Rabbit & Rat

[Lion'O]

Hi all
Can any 1 shed any light on how rabbits and rats behave out on a shoot, ie how long they take to come back after spooked, how far away from them is ok without being spoted and apart from head shoots the best place on there bodys to hit the buggers
Thanx

[snock]

How long is a length of string?

Shoots vary a lot Lion'O (), but the anatomy of a bunny doesn't.
Head shots are the safest, with a heart shot second.
Heart shots aren't as 'safe' as head shots, though.

[hadaka-jimi]

Can any 1 shed any light on how rabbits and rats behave out on a shoot

RABBITS CUTELY - RATS BADLY.

how long they take to come back after spooked

DEPENDS ON WHAT HAS SPOOKED THEM BUT WOULD SUGGEST 10 MINS PLUS

how far away from them is ok without being spotted

AS THEY CAN SMELL, HEAR, SEE FEEL VIBRATION THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT ONE TO ANSWER. IF YOU FREEZE AND STAY STILL, MOST CRITTERS WILLGO ON ABOUT THERE BUSINESS. IT IS MOVEMENT THAT GIVES YOU AWAY SO UNLESS YOU ARE TOTALLY CONCEALED, IF YOU CAN SEE THEM, THEY CAN SEE YOU

and apart from head shoots the best place on there bodys to hit the buggers


HITTING THEN IN THE BUGGERS IS UNLIKELY TO RESULT IN A KILL.
IT IS YOUR ABILITY TO GROUP WITHIN THE SIZE OF A 10 PENCE PEICE THAT DICTATES HOW CLOSE YOU HAVE TO GET BEFORE YOU SHOULD LET ONE OFF (SO TO SPEAK). PERSONALLY I WOULD ONLY GO FOR HEAD SHOTS FRON SIDE OR REAR

Hope this helps a little but this is actually a very wide topic and too much to cover in one post.

Good shooting - suggest you join a club or get a shooting buddy and get lots of practice in. If your not confident about taking the shot - then dont take it.

[Opal]

I've been chatting across the garden fence to my neighbour and a rat has come to the bread 4 yards away at 3:00pm in blazing sunlight. During early evening, when my neighbour had his ratcatching cage out, they came for the bread while we chatted, almost under our feet.

I like to hit a rat head on and aim at the middle of its head, I am always above the rat so the pellet is going down. A pellet has gone through its head and out of the other end. Night time, I have placed a painted white hardboard against the back of the fence, shot the rat as it came from the side, I was amazed at the amount of blood at approx 22yds what a BSA Meteor (oxspring) .22 could spill.

[Lion'O]

Thanx guys thats great especially hadaka-jimi
Cant wait to shot a rat
what time of day is best

[Mad Pierre]

That's likely to be a lot of answers.

In short, there's no hard and fast way for bunnies to behave.
Depends on what they're used to.
They have two basic survival instincts 'freeze' and 'flight'.

It's often only a couple of seconds before freeze turns to flight. Often they will disappear only to return within a minute, sometimes they never return.
Always worth waiting 20 minutes, especially if there's no others to be seen.
They have poor depth and colour perception but great movement perception, this makes you very easy to spot if you're illuminated or silhouetted.
Their hearing and smell senses are superb. Don't wash your clothes in soap or wear after shave and use wind to your advantage. Some you'll be able to stalk down to 20 Yds, some will run at 150.

[Lion'O]

Thanx thats great

[cr*pshot]

Their hearing and smell senses are superb. Don't wash your clothes in soap or wear after shave and use wind to your advantage. Some you'll be able to stalk down to 20 Yds, some will run at 150.

Depending on whether they smell your soap, aftershave or wind

[hadaka-jimi]

They also have a habit of stopping half way across a tract of land if they are a ling way out from the warren to re-assess the perceived danger and usually again just before they hope through the hedge or into their hole.

it is worth tracking them if you are ready and able to settle and take a quick controlled (note the word controlled) shot. Doesn't happen every time but there is a distinct potential/habit.

If you think you have been spotted, the rabbit will usually freeze and may will sit up on alert. If you freeze and do not move, there is a distinct possibility that the rabbit will stand down and carry on feeding. You can continue with your approach but the more movement you make the more likely the rabbit will detect you ignoring all their other senses for the moment.

I used to do this a lot when I had dogs and walked a lot - you would often walk around a bend to a coney sitting having a munch - so I would see how close I could get before it scarpered.

Warrens do vary considerably - some are really relaxed others are heart attack candidates they are so nervous.

Rats can be encountered anywhere and anytime but they usually prefer the cover of darkness to scut about so a soft lamp or NV gear is good.

[steve1992]

How long is a length of string?

Shoots vary a lot Lion'O (), but the anatomy of a bunny doesn't.
Head shots are the safest, with a heart shot second.
Heart shots aren't as 'safe' as head shots, though.

twice as long as half a peice of string

steve

[Lion'O]

always get 1 idiot

[fooknmissed]

The best place in the body to shoot them is the head

[moth]

I posted a brief description of my observations a while back in a reply on a thread called "is this supposed to happen?"

[Rockhopper]

Its been said befor, movement is the biggest givaway.
I had a rabbit appear ten yards in front of me once so for fun I shouldered the rifle as slowly as possible, expecting it to bolt as i looked through the scope but I managed to bag it!
Felt like it took an hour to take the shot but more like one minute at most, and I was sat in plain view. [It wasnt mixyed]

As for rats I've only ever gone after them with the NV, absolute quiet is required for them and sticky sloppy bait. [they will also try to dragg off dead ones so keep an eye on the ones you have allready shot]

[jobert151]

The advice given is superb the only thing I would add is that if you go to where you know rats are ( look for greasey tracks ) in daylight look for any dark shaded areas around walls, fences,sheds and when you go there at night thats the most likeley place they will be so if you put any old food down around that area for a few days you should have great sport. Night vision helps but as was said in a earlier post low light left on for a few nights and a white board as a background works very well. thel also seem to like something smelly wrapped up in a tight ball of silver foil