Shooting Birds/Rabbits with Shotgun, safe to eat?

[Green Weasel]

This is not always so. Rabbits often deliberately wedge themselves in a burrow so tight a ferret cannot get past them to get at the neck (rabbits are not stupid this behaviour is protection) when this happens the ferret will scratch and chew at the rear quarters of the rabbit, it is amazing how much damage a rabbit will take sooner than bolt. I have dug out many laid-up rabbits which were still alive despite having extensive damage to their hind quarters, so much so it makes you wince. I used to do a lot of rabbit control and have caught thousands of rabbits with nets/ferrets/snares/guns/and dogs. One thing often overlooked is care of the carcase after killing, many people gut the carcase far too soon when the rabbit is still warm, you should always allow the carcase to cool a little before gutting, gutted warm the blood in the cavity will run and stain the fat around the kidneys and the flesh in cavity will look scruffy, when cooled the fat will look clean and white and the flesh in the cavity will look pink and clean because the blood won’t soil when cold (you only let the carcase cool, half an hour or so, some people do the opposite and don’t gut soon enough which also spoils the meat) Shot in a carcase is nothing to worry about but I always pick out clean netted rabbits for myself as I have that option. Incidentally when you skin lots of rabbits you find all sorts of things, smaller early season rabbits that try to squeeze through a net will get net burns/marks to their flesh if left too long in nets without killing, I have lost count of the airgun pellets I have found lodged under the skin of rabbits.

I did say "usually" go for for the head/neck but you are right about rabbits' clever dead-ending defence technique. Given soft soil they'll take the technique a stage further and bury em'selves faster than a ferret (or I guess: stoat) can scrabble the soil away.
The things inside a rabbit that always intrigue me are the little calcified foetuses that turn-up from time to time. Don't know if its caused by a fault in the reabsorbtion mechanism or simply the body dealing with an expired kit.
Seems the more a chap discovers the more obvious the gaps in his knowledge become
And yes;carcase care not only shows respect and appreciation but results in less wastage and better meals.
I'm itching to kick-off the ferreting season but round here its still too warm with too many flies about to tackle the big jobs without risking the day's haul.
All the best