Rabbits & New to me Ruger 77/22 K Hornet

I bought a second hand Ruger 77/22 in 22 K Hornet a few weeks ago to replace my CZ 527 that I had rebarreled to the new 17 Hornady Hornet. The wee Ruger is wood stock and blued. It has not taken that long to find a load for it. Was very lucky that it seems to go quite well with one of the CZ's loads.
The load is 6.4 grains of AP100, CCI small Pistol primer, 225107 gas check made by NOE with a 2 ply beer can gas check lubed with White label Carnauba Red to a total weight of 38.2 grains of air cooled wheel weight doing 2340fps. It seems to group about 1.4'' at 100 yds if I keep the bore reasonably clean.
Took rifle for it's first outing thursday evening and shot 46 rabbits with 48 shots at ranges from 55yds to 147 yds measured with range finder. I was very happy with the wee Ruger as have heard some horror storys about some of them. But this one is definetly a keeper. the 1st photo is about 20 rabbits from the 1st spot I went to.
I will be looking at other loads in time, but we are off to a good start.
Cheers Euan.

That looks like FUN!! I have a wee little 77-22Mag and love it. Have been thinking about getting one in Hornet so's I can load for it. Hope to run into one soon that is looking for a home. JW

Nice!! I'm on the group buy for that mould right now - looks like I made the right boolit choice, but I'm jealous that you get to hang that can off the end of your rifle!

You know, I have alway's meant to say something to you fellow's over there in the land of all the rabbit's you could ever want to shoot or eat.

YOU SUCK! (You lucky *'s!)

Good shooting! you are a lucky guy to be able to get so many good rabbits to hunt and eat!

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Originally Posted by Blammer

Good shooting! you are a lucky guy to be able to get so many good rabbits to hunt and eat!

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You wouldn't believe the numbers if Euan told you how many he really shoots.

try me, I'm all ears. :)

That's a lot of rabbits! Good Shooting.

When I was in highschool we hunted jackrabbits for our main pastime, it wasn't unusual at all to get between 50 and a 100 a night. At one time there was a bounty on them.

The old timers used to get together and have rabbit drives, driving them to corners of the pastures where they had installed rabbit fences and then clubbing them to death to save their pastures.

This was in eastern New Mexico

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Originally Posted by Blammer

Good shooting! you are a lucky guy to be able to get so many good rabbits to hunt and eat!

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Actually, I wouldn't call it "lucky" that both the Kiwis and we Aussies have this introduced pestilence in our countries. The amount of ecological damage they have done over the past 150 odd years, and continue to do, is unbelievable.

And I don't think Euan is planning to eat to many of them. Most look like they are gut shot, and good riddance.

Do we need to send you guys some coyotes, or wolves maybe???

Good to read that the Ruger in K-Hornet runs so well for you. I debated about running a reamer into my 77/22H when it wouldn't shoot for beans. Maybe I threw in the towel prematurely, but it's gone and its departure remains unmourned. I see a CZ-527 as a possible replacement sometime down the road.

I've never been able to take rabbits in those sorts of numbers, but I do my share of jackrabbit strafing--50 to 125/year lately, and leave them lay to attract coyotes. Their scent in the air helps "sell" the concept of my rabbit-scream mouth calls a bit better. At times. EAT ONE?? Those tick-infested mangy-azzed long-eared vermin? Not a chance.

In North Island the rabbits I have seen are all healthy. I don't know about South Island rabbits but I've heard of how they make the hillsides look alive, there's so many of them!

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Originally Posted by Von Gruff

You wouldn't believe the numbers if Euan told you how many he really shoots.

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Von Gruff speaks the truth. I was ASTOUNDED at how many home made GC's Euan got through in a year. Think of a big number and you are probably not close.

no wonder you make your own and shoot those itty bitty lead flingers.

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Originally Posted by starmac

Do we need to send you guys some coyotes, or wolves maybe???

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In NZ, they introduced stoats to try to stem the rabbit population; another really, really dumb move! All that did was push even more birds to the brink of extinction.

Keep in mind that NZ had NO mammals at all, birds only, (which is why they had a large number of flightless bird species) until the Moari people brought a couple of small mammals, which probably didn't do too much damage. But white man brought his usual feral pests with him; pigs, goats, rabbits, deer, sheep, cats, possums, etc, etc, and it was all downhill from there for the native birds.

Early explorers in NZ wrote about dawn choruses which were so loud they were almost deafening. Nothing like that there now!

The only saving grace is that they didn't introduce foxes; they did here in Oz, so that is another serious pest here.

No small part of my wish to re-start with the 22 Hornet has to do with its often-friendly relationship with the cast boolit. This may wait a year or so, with all the other pending projects at the loading bench--but it's on the to-do list, certainly. Jacketed bullets--their scarcity AND their cost--are changing my shooting habits and preferences markedly.

Are you saying that opossums were brought over and introduced on purpose???? What was that suppose to accomplish?

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Originally Posted by starmac

Are you saying that opossums were brought over and introduced on purpose???? What was that suppose to accomplish?

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Not opossums, but Australian brush tailed possums, to establish a fur trade in the 1830's. http://news.nationalgeographic.com.a...25_possum.html

Ok, my mistake. lol Was the stoats introduced to kill off some of the rabbits or for fur also?