Finally did it!!!

[jesusgecko]

Did a mish up to Coromandel.....well,  Te Mata if you want to split hairs (or hares) over it.....and finally got my .22 to claim it's first and second ever rabbit after almost a year!!!

Recently I bought a LED Lenser H7 headlamp,  and on the first night at my folks place I took it out onto the porch and turned the spot beam of it up.  What should happen?  A rabbit complete with glowing eyes showed up on their driveway!!!  Raced inside,  grabbed the gun,  but it was gone again.
 
Next day we had a visitor who wanted to do a bit of shooting but had little experience ***skip lots of hooha because it has nothing to do with small game but more target shooting*** .
Anyway,  we used a bit of "number 8 wire" kiwi inginuity and taped the headlamp underneath the gun,  and jumped on the back of the old man's ute.
We just got to the gate at the bottom of the driveway,  and there were a pair of eyes staring back at me.  Gun up and "crack".  Straight between the eyes and exiting the right eye.
 
I was happy,  so gave the gun to Mr Visitor.  We got around the corner and there is one darting across the road.  It stopped,  and Mr Visitor proceeded to do a tricky standing shot from the ute tray aiming between the planks on a post and rail fence.  Between the eyes and out the left side was the result there.
 
Only one more sighting after that,  but he was heading for the hills.
 
Skinned and gutted both the next day.  I have to say,  the one I kept is NOT being eaten for a week or three.  The insides of a rabbit smell way worse than any animal I have ever gutted!!!  If someone else gutted it for me I'd be more inclined to chow it down.  Never eaten rabbit before,  so the stink wasn't a good introduction.

[Fieldmor77]

Back in the day i can remember after one particular spotlighting trip, we had over one hundred bunnies to skin and gut, after number twenty i think i stopped noticing the smell, Maybe the extra large Bundy and cokes helped as well!.

[LvrLover]

100 bunnies! Fried rabbit, roast rabbit, rabbit in gravy, hassenpfeffer, rabbit stew, rabbit soup, rabbit fricassee, rabbit tacos, grilled rabbit, braised rabbit, rabbit pate, rabbit pie, rabbit stir fry, rabbit and rice ...YUMMMMM! Try it you will love it. Never noticed the smell when dressing them myself. Good hunting!

[Fieldmor77]

I kid you not LvrLover, our best on one trip was fifty in one hour!, the Calcivirus has knocked the guts out of them but they are rebounding.

We used to get three dollars a pair for them, more than enough to pay for fuel, ammo, food and of course our extensive refreshment requirements!.

But alas, those days are long gone, on my last trip out i got three!.

[jesusgecko]

We used to have nights like that on possums back in the day.  I got good on the old shotgun really quick!!!

[Fieldmor77]

And that was weapon of choice, all i had was a winchester cooey single shot 12 G, it was a great little gun, like an idiot i sold it years ago. Also had an old Stirling mod 20 semi auto carbine 22, which i used on long shots [ out to 100 yds ].

[22hornet]

Also had an old Stirling mod 20 semi auto carbine 22.

I had one of those too, Before the buy back. :cry:  It looked like a Ruger10/22 but had a 15 shot magazine. I taped to mags together, one upside down to give a quick 30 shots. Great spotlighting rifle, especially in the cold.

[Fieldmor77]

I tell you what Hornet, i have never seen one of those carbine models come up for sale, they must have been rare as.
 
And they were a great little semi auto, i can't recall mine ever getting a jam, and boy it used to cop a hiding too.