Hunting Rabbits with 22lr

Sofawh

Sofawh

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Hey guys, just did my hunter safety course yesterday and was planning on trying to get a rabbit or two this coming season. I've never hunted before and was wondering if you guys had any tips, I got a couple boxes of 22lr federal hollow point, and a box of blazer 22lr soft point. I plan on spending the months leading up getting my shots in good groups at the range so im confident at 50yards, I'll be using my Cz457 american with a 3-9x50mm scope and bipod. Just picked up a sling today as well.

Also good tips on where to go would be helpful too, I'm in Halifax.
 
I use cci standard round nose for bunnies. I shoot cotton tails. Head shots are always best but with the round nose standards I can take a body shot and not ruin any meat
Generally the rimfire goes for evening walks when the bunnies are out and relaxed. Mornings they seem to hold tight to cover or flush easily
Ill always prefer a shotgun for bunnies but im a shotgun type of guy
 
brybenn said:
I use cci standard round nose for bunnies. I shoot cotton tails. Head shots are always best but with the round nose standards I can take a body shot and not ruin any meat
Generally the rimfire goes for evening walks when the bunnies are out and relaxed. Mornings they seem to hold tight to cover or flush easily
Ill always prefer a shotgun for bunnies but im a shotgun type of guy
Click to expand...
Shotgun is in the plans for a future purchase just watching the wallet for a little bit
 
Round nose, headshots are best, and usually that’s the shot they give you. The spot between the eye and ear.
They share a lot of habitat requirements with gamebirds: forest edges, cover, water, clover or other forage. Good luck
 
It is alot of fun to hunt with a good buddy if you both know the plan and where each other are at all times jumping stump piles using autoloading 22s is alot of fun. Percentages of bunnies to shots fired drastically changes but if there's enough open area around the stump piles it can be good sport. Fencelines and railroad track over growths with the tracks removed and the gravel reclaimed provides epic fun

Last few bunny walks ive done was with a 301 single shot 410 turkey gun simply because I like the Lil thing and really dont have anyother use for it cept squirrels. Its like cheating with the reddot on it for tree rats. Half Oz of copper plated 6s thru the turkey choke really reach to the tops of any oak tree and flatten bunnies to 40 yards with ease. Again im shooting cottontails. Dont take much to drop them
Our black squirrels however are huge and thick hided
A 17hm2 is just the ticket for them

Start hunting small game with rimfires and shotguns your wallet will never recover
 
brybenn said:
It is alot of fun to hunt with a good buddy if you both know the plan and where each other are at all times jumping stump piles using autoloading 22s is alot of fun. Percentages of bunnies to shots fired drastically changes but if there's enough open area around the stump piles it can be good sport. Fencelines and railroad track over growths with the tracks removed and the gravel reclaimed provides epic fun

Last few bunny walks ive done was with a 301 single shot 410 turkey gun simply because I like the Lil thing and really dont have anyother use for it cept squirrels. Its like cheating with the reddot on it for tree rats. Half Oz of copper plated 6s thru the turkey choke really reach to the tops of any oak tree and flatten bunnies to 40 yards with ease. Again im shooting cottontails. Dont take much to drop them
Our black squirrels however are huge and thick hided
A 17hm2 is just the ticket for them

Start hunting small game with rimfires and shotguns your wallet will never recover
Click to expand...
I got a buddy who mainly hunts deer but im sure I can convince him to come out with me on my first season, very excited about it, and I'm aware my wallet may never recover but I must make an attempt lol, overtime is looking pretty nice lately.
 
A few years ago, when I was trying to get rid of all the rabbits around the house I was using subsonic 22 short and subsonic 22lr and kept having the rabbits run off and get away. I swear I was hitting them, but there they were gone.

So I went and bought some of those subsonic 22lr cci segmented hollow points (that peel into 3 equal segmnts on impact) and not one rabbit ran off on me again
 
C96 1897 said:
A few years ago, when I was trying to get rid of all the rabbits around the house I was using subsonic 22 short and subsonic 22lr and kept having the rabbits run off and get away. I swear I was hitting them, but there they were gone.

So I went and bought some of those subsonic 22lr cci segmented hollow points (that peel into 3 equal segmnts on impact) and not one rabbit ran off on me again
Click to expand...
Ill keep that in mind thank you
 
Probably the old guys like me shot rabbits with an iron sighted Cooey/Winchester/whatever single shot. I used just ordinary long rifle Whiz-Bang or Super Clean ammo. One Christmas my parents gave me a whole brick of one or the other (don’t remember which). Man, I was right up there with Jack O’Conner in the hunting department. My buddy got a brick as well. We would dump a whole brick out of the boxes and run our hands through the pile, then carefully put them all back. Great memories of being a kid in a small prairie town. Walk out of town carrying our .22’s or our Dad’s shotguns. Life was a lot simpler in those days.
 
An easy way to clean them is holding them up under their armpits and start squeezing downwards like a toothpaste tube. Most of the guts come out. Leaving the heart and lungs if I remember. Been a few years since I shot a bunny
 
I have shot hundreds of rabbits with .22's and even more with pellet guns. Tip - leave the bipod at home, you will never use it and it will just get hung up in the brush and add unnecessary weight. Your bullet choice doesn't matter, just take head shots. It is unlikely you will get shots over 30 meters and head shots are easy at that range. Try some subsonic ammo in your CZ, all of mine seem to prefer subsonic rounds to supersonic rounds.
 
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