Wow, I didnt realise that this thread would spark so much interest.
Firstly, my mate Grant posted some pictures on his web blog ( which is mainly right wing political stuff, but if you scroll down about 1/3 of the way you will see the rabbits) Oddly, Grant is a defence lawyer (!!) which means that he should be my naturall enemy, but hes a top man. ( just bought one of the new laminated 870's, nice)
http://www.nzpundit.com/
OK, so how does the whole thing work? Well, the shoot lasts for 24 hours. At the start of the day the areas on which you are shooting are drawn by ballot. This is the one bit you have no control over- if you get a good block you will shoot well, get a bad one and you may only get 200 rabbits, which would be a real blow. So, to an extent its luck of the draw.
Our team was mainly Army dudes, or lawyers. A few guys had done the hard yards in Iraq and Afghanistan , so were pretty switched on.
There then tends to be a bit of a "gumball Rally" as everyone races out to their assigned areas, where you meet with the Farmer, and get the lay of the land. A good recce is invaluable. During the day most of the shooting tends to be on foot, with the dead rabbits put in piles for collecting later on. ATV's and Quads are great at this stage.
At night, everyone is shooting from pimped out "mad Max" type vehicles- 4WD trucks being the vehicle of choice. A key bit of gear is the "cage" on the back, which is noramlly welded steel which gives the shooters something to hang on to, a place to stash ammo, spare magazines, thermos, cigars and all the other shooting gear. We worked on 5 men per vehicle ( one of teams key rules is - no chicks) a driver, a spotlighter, 2 shooters, and a picker upper, normally armed with a portbale spotlight and a .22 if a finishing shot is needed. Everyone rotates through the roles, because weirdly driving and working the light is as much fun as shooting- chasing a rabbit a 60 miles and hour across fields with everyone blazing away is so much fun it should be illegal. Probably is in some states.
By about 6am you are asking yourslef "why do i do this to myself every year?" but then the sun comes up and its alright. Normally you go back to foot patrols.
The weapons we used are- Ruger 10/22's are a must have. Loaded with subsonic ammo and silencers during the day, and stingers at night, they are great for those long range shots. In our truck one gun ruled them all- the Remington 870. I had an 870 P ( The "hose of death") which was useless outside 10 yards, but ideal for those moving shots at close range, and my 870 wingmaster with a full choke, and there were two other 870 Magnum express. You will see that from the photo- just some of the guns we had were ( from left to right- Remington 1100, a Saiga 12 gauge with red dot, a ruger 10/22, a benelli, another 10/22, the hose of death and i think another 10/22)
We used 32 gram loads of Fiocchi # 4 during the day, and 36 gram loads of #5 at night, which got a bit painfull by the fouth case.
Needless to say, we would be delighted to host any of you chaps over here.