6 Of The Best!

Dave Barham reveals his six top tips for bagging more rabbits

- Dave Barham

I’m very lucky here in Lincolnshire because I have huge colonies of rabbits on some of the perms that I shoot. Not only do they need constant controlling, but it’s also a readily available supply of fresh, free range meat for my family (especially my mum, Rosie).

Here are my top six tips for putting more rabbits in the pot …

1 USE NATURAL COVER

Before I get started, let me make it absolutely clear that rabbits are not rocket scientists – in fact, they’re pretty darn stupid at times. On numerous occasions I’ve had them hop out from a hedge just a few feet away from my face, and in some cases they’ve come close enough for me to grab them! I put this down to stealth and camouflage, but I’ll come to that in a bit, for now, I want to talk about using the natural cover around you.

As you can see from the photo, the field in question is full of patches of tall grass and small bushes. Now, whilst this might limit the number of shot you rattle off during a hunt, the foliage provides excellent cover for both you and the rabbits. I’ve found that on tricky shoots, where you only ever seem to see and shoot the smaller rabbits, hunting in a field with this amount of natural cover makes the bigger rabbits more confident to come out and feed.

Try to look for areas where the rabbits are emerging from their burrows with some form of natural barrier between where you position yourself and the warren.

2 USE UNNATURAL COVER