Pro rabbit shooting in Australia

[branxhunter]

Been a while since I posted anything, thought I would pass on something from another site that might interest those over the water. I received permission of the original author to post here - I encouraged him to come over and pull up a chair by the THL campfire....

This bloke is a pro rabbit shooter in NW New South Wales. I'll let him lead on with the description of taking 150 pair of rabbits in one night....


Well a few more details for you seeing how you are interested.

That night I was shooting out west of town approximately 110km, mostly over rough crappy dirt roads that only western shires seem to enjoy delivering to their rate payers. When shooting that far out I usually try and leave town approximately 3 - 330 pm, but that night was a bit late, I hadnt started shooting when I took the first photo which was just before sunset, not a bad office view really. The ground at the moment is covered with white paper daisy, and although it looks nice, its really a pain in the rear mainly cause the rabbits lay down and make themselves hard to see, and also when driving over it it turns to dust and is very irritating in you eyes and nose.

As most of you blokes would know, the last hour before sunset is one of the best times for shooting rabbits, they have just come out of their warrens and are lazing around enjoying the evening, a bit like us I spose, only we get to enjoy a beer and munchies as well. This time of the afternoon I can usually get up to 30 or 40 pair an hour, shot, gutted and paired, hanging on the back, the best warren I can remember shooting was on another property, and shot 18 pair in just under 5 minutes, I was half hidden by a small bush and they were just enjoying the sun and were extremely dopey, I only managed to get around half that were sitting there, now that was fun.

After sunset things quieten down a bit and the rabbits move out from their burrows a fair way, just means driving out from the warrens until I find which side they are feeding on that night. Might sound strange, but as a general rule they will go out to a different side depending on which direction the wind is coming from. Not a hard and fast rule but they generally like to go back to their warrens with the wind or breeze coming into their faces. The moon phase has a lot to do with how well they will sit, full moon is mostley the best as it tones down the lights of the ute and they arent as spookey, dark nights and I only need the smallest amount of light as they are pretty jumpy. Windy, dark nights, and I wont go out unless I really need the numbers. I only use the headlights and a small light mounted under my mirror for shooting, its set at around 45 degrees to the side and I reckon 80% of the shots are taken in the darker area between the lights, they usually moove out of the light to the dark.

My rifle is a CZ453 Varmint with a Ziess Conquest 4.5 - 14 x 50 AO with a number 4 reticle, I havent tried any of the really flash Euro scopes, and personnally dont like Leupold or other American scopes for shooting at night, not that I have tried any in the last 10 or so years. I reckon the only other one I would use is my Kahles 4 - 12 52, not that you need alot of magnification, I leave my scope set on 8 power, as most of the shots are only around 35 yards which is what I zero my scope for. I use Winchester Power Point hollow points, the old stuff, havent had a go at the new one as I dont need to change and still have several cases left. I buy it in bulk lots 25,000 rounds at a time, get better price that way, and I know its all the same batch. My rifle will keep putting shots into a square of black electrical tape, the same length as its width, around 13mm square for as long as I want to keep pulling the trigger. My favourite aim point on the rabbits is the eye, nice little red target. Knives, I use Victronox 4 inch paring knives and have 6 or 7 in the ute with me, but only use 1 or 2 each night, only cost around 4 bucks so if I loose any its not a real big drama, sure beats loosing that knife that your granddad gave you for your 10th birthday.  

On the side of the rack is where I hang my rabbits after Ive shot them, this lets most of the blood drain out, when Ive got around 15 pair Ill pull up and do a gut, split from breast bone to pelvis and remove just the gut, leaving liver, lungs and heart, take the balls out of the bucks and of course any younguns in the does. **** bag and as much of the **** shute as you can. It takes me around 10 to 15 seconds to gut each rabbit, so around 4 or 5 pair per minute, then thread one leg through the other and join two up and hang them over a galvanised fence post. I dont skin them in the paddock and just deliver them to the chiller as you see them in the photos.

On a really good night Ill be tucked up in bed by around 12 or so, best night was 190 pair delivered to the chiller in town by 130 am but I was only shooting 15 km out of town, and they hadnt been shot for around 10 years or so, you could have walked up to them and just picked them up and saved the bullets, so when they are like that it gets pretty hectic for a while.

So thats basically how I do it, I still learn little things every now and then, bit like life really, the day you stop learning is the day you die. Someone asked about pricing, well its just like every other primary production, we cop it in the neck pretty well, when there is high demand and not many rabbits you can get up to $7 a pair for large but when low demand etc the price gets cut. I started getting 6.20 a pair a few years ago and its gone back since the drough broke and numbers increased. The night I shot the 190 pair was the only night I made over $1000.00, hopefully it will pick up again. The price you see in the supermarkets in the cities is a mark up of approximately 600 to 1000%, someone is making a killing.

Ive just spent the day from 8 till 5 around in the abbitoir skinning and packaging 250 pair and will have another day doing the same tomorrow.

http://ausvarmint.com/forum/download/file.php?id=8914&mode=view

http://ausvarmint.com/forum/download/file.php?id=8918&mode=view


Good read, hey? Hopefully the links to the photos work - they are quite impressive.

Marcus

[kombi1976]

The links don't work, unfortunately.
You have to be a member of ausvarmint.com I think.
But it's an excellent story, Marcus.

[branxhunter]

Hmmmm, still trying to work out how posting photos works from an iPad. While the photos are saved on the iPad, it has obviously posted the link, which as you noted requires membership to that site to be able to access.

When I get back home (spending Easter at Albury on the Vic/NSW border) I'll save the photos to my work laptop and then into this thread.

Marcus

[gitano]

Unfortunately, your friend won't be able to participate in THL conversations unless he does it via your account. While I have paid for all of the accounts, I still don't have access to the THL Administration. I don't think that is ever going to happen. I think we will have to do our best to "save" the existing thread database and start all over.

Interesting that there are "professional" rabbit hunters in Oz.

Paul

[Fieldmor77]

A great story Marcus, brings back plenty of memories for me, I used to go shooting with one of those fella's when I was eighteen.
Weapon of choice was a single shot Winchester 12g, I had a Stirling semi auto 22 for the long shots, I recall our best was 50 in an hour, strange how the price per pair seems not to have changed that much!

[22hornet]

Interesting that there are "professional" rabbit hunters in Oz.
 
Paul

The skins used to go to making "Akubra" hats. I don't know if this is still the case. http://www.akubra.com.au/

[gitano]

"Professional hunter" is in general a "bad word" in the US. The history of market hunting in the US is VERY bad. Professional hunters are responsible for the demise of the phenomenal bison herds, almost wiped out most eastern duck species, and drove to extinction the carolina parakeet, and the one that breaks my heart, the passenger pigeon.

Ironically, while "professional hunter" is "bad", we have a BOOMING industry in professional hunting. It's called "guiding". An adjunct is now the professional television hunters and sport fishermen. People actually make a living in this country just participating in fishing derbies. Of course those people are "good" professionals. Commercial marine fishermen are "bad" professional fishermen. The point is: Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Australia has a unique circumstance in that there are so MANY introduced species that have been, in general, harmful to the native fauna. Allowing people to hunt those introduced species commercially, makes a world of sense to me.

In the US, we also have MANY introduced species, but VERY few of them are game animals. One of the only "success" stories I am aware of IN THE WORLD for introduced species is the ring-necked pheasant. While there is some SMALL evidence of truly marginal effect on native bird populations, pheasants have in general been "OK". Some African ungulates have escaped from "game ranches" and established viable populations, but all of them are aggressively hunted by locals, and none have presented any particular threat to indigenous fauna.

The same can't be said for fish species.

How about one of you guys that are members of ausvarmint.com copying the pictures and posting them here so we can see them?

Paul

[branxhunter]

Here are the photos:
 
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Marcus

[gitano]

Now THAT'S impressive!:eek:

Paul

[branxhunter]

In Aus we also have professional hunting guides, but of course the industry is not as big as in the US.
 
In terms of professional shooters there are the pro rabbit and kangaroo shooters that harvest animals for meat, either for human or pet consumption.
 
There used to be quite a few semi-pro fox shooters around when skins were worth something. One of my uncles had a farm down south, but used to head out spotlighting 3-4 nights a week. He earned enough to pay his fuel and ammo expenses, bring some much needed cash into the farm (it was a tough period at the time), and buy a brand new Sako .222 every year!
 
We also have pro shooters involved in feral animal culling programs - animals suchas feral pigs, wild brumbies, camels, buffalo and goats. While many are culled from a helicopter some are still hunted on foot. My brother used to work on Kangaroo Island, just off the South Australian coast. Some of his friends there were pro shooters paid by the government to cull goats and pigs which they did on foot.
 
I am not sure it is still in place, but there used to be a starling control program back in the '80's and '90's based on the Nullabor cliffs in the Great Australian Bight - the southern Australian coast that seperates western and eastern Australia. Startlings are an aggressive flocking feral introduced bird species that evict native speces from there habitats and nest holes. There used to be a control team that would camp out along the cliffs and shoot from hides until every starling from a flock was killed. This was to protect Western Australia which at the time was starling-free. I'm not sure if this is still the case.
 
Marcus

[gitano]

Sign me up for the introduced starling eradication program!

I forgot about our "professional" hunters that work for the federal government that are assigned the task of removing introduced species (rats, foxes, cattle, goats, etc.) from federal land. Mostly that happens these days in Alaska in the Aleutian chain. These people are more often than not called "professional trappers" because of the negative connotation associated with the term "professional HUNTER" that I mentioned above. "Trappers" don't garner much more respect that "hunters" these days, but enough to make the politically sensitive choose that label.

I've got a pretty 'hard-nosed' attitude about ANY introduced species. I can be swayed if the evidence is incontrovertible that they aren't "bad" for the indigenous species, but that's EXTREMELY rare. If "they" would let me, I'd shoot every wild horse in North America, and it would be a "no cost" proposition for "them". The romantic nostalgia associated with wild horses makes me grit my teeth. I think there's a bit of that in Australia as well if I read "The Man From Snowy River" right.

Anyway, thanks for making those pictures available here.

Paul

[drinksgin (deceased)]

Also asses and swine, major problems in certain areas.
I really do not like poisoning and shooting a keystone native out in certain areas, the prairie dog comes to mind.
Killing it out also pushed the black footed ferret to extinction and has seriously depressed the population of burrowing owls.
Shooting out coyotes lets rabbits expand rapidly and they do much more damage to grasses than the prairie dogs ever thought of.
If you want to see rampant grass growth, look at the prairie dog town at Lubbock, full of dogs and still overgrown.