Rabbit issues on my shoot

[glamour 1]

Hello everyone, i'm pretty new and i'd love some advice if possible.

 

99% of the rabbits on my shoot are in one area, they have the perfect home in the form of a disused railway bank running for a good 800 metres or so.

They became such a problem that the owner put a wire fence about 1 metre away from the bank all the way down apart from an area at the top where it changes to the owners next door, an area near a public gate mid way and an area at the bottom where there's a bridge over the stream.

 

The issue is that they're probably just sitting behind this fence near there little houses and the clever few that get in are eating away.

 

I'm looking for a method to catch these as shooting is hard due to the walk down to them, you need to be near enough on top of them to get them in view by which time they're gone. I thought about ferrets but there's literally 100's of holes so i'm unsure if this is doable? I also thought about drop box traps on their side of the fence (set them to be locked for a day or two then unlock them?) The problem with that is i only get to go for a weekend at a time. I tried setting snares in fresh runs down on the new area they're going onto which is the grazing area but got nothing. I thought a right angled long net would be best that could drop once they were out... The nets would need to be about 40 metres to one corner and the same going the other way in a right angle obviously meeting in the middle. How can these nets be dropped from a good distance? And is there any way to drop a right angled net?

 

Here's a dodgy paint drawning of the bottom of the shoot. Please ask me if you've got any questions as i really want to sort this.

 

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

I'm not sure why the gate isn't proofed too. Kind of puts me in mind of Hull's " Fox Proof Fence ". They left the roads through it wide open!

 

Might help if ye say the rough area of the location. County will do. Maybe one of the top boys, those trained by Mr Waters, would be within reach?

 

Regardless, ye'll probably now be innundated by teenage heroes

[glamour 1]

The gate isn't as it opens onto a tunnel maybe he's not allowed, maybe no rabbits come through the tunnel i dont know, one side of the fence runs up to it but the other has a ditch with a fence coming outwards. They're probably not coming though there... it's more at the bottom. I just dont see how you can remove that amount of rabbits from a warren that size, surely using ferrets will be impossible due to the amount of holes and the amount of nets/ferrets needed. I know nothing of warren structures but i'd imagine in a bank like that there would be so many enterences you cant see that ferrets would be out of the question. It's near grimsby.

[leegreen 2,244]

Regardless, ye'll probably now be innundated by teenage heroes

 

I'll do it

[stubby 175]

first question would be, are you getting paid to clear it, or is it a free-bie, Ive done a job, very simular to this by the sounds of it, but we laid a line of 100 live catch traps, and got good results, but then, we were getting paid, the traps were bought within the quoted price, if your doing it for free, then you dont really want to start paying out money to catch them, in which case, if you dont already know, do your research on ferrets and use them, with a few helping hands, that would be no problem

[TOMO 28,260]

there are very few jobs that CANT be ferreted, glamour. provided you can leave it till winter when the cover is down . just use lots of purse netts, long netts, plenty of ferrets and a couple of good trustworthy chaps to help.

 

start one end , and work along.

[glamour 1]

Cheers lads i think i'll try that come winter then, i've done loads more research on snaring so i think i'll go over again this weekend with a bag full and see how it goes. I might sleep on the shoot this time and see what they're doing with the night vision.

 

Thanks for you help chaps, glad i didn't get a mouth full of abuse.

 

Chris

[glamour 1]

And no i don't get paid for it, it's just a permission i got through family