2-1 to the lad and ungentlemanly behavour

[markha 99]

Work finished so I head over to the farm. It’s not long before the 'young un' (my girls nephew) appears and I know he wants to go for a shoot as much as me.

 

So boot loaded and a drive down to the first fields, but the barley is so high we are never going to see a thing, so while we are there a session of zeroing in takes place on some 2" shoot-n-c targets placed at various ranges on fence posts, all is well so we head off to the next few hundred acres!

 

As I get down the track I spot some of the hard as nails black bunnies, but the evening proved that they weren’t coming out to play after seeing us on first contact.

 

We move slowly on foot, trying to make as little noise as possible as we get cover from some big bales; The 'young un' is getting to be a good shot (I wished I had passed on a little bit less knowledge to him!) but faced with walking over very crunch grass shoots or choosing places to put your feet that are bare soil, he chooses crunchy grass roots, and then wants to know why he can’t hear me walking 10 feet away from him, hahah no tip for you this time 'young un'

 

As we enter the first field I can tell the 'young un 'is feeling confident as he literally takes a position in front of me that blocks my arcs of fire and ensuring him first sight of any potential prey, me being older, wiser and more patient, just lets him get on with it.

The 'young un’s' left hand quickly signals me to stop, so I know he has spotted something; sure enough, about 70m ahead I can see ears in the grass. The 'young un' takes a low stance and begins to sneak forward everytime the little fluff ball puts its head down to eat, I’m watching fluff ball on and off through my scope as the stalk progresses.

'Young un' covers about 10m and then goes on to his stomach and crawls sniper style, feet and legs motionless as his elbows drag him forward inches at a time. He heads towards some red bailing machinery. Now this could be a problem as he can’t really move forward any further as the machinery blocks his path, 'young un' has committed himself to making a decision to shoot or move and if he moves could potentially blow his cover.

 

He takes aim and is motionless for a good 30 seconds... a quiet click as the hammer hits, then the sound of a standard AA silencer; 'Young un' is up in a flash and running towards one motionless rabbit, I walk over and can see the look of triumph and happiness in his face, It was a great stalk from the 'young un' and a very good shot from about 40m and I tell him so

 

We step next door, into another 20 acres and there’s not a bunny to be seen, so we decide to split up, with 'young un' heading off to another field and me in the adjacent field. Basically the hedges that split the fields are very dense , with the lower 3-4 feet of the hedge made up of earth/sand.

The ‘young un’ is walking on the north side of the hedge with me on the south side. Every now and then I hear him walking as we both move slowly westwards, scanning the ground as we move. It’s all very quiet, but then I spot a pair of ears and range the fluff ball at 150m, so a slow stalk is on. Now this bunny is very twitchy as he knows something is strange in his environment; the fact that I’m up wind of the bunny and it’s blowing 15 – 20mph gusts isn’t helping me at all, so it’s a case of move and stop, move and stop at a very slow pace. This goes on for about 5 minutes, just until I get in to some slightly deader ground and some cover from a very slight kink in a hedge, it’s all going well and I have now closed the gap down to around 50m; I just have one nagging thing in the back of my head, yea the ‘young un’, About 20 feet ahead of me is a 5 bar gate from the other field and it’s been a while since I heard the ‘young un’ and although ‘assumption is the mother of all stuff ups’ I’m thinking he may well blow my stalk by appearing at the gate. I have closed the gap to 45m and that’s dead on my zero for when I’m shooting in these open fields. IM just about to raise the barrel and up goes fluff balls ears and in the same instance he bolts to the right! “Hello young un†I say as he walks over to me with a smile, he had seen the rabbit bolt and was sorry, “no problem and don’t worryâ€.

We go our separate ways again and it’s not long before I’m down-wind this time on the opposite side of the field, it’s still gusting to 20mph and that’s great as it masks any noise I make as I fast walk up the field boundary. Sure enough I spot Mr Rabbits ears and range him using mildots at 170m, so at a fast stalking pace I carry on, determined to even the score with 1 rabbit a piece. Finally I close the distance and I’m around 60m away, the mildots confirm this as does the parallax wheel reading. Now it’s a damn long shot, I am sheltered from the wind by the hedge and there is little movement in the grass from me to fluff ball. I slowly lie down prone and double check distances and come up with 55m, 10 metres further than my zero; the trouble is I can’t get a clear shot as the grass is getting longer so I have 2 options going through my mind, take a kneeling or standing shot, or get closer, well instinct is just screaming at me that this is as close as you’re going to get to this one, so I choose a standing shot! Can’t for the life of me tell you why I didn’t go for a kneeling stance; I stand and scope, cross hairs initially jigging around all over the place, I relax, my breathing slows down, I get a gentle inhale/exhale rhythm going and instantly as I exhale and hold my breath I get rock steady cross hairs, I practice this a couple of times and decide to take the shot; Click – Crack, I’m very happy with a great head shot that stops the fluff ball in his tracks, when I get over to him I’m even happier, I knew it was a big old unit judging by the size of his head through the scope., but boy was this thing heavy! And perhaps some kind of cross breed, its back legs are very long and big boned, as are the front legs, the head is large, but the ears are short in comparison, at first I thought it was a Hare, but now I’m thinking it’s a cross breed or just a different type of hare?

 

 

I pick up the heavy bundle and glance over my left to see the ‘young un’ making his way through the middle of the field, we meet up and he congratulates me on my shot as we head south in to another 4 fields.

It’s no joy as they are all at long ranges and very twitchy, scarpering on sight even though we are trying our hardest to move slowly and quietly. We come to the last field and as we ,(well not so much me but more the ‘young un’) round the corner hedge, his hand comes up and he drops to his knee, within 3 seconds there’s the tell tale sound of a well placed shot! Another one for the ‘young un’ then, with this one also being a good shot as it was quiet close, maybe 25m, he’s learning about hold over/under fast now and its working as it should. We leave the field and start to head home as it’s getting on now and I’m pretty hungry. We chat as we walk and I can sense the competition is now on, the walk gets faster and I break out in to a jog which I keep up, I turn round and see that after about 3 minutes of running the ‘young un’ has stopped and is walking; me, I just keep jogging, determined to get first sight on any prey and boy did it work. As I rounded in to the last field with some bales in, I spot 2 big fluff balls about 55m away, I slowly move forward and drop to my knee and I’m just about to take the shot when they both bolt to the hedge on the left! Bloody hell I think to myself, I noticed movement on my right and see the ‘young un’ grinning at me, the next few words left me on doubt whatsoever about this young lads competitive streak that evening – “ 2- 1 to me then!†said ‘young un’, I follow up with “I had the longest shotâ€, “yea it was a good shot, but mine was the best stalk†replies the lad. We both agreed that it was a good evening’s shoot, with something for the pot and some more rabbits cleared.

The next lesson for the 'young un' will be to reap what he sows, with me at the front of the next stalk and me scaring his prey away

 

Cheers all

Mark

[stealthy1 3,964]

Good shooting Markha, looks like a rabbit from the pic, but it does have some very big thumpers on it And have a slut

[venomviper 129]

hi ya mark

great write up buddy

and great picture to mark even with the grass still in it's chompers

and the big thumper will be good for lucky rabbits feet for the kids

 

shay

[markha 99]

Cheers both, this fluff ball did have very large rear feet and front paws, the rear foot was 13cm long!

[tdesnos 6]

Good write up mate!

[jackinbox99 41]

Cracking read! Really enjoyed it. Sounds like you have some serious competition there!!!! And great to see a young un learning the ropes.

[wullieh 53]

Cracking post mate, and one big bunny there. prob killed the daddy of all the summer young ones.

have a slut

Edited July 19, 2010 by wullieh

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hi Mark and Young'un.

 

What a nice read that was

Ten out of Ten Mark for your patience with the young'un, he sound's keen as mustard

 

Nice shooting and fieldcraft by you both too.

 

Have a slut lad's.

 

 

 

 

 

Bill.