At the time of writing this feature a
bit of sadness is creeping in. The long sunny evenings are coming to
an end and the thought of evening walks with the rifle after work
will be a distant memory.
Don't get me wrong I will be looking
forward to some frosty morning squirrel hunts and getting out with
the lamp on those rabbits that are raw to the red filter but its not
the same as getting bitten to death and being warm.
This feature will be a close to my
summer hunts but it is to show just what can be achieved in just a
couple of hours and why I like to just be able to pick the rifle up
any evening and get out.
I had shot this ground a couple of days
before and it was a real red letter session.
Within an hour I had taken 8 shots and
had 8 kills , it seemed every corner I crept around had something
feeding well within range.
I had decided to have another walk and
take the camera this time as I thought taking the same route would
be an easy feature to write up about as I was sure to shoot
something.
I had loaded the Rapid up and with the
head net and gloves on I set off.
It wasn't long before I got to the
first location , it was in a quiet corner of one of the small cattle
fields. There is a small thistle patch about 30 yards long and
probably 10 feet wide. These thistle patches are always a winner for
me as rabbits always seem to feed in between them.
You can look and not see anything in
there at first and you get the tendency to step out to carry on to
the next spot. I used to get caught out quite regular but if you
really look hard you will often see a pair of ears moving amongst the
thistles as the rabbit eats.
I will not move from my resting place
until I had scanned and scanned again, failure makes you work hard
and the rewards will show with time.
On this evening surprisingly there was
no rabbits in there at all. Carrying on to the next spot that
produced the last time again showed nothing out feeding but about 80
yards away on top of a bank I could see one out feeding.
As I had my camera with me this time I
had to use a ruck sack and in this hot weather it was already getting
warm so I took it off and carried on this stalk without it.
Also there is nothing worse when you
think you are low enough to keep out of eyes way and you forget about
the ruck sack and the rabbit runs off after seeing it over the
nettles or long grass.
I had reached about half way and at
this point the bank is high enough where you are out of view, the
main task now is finding a place where you can creep up the bank and
have somewhere to hide behind and take your shot.
I had got to the opposite end of the
bank and only thirty yards from where the rabbit was feeding, the
only draw back not seeing the rabbit was is it still in its original
spot or had it moved.
I had crept up to a birch tree that had
two thickish trunks that left a gap four feet up to shoot through.
The rabbit was pretty close to where I
had spotted it so I slowly pushed the rapid through the gap and
raised my head up behind the scope. I have been in this situation
before in the winter and most times I get spotted as I lift my head
up but this time of year the leaves give you a good backdrop and your
camo blends in well leaving no silhouette in the gap.
With a good rest for the Rapid I lined
the rabbit and pulled the trigger , the rabbit sunk to its stomach
when the pellet struck and a couple of nervous twitches lay
motionless for kill number one.
I gutted the rabbit and hid it in some
long grass for retrieval later and carried onto my next hot spot.
It was a good 30 minutes and 5 hotspots
later that I got my next chance. Tonight was not going to plan for
some reason and the rabbits were not showing where they are usually
on the dot.
This next chance was another rabbit
feeding in the open in a corner of a horse paddock . The tricky part
was now getting within range,but I had a plan. There were quite a few
small jumps that had been placed in the field , these were thick tree
trunks that were just thick enough to cover me if I kept really low.
I had slid like a snake for a good
twenty yards , I had crossed from one jump to another always having
something between me and the rabbit . There was hardly a breeze here
and I had decided to take the rabbit from this last jump that I had
reached.
Previous days shooting from this spot
when ambushing them had shown 35 yards on the range finder so rather
than chance being seen I was confident to take my shot from here.
The rabbit was happily feeding with it
back to me, this helped enormously as I could rest the Rapid on the
end of the log and shoot comfortable.
I lifted my head up just as the rabbit
turned its head and my cover was blown. The rabbit looked straight at
me and I could see it was ready to run for cover .
I wasted no time in putting the centre
of the cross just above the middle of ear and eye and let the pellet
do its worst.
With the rabbit gutted and hid I set
off again in search of another.
Things did not got as well as the last
time I was out and where ever I thought a rabbit would be there was
nothing. I didn't want to give up with two rabbits for a feature in
the summer as this is the time we should be having the best times on
our grounds so I decided to go to a place that I have not been to for
a while.
This part of ground has small bushy
trees that have only just got high enough to get under comfortably.
There is a mixture of Birch, Oak and Hazel and the grass is pretty
long here so actually seeing a rabbit or anything in the trees is
pretty hard, but I had a plan.
Over the years I have walked through
the trees to other parts of the ground I have made a nice path
through one row. This row is quite close to the edge of the field ,
there are rabbit burrows and large oak trees dotted along here so
something should show up.
I had spotted a pile of fresh Hazel nut
shells half way along the path and really made my mind up on what I
was going to do.
Using the shadows under a Hazel tree I
had planned to let the quarry come to me , I knew the squirrels were
not going to be finished feeding yet and surely would be going back
to that same spot to get more nuts to store fore the winter.
I was going to lie along the path but
from the shadow I could see one of the big oaks that might just give
me a chance of a pigeon and it would have no chance of knowing I was
there.
I had been sitting still for around 20
minutes when movement no more than 10 yards in front of me caught my
eye. I wasted no time turning the parallax down on the scope as I
lifted it to my eye and scanned through the ferns where I last saw
what ever it was move. It was a good minute before I finally spotted
what it was. I had noticed a big eye looking through the ferns right
at me , the sun had just shone through the trees and I could make out
the pink glow of sunny rabbit ears.
The rabbit sat motionless , staring
straight at me, I would love to know what it was thinking when it saw
me as I am sure it did not have a clue what I was. I found a small
gap where I could thread the pellet through to its brain and thump ,
number three was in the bag.
I didn't want to move from the shadows
and give myself away so I cocked the Rapid ready for my next chance.
It was about 15 minutes from when I
last shot the rabbit when I heard something right above my head. The
Hazel tree is about ten foot high and unknown to me a squirrel had
managed to sneak in and start pulling the nuts from the tree. I was
sitting as still as possible scanning through the leaves when I
noticed the grey fur no more than 5 feet above me. I know if I had
been wearing the JackPyke LLCS suit I probably would have had it jump
on me but as it got to the lower barer branches it spotted me. It
froze solid for a few seconds before running straight down the
clearing in front of me. I thought my chance had gone as I had
tracked it through the scope but I noticed it looking at me from
behind the thin trunk that it had disappeared behind. Resting the
rapid on my knee I held a steady aim just behind its eye and as the
pellet hit his head it curled up and dropped to the floor. I decided
to go and pick up the rabbit that I had shot before and head back to
a promising ambush point before the sun set low enough to loose the
light.
This ambush has produced some good
results as the rabbit numbers are quite high in the little spinney
that runs next to a trailer. At this time of evening the sun shines
longest here and the rabbits seem to sit out getting those last few
rays and under the trailer the shadow gives you excellent cover.
I had been here for about 10 minutes
when I had my first shot. Two three quarter grown rabbits had come
from the cover together and rather than sit close to the edge of the
fence line they ran straight out into the field. In this situation I
try and get a shot of as soon as possible as I nearly always get a
second shot as they are still pretty raw to rifles and to be honest
if they had ever heard a shot they were certainly the lucky ones that
didn't get the lead in their head. This pair succumbed to the .177
pellets , although the second one ran a couple of yards as it was
startled from the first rabbits impact he joined its friend on the
floor. I had managed to to get another in range before the sun
dropped and finished with a pretty good bag considering the start I
had.
Using the shadows worked a treat
tonight where I had no problems in the sun the time before but it
just goes to show if you work hard you will always get a result.
