Small game hunting Down Under.....

kombi1976

kombi1976

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A couple of Fridays back my oldest, Bryn, and I went back out to a local vineyard where I do some pest control for them. It was the last night of my 2 weeks of holidays and I was determined to get some shooting in. I had my Sportco Martini .22 Hornet w/Tasco 3-12x40AO and I also took my new Tikka T3 Lite Stainless 7mm-08 w/Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40 in the hope I could blood it on a hare.

The night didn't go as well as our last hunt out there. The first rabbit I shot was blasted at about 20yds with a 45gr HP from the .22 Hornet leaving a big blood spray on a white panel behind him. It didn't stop him from kicking himself into the burrow next to him. :( Definitely a kill but frustrating. Then I missed another rabbit in the paddock next to the vineyard. It was an inauspicious start. From there things improved. This one was smacked at the top of the vineyard. He tried to kick his way under the fence but died in the gap.
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Then we knocked over another bunny along the same fenceline 2 paddocks west of the vineyard. Unfortunately I missed a second here. Again, silly stuff.
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I got the 7mm-08 in readiness and we stumbled on the hares in that paddock but they fled through the fence before I could get a shot at them. We looped back and got into the next paddock only to see one near the fence line going back into the previous paddock. I pulled up fast and dropped it at 120yds through the neck using a Federal PowerShok 150gr SP factory round. It was a bit of a lucky shot. The trigger is really light, significantly lighter than the Hornet, and I basically put the crosshairs on it and placed my finger ont he trigger ready to squeeze. But dead is dead so now the 7mm-08 is blooded. :D
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Our next rabbit popped up in the same paddock. He sat still and was an easy shot. I noticed afterward his eyes looked a little puffy. Not a good sign.
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We then left that paddock and circled up toward the stock yards. Halfway a rabbit halted for too long, or just long enough.
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We then moved through the cattle yards on the top of the hill and headed down in search of rabbits and hopefully the pair of hares that had fled. In a small furrow at the bottom of the hill a rabbit froze in the hope I wouldn't see it. It was 10yds at most so the scope was on way to high a magnification. I wound it back to 3x, aimed for the head.....and missed! :confused: It didn't move though so I aimed full in the body and didn't miss again. But it had slight puffiness to the eyes too.
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Our last rabbit for the night was shot from within the vineyard but it was actually in the paddock beside the vineyard. There were cows in all the paddocks and I didn't feel like shimmying over the electric fence hoping desperately that it wasn't on just to get a pic of a dead bunny. So the tally was 7 bunnies and 1 hare. All the rabbits were taken with the Hornet and the hare was, of course, taken with the 7mm-08.

BTW, for those of you unfamiliar with the symptoms, the puffy eyes and reluctance to move of the 2 rabbits suggests they had the beginnings of myxomatosis, a disease particular to rabbits. For the property owner it's a good thing and he was pleased to hear about it. Although they recover and return myxomatosis usually wipes a population of rabbits for between 3 and 6 months. For me it's a killjoy. But I may be wrong. I guess I'll find next time I head out there. And the rabbits I saw afflicted with it were only on the northern side of the property not the southern side so it may not even affect the rest of the property.
 
Yep, we keep feedin' em and they keep growin'!:p
And yes, it's the same Hornet.
Had a few issues with it extracting actually.....based mostly on the fact I was shooting .224" cal bullets through a .223" bore.....:(
I'm using up the last of the Winchester factory loads and will use Hornet-specific .223" cal Sierra 45gr SPs from now on.
It should group well once I sort the load.
 
Controlled? Oh, it isn't controlled, it's desired. Rabbits are a serious pest here. Until myxomatosis was introduced in 1950 they had rabbit plagues which destroyed pastures and devoured grain stores. It isn't harmful to any other stock. It's actually from a South American animal called a leporid and it doesn't call death in them. But the virus isn't a virulent as it was and now plenty of wild rabbits have a mild resistance to it. There's another disease here called RCV (Rabbit Calici Virus) and it was a sort of engineered diseased that killed alot and left those that survived sterile. However, it was leaked by a farmer before the government meant to release it and now rabbits are beginning to be resistant to it. Usually RCV and myxo turn up in Spring (October) so sometimes we lose the population of a hunting spot. But there are usually rabbits back by the following winter and numbers are back up by the following spring.
 
Good lord, no! I own a 9.3x62 and a 450/400 NE 3". Basically, we aren't allowed full autos, self loaders or pump shotguns unless we have a special licence and they're only available to farmers or professional pest removers. Handguns are only allowed as target arms and in order to get and keep your handgun licence you need to be a member of a pistol club and participate in a set amount of competitions each year. They can be simple club ones but otherwise you lose your handgun permit. On top of that air rifles, black powder and even some paint ball guns are classified as firearms and you need a licence for them. The laws do differ from state to state but that more or less sums things up. Western Australia is the worst. The local police superintendent decides how many and which guns a person can own. A friend wanted to buy a 45-70 to hunt wild camel and the local police told him he had enough guns (a 12g shottie, 2x 22lrs, a 223 and a 243) and that they didn't want him using a 45-70 in the local district so he wasn't granted permission to get it.
 
Thanks guys. Yeah, we did have fun, Cyclops, but then we don't have bear and moose and elk and caribou and you guys do.

Gee, how much does a hare weigh? I don't know, about the same as an average domestic cat, maybe a tad less. And yes, Brad, it's big for a hare. I usually use the Hornet or my other Cadet in 25-20. But the 7mm-08 is my newest deer rifle and I hadn't blooded it and deer season is pretty much over until March.

BTW, just to clarify my comment about Western Australian laws in my previous post, my friend lives in a fairly wealthy farming region not far from the coast, he doesn't live out in the desert where the camels can be found. But it still all hinges around the fact the police don't want a local about firing a big bore because tourists from the city come down there and spend money on the weekends. It pisses my mate off no end.
 
A few years back I had some fun with a .22 and a spotlight with a few mates. It was a little hard to do at first as it is not legal here but after I got the hang of it we did well and the young ones are really tasty.

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That's right, mate. I remember you were coming Down Under but we didn't end up being able to get together. It is a lot of fun although many people don't realise until they try it that spotting the animal in the first place is half the job.
 
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