Just NOT a Good Day Hunting Rabbit...

Geez hogdogs, I had all sorts of things I was going to say in reply. But in the end I guess each of us seeks our own personal level of feeling toward other folks and other species. Perhaps it's a mix of nature and nurture way back as to how we react. I reckon some of it is in our genes too.
If we were all of us unable to kill, we'd still be sitting around munching leaves like a bunch of mountain gorillas. And maybe being harassed to death by some other superior species.
Just like they are!
 
We had a deer problem on a base I was stationed at. Always getting deer on the taxiways and runways, especially at night and doubly during hunting season where they went to the area of least pressure.

Fine and dandy until one of my crews hit one on a touch and go in a C-141. $90,000 in damage to parts that couldn't be replaced on an aircraft that was headed to the boneyard. Got a waiver for a 1-time flight and retired her early to Davis-Monthan.

The Ops Group CC discussed with me what we could do. I told him to let me shoot the deer. He complied. I went on call with a 12 ga, 00 buck, and a spotlight at night and an unlimited # of tags from the state. After about a month, no more deer.

It wasn't fun. It wasn't sport. It was killing for a purpose. That purpose was to prevent a crew from losing control while trying to miss a deer and killing themselves along with totalling their aircraft.

The connection to you?

It may not be fun. It may not be sport. But sometimes you just do what you got to do for the better good. In this case you prevented your neighbors from having to fix the damage that a pack of those pesky critters would have inflicted.

Oh yeah, and all the meat I shot was eaten by folks on the base, mostly enlisted families who were a little worse off.
 
Ever been to a luncheon put on by PETA?
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Not on your nellie! I'm a carnivore thru and thru. Well, ok, an omnivore.
Seems those people have an overwhelming desire to go back to their ancestral roots (pardon the pun). Hell, they're there already!
 
globemaster3, I'm glad to hear about how the meat was used. Many times when there are a 'pest' animal, it will be shot and let lay. not using it when it is a good eating animal is not right IMO. You did the right thing. as for the OP good work, your feelings are normal as far as i'm concerned. Don't sweat it you did the right thing. It is hard though, b/c bunnies are one of the cutest baby animals there is. that had to of made it extra hard. Keep doing what you are doing, nothing wrong with it.
 
Oh get a hold of yourself and realize you did a good thing; those eight would have turned into 100 in a few months. Be proud and smile.
 
G'day. It is issues just like this that the anti gun people don't want to here about, as it shows that not everybody with a gun is a bloodthirsty killer.
I hope you have now had a chance to talk to the Minister for War and Finance about the issue.
 
I know how you feel. I've been fighting a rabbit problem for a while now. I was mowing my lawn about 2 weeks ago and went over a burrow that I hadn't noticed. One of the young critters tried to bolt right while the mower was over the burrow. I won't get too graphic, but the result was not pleasant nor was death instantaneous. I wouldn't have thought twice about popping this varmint with my .22, but this was completely unexpected, messy and fairly disturbing. I was in my "mowing zone" with my sound isolating earphones in and suddenly...

I also haven't told me wife about that. I share most everything with her, but no productive purpose would be served sharing this.
 
I also haven't told me wife about that. I share most everything with her, but no productive purpose would be served sharing this.
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She ran over a burrow last year. Took out 2 of them in a flash. She really took it hard.
 
Wouldn't a cat or a dog like them?
IDK, never dealt with that problem with rabbits. I know from mucking stalls that when you find baby mice a cat quickly appears and takes care of the problem for you.
 
I don't like that part of rat control either, when you find a nest it really really sucks.

only time I have shot my gun dry with my eyes closed. I could not bear to watch what was happening and I wanted the job done throughly.
 
I found a nest of little rabbits in my yard once, and we had (past tense) the same problem with rabbits.

I fed 'em to my dogs. Seriously, my neighbors aren't as cooperative as your's (some are, some aren't), so when I get the chance I thin the critters any way I can.

As for my wife, she encouraged me to do what I did. She was tired of getting half eaten vegetables from the garden too.

ETA-I just mentioned this thread, and she said that she felt a LITTLE guilty about it, and I probably did as well, but you do what you have to do to control such problems. She's a ranch gal, so she's well aware of things like that having to be done at times.

Daryl
 
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One of the young critters tried to bolt right while the mower was over the burrow. I won't get too graphic, but the result was not pleasant nor was death instantaneous.
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She ran over a burrow last year. Took out 2 of them in a flash. She really took it hard.
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I'd still rather run over a rabbit burrow then the yellow jacket nest I ran over two years ago...OUCH.:eek:
 
I Guess I am a Sissy and a Pansy Also...

You know I raise my own meat (Cows/pigs/turkeys/chickens) and hunt as well. When I kill one of the animals, I do not enjoy it (The killing part) and I just want it over and done with as quickly as possible.
I think when it quits bothering you, then you have a problem. Just about every hunter I know wants the clean, quick kill. We may joke it is because we are too lazy to track an animal, but I believe it is the humanity in us that does not want to see the suffering.
I said I was going to quit hunting a few years back because I had shot a deer and could not find it. I have never shot anything that just wandered off and I searched for four hours for that deer and could not find it. I knew I hit it, I knew it bled out pretty fiercely, but I could not find it.
It was a doe in a herd of about 6 total deer. I shot and saw all the deer run to the west. As I was sitting there having my after shot cigarette, I saw 6 deer run back towards me to the east. I put out the cigarette and began tracking from where they were standing when I shot to the east, where I saw them run.
With the amount of blood, I could not figure it out and not finding her was really devastating. I began doubting my skills and shooting abilities. I finally gave up after about four hours and went back to the house and told my dad I was through hunting.
Later that evening he asked me to take him out to the old "oak" stand, because he wanted to hunt a little bit. As I was taking him out to the stand, there, laying right in the path to the stand was the doe I had shot earlier. She had run about 20 yards, through thick cover and died.
Dad and I talked about it and the best we could figure was I shot at one group of deer and when they took off west, they must have stumble on to another group of deer and they all headed back east. either way, it made me feel better knowing she was not suffering somewhere.
I still hunt and although dad has passed away, I have a new hunting partner, my nephew. He took his first deer this year, a nice six pointer (That he was supposed to be driving towards me!) and dropped it with one shot. The deer took one step and fell over.
You can call me a sissy and a pansy, but I also do not want any animal to suffer. Guess that is the humanity in most of us.
 
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