Brian
19-11-2009, 04:27 PM
They say rabbits breed...flourish when good seasons are around, well, I wouldn't say that this saying is very correct, particularly at the moment, its dry here, no rain since may and we had a poor start to the year after we had that warm weather last summer which cooked everything. Now, we have a house paddock of a few acres here that we exclude all stock out of to keep a bit of ground cover that assists in keeping the close in dirt mainly on the ground where it belongs and not in the house and this, in dry times the ground cover becomes particularly appealing to the many rabbits for miles around.
Started shooting with the spotlight and good old Bruno 22 which did a good job but rabbits are particularly good at adapting to a 'hostile' environment so a change of tact was needed. Some time ago we bought a LED re chargeable 30 something little spot lights and its real good to use as a mini spotlight although it suffers at a bit of distance. Its an up right torch and has a reasonably thick handle. Well, armed with my LED, 12 gauge under & over, a pocket full of shells, I have been doing a regular night patrol on foot. Its been great & I have enjoyed the challenge of having to take aim quickly and shoot the rabbits as they sprinted for cover. It hasn't all been plain sailing here as a few rabbits have gotten into the house yard and have made a meal of Rosie's lovely plants & flowers etc which has meant that there have been some pipe lines and sprinker lines having numerous holes in them due to a tad enthusiastic response from one Elmer Fud!
The other night I was doing my nightly patrol when a bunny jumped into view a little off to my left, I swung the Winchester up from the cradle position in my right arm [I'm left handed] and sort of threw the Winchester up to my shoulder, at this point the torch sort of slipped and I hastily grabbed it and tried to catch the Winchester as it came down roughly pointing at the disappearing rabbit , well, the next thing I knew the Winchester had discharged a number 4 shot and a sudden pain, then numbness started to appear in my right thumb and first thoughts was that something was definitely broken or was no longer attached to wherever it formerly had been.The pain now re surfaced right down into my wrist and any thumb movement wasn't good !! Was tempted to throw the Winchester away but realizing it still had one live shell ready to go and knowing that while the situation wasn't good, things could get real nasty if the shotgun discharged in the wrong direction so I carefully unloaded and put the gun down before using the said torch to examine what I might not really want to see.
A close examination of the hand revealed an appropriate amount of blood around the thumb nail [at least a drop or two], everything was still attached and nothing much was missing, in fact it appeared I had actually gained some wood work that was protruding from underneath my thumb nail which didn't make me feel so good all of a sudden and I thought it a good idea to go see how Rosie was doing. Well, Rosie was suitably impressed after a very quick inspection and started to boil the kettle http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/huh.gif I thought that Rosie might be thinking of an amputation but no, she was thinking of a cup of tea.....no, she was only warming some boiled water to stick some Detol antiseptic in to soak the thumb.
I stuck the thumb in and tried plucking up a bit of courage in the next 5 minutes or so. A close examination of the thumb revealed the next likely event to happen would be the attempted removal of the timber from underneath the nail which wasn't particularly inspiring to me or Rosie but I knew the timber had to go and sooner the better. Rosie found the 'grabber's ] and very gently and tenderly, got hold off and pulled out the huge piece of timber http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/shocked.gif http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/cry.gif http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/cry.gif....no, it wasn't painful at all http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif .
The offending bit of timber plank was a full 10 mm long and 5 mm wide and a closer inspection of the Winchester revealed that a piece of valuable woodwork was now missing from just in front of the catch that holds the stock on under the barrels. Apparently, as my right hand came up to catch the stock, my thumb made contact with the underside of the stock instead of neatly grabbing the stock so when the gun discharged it drove back while my thumb was coming up and gee, it hurt!!!
Moral of the story is to make sure you have hold of your weapon FIRMLY before discharging or else you may sustain serious damage !! Nether less, I'm back out shooting bunnies but with the Bruno till I get the memory of the timber under the fingernail out of my mind. http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/grin.gif.......oh , by the way, I clean missed the offending bunnie!!
Started shooting with the spotlight and good old Bruno 22 which did a good job but rabbits are particularly good at adapting to a 'hostile' environment so a change of tact was needed. Some time ago we bought a LED re chargeable 30 something little spot lights and its real good to use as a mini spotlight although it suffers at a bit of distance. Its an up right torch and has a reasonably thick handle. Well, armed with my LED, 12 gauge under & over, a pocket full of shells, I have been doing a regular night patrol on foot. Its been great & I have enjoyed the challenge of having to take aim quickly and shoot the rabbits as they sprinted for cover. It hasn't all been plain sailing here as a few rabbits have gotten into the house yard and have made a meal of Rosie's lovely plants & flowers etc which has meant that there have been some pipe lines and sprinker lines having numerous holes in them due to a tad enthusiastic response from one Elmer Fud!
The other night I was doing my nightly patrol when a bunny jumped into view a little off to my left, I swung the Winchester up from the cradle position in my right arm [I'm left handed] and sort of threw the Winchester up to my shoulder, at this point the torch sort of slipped and I hastily grabbed it and tried to catch the Winchester as it came down roughly pointing at the disappearing rabbit , well, the next thing I knew the Winchester had discharged a number 4 shot and a sudden pain, then numbness started to appear in my right thumb and first thoughts was that something was definitely broken or was no longer attached to wherever it formerly had been.The pain now re surfaced right down into my wrist and any thumb movement wasn't good !! Was tempted to throw the Winchester away but realizing it still had one live shell ready to go and knowing that while the situation wasn't good, things could get real nasty if the shotgun discharged in the wrong direction so I carefully unloaded and put the gun down before using the said torch to examine what I might not really want to see.
A close examination of the hand revealed an appropriate amount of blood around the thumb nail [at least a drop or two], everything was still attached and nothing much was missing, in fact it appeared I had actually gained some wood work that was protruding from underneath my thumb nail which didn't make me feel so good all of a sudden and I thought it a good idea to go see how Rosie was doing. Well, Rosie was suitably impressed after a very quick inspection and started to boil the kettle http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/huh.gif I thought that Rosie might be thinking of an amputation but no, she was thinking of a cup of tea.....no, she was only warming some boiled water to stick some Detol antiseptic in to soak the thumb.
I stuck the thumb in and tried plucking up a bit of courage in the next 5 minutes or so. A close examination of the thumb revealed the next likely event to happen would be the attempted removal of the timber from underneath the nail which wasn't particularly inspiring to me or Rosie but I knew the timber had to go and sooner the better. Rosie found the 'grabber's ] and very gently and tenderly, got hold off and pulled out the huge piece of timber http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/shocked.gif http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/cry.gif http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/cry.gif....no, it wasn't painful at all http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif .
The offending bit of timber plank was a full 10 mm long and 5 mm wide and a closer inspection of the Winchester revealed that a piece of valuable woodwork was now missing from just in front of the catch that holds the stock on under the barrels. Apparently, as my right hand came up to catch the stock, my thumb made contact with the underside of the stock instead of neatly grabbing the stock so when the gun discharged it drove back while my thumb was coming up and gee, it hurt!!!
Moral of the story is to make sure you have hold of your weapon FIRMLY before discharging or else you may sustain serious damage !! Nether less, I'm back out shooting bunnies but with the Bruno till I get the memory of the timber under the fingernail out of my mind. http://www.asra.org.au/smf/Smileys/default/grin.gif.......oh , by the way, I clean missed the offending bunnie!!