Rabbit hunting

cleaning?

If it ain't a varmit, you kill it -you clean it!
.22 cal. is all I've used for years to hunt wascal wabbit.
Less waste-more eat!!!!!
 
Air rifle?

I use my RWS 48. It churns the Beeman Silver Bears at 1100 ft/ second and works well on cottontails. For squirrel I use the RWS hollowpoint as it penetrates better and makes a wound just like solid standard velocity .22 except much safer in populated areas.

The Beemans stay together but don't penetrate as well since they expand more. The RWS blow the front half off in a ring while the back portion continues to travel, often exiting a squirrel. Beemans won't completely penetrate a 2 liter soda bottle full of water but the back half of an RWS will!

On cleaning rabbits, do it right after killing them and its easiest. Bring a small game gambrel (leg hooks, looks like a coathanger) and start at the rear legs, making a slit from foot to foot, right between the tail and poop-chute.
Gain a purchase on both sides, pulling the tail, legs and head through so that you turn the skin inside-out. Then gut and clip the feet. Less hair and fast. Clean up, ice the game and continue the hunt.

Shotshells? Only #6 or larger and 20 gauge or smaller. 5/8 oz is plenty with IC bore.

Forget .22 shot for anything bigger than small rat at close range. I've kille starlings at 50 feet but that's a stretch even with rosette crimped shells. At 15 feet, its a blast hunting rat. Use a pump and have fun!

BTW, I've used .45 shotshells to kill a raccoon! It was in the attic and took 9 shells from my Para-Ord. They don't penetrate 5/8" drywall at 20 feet. Low recoil enabled me to shoot 9 times FAST. I wish for #6 and a barrel with a sloooow twist, say 1:100" which should be legal with the ATF.
 
I've been hunting small game for years, and I never really got into it either. I would do it for something to do. Finally this year it all clicked. I loved the solitude. I loved the sounds of the wind, leaves, river, and birds. I loved the bite of the cold, and the warmth of the coffee. I enjoyed my scratchy old GI wool blanket when it got down-right nippy out.
I don't know why, after all these years I finally got it, but I did. I never could understand why everybody loved hunting so much, but I kept at it thinking I might figure it out some day, and at least it was cheaper than golf. I can't say why I like it like I do, but I do.
Even after cleaning probably upwards of a hundred deer (I do it for friends too), and maybe a thousand squirell, I really enjoyed it this year. Eating them was just as much of a pleasure.

The only thing different this year that I can think of is that I brought a thermos of coffee with me, and I ate a hearty breakfast before I went out. Breakfast really does make a difference! Am I crazy, or was being cold, and hungry all these years a bad combination?
 
kjm

kjm, you have to be comfortable!!!! It is when you are not comfy that nothing is fun. I just bought some trapper boots this year that are good for -80degrees F. I can't count all the times I did not want to quit deer hunting for the day, but had to due to cold feet. Now I get lost all day in the woods in the nastiest wheather. Happy Hunting!!!!!
 
15 years ago, I shot my first rabbit. I remember the surprise of just about jumping it, the smooth motion shoulder-hammer down-BANG with my grandpa's single shot .410, the sight of the little critter tumbling down... and then it started crying... so I snapped its neck, sat down and lit a cigarette with trembling hands...
There I was! A man!(well, 14, but still a man!)
Then came the chore of cleaning and skinning. Since the adrenalin was still pumping (I AM A MAN!!!!), the whole thing went OK. Then I cooked it, and man was it ever good!
Since that time, I have harvested countless rabbit, grouse and ptarmigan, plus caribou, deer and moose, but that day will always be on my mind as memories of other hunts fade...
Done with poetry, now the practical stuff: Wife-children are not too wild about wild meat? You could start the way I did... I married a city girl that didn't even eat meat to start with...
1- Introduce venison progressively
2- Don't serve as is, cook it in a stew, sheperd pie, or mix ground meat with beef or whatever
3- Don't insist about them eating it all...
It took me 3 years and some to get Wife accustomed, but now she thinks that beans do not taste as good if there ain't grouse in there! OTOH, she still won't eat my famous bear roast...
Good hunting.
 
Hey Bad Med, I live at the other end of the continent, or just about... Northern Quebec, 53'37"N, 77'42"W, 100 miles south of the first Inuit village... Not very far up north, as far as lattitude goes, but since we are next to an almost-enclosed body of water, climate is very comparable to AK.
-25 C this morning (what is it in F?)
 
F = 9/5 C + 32; C = 5/9 (F - 32). 1.8 degrees F = 1.0 degrees C. 0 C = 32 F.

So, F = 1.8 x -25, +32; -45 + 32 = -13 F.

Okay?

Art
 
(all temperatures are in farenhiet)
Well, we have had one of the wierdest damn winters on record!! Usually this time of year it hangs around zero for about a month, and we have 4-8 foot of snow in the yard, but this winter we've had warm and cold spells and not much snow fall. The biggest snow we've had this winter was 8 inches, and if none of all our snow had melted, we still wouldn't have had more than 2'. Unfortunately after every snow it gets warms and melts it. Our roads and yards are frozen in about 6 inches of clear ice eek! The coldest it's even got this winter was about 5 degrees, and for the last week it's been above freezing. Today it's 35 !!!
 
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