Hunt Rabbits With an Air Rifle
Rabbit hunting is a popular pastime and many people are wanting to get into this. The following wikiHow is designed to give users a brief oversight on how this can be done, and the most humane ways of going about this. Please note, you should also learn how to clean and skin a rabbit before eating your catch.
Contents
Steps
- Buy an air rifle (.22 or .177) with a little under 12pcf (pounds per cubic foot) (12lbs is the legal limit before a license is needed in UK)
- Find some rabbits.
- Ask the landowner for permission to shoot his rabbits, maybe offer him 1 in ten kills to persuade him.
- Zero your gun sights, get two old pillows and a target. Many decent ones can be printed off the internet, either a standard ringed target or a rabbit picture.
- Now make sure you are more than {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} away from the centre of a road or public area (closer is illegal - UK) and put your pillows down {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from your target.
- Rest the gun on the piled up pillows, or better still use a bipod, and lie down and hold with both hands.
- (If you have a telescopic sight set it to 30 yards)
- DO NOT hold the gun tight if using a rest or if standing simply support the rifle wait on your forward hand and keep loose. allow your shoulder to move and the full recoil movement is complete. holding tight can mean you're not always on target
- Aim for 5 seconds, breathe deeply in, relax all your other muscles(apart from those holding the gun) and exhale slowly. Halfway through, stop and hold for 2 seconds and slowly pull the trigger. Count to 5 before moving the gun away.
- Change the sights a little and repeat. Keep moving the sights until you can successfully hit the point of aim 5 out of 5 times. Or until you can put 5 shots in the space of a 5 pence piece (about 10mm, half inch, diameter)
- Practice, practice, practice—under different conditions, in different positions. Don't rush out and wound a creature. The purpose is to humanely kill it for food and pest control purposes, not torture it to death.
- OPTION 1, TAKES AGES BUT WILL GUARANTEE A KILL.
- Get on some warm clothes and maybe a thermos flask of tea or coffee and go lie down about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from the target rabbit hole.
- (load your gun at this point)
- Wait until a rabbit comes out and then study it through the sights for about a minute.
- Try not to move at all at this point.
- Aim behind the eye just in front of the base of the ears, NOT THE BODY as this is more likely to wound the rabbit, causing it unnecessary pain. If going for a head shot, ensure that you aim for the space between the rabbits eye and the base of it's ear as this is the weakest part of the skull and will ensure a kill shot.
- Use the process as for ZEROING, count to ten, relax...
- Make sure the bunny is more than {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} away from a hole or its nerves may make it jump down there and you've wasted a rabbit.
- Take your shot
- Now wait for a minute, then, hold the rabbit in both hands for 5 seconds and if you feel any movement fire point blank into the brain (mind your foot!), or if you have the nerve, hold it upside down by its rear legs and break its neck by a swift chop to the base of the skull. This requires a slight amount of force, but ensures instantaneous death by snapping the neck.
- Now you have one very dead rabbit!
Tips
- Know your kill zone. Always shoot within your zero range and don't rush the shot. A rabbit may be classed as vermin but it is a living creature and deserves a humane painless death, and it's up to the shooter to provide that.
- Most gun stores have special hunting ammo for both .177 and .22.
- A good quality, trusted dome-headed pellet is the usual choice for rabbiting. Hollow-point pellets, flat and pointed-head pellets are less accurate in flight. Zero with the exact same setup as you will use hunting.
- Follow the guidelines and make sure that you have zeroed in your gun!
- .177 rounds fly faster but do less damage on contact and .22 do more damage on contact but fly slower so choose carefully for your needs.
Warnings
- Always go for a kill shot. If you wound an animal, make sure you ease its suffering as soon as possible.
- Always ensure that you inform the local land owner of the plot of land where you will be hunting.
- You may get fed up, but you should get something eventually.
- Make sure you don't shoot other animals or people!
