ears in search of the sound. Sometimes I spot the movement.
I generally use a .36 with 25 grains of 3f, and try to take head shots only. Most of my shots are at 25 yards or less. My bag results are generally much better when there is snow on the ground. In good rabbit cover, it will take me an hour to cover a 100 yards. You have to go slow.
Fyrstyk
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I prefer to hunt em from a tree stand.
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I prefer to hunt em from a tree stand.
That works well; when they travel between feeding and bedding down you can nail 'em. Plus, I've discovered over time, if you only wound one, you're safe from a mauling since they can't climb trees. ;D
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I prefer to hunt em from a tree stand.
That works well; when they travel between feeding and bedding down you can nail 'em. Plus, I've discovered over time, if you only wound one, you're safe from a mauling since they can't climb trees. ;D
You have never come across the KILLER RABBIT then.....not even a Holy Hand Grenade from Antioch will kill them and they go right for your jugular. :o
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I use a .32, 20grns of 3x and a little .310 ball. Really got to have a headshot, a body shot ruins good meat. Out here in N. Nevada it is spot and stalk. Snow helps a bunch!
Deep fried pieces in egg and flour mixture with salt and pepper for 4 minutes makes awesome eating! I think I've grown half my size on fried rabbit.
Good Luck! Matt.
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We have a large garden, a couple of acres, I have shot about 7 rabbits last season with both a lovely .36 flintlock, and my Lancaster style .40 . Rabbits taste best when shot with a flintlock !! mostly head and shoulder shots, from my rocking chair off the back stoop, yep Im a clique !
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Glad this generated some good conversation and some humor. Sounds like a lot of us enjoy the taste of a properly cooked rabbit.
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I use a .32, 20grns of 3x and a little .310 ball. Really got to have a headshot, a body shot ruins good meat. Out here in N. Nevada it is spot and stalk. Snow helps a bunch!
Deep fried pieces in egg and flour mixture with salt and pepper for 4 minutes makes awesome eating! I think I've grown half my size on fried rabbit.
Good Luck! Matt.
Same chunk of the country: spot and stalk, out here in the high and dry. Haven't got around to starting MY .32 yet (The Bride's comes first!), so I just download my .54 and use what I've got (a .50 GPR, and a .54 LR; I find the .54 actually works better for this for my old eyes, with the longer sight-plane).
I fry 'em the same way, or on occasion, will marinate and grill them on the BBQ. Frying is quicker and tastier; the BBQing is more of a social event and something to occupy my hands while BSing with buddies.
Was just contemplating making a bunny-run today, after last night's snow.
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I usually don't post this until just before Easter. Hunter was Neil by name, using his wife's .40 longrifle that Taylor built - here at ALR now and then.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv638%2FDarylS%2FEaster%2520Bunny%2FEaster_Bunny.jpg&hash=dc0064db5aec383f20c3e81150ca51f7947b5db3) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/DarylS/media/Easter%20Bunny/Easter_Bunny.jpg.html)
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That works well; when they travel between feeding and bedding down you can nail 'em. Plus, I've discovered over time, if you only wound one, you're safe from a mauling since they can't climb trees. ;D
You have never come across the KILLER RABBIT then.....not even a Holy Hand Grenade from Antioch will kill them and they go right for your jugular. :o
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That's the reason I wear a linoleum collar around my neck when in rabbit country. Can't be too careful. 8)
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Didn't Jimmy Carter get attacked by one of those Killer rabbits?
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One thing that hasn't been divulged about using the .69, etc, balls for rabbits; they were fired a couple inches over or in front of the head. What kills the bunnies is the sizzling wake from the balls passage near the skull. A direct hit would kill the bunny, his relatives and a few others within a radius of about 100 yards. It would be similar to the bite of the chubanga cobra. If someone is bitten by this most venomous of snakes, it kills the victim, his hunting partners, kids he went to school with and old girlfriends he hasn't seen in decades. ;D
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Was Jim, mabe attacked in the peanut patch?
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In the peanut patch?
Nope, it was a swamp rabbit and it attacked him while he was in a boat, " hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared and making straight for the president," according to his press secretary's memoirs. There is a photo:http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=jimmy+carter+swamp+rabbit&view=detailv2&&id=A190A8432ACDB8FE99B2566BFD161D587649298A&selectedIndex=0&ccid=zFoqpZlK&simid=608038925129614925&thid=OIP.Mcc5a2aa5994aa0cb446ef3689277f180o0&ajaxhist=0 (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=jimmy+carter+swamp+rabbit&view=detailv2&&id=A190A8432ACDB8FE99B2566BFD161D587649298A&selectedIndex=0&ccid=zFoqpZlK&simid=608038925129614925&thid=OIP.Mcc5a2aa5994aa0cb446ef3689277f180o0&ajaxhist=0)
I can't say much more without getting into politics, I am afraid.
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One thing that hasn't been divulged about using the .69, etc, balls for rabbits; they were fired a couple inches over or in front of the head. What kills the bunnies is the sizzling wake from the balls passage near the skull. A direct hit would kill the bunny, his relatives and a few others within a radius of about 100 yards. It would be similar to the bite of the chubanga cobra. If someone is bitten by this most venomous of snakes, it kills the victim, his hunting partners, kids he went to school with and old girlfriends he hasn't seen in decades. ;D
I think someone has taken too many karate chops to the noggin'....... ;)
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I put 7 rabbits in the freezer last year, using both my .36 flintlock long rifle, my .40 Lancaster style long rifle and a little .36 cal percussion Leman rifle. All in our 2 acre garden around the house and cottage. A couple even from my rocker on the back stoop ! I hunt rabbits mostly now, as they are easy to deal with, less work than kangaroos. As a kid on a sheep station I even shot them with a 69 cal percussion musket, usually head or chest shots out to 40 odd yards. It was a pat 1842 British musket, these actually have a crude rear sight and with a tight patched ball shoot surprisingly well.
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
Mike- doesn't your neighbour have chickens?
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I think someone has taken too many karate chops to the noggin'....... ;)
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Hush up now, Mike. You sound just like my psychiatrist.
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Nordecker yes he did. Right after he saw the UFO or was that a UFB. Unidentified flying bunny. We use a 4 bore up north cause there big an mean. Oldtravler
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
Mike- doesn't your neighbour have chickens?
Yes he does as a matter of fact, as of the middle of Dec. 44,000 give or take a couple. The building they are in is built so tight not even a mouse is supposed to be able to get in. You gots to put on a paper suit and disinfect yourself to even get in there. The building is 600' long by 72' wide and two stories high, upper floor for the chickens and lower floor to catch all the crapola. Only cost $1.8 million. My flock had to go bye bye as they were a contamination risk. I got paid plenty to make them go away......
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
Mike- doesn't your neighbour have chickens?
Yes he does as a matter of fact, as of the middle of Dec. 44,000 give or take a couple. The building they are in is built so tight not even a mouse is supposed to be able to get in. You gots to put on a paper suit and disinfect yourself to even get in there. The building is 600' long by 72' wide and two stories high, upper floor for the chickens and lower floor to catch all the crapola. Only cost $1.8 million. My flock had to go bye bye as they were a contamination risk. I got paid plenty to make them go away......
My inlaws had a big chicken operation like that and they also had about 44,000
Of these critters. I asked my mother in law if they had all of them named and
she said they hadn't thought of it. Poor woman thought I was serious.
They lived in New Smyrna Beach Florida the.
Bob Roller
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This big chicken house is fully automated. Feed goes in on belts and the eggs come out on belts. Water is piped in and and available from nipples that the birds learn to drink from. All the crapola falls through the mesh floor. The eggs all come together and are packed on flats with some sort of automated suction cup thingus. All you have to do is cull out the dirty/broke or double yolk eggs before they get to the packer. They all get trucked over to Wilton where the built a new hatchery last year. I think they several million chicks a week. They have built 6 of these buildings in the area in the past few years. German owned company BTW.
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Didn't Jimmy Carter get attacked by one of those Killer rabbits?
yes, it SWAM out and tried to board his canoe !! [ I would never have even admitted this happened. ]
as to eating, my favorite was when my grandmother made rabbit and dumplings !
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A bunny stew with dumplings - hard to get better than that, unless it was ELK stew, of course.
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I have hunted bunnies with ML shotguns and ML small bore rifles. Also the same modern equivalent. Now I just go pull one out of my rabbit pens. :P
That's what I'm talking about 100% success rate . :D
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Do the domesticated rabbits taste different? Better? Worse? They have to be one of the easiest animals to raise for food given their fast life cycle.
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They have to be one of the easiest animals to raise for food given their fast life cycle.
I have eaten both and I don't remember any difference in the taste but I suspect it would depend on what type of food was fed to the tame one and what food the wild one had access to.
While on the subject, I always wondered why some company has not pushed the raising/selling of rabbits in the same way chicken's are raised. Rabbit is white meat, tastes good, multiply quickly and I understand its very low in cholesterol. If I was a young man I might look into raising them for the general public's use. Probably would have to invent a fancy name for it before most younger people would eat it.
Dennis
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I have seen dressed rabbit for sale at the grocery store for $28 per rabbit...... :o
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My folks, specifically my Mom, tried to raise rabbits back when I was away in college. Turned out we had a male who wasn't bright enough to figure out which end of the female was which. Rabbits which wouldn't reproduce, go figure...Plus, when when it came time to slaughter them, Mom discovered that the process wasn't anywhere near as simple or as humane as she thought it was going to be...I forget the details, but I think one of her attempts ended up involving a drunken, screaming bunny bleeding out in our backyard, and smacking a bunny on the head didn't work too well either.
I got one bowl of bunny barbecue in a care package while in college, and that was it.
Mom did try pretty hard, but after awhile she gave it up as a bad job. She did try, though. I missed the whole thing.
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Interresting that we've had 2 pages of discussion on rabbits. Even though my wifes' family were hunters, she wouldn't eat any wild game when we met. My father was a cajun and I grew up eating all manner of critters. But my wife likes to eat and now she eats whatever I fix and likes most of it, even turtle. I like to eat rabbit maybe 4 or 5 times a year. Wife sais it's not her favorite. A rabbit has a strong smell. Rabbit innards especially. I've been told that a rabbit needs to eat it's food twice. It passes through and then he eats it again. I don't know if this is true or not. A cow hocks up a cud and chews it and swallows it again, has several different stomachs, too.
I don't really know anything about art history, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to say this. A lot of the baroque carving that I see on long rifles, C scrolls and such, looks like rabbit guts to me. Weird, huh.
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
They are still here in Davenport, just where you left them - need any ???
I need fewer ... or maybe a fox or two !!!
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...I've been told that a rabbit needs to eat it's food twice. It passes through and then he eats it again...
That is my understanding as well. If I recall correctly the fibrous material is somehow separated from the nutritious bits the first time through and come out packaged separately.
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When I lived on our left over farm in the middle of Davenport we had loads of rabbits. Now that I live way out there are few rabbits. We gota keep our coyotes and foxes feed on something you know.... ;)
They are still here in Davenport, just where you left them - need any ???
I need fewer ... or maybe a fox or two !!!
I shot two foxes whilst in Davenport. They seemed to be more interested in my chickens than all the rabbits running around.
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As a lifetime hunter/observer/trained naturalist, I have no qualms, whatsoever, about eating any fair chase game. I've eaten squirrel, deer, possum, alligator, snake, rabbit, etc. I just can't bring myself to consume the flesh of any creature held captive with nothing to look forward to except being slaughtered. I do not have any problem with those who do; it's just my personnel choice. Not really a vegetarian, mind you, because I will occasionally eat fish - "pescetarian" is the proper designation. I too easily bond with domestic critters to ever feel anything but guilt were I to have a hand in that process.
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I shot two foxes whilst in Davenport. They seemed to be more interested in my chickens than all the rabbits running around.
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The rabbits were interested in your chickens??? ;D
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Hmmmm. Different strokes. I try to eat meat at least 2x everyday. Success again today.
TC
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I've used my trade gun (.62) with shot or a patched round ball. 70 gr. 2f, but mostly a .32 Bedford and a 44" 3/4" barrel, Durrs Egg lock built by D. Henry (of Oregon?). 20 gr. 3f, .311 cast rb. Also emptied my .54 last year on a snowshoe hare after elk season. Head shots only, they never complain about what they died from, but they sure taste good. Shot a LOT of cottontails between Thermopolis and Cody when I lived down there. I miss 'em up here in NW Montana. Speaking of raising rabbits, when I was a crumbgobbler in Park Rapids, Minn. around 1948,49, my dad raised papered rabbits and sold them to the local hospital, among other clients. Can you visualize THAT nowadays?? A pack of dogs came thru one day and ended his sideline business in short order. Mom remembers blood & hair all over the yard.
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Quite by chance way back when I got my first muzzleloading rifle in the seventies, I shot the head off a jackrabbit in my Dad's pear orchard. Dad detested them because they would girdle the young trees. Some of the young Hispanic pear pickers saw the rabbit go down, and ran out and retrieved it. They cooked it up and relished getting a meal for free. I went over every afternoon after work and shot rabbits. I got pretty good at shooting rabbits with a .50 cal. Muzzleloader without wrecking any meat. But the rabbits started getting wise, and took off at the sight of my old '40 GMC pickup. So, now most of the shots were on the run. Often a body shot would kill the rabbit but not damage any real etable parts. But, one day the rabbit did a quick turn just as I touched the set trigger, and the ball caught him in the backsides and went end to end. The young pear pickers had grown quite used to not having to spend anything on dinner, and heckled the tarnation out of me for my bad shot.
Hungry Horse
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That is a funny story.
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So, A guy has a neighbor and his daughter has a bunny in a cage in the back yard. One day his Beagle comes into the house with the kids dead bunny. Oh NO, the fella thinks, we're already not getting along with the neighbors, and now my dog has killed the kid's pet bunny, What To Do??
So he cleans up the bunny and sneaks over to the neighbor's yard and put the bunny back in the cage. All is well right?
NOT! His neighbor comes over the next day, all upset and in grief. He says there must be some really sick SOB living around here!!!
Turns out the little girl's bunny went and died on it's own. She and her family had a little funeral for it and buried it in the back yard. Now some sick SOB dug it up and put it back in the cage and the kid has not stopped crying since she found it!! YUK YUK
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Oh no! Another story showing honesty is the best policy.
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My uncle, and his landlord, at the time, bought a pair of twin calves, that were just weened. They put them in a common pasture, that the landlord owned, that had a check fence down the middle. Now both of these guys were real characters, so anything was possible. One morning on his way to work, my uncle drove by the pasture, and saw his calf laying on the ground. He check the calf, and found it to be dead. Since they were identical twins, he simply put the dead calf over on the landlord side, and replaced it with the landlords live one. Uncle Red worked for the road department driving a pilot car on a local road project at the time. About noon, the landlord showed up with sad hangdog face, and told uncle Red he had driven past the cow pasture and found Red's calf dead. These two were constantly doing this kind of stuff to each other. Somebody should have written a Sitcom about them.
Hungry Horse
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If I was a young man I might look into raising them for the general public's use.
My stepdad raised both rabbits and pigeons (for squabs). He had a great clientele of eastern Europeans that drove down from Chicago and would buy a couple of dozen at a time. He had a sign at the end of the driveway that said, "dressed rabbits for sale." The county health inspector happened by and proceeded to shut him down for having an unlicensed butcher shop.