Wabbit hunting

[Jim Barrett]

We have rabbits all over the place...I have an old pump pellet pistol...would that kill a rabbit? Last thing I want is it to wound it and have it jumping around all over the place!

Jim

[Fred Belknap]

Yea wabbits are easy to kill. Good to eat too.

[Phil Thien]

My wife has said that everything in the garden gets eaten this year.

That includes any bunnies that happen to find a way in.

They kept their distance until a couple of days ago, and then she found not one but TWO baby bunnies inside the forbidden area.

Lucky they got away while my wife adjusted the fencing, otherwise it would have been hassenpfeffer for dinner.

[Lee Schierer]

We have rabbits all over the place...I have an old pump pellet pistol...would that kill a rabbit? Last thing I want is it to wound it and have it jumping around all over the place!

Jim

It depends. You may need to shoot them in the head to get a clean kill with a pellet gun depending upon the caliber and how close you are when you shoot. Set up a pine board and evaluate teh penetration at various distances to determine your maximum range.

[Paul Ryan]

The pellot rifle will kill them, but dont hold your breath with a pistol. You will have to hit them just right to kill them, but to prevent them thrashing, good luck. If it were me I would get out the .22 or better yet the 20 guage.

[Jim Barrett]

Well....I took aim at one and hit it...and it jumped all around the yard as my wife screamed...so I loaded another pellet and shot it again...still alive...geesh....one more shot put it out...well not going to do that again!

[Bob Vavricka]

Jim,
I have shot jack rabbits with a pellet rifle that used a CO2 cartridge for power. It was pretty deadly on rabbits.

Not sure why, but your post brought back a memory of rabbit drive stories my Mom told me about during the dust bowl days in Western Kansas. They would string fencing around a field and then walk it in toward the center to corral the jack rabbits and use clubs to kill them. I remember seeing pictures of farm truck filled with dead rabbits. A google search will bring up similar stories.
Bob V.

[David G Baker]

Bob they still have something similar to the old jack rabbit drive. A bunch of folks show up on a ranch in trucks at night, line up, turn on their headlights and spend an hour or so shooting them by the hundreds.
I use a pump up pellet gun to kill squirrels at around 40 feet away. It sometimes takes a couple pellets to finish them off if I don't get a good hit. I go for the head or right behind the shoulder. The head shot kills the instantly a heart shot will let them flop around for a while. I only shoot the critters that are doing damage and I get them in the act so the innocent ones don't get hurt.
I like the pellet gun because it is quiet, doesn't have the range of a 22 or as loud as a 410 or 20 gauge. It is a major pain to have to load and pump the gun for the second shot if it is needed.
We have some cotton tails but the coyotes, hawks, eagles or a possible large cat keeps the population in control.

[curtis rosche]

forget the petel pistol. go with the desert eagle. or a 45. if you hit it, it wont suffer nomatter where it is hit. and if you miss, it will scare the %#@# out of it and it wont come back for a while. and it would be a reason to buy a bigger gun. .45 are fun to shoot, trust me

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Take some noisy yapping little dog and put it on a run out by the garden.