Catching rabbits humanely?

[Janne]

No, it was first diagnosed in a lab ( on lab rabbits) somewhere in the south Americas.
Long time ago, before humans got skilled in creating diseases that can kill us all.
It is a disease that is fairly harmless to the local rabbit species, but lethat in our kind of rabbits.

Lots of diseases are fine for the animals where they originate as those critters have developed an immunity or a degree of protection.

Move the disease and it becomes devastating. Move animals and that is devastating for the local animals.

 

[Janne]

Realistically very few hunters shoot that well. I didn't shoot that well myself until I was aout 12 years old (after hunting several years)

I have been shooting for about 45 years, and still am learning.
I find I had my pinnacle around the age of 35.
Fine with rifle, getting worse shooting precision 25m with revolver.
Aging sucks.

 

[Dave]

No, it was first diagnosed in a lab ( on lab rabbits) somewhere in the south Americas.
Long time ago, before humans got skilled in creating diseases that can kill us all.
.

Oh! Dont know what to believe now mate. Thats was my understanding before googling it. Now googled it, and it seems to back it up. Course the internet is not always correct.

Myxomatosis is a man-made disease to control the rabbit population.

http://www.myxomatosis.org.uk/Welcome.html

 

[Janne]

Better to check a more independent site. I will try to find one.

 

[Dave]

Maybe worth mentioning In most enviroments from a bushcraft perspective, always more fruitful to set snares for rabbits.

 

[Janne]

Google Encyclopedia Brittanica, then Myxomatosis animal pathology.
Wikipedia says the same.
In short, found in Uruguay in late 1800’ introduced in Australia in 1950.

Humans could only create nice lethal diseases since we have been able to manipulate genes.

In fact I do not know of any man made disease. Plenty of chemicals though.

Nerve gasses mainly. Robson Valley is you resource there.
( not in creating them, but info! . )

 

[Dave]

Mmmm, interesting.

 

[Janne]

Yes, Robson Valley knows as much about those things as the rest of us together!

 

[C_Claycomb]

Lets TRY to keep this thread on track. Discussion of nerve gas is NOT suitable for this forum, and it is debatable whether much of what is being discussed here is of much use to the OP. Getting fed up with the regular wanderings off topic.

Going back to the original post that started all this, several questions come to mind:

• Does the OP have permission to catch/kill animals on the land he is out on? If not, then all further discussion is somewhat moot since we can't condone anything illegal, and getting permission can be far harder than the technical aspects of learning to shoot or learning to trap.
• Is the aim to "live off the land" while out camping, or to provide meat for use at home, or just make camp food more interesting?
• How much time does the OP have for this activity? Snares take time to start producing. Hunting takes time too.
• Is part of the aim the acquisition of skills, in which case are the primary skills wanted those of trapping, wood working, hunting, or marksmanship?
• Assuming that they have permission on the land, what sort of land is it? My friends' farm in mid-Wales was all open ground and windswept. There were rabbits there, but getting within air rifle range was really difficult.
• Also, and this is not meant to be rude, what sort of age is the OP? This can have an impact on their budget, how quickly they are likely to be able to pick up new skills, and how long they might be able to enjoy them, and how easy it might be to travel to ranges/clubs/shops to try different gear.

 

[Broch]

The easiest meat to kill in the majority of UK woods is grey squirrel not rabbit. Just put peanuts out, hide 15m away and pop them off with a cheap springer (I still use my 30+ year old BSA Supersport). There are a whole load of good recipes out there you can use on squirrel and they taste good. In some woods you could easily shoot a dozen or more most days.

Cheers,

Broch

P.S. some people should be joining the British Olympic team with their air rifle accuracy prowess

 

[C_Claycomb]

Apropos live catch traps for rabbits, my grandfather used a rabbit box, of which there are many plans on the net. It was solid wood, so the rabbit was contained in a nice, dark, box, and could not see anyone walking up. Killing was every bit as humane as it would be with chickens or other small farmed animals. If one is going to eat meat, it does not do to dwell on this part of it too much.

The small amount of snaring I did for rabbits, I don't recall having lives ones just held in the snares. They either broke their necks having run through a snare out in a field at speed, or strangled pretty quick having got caught and jumped around. Guess I was lucky.

 

[Navek]

If you have permission of land owner then hunt anyway you see fit as long as it is leagal ...you are never going to learn if you never try..however if you have someone experienced to show you it makes things a lot better

Any method of hunting used incorrectly is in humane and any method of hunting used Corectly is humane

I shoot ,snare ,ferret, longnet ,pursenet, backnet ,lamp,and have a lurcher capable of catching super all have pros and al have cons ..

When it comes to shooting as long as you can hit something the size of a tangerine at 5 yards 10 yards 15yards ect ect then you will be able to kill a rabbit cleanly if you take a head shot .once you can hit a rabbit head sized target at a distance and you can do it consistently then go hunting but keep to a distace you are consistent with

 

[Sundowner]

I do shoot rabbits and pigeons (shotgun) but rabbits I like to snare and then stretch their necks. I can't remember a snared dead rabbit as it's that long ago. Now over to recipes

 

[Janne]

Receipes?
Now you are talking......

Deboned rear legs make a fantastic Schnitzel. Add a pinch of Cayenne to the flour.

As the meat is a bit sweetish and very mild, I like lots of green herbs.

 

[Janne]

The problem with head shots is that a glancing bullet causes horrific damage.

Like with al, shooting, practice lots and lots and became a goid shot before you replace the target with a living animal!

 

[Klenchblaize]

So I want to start catching my own meat when I go out to the woods.
I want to use traps which I can make myself in the field but also be legal, and just as importantly - humane.

So what do you guys think I should do?

Learn to make a snare; how and where to set it and then have the diligence (compassion too if you will) to regualrly visit the site no matter your other 'commitments'.

It may also be worth pointing out there will be occasion when you'll need to be comfortable with looking into the critter's terrified eyes as you send it on its way to eternity.

Not all folks have the stomach for that and it sure ain't something to be ashamed of if you happen to be given of such sensibility.

K

 

[grip]

I back net rabbits by setting purse nets on their burrows when they are out feeding at night .
About a week before I net I take a sickle to the vegitation round the burrow mouth to aid the smooth running of the nets. I then stay away until the rabbits are used to the disturbance.
Then on a night when the wind is right I go and set my nets over the burrows and taking a wide sweep get behind the rabbits and drive them home .
You wont5 get a rabbit in every net because by the time you get there some will have slipped the nets but for me it's never about numbers it's about being able to do it.
I now leave my gear hidden close to the netting ground so when I fancy a bunny for the pot I take a stroll over and there's nothing to carry in . 0

 

[Robson Valley]

CClaycomb: Please make very damn certain that I have never said a word about any means of killing rabbits
by any means other than shooting them. Any responsible hunter comprehends that a single head shot is correct.
"Two in the body and one in the head, guarantees they're really dead" (is a fool.)

 

[mrostov]

In the lower 48 US states, anywhere near civilization, if you try trapping small game like rabbits on land you will catch a lot of cats. So, unless you have a good recipe for cat cacciatore, just hunt rabbits with a weapon.

It's also very warm here most of the year (March 31 and it's averaging about 80*F during the day and has been in that temperature range for a while now), so if you have anything but a live trap all you will catch is fertilizer or bait for something else, nothing edible. Live traps will work, but while it works well with possum, there are few things on Earth more vicious and hostile as a trapped feral cat. I save trapping for crabs out in the bay.

Oddly, even though there are some very powerful air rifles out there, in Texas the only thing it is legal to hunt with an air rifle is a squirrel. I can hunt rabbits with a bow legally in city limits and a firearm outside of city limits. BTW, I still find it just obtuse that bow hunting in Britain, the land of Robin Hood and the yeoman archer, is banned.

 

[Janne]

Hunting with other means than a firearm harks back to old times before firearms.
Tradition.
I guess poaching kept those archaic methods alive?