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By Jeff Brown.

During the Easter long weekend I was fortunate enough to visit a large farm holding in the Strath Tairei region of Otago just inland of my home town of Dunedin. The property is one my older brother, with whom I was hunting, used to work on 30 plus years ago and has remained in close contact with. He has faux ownershop of a formally disused cottage on the property from which he bases himself on regular weekends for the purposes of rabbit pest control for the landowner. Over the course of two days we joined forces and harvested more than 200 bunnies, not an unusual number for the area.

It is unclear when rabbits were first introduced to New Zealand however Rev. Richard Taylor indicated in his book “Te Ika a Maui” they were brought in by missionaries in the 1820’s from Australia. By the 1880’s rabbits were out of control over much of the South Island to the degree that some farmers walked off the land as grazing areas for sheep were depleted by the hordes of rabbits breeding, well, like rabbits being devoid of any natural predators. The subject is worthy of book of its own and was (“Rabbits Galore”, W.H. McLean, 1966) so I will not go on suffice to say that whilst land owners were going broke and being foreclosed, professional rabbiters owner race horses hence why subsequently it became illegal to sell any part of a wild rabbit so as to prevent ‘farming’ of them. In short it was a classic “seemed like a good idea at the time” situation. To this day land owners are responsible for the control of rabbits on their respective properties and this is enforced by the regional councils in each province and as such I have never found it difficult to gain access for recreational small game hunting.

A little about the property we were hosted on. The entire holding is made up of what would have originally been four farms best I can establish. Set in relatively high altitude for the area the home farm lies to the north east on dry, broken country with few natural trees and many rocks. Gullies not able to be worked into productive grasslands retain the natural scrubby matagouri and rose hip bushes that make great cover for rabbits, hares and feral pigs. The dry country lends itself perfectly to carrying merino sheep renown for growing super fine wool and to that end the Jones family, now into the second generation on the land, have established themselves as producers of some of the BEST quality merino wool in the nation supplying an exclusive Italian mill that manufactures high end woollen fabric for the fashion industry of Italy. I was lucky enough to spend more than hour with the lady of the house who grades (classes) each fleece herself as they come off the sheep. During this time I learned a great deal about challenges they face in pursuing the best of best and what ‘quality’ actually means to them and their client. Genuine, welcoming country folk who see themselves as guardians of the land.

The hunting.

Because of the nature of the pest control much of what we did was rabbit shooting and not hunting. Two nights we drove many miles spotlighting and that was the bulk of the bunnies shot the very large proportion of which were not recovered. That said on three occasions over the time away I was able to get out on foot and stalk my way around the rock gullies and outcrops picking off rabbits and recovering some of the meat for myself and two starving (in their opinion) cats at home.

On the first afternoon/evening, after unloading the vehicle and settling into the cottage, I slung the Ruger 77/22 over my shoulder and took up my SKB 12g U/O in hand and set off towards the river following the old gold claim as I went. The gold claim is essentially a 20 yard wide, 10 yard deep trench running about 500 yards to the river and time has reclaimed the area making it a grand habitat for rabbits. At least that what big brother said. My theory was any rabbit on the move was fodder for the 12g and a bunny sitting still would allow me time to swing the .22RF into action. As it turned out the Ruger stayed in place as the only shot I got on that outing was with the 12g at the south end of a rabbit heading north that, as far as I know, is still heading north. Such is life and upon returning to the cottage I cooked up a chicken curry for us both that fortified our aging selves for the spotlighting that followed.

The next morning dawned with a very light frost; the first of the season for me and a fine way to start the day as it meant for no wind. Rifle of choice was my Zastava .22 Hornet that I bought a few years back from my eldest daughter to shoot with. She took a few bunnies/hares with it but is now at an age where hunting with dad is not a priority which as it turns out is to my benefit as the Hornet is a sweet little rifle to shoot with a particular fondness for cast bullets. The load of the day was a wheel weight alloy NOE 225107 gas check design loaded over 7.0gr of Hodgdon Lil Gun producing 2250fps allowing for a near dead flat trajectory out to 120 yards. I don’t own the mould for the 225107s (yet) and was given them by a like minded shooting crank who casts a fine projectile to the point that the aforementioned load will shoot 1.5 MOA with ease; frequently better.

The first bunny of the day presented itself as a perfect broadside shot at approximately 80 yards on the opposing side of the gully. The particular area of Otago is rich in schist rock formations that jut out of the landscape as far as the eye can see and being a layered semi sedimentary rock often presents as flat top feature perfect for resting ones bipod on for a cheeky wee shot over the way. Suffice to say it took only one well placed shot and the first rabbit of the morning was in the bag. Following the lower end of the hill around the lay of the stream more rabbits were seen and taken with the little Hornet proving to be the perfect choice for the day as shots ranged from 60-130 yards and would have stretched the traditional .22RF rabbit rolling rig. It never ceases to amaze me how so very effective a 38gr flat nose bullet at twice the speed of sound can be even out to ranges beyond 100 yards. When I placed the shot in the boiler room the game just dropped on the spot.

Climbing up towards the large rocky outcrops the numbers of rabbits increase markedly easily being 4-1 on the numbers in the lower areas. Making my way around one stone feature a rabbit moved away then stopped at an honest 80 yards. Locking into the sling I lined up an offhand shot and anchored the bunny on the spot only to have another appear just feet away. Fresh round chambered and sent on its way made for two from two from one spot and this was immediately followed up with two more kills without moving my feet. The four downed rabbits were with yards of each out and I was very pleased with my efforts indeed as I hadn’t shot the rifle in the field for the best part of 12 months.

The morning was warming up and I was ready for a pot of coffee and hot cross bun so I headed back the cottage to refuel and tend to the meat I was carrying in the back of my vest. Total for the morning was about 15 from memory. My style of rabbiting.

As late afternoon and early evening approached it was time for me to go out on my own again. This time I carried my much loved Husqvarna .30-30 bolt action rifle shooting a very recently developed load featuring the Lyman pattern 311316 bullets returned to me by a friend retiring from shooting after I gave them to him many years prior. (See this blog article for that tale.) Propelled by 5.7gr of Bullseye the little bullets group into an inch at 50 yards when I do my bit and certainly break the sound barrier with a healthy crack but due to the long barrel on the Husky the load is easy on the ears.

The first rabbit of the evening I spotted from the road. It darted behind a schist formation that afforded me ample cover to sneak up on the animal. Easing into position I found the rabbit had taken cover in the stock yards and presented only just enough fur to line up the open sights on. To my delight the 40 yard offhand shot connected with the bullet entered at the base of the ear. I nearly missed! Nearly. Deciding that the immediate area was too open to produce more game I drove back towards the area I had shot that morning and worked some adjacent gullies and rock formations landing plenty more terminal shots with the mighty .30-30 one of which was a genuine 100 yards from a sitting position with my elbows locked into my knees. At the sound of the shot a loud “THWOP” reported back to me with the bunny completely flatten on the spot not even twitching. I would love to be able to tell you that 39 rounds I fired were 100% successful however that is not the case but I did come away with another 15-20 animals. The shots that missed were all my fault with simple sighting errors but until the bullet is sent on its way there is no way of knowing what the result will be. I had a wonderful evening wandering around with the old single shot rifle.

All in all it was a most enjoyable weekend and one I am pleased I pushed myself to go one. Spending time with my older brother and catching up with a cousin I had not seen in a couple of decades was just grand as was reacquainting with the our most gracious hosts, the landowners.

There is so much joy to be had from such simple hunting of the humble rabbit and this is exponentially added to when shooting handloaded ammunition loaded with cast projectiles made by your own hand. Add to that shooting a 100 year old rifle made with much larger game in mind and tailoring a load to the gun to suit small game and the deal is near perfect. One begins to wonder how boring it must be for those that settle for factory produced ammo and never taste the rewards of the craft that we pursue.