Roger Rabbits!

Air Gunner reader, Roger ‘Delboy’ Tipple recalls a recent rabbit hunt on a new permission, which couldn’t have gone any better

With the coronavirus lockdown finally being eased and people now being able to move about a little more freely, I set off excited to visit one of my recently acquired permissions to see how the rabbits were doing, after being left alone for a few weeks to make themselves comfortable again.

Upon my arrival, I had a look over the first paddock to see what activity there was and there, sitting 20 yards away from where I was standing, was the first rabbit of the evening, just asking for me to remove it from the equation. So with steady hands and careful aim, from a standing stance, one clean shot just below ear was all it took to make a satisfying kill. The first rabbit of the night was in the bag after only a few minutes of arriving on site.

NO NATURAL COVER

After this first successful kill and no sight of any further rabbits in the first paddock, I decided to move into the second paddock to see if there was more activity, and with just a glance I could see over 50 rabbits hopping about and feeding. This was all the invitation I needed to move further around the field, and set myself up on top of a little rise that looked directly down over the paddock and on to a mass of rabbits of all ages. These rabbits had certainly made themselves very comfortable in my absence, digging holes and generally making a nuisance of themselves whilst I had been unable to keep them in check.

I hadn’t been in position for many minutes when another rabbit appeared in range, closely followed by a third. With no cover at all, I slowly raised the gun, took aim and with the shot on target, that was the second rabbit of the day lying in the kill zone.