Question for the Eurobunny Experts

[Nails67]

I am not a big hunter of the European rabbits, so I wanted to ask those who know more about how seemingly spooky they often seem to be (to me).

As an example, a couple of weeks ago I was set up on a bunch of holes from 160 meters out; literally across the VDB river, prone in grass with correct camouflage and the wind blowing from right to left. Still, I kept seeing rabbits frequently come up out of the holes and immediately drop back down into the hole as if they had spotted/winded me. I added a spray of scent eliminator and still saw the same behavior. I did get a few that would come out and stay long enough for a shot, but many more just disappeared right away.

This is my normal experience with euro rabbits. Is this the way they work? Could I be doing something wrong? Just (repeated) bad luck?

Any thought from those with more expertise here would be appreciated.

[Fletchette]

IMO, the easiest thing to do is to run around the burrows spooking all the rabbits into them. Then set up a tripod where you can see as many holes as possible (usually 4-6). It doesn't matter how close you are, 10-20 meters is best. For about 5 minutes they will come out and run back in quickly. You can try quick shots for just keep waiting. After a few more minutes, they will settle down and start to stay out when they appear. You can now shoot them easily, and the one that are still in the ground won't be spooked from the shot, so they will still keep coming out one at a time. This allows you to harvest most of the rabbits from that burrow in 10-15 minutes.

[stancomputerhunter]

IMO, the easiest thing to do is to run around the burrows spooking all the rabbits into them. Then set up a tripod where you can see as many holes as possible (usually 4-6). It doesn't matter how close you are, 10-20 meters is best. For about 5 minutes they will come out and run back in quickly. You can try quick shots for just keep waiting. After a few more minutes, they will settle down and start to stay out when they appear. You can now shoot them easily, and the one that are still in the ground won't be spooked from the shot, so they will still keep coming out one at a time. This allows you to harvest most of the rabbits from that burrow in 10-15 minutes.

^^^^ what he said...just have to have initial patience. One more tip..once you find a warren, fire your shotgun. That will spook all of the ones roaming around back to their burrows.

[VonStratos]

Only add that some rabbits can remain hidden in the burrow as long as 15 or more minutes of real time, what Fletchette said its indeed the easiest way to hunt them, a tree stand work also in VdB and sometimes depending on the area gives more visual to the borrows, and if you want to know if burrows still have rabbits just check all the tracks, when you kill them the tracks disappear, if there is one track in the area then there is still a rabbit hiding in the burrows

Add: if you have headphones with volume control, raise the volume a lot, sometimes you cant see where the rabbit is coming out but you can hear them more easily.

[gas56]

IMO, the easiest thing to do is to run around the burrows spooking all the rabbits into them. Then set up a tripod where you can see as many holes as possible (usually 4-6). It doesn't matter how close you are, 10-20 meters is best. For about 5 minutes they will come out and run back in quickly. You can try quick shots for just keep waiting. After a few more minutes, they will settle down and start to stay out when they appear. You can now shoot them easily, and the one that are still in the ground won't be spooked from the shot, so they will still keep coming out one at a time. This allows you to harvest most of the rabbits from that burrow in 10-15 minutes.

^^^^ what he said...just have to have initial patience. One more tip..once you find a warren, fire your shotgun. That will spook all of the ones roaming around back to their burrows.

Euro Rabbits are sneaky furballs and I really don't know how much you have read up on them.
The only thing I have to add also is that you have to watch them fervently,.. and try to set yourself up like Fletchette says to overlook most if not all the holes.
The rabbits that sneak away from one Warren sometimes go to another Warren,.. so by clicking on all the rabbit tracks around the Warren holes it will give you an idea
after you start picking them off which rabbits & their tracks are left remaining. This will also give you a hint if some slipped away to another Warren, or were even from
a different Warren and just ran down the holes that were nearest to them when you first spooked them. If you saw a bunch of rabbits running into the holes of a Warren
when you first came upon them, then expect to shoot at least that many, or until all the tracks are gone. A Tri-pod is good to use, but don't hesitate to get off of it
and hunt the other end of the Warren, preferably where you can get a good view, climb onto a rock, or a steep grade to have a different perspective when they pop
out those holes that you couldn't see. If you have headphones you can hear the rabbits when they move about but sometimes they stay out of sight because of the
foliage, and try to hop off somewhere. If you want to take a shot at a strayed Rabbit then take Stans advice about shooting off your gun, and they usually run back,
unless they are running off to another Warren............
Good luck!
P.S. IMO the easiest and fastest way to learn about them is to use a Shotgun at first so you can more readily shoot them, even as they are going down their hole blast
them, and if their dome lights up you know its dead. and to retireve rabbits lay down prone to pick them up or see if there is one dead under the burrow hole.....

[strandjutter]

IMO, the easiest thing to do is to run around the burrows spooking all the rabbits into them. Then set up a tripod where you can see as many holes as possible (usually 4-6). It doesn't matter how close you are, 10-20 meters is best. For about 5 minutes they will come out and run back in quickly. You can try quick shots for just keep waiting. After a few more minutes, they will settle down and start to stay out when they appear. You can now shoot them easily, and the one that are still in the ground won't be spooked from the shot, so they will still keep coming out one at a time. This allows you to harvest most of the rabbits from that burrow in 10-15 minutes.

^^^^ what he said...just have to have initial patience. One more tip..once you find a warren, fire your shotgun. That will spook all of the ones roaming around back to their burrows.

And just run over the burrow every 5 minuts or so , the rabbits will come out to see what was running around, maybe run to a different whole in the ground. just keep your gun aimed at the whole(s) you
expect them to pop up!

[stancomputerhunter]

And...sometimes you get lucky and have a view of all the holes. This is the only time I've been able to see 8 of them at once. You should also know that some of the holes are decoys. You will notice when you run around like strandjutter says above, there will be holes that have no track domes on the top...those are the decoys. I've had a single rabbit come out of what I thought was a decoy hole, but only when you know you are down to one left.

[Granti]

And just run over the burrow every 5 minuts or so , the rabbits will come out to see what was running around, maybe run to a different whole in the ground. just keep your gun aimed at the whole(s) you
expect them to pop up!

makes no sense. they will show up also without you running around. and which hole they use is mostly/totally random. they are some "blind" holes nevertheless.
i also made the experience that often a tripod placed on the wrong spot keeps them longer in the ground. so when no one shows up set the tripod somewhere else.
another thing with the tripod is, that they tend to be spookier (pop up and go down again). standing on a rock calms them down faster.

[gas56]

And just run over the burrow every 5 minuts or so , the rabbits will come out to see what was running around, maybe run to a different whole in the ground. just keep your gun aimed at the whole(s) you
expect them to pop up!

makes no sense. they will show up also without you running around. and which hole they use is mostly/totally random. they are some "blind" holes nevertheless.
i also made the experience that often a tripod placed on the wrong spot keeps them longer in the ground. so when no one shows up set the tripod somewhere else.
another thing with the tripod is, that they tend to be spookier (pop up and go down again). standing on a rock calms them down faster.

I''ve had rabbits come out of the same hole and run over and go down another same hole.
That's when they push there luck too much
I've set there and waited with my gun pointed at the hole waiting for a rabbit to come out the hole, it happens if that's one of the holes they keep using.
and moving around the Warren just to break the monotony when they don't want to move, just seems that they come out when you decide to move to the other side,..
so I've shot them too while I was walking to the other side moving my Tri-pod or just gettin' up on a rock.
I don't know what all the fuss is about with a tripod, sometimes I set them almost on top of a hole sometimes,
and if they come out then I don't even move it.
Euro bunnies was the easiest & fastest to get to a 500 score IMO,..
and once you find the burrows, it's almost like duck hunting......
you just sit and wait for them, blast them all.........
And the weirdest thing I've ever done is just to shoot my gun off when I know there is 1 rabbit down the hole left but does not want to cooperate by coming out
and I don't know what this has to do with anything, but then pops out the last little male rabbit within a minute to get his demise, and then it's time to move on to find more rabbits.
I did this shootin' a fox that came too close one time and it didn't stop the bunnies activity movin' about, so what the heck just to break the monotony.........
I'm not too good at having much patience waiting on these little critters to get shot....

[Zarpa]

I'm still waiting for the release of the .50 cal Barrett to start hunting bunnies. I'll tell you then.