458 Win. Mag...Enough gun??

Russ

Russ

CGN Regular
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Manitoba
I am really having my doubts that the 458wm is enough gun for bunnies..:rolleyes:

I was out hunting cottontails with my favorite bunny gun....A Brno 602 in 458wm...topped with a Leupold VXII 1-4X20...

I spotted a nice rabbit at what I would guess to be 50 yards...give or take a yard either way...

I took careful aim...heart/lung...just behind the front shoulder....as this is the more sure shot to take....I'm just not confident in my shooting skill to take a head shot....
And we all know if you take the heart/lungs out of a bunny, stew is not far away;)

I didn't see the bullet impact as the 458 has some recoil...But after the shot the rabbit was gone:confused:
I new the shot was good...but I waited 10 or 15 minutes to let the little bugger stiffen up...If you go after them to soon you can chase them for miles:cool:

I walked up to where he was and sure enough, there was blood and hair. He was hit good judging by the amount...To my suprise there was no blood trail.....I started doing circles in the bush to try and pick up his trail....after about 75 yards I found some more blood and hair..looked like lung matter....what puzzled me was it was up in a tree....I didn't think rabbits could climb trees:confused:....This little bastard new I was trailing him..

I kept up the search till dark....to no avail:( I did find more blood and hair...but as I got farther away from where I hit him, it seemed to get less and less....

I think the 458wm just don't have the knock down power I need for bunnies....

Russ...
 
when was the last time you shot the gun at paper?Does the gun shoot dead on?I can not stress how important shot placement is.If your shot is off there is no need to try and compensate with a larger caliber,that will just magnify your problem.In my personal opinion I would go with something larger for game like that but thats just my .02 everyone is different.I just don't trust using a pea gun like that on a large cotton tail.what if he had just been wounded and turned on you??imagine the damage he could do?

Realy though sounds like fun.Pics?
 
In all seriousness, .458 WM should be more then enough to take down a bunny. However, what if you miss with the first shot, and it charges? You can't f*ck around with dangerous game. Use the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Remember to count to 3.
 
Sounds like maybe you had your selector switch set on annihilate instead of bunny. Either that or some opportunistic predator snatched the little bugger from you while you were recovering from the recoil.
 
my win 458 is a fine gun, but do to shoot a porkiepine at 30 feet as the quills fly everywhere. the 400 grain fn did not do him any good.
 
The problem was waiting for so long after the shot. You should have run to take another shot to the head at close range right away. I'm sure the bunny had enough momentum to disappear from the scene.
Should you have looked further you would have found some more fur and body parts in the next township too.
 
I just don't under stand......I did the math here...poured over ballistic tables.....A 300grHP at 2650fps gives about 3800foot pounds of energy.....A rabbit is about 2 or 3 pounds....In theory that load should stop a bunny in his tracks...:popCorn:

I could go to my 50BMG.....But I draw the line when you start burning more powder than what the critter weighs...

Russ...
 
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