Leading the rabbits down the garden path

Fed up with decimated flower beds, Charles Hartley looks for a budget air rifle to get the job done but finds a gun worthy of heirloom status

- Charles Hartley

When it comes to me and rabbits, there is a strange case of ridiculous irony. When my local farmer calls with a complaint of the long-eared and fluffy-tailed persuasion, no time is spared before my trusty rimfire rifle and I charge to the meadows, where the dance of pest control beats to the quiet thump of subsonic rounds. I took around 200 rabbits off this single farm in 2022 and more off other permissions that sit a mere stone’s throw from my own doorstep. Yet here I stand in my kitchen, staring at my own (moderately sized) garden, filled with wild rabbits and the remnants of plants nibbled to dry husks.

Acres of land owned by others are protected and furry hoards kept at bay, but I seem unable to do the same at home, leaving my beds to look more like the surface of the moon than an idyllic country garden. The trouble is, while we part-own the field behind our house, this is a shared ownership with my neighbours. And though most who share this patch want these furry foes vanquished, my direct neighbours on one side are vegan and in fact very keen on Bugs and his friends; going so far as to leave them carrots on their lawn.

Although frustrating from my side of the literal fence, they are lovely people and I do not wish to rock the boat. But, after a trip to the local garden centre and a large sum of money was splurged by my better half, only to be eaten hours later, the limit of my patience was reached.

A simple solution