For those that don't know me I live Down Under, about 2 hours south west of Sydney, and most of the hunting I do is small game (rabbit, hare, fox) with the odd roo when tags are available.
The 2nd half of 2007 was a fiasco for me between a jerk running a red light and writing off my 4x4 pickup, ensuing difficulties with the replacement, a 2002 Nissan Patrol wagon, and the birth of our 3rd son Remy on October 18th. I only succeeded in getting into the paddocks twice in that time and the combined result was 1 rabbit.
So on Sunday evening when my best mate and myself headed out to mate's property on the Federal Hwy 45 minutes out of Canberra I was praying for a change in outcome.
It's 1000 acres and has always yielded a decent amount of game, particularly hares.
About 18 months back the pair of us took 5 of them one night and myself and some mates from Sydney had taken 8 hares and 4 bunnies only a few weeks before that.
Well, this time there were bunnies from the gate.
It was pretty warm on Sunday and so I dressed Steve Irwin style thinking it'd still be at least 27 C (80 F) even after the sun went down.
Wrong! The wind came up, the temp dropped and with wind chill it was suddenly about 13 C (64 F).
We were freezing our butts off.
64 F is balmy in Canadian temps but I was in a loose shirt and shorts and the wind was howling.
It also played havoc with mate's .22 and between his 4x18 Bushnell, which gathered virtually no light when using the spotlight, and the gusts of wind he was missing them by millimetres everytime.
There must be at least half a dozen rabbits on that place with shaved arses because I saw his bullets shear the fur off them!
However despite the cold I had better luck.
I finally got to blood my Sportco Martini Hornet on this half grown bunny taken at about 40yds:
Initially I thought I missed it but my mate assured me I hadn't.
In fact on closer inspection it was missing a hind leg, most of its guts and had been thrown back foot and half!
Soon after we spied a hare who disappeared before I could get a fix on it so we followed it and after a bit of trawling about with the spottie found a pair of them.
I was out of the Patrol quick smart and both went down at about 75yds, the first through the throat and the second quickly after.
Unfortunately a wind gust had pushed a solidly aimed shot on the second hare so that it hit it in the hind quarters but we quickly put it out of its misery.
While I was disappointed it hadn't been an instant kill it's pretty ambitious to expect a the dumpy .22 cal 35gr Vmax bullet not to be pushed about on an open hillside during such unpredictable windy conditions.
Incidentally when I picked the pair of them up for the picture they were REALLY heavy.
Recent rainfall has provided plenty of feed for all of the animals out there and the grass was ankle deep everywhere.
So I'm now on the board, so to speak, and next time we head out there in a fortnight or so we'll sit and wait for them to appear instead of of blundering about in the 4x4.
There were dozens of bunnies and a more systematic approach from a decent vantage point should see an even better result.
I've also got a spare 4x32 so it'll replace the 4x18 on my mates .22 for a better view.
The 2nd half of 2007 was a fiasco for me between a jerk running a red light and writing off my 4x4 pickup, ensuing difficulties with the replacement, a 2002 Nissan Patrol wagon, and the birth of our 3rd son Remy on October 18th. I only succeeded in getting into the paddocks twice in that time and the combined result was 1 rabbit.
So on Sunday evening when my best mate and myself headed out to mate's property on the Federal Hwy 45 minutes out of Canberra I was praying for a change in outcome.
It's 1000 acres and has always yielded a decent amount of game, particularly hares.
About 18 months back the pair of us took 5 of them one night and myself and some mates from Sydney had taken 8 hares and 4 bunnies only a few weeks before that.
Well, this time there were bunnies from the gate.
It was pretty warm on Sunday and so I dressed Steve Irwin style thinking it'd still be at least 27 C (80 F) even after the sun went down.
Wrong! The wind came up, the temp dropped and with wind chill it was suddenly about 13 C (64 F).
We were freezing our butts off.
64 F is balmy in Canadian temps but I was in a loose shirt and shorts and the wind was howling.
It also played havoc with mate's .22 and between his 4x18 Bushnell, which gathered virtually no light when using the spotlight, and the gusts of wind he was missing them by millimetres everytime.
There must be at least half a dozen rabbits on that place with shaved arses because I saw his bullets shear the fur off them!
However despite the cold I had better luck.
I finally got to blood my Sportco Martini Hornet on this half grown bunny taken at about 40yds:
Initially I thought I missed it but my mate assured me I hadn't.
In fact on closer inspection it was missing a hind leg, most of its guts and had been thrown back foot and half!
Soon after we spied a hare who disappeared before I could get a fix on it so we followed it and after a bit of trawling about with the spottie found a pair of them.
I was out of the Patrol quick smart and both went down at about 75yds, the first through the throat and the second quickly after.
Unfortunately a wind gust had pushed a solidly aimed shot on the second hare so that it hit it in the hind quarters but we quickly put it out of its misery.
While I was disappointed it hadn't been an instant kill it's pretty ambitious to expect a the dumpy .22 cal 35gr Vmax bullet not to be pushed about on an open hillside during such unpredictable windy conditions.
Incidentally when I picked the pair of them up for the picture they were REALLY heavy.
Recent rainfall has provided plenty of feed for all of the animals out there and the grass was ankle deep everywhere.
So I'm now on the board, so to speak, and next time we head out there in a fortnight or so we'll sit and wait for them to appear instead of of blundering about in the 4x4.
There were dozens of bunnies and a more systematic approach from a decent vantage point should see an even better result.
I've also got a spare 4x32 so it'll replace the 4x18 on my mates .22 for a better view.
