james990 wrote:It's spring time here in Australia, and spring means rabbits! Went for a walk with the shotgun with dad and granddad, ended up with 15 between us. Got 13 in the morning when they're most active, then went for a quick walk in the middle of the day and got two more not in the photo. Great fun. Also sighted in my new sauer 100 30-06, hopefully get out try it out on some sambar soon.
If it's a pest problem fair play but half of them are only a few weeks old. Not really fair game or any good for the pot. I always leave them until they are fully grown. Plus you're just ruining the stock for future hunting if you wipe out the new generation and does during the birthing season
Oh they are a masssssssiiiiivvvvveeee pest in Australian and NZ Ill find you a video to watch
and that was in 1988 I think. Imagine how crazy it is now!
They did release a virus that wiped a lot out. But the resistant ones survived and their numbers are back up again!
TreeKiwi wrote:Gas it's pronounced Bar-B in Straya
Actually we say Bar-B-Q ....
But that is some pest there,... so is it rabbit hunting season or pest control in the spring?
Our rabbit season doesn't start until the cold sets in early winter,.. they are fully grown and pretty healthy then.
TreeKiwi wrote:Gas it's pronounced Bar-B in Straya
Actually we say Bar-B-Q ....
But that is some pest there,... so is it rabbit hunting season or pest control in the spring?
Our rabbit season doesn't start until the cold sets in early winter,.. they are fully grown and pretty healthy then.
Gas absolutely everything apart from Game birds are fair game all year round in NZ! Can't speak for Australia... but I imagine it's the same. Everything is a pest and in plague proportions. The more you kill the more chance our native bush, birds and reptiles have! NZ didn't have any land mammals before the English got there. So the birds and reptiles never had any predators.
The rabbits were getting out of control in the late 1800's so some genius thought 'let's introduce ferrets as well' They went meh... rabbits are hard compared to all these easy birds and reptiles. I have only touched on two of the pest species... deer and everything go untouched and the terrain is tough. Helicopters are used to try control populations, especially of goats! Can yarn about this for ages!
TreeKiwi wrote:Gas it's pronounced Bar-B in Straya
Actually we say Bar-B-Q ....
But that is some pest there,... so is it rabbit hunting season or pest control in the spring?
Our rabbit season doesn't start until the cold sets in early winter,.. they are fully grown and pretty healthy then.
Gas absolutely everything apart from Game birds are fair game all year round in NZ! Can't speak for Australia... but I imagine it's the same. Everything is a pest and in plague proportions. The more you kill the more chance our native bush, birds and reptiles have! NZ didn't have any land mammals before the English got there. So the birds and reptiles never had any predators.
The rabbits were getting out of control in the late 1800's so some genius thought 'let's introduce ferrets as well' They went meh... rabbits are hard compared to all these easy birds and reptiles. I have only touched on two of the pest species... deer and everything go untouched and the terrain is tough. Helicopters are used to try control populations, especially of goats! Can yarn about this for ages!
Sometimes some hard lessons are learned a little too late, and even though people think it is a nice thing to bring in exotic animals from somewhere else it usually puts the native
creatures at risk. It's been done here in the U.S. also and once some True Wild Boar were released and escaped farm pigs turned feral became a nuisance digging up the terrain and browse for native animals. Carp were going to feed people here as a staple fish but also escaped into the flooded rivers but now are a real nuisance. Pet snakes made their way for breeding populations like Boa's & Constrictors in Florida which have a real bad impact on the native diversity of reptiles there. There's always someone who wants to import animals and then they escape into the wilds and populations arise because of some similar eco systems but don't realize the harm it does in the long run. If anybody wants to hunt or fish a certain exotic animal I believe they should go to the place where they are natively born. Sorry for the rant,.. but I think animals should stay where they're at in the world.
Last edited by gas56 on October 11th, 2017, 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Must be one heck of a rabbit hunt! Sadly we don't hunt many rabbits (or rather hare) where I live.
I would really like to hunt small game with a shotgun sometime. Maybe if we get the foxes regulated to a tolerable point.
Spends all the gold and money to buy new weapons in the shape of guns.
Rabbits are a pest so can be hunted year round. They literally "breed like rabbits" and they are always poisoned throughout the summer and autumn. In australia they breed in the spring and the young tender ones are out and about and are easy targets and great for the pan.
baloo.the.dog wrote:Have youu ever hunted the Conecuh nat'l forest, it's on tha Alabama side, but I turkey hunt it and always see deer when I go? What part of NW Florida are you? Im in Baldwin County Al.
I'm actually in NE Florida in St. Augustine, just south of Jacksonville. I've always wanted to hunt Alabama.
