I was talking to my wife recently and she commented that long eared bandits were once again frustrating her boss at the vineyard where she works.
Many of you would have read the afternoon hare hunt which removed a pair from the vineyard but now the smaller variety had worn out their welcome and my wife said her boss was probably well in favour of having some knocked over.
Rabbits are usually less of a problem for viticulturalists than hares because hares ringbark the vines by chewing the bark off the younger vines.
However the bunnies were burrowing under the vines and munching away at the roots, something which ultimately killed the vines.
There was little to be done in terms of poisoning and warren destruction because many of them were coming from government property adjacent to the vineyard.
So lead poisoning at high velocity was the preferred method.
I even got permission to look behind the house and winery!
That surprised me as the bosses wife is a worrier and is paranoid about, well, everything.
So, knowing they'd be away and that I was free to do it when I wanted, I decided to head out there last evening.
My Land Rover recently went to a new home so I asked a friend, Jane, if we could go out in her Honda CRV and if she would spotlight.
Jane works for a government land department who encourage farmers and other land holders to do soil preservation work and weed destruction, funds projects for this sort of thing and also encourages the destruction of pest feral animals.
Jane also does casual work on the vineyard with my wife so she knew all of the locations and tricks to the place and she was quite happy to play her part although she was happy to leave the shooting to me.
As it turned out she was excellent at spotting.
I perhaps didn't choose the ideal night.
The moon was almost full and the temperature was low and heading below zero.
People think Oz is always hot.
WRONG!!! There was a fine dusting of frost on the gate when we arrived.
We rolled in around 9:15pm, set up the spotlight in the Honda and headed around to the house where I promptly nailed a bunny with my Anschutz 1400 22lr:
After my frustrating trip up to Warren last week and the continual inaccuracy I suffered there it was nice to hit first time.
We then went through some yards and spotted another bunny halfway down the hill.
He finally stopped, I took a shot at him and he seemed wounded.
But off he went running away, and fast.
I managed another shot but the 22lr clearly wasn't as good at distance and so I pulled out my 22 Hornet.
We finally found him again but he scooted away into some hay bales and we saw no more sign of him.
So it was into the vineyard.
After driving to the top along the last row and seeing 2 rabbits flee across the rows into the windbreak bushes next to us we came upon a rabbit just beside the fence by the bushes.
He was trying to hide behind some long grass.
It didn't work.
The 40gr Nosler BT from the Sportco Martini Hornet nailed him to the ground.
The next bunny seen along the rows had a close call but I missed him.
I also missed another shortly after.
However as we drove along the bottom of the hill spotting up the rows we saw a small shape sitting alongside the vines in one row.
It seemed a long shot in the dark but Jane was good with the spot and the rabbit was smacked down through the back of the throat.
He kicked once and lay still.
From here I sorta settled in and didn't miss anything else.
We found one sitting in a row near the windbreak and for some reason it paused.
Then it was paused permanently.
Them guts hanging out aren't a good sign.........
At the top of the row we saw another bunny bound away under the fence and head off across the paddock.
I encouraged Jane to wait and lined him up as he ran.
When he stopped I was waiting for him to present a side on but he just sat up with his back to us and I couldn't wait.
It must've been pretty much right on 100m as the bullet hit 1" high from the point where I aimed at his neck.....straight through his head.
The interesting thing about getting to him was that there was an electric fence between us and him.
I had to risk getting a jolt by putting the back of my hand on it.
Fortunately it was off.
The last 2 bunnies to be had were probably the dumbest, but then they also allowed me to do some good shooting.
They were barely a metre apart in one of the rows and Jane spotted them, not me.
The first was easy....side on and in plain sight.
He fell hard.
But his friend hung around for a few seconds and then bounded across 2 rows where he stopped and waited to see what was happening.
That left me a gap between the wires and and vines and pipes about the size of a carton of cigarettes to shoot through and the gap was a good 50m away if not more.
The rabbit was probably 20m further along from the gap and, worse still, he was sitting up with his back to me.
I tossed it up and then thought "Hey, this Hornet has nailed everything you've aimed at properly....point and squeeze."
A moment later over he kicked!
So, 2 rabbits in a minute
and with a single shot that needs a firm hand on the ejector!
As you can imagine with 7 rabbits on the tally I was pretty pleased.
It was 11:30 by then and we tried another couple of spots as well as having a whistle for a fox but it came to nothing so we headed home.
By then the heavy frost was setting in and the Honda, which had been running almost constantly, had a fine coating of frost on the roof.
My only regret was that I'd failed to take a knife sharp enough to skin a couple of the rabbits for the pot.
But it was a good campaign and my wife reckons her boss will be delighted.
Next time I aim to get Jane shooting as I think, much like her superb spotting, she'll be a good marksman.
Out amongst the vines again
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