wabbit twappin

[redneckdan]

Is a 220 conibear to big for eastern cottontails? I got a whole herd that keeps comin around at night and chewin on Jen's potted plants sitting on the front porch. If she comes back in august to find a bunch of chewed off nubs I'm gonna be in trouble. How do all ya'll gardeners handle the critters?

[jackley]

It will sure nuff kill em!!

Jerry

[Bret4207]

Yeah a 220 will kill them, and your cats and smaller dogs too. A Havahart type box trap might be a better choice if you're concerned with other animals.

[KYCaster]

Don't you have a 300 Whisper? [smilie=1:


Jerry

[dominicfortune00]

A 5mm Sheridan Silver Streak was my favorite rabbit and rat killing gun as a kid.

[montana_charlie]

Other options...

http://www.havahart.com/store/animal-repellents/5600

and

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.nsf/childdocs/-89e7a8dafea41762
4a2568b30004c26a-3db1800178777eb4ca256bc700811d61-c5fb00dc3f8d200c
4a256dea00274bc2-38cd9c4aba1252bbca256bcf000ad587

CM

[redneckdan]

Don't you have a 300 Whisper? [smilie=1:


Jerry

Ya, don't have a can for it though.

[waksupi]

Dan, get some Irish Spring soap, original formula. Use a cheese grater, and spread it around the plants you want to save. I use full bars on trees, and others put it all around thier gardens, and between the rows. It keep critters out.

[Ricochet]

For a moment I wondered, "What kind of boolit is a 220 Conibear?" :lol:

[waksupi]

For a moment I wondered, "What kind of boolit is a 220 Conibear?" :lol:

Flatlander!

[357maximum]

For a moment I wondered, "What kind of boolit is a 220 Conibear?" :lol:

I think I just had a small anurism :confused:....and I am a flatlander......ouch you make my head hurt.

[pumpguy]

A twenty two loaded with Colibris dispatches them nicely.

[Mumblypeg]

A good dog and or cat should take care of that while YOU sleep. Mine do.

[Bret4207]

"Flatlander"! I thought only us native born Adirondackers used that term. Of course I suppose someone from Montana would consider the Adirondacks mere bumps in the landscape. Well, we know what you mean anyway.

[Ricochet]

Ain't too flat around here. I'm no trapper, though.

[floodgate]

Here in Anderson Valley, we call them "Brightlighters".

Fg

[Gussy]

I got home from the Quigley shoot last evening. As we had dinner the dog was acting up and the wife said he'd been a bit crazy for several days. After he made several trips down the hill I decided to see what the problem was. I picked up the single shot 410 and walked to where he'd been looking. He went back up to the house to work on a bone. Didn't see anything and as I turned around I saw something coming down through the brush.

Figured it was a deer from the brown color. Nope!! As it got closer, 75 yds, it was a nice lite brown bear. About the color of one I'd seen last year. He dropped over the bank and onto the trail up the canyon, just out of my sight. Soon, here he came walking down the road right to me. I stood still and at about 15 yds he stopped stood up. The wind must have swung around. He looked straight at me, dropped down and beat a path out of sight up the canyon. This morning I saw him 1/2 mile up near the top of the canyon. Near some elk with calves too.

If I see him this fall, I think he'd make an outstanding rug.

[redneckdan]

I picked up the single shot 410 and walked to where he'd been looking.

Little under gunned eh?[smilie=1:

[montana_charlie]

I picked up the single shot 410 and...
To fend off a rabid mourning dove?
CM

[BCB]

Box traps are humane if you don’t want to kill ‘em. OR ain’t allowed to kill ‘em depending on seasons etc. Havahart is one brand.

Many, many years ago when I was a kid, I got the pattern of a manufactured box trap and built my own. I used them to trap rabbits to train my beagles. They are really quite simple to build. Apple slices make the best bait…

Here in PA, I don’t think it’s legal to trap ‘em or shoot ‘em. SO…

Good-luck…BCB

[RugerFan]

Is a 220 conibear to big for eastern cottontails? I got a whole herd that keeps comin around at night and chewin on Jen's potted plants sitting on the front porch. If she comes back in august to find a bunch of chewed off nubs I'm gonna be in trouble. How do all ya'll gardeners handle the critters?

220 is probably a bit big. I used 110s on bunnies and they snapped necks very nicely. Try wire snares.

[montana_charlie]

Here in PA, I don’t think it’s legal to trap ‘em or shoot ‘em.
Are you still talking about RABBITS?
You aren't allowed to trap or shoot 'em?
Are rabbits a 'protected species' there like California Condors?

What kind of insanity rules that state?

What they say about 'breeding like rabbits' is not just an old saying, you know.
Without some kind of 'control', you can be up to your neck in 'em before you even know there is a problem developing.

I have been leaving them (cottontails) alone here...around our buildings and haystacks...for a few years. This year there are so many, I am starting to wonder if I haven't been 'too nice' (to them) for 'too long'.

Come winter, there is going to be some 'harvesting' on our place. I just hope the garden makes it through the summer.
CM

[Ricochet]

I have been leaving them (cottontails) alone here...
Smart to leave 'em alone.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d174/Ollerton_Inc/Monty%20Python/Grail180.jpg

[JIMinPHX]

I didn't know that the killer rabbit was native to Tennessee. Ricochet, your real name wouldn’t be Tim? Would it?

[357maximum]

Multi Sranded picture hanging wire makes the perfect snare wire iffin someone was so inclined.....

[montana_charlie]

Smart to leave 'em alone.
My! There's nothing but bones around him...and that rabbit looks pretty chubby!
But, it's probably only those white ones who are the mankillers...ya think?
CM

[Hay Bob]

If you are near a zoo, large cat dung will keep most critters away out of fear of being eaten, may keep the wife away too. Stinky stuff.

[dale clawson]

An electric fence keeps the pesky varmits away from my garden. I run two strands, one at 4 inches and another at 12 inches from the ground.Kept the dog from marking my plants too. DALE

[John Taylor]

A 5mm Sheridan Silver Streak was my favorite rabbit and rat killing gun as a kid.

A 5mm Sheridan got rid of a bunch of Pee Hens one night, got me in a lot of trouble also. I sure miss that little air gun.

[carpetman]

I have trapped critters in my back yard for years, but have only caught one rabbit---then again I havent been using a bait conducive to catching rabbits. The one I caught was when the trap opening was up against a tunnel that was dug under the fence where the rabbit was in the trap if he used the tunnel. I have killed some black burrowing squirrels with a 5mm Sheridan and these critters seem tougher than the tree climbing ones. I think rabbits are softer skinned and easier to kill than squirrels.

[carpetman]

Dan ---all the tips you have been given are just partial or temporary fixes. If you really want to do a 100% job you have to use a call---a good call will be 100% effective. What a coincidence. I make and sell a great call. When you blow on it, it sounds like a carrot and it is fool-proof---you can't hit a bad note. I usually get $15 for them but as a forum member I can give you a great deal at $12. Actually it is dual purpose and when not used as a call it is a pet rock.

[montana_charlie]

What a coincidence. I make and sell a great call.
When we were stationed at Biloxi, Mississippi, I acquired a reputation for building scavenger calls. They could be 'tuned' to work on most any scavenger species, but down there on the Gulf Coast the most highly desired scavenger is the Blue Crab.

Most people caught them using a drop net with a chicken leg tied to the middle of the frame. The bone kept them from stealing the whole bait, so you could wait till there were four or five feeding before picking up the net.

To use my call, I would have the 'hunter' dig a trench in the beach sand about six feet long, and deep enough so it filled with seawater.
He would stick the end of the call in the water at the end of the trench and blow on it...then sit and wait for a few minutes.

The narrow trench made the crabs come swimming in single file, which made them easy to pick out by hand and drop in the cooler.

Tuned to work on crabs, the call was very effective because the water amplifies the tiniest of sounds...and there are few sounds as hard to hear as that of a dead chicken.
CM

[waksupi]

When we were stationed at Biloxi, Mississippi, I acquired a reputation for building scavenger calls. They could be 'tuned' to work on most any scavenger species, but down there on the Gulf Coast the most highly desired scavenger is the Blue Crab.

Most people caught them using a drop net with a chicken leg tied to the middle of the frame. The bone kept them from stealing the whole bait, so you could wait till there were four or five feeding before picking up the net.

To use my call, I would have the 'hunter' dig a trench in the beach sand about six feet long, and deep enough so it filled with seawater.
He would stick the end of the call in the water at the end of the trench and blow on it...then sit and wait for a few minutes.

The narrow trench made the crabs come swimming in single file, which made them easy to pick out by hand and drop in the cooler.

Tuned to work on crabs, the call was very effective because the water amplifies the tiniest of sounds...and there are few sounds as hard to hear as that of a dead chicken.
CM

Charlie, do I need hip boots to swallow the story?
[smilie=1:

[Mumblypeg]

I think you need wings to stay on top of that one!

[montana_charlie]

I went to Biloxi (Keesler Air Force Base) to teach electronics. But first, I had to be taught 'how to teach'.
So, I was required to take the Instructor Training Course.

I used an expanded version of that crab call story as one of the 'presentations' we had to develop. While giving it, I got to be 'the instructor' while my classmates became 'my students'.
Most of us were Air Force troops, but we had a few civilian instructors...and even an Air Force Major from Saudi...taking the course.

When I had finished my presentation, each 'student' had made his own scavenger call and had tuned it to operate correctly. Most everybody called his 'properly tuned' when he got to the part where he found he was trying to duplicate the sound of a dead chicken...except for one guy.

He was a big, hefty, ex-shrimper from Biloxi...and he was blowing on that call so hard he was working up a sweat. He finally said he needed some help getting his tuned, so I asked him what he thought a dead chicken should sound like.

He thought about that for several moments (while the whole class waited) before the grin started...
CM

[dale clawson]

John Taylor, I hate to show my ignorance, but what is a Pee Hen???

[John Taylor]

John Taylor, I hate to show my ignorance, but what is a Pee Hen???

Opposite sex of a peacock ( Peahen,didn't spell it right), you know the bird with all the fancy tail feathers. The hen is a brown bird with no fancy colored feathers. At night they can make a lot of noise so I quieted a bunch. Sort of like shooting turkeys out of a tree, they make a good thump when they hit the ground, sometimes take a few limbs out on the way down.

[Thumbcocker]

We had a similar situation here on a smaller scale; it was imortalized in this "epic" work


Bunny Foo Foo

Little bunny foo foo
went out to play one day

He'd been eating Mama's bean plants
She said he had to pay

He hopped into the garden
to get some plants to eat

He was feeling pretty lucky
He had four rabbit feet

He was munching on a bean plant
In the garden bed

The problem was solved
With a piece of lead

Little Bunny Foo Foo
Was skinned out right quick

His tummy was fat
His legs were nice and thick

Little Bunny Foo Foo
Sleeps in the freezer now

Waitng for the green beans
So he can be yummy chow

Little Bunny Foo Foo
Learned a lesson hard

Stay out or Mamma's garden
Just eat clover in the yard

A woman with a garden
is a force to reckon with

Retaliation is certain
Justice is swift!

[dale clawson]

John Taylor, I should have known, guess it was the spelling. We had some peafowl for a while, but Mother didn't like them because she was always wondering if one of her ten children were calling for help. She didn't mind the noisy geese or guineas, but I hated the noisy rascals. The geese were ok in the respect that they weeded the cotton and kept the hoe out of my hand, so I put up with them. DALE

[dominicfortune00]

Here in PA, I don’t think it’s legal to trap ‘em or shoot ‘em. SO…

I live in Western PA also, and you can definately shoot rabbits in small game season in the fall.

I used to like going rabbit hunting in the second small game season after Christmas, when I used to have time...

[carpetman]

You can ask most people if peacocks lay eggs and they will answer yes they do. It's like asking if a rooster lays eggs. Peacocks dont lay eggs---peahens do and they are peafowl.

[NoDakJak]

My experience with the little devils are that they are "Peafoul"! Neil