Today I shot my first rabbit. It was kind of accidental, but hey it worked.
My dad and I decided that we were going to head upstate today with the quad and the 20 gauge single shot shotgun in search of some crows. When we got to camp we unloaded the truck and started the quad up. I grabbed the shotgun along with both boxes of ammo. I had field loads and turkey loads with me. The field loads are 2 3/4 with 7/8 oz of number 8 shot. The turkey loads are 3" with 1 1/4 oz of number 6 shot. We started down the trail of our property and when we got to the beaver pond on our land we found a dead doe laying on the middle of the frozen pond. It is definetly a coyote kill. Damn yotes, should wipe every single one of them off the face of the earth. I hate them... Anyway getting back to the story. :hammer: We stop and examine the deer, made sure it wasn't a buck and drove on. We got up to the top of the mountain, saw some skiers and drove by and continued on. We ended up reaching a big open field where we saw some crows flying over. I jumped off of the quad and popped a turkey load into the gun. The crows saw us and flew the other way. I unloaded the shotgun, pocketed the shell and we turned around and went back to camp. We ate lunch and sat around for about an hour. Once we decided to go for a ride again, I opted to take the turkey loads over the field loads because I needed the reach out and touch power for crows. Then after lunch and our nap, we went back out on the quad, same routine, past the deer past the skiiers etc... This time we stopped at the tippy top of the mountain. My dad got off the quad and let me ride around for a little while. I handed him the shotgun and a few shells and starting riding While I was riding around, a guy on a snowmobile came up the mountain. As I saw this, he stopped by my dad and started talking with him... I pulled up to them, shut the quad off and started listening to the conversation. After they had stopped talking about the Antler Restrictions for 3A, 3H and 3J, my dad turned to me and said that the guy said that there are alot of rabbits and stuff just over that hill. It turns out that the guy lives right next to the field we were riding in. We said thank you and we both went our own ways... My dad and I got on the quad, drove over to the field edge, I got off loaded the shotgun and when I got into the brushline, my dad was going to drive around the brush with the quad trying to flush something out. I started kicking brushpiles and throwing things into the piles... After coming up with nothing for the first 100 yards of brush piles, I followed a certain trail of rabbit tracks right up to a brush pile, I walked into the pile, saw something jump forward and freeze. First I make out the ears, then the head and then the rest of the body... IT WAS A RABBIT! :readytofight: I took a few steps back located the rabbit and pointed the bead in the direction of the rabbit.... slowly pulled back the hammer...
BOOM! The gun went off dropping the rabbit right where it was. I jump in front of the rabbit, poke it with the end of the gun to make sure its dead and I see my dad turning the quad around coming back toward me wondering why he just heard a shot. I start jumping up and down and yelling from excitement... Before he reaches me I pick up the rabbit by the back legs and show him... I don't know who was more happy, me or him.. :what: We strapped the rabbit onto the front of the quad and ride back down to the house. Thats where we took pictures.
* NOW KEEP IN MIND, THIS RABBIT WAS SHOT WITH A 3" TURKEY MAGNUM LOAD AT ABOUT 10 YARDS. *
The modified choke on the gun really helps... If I had a turkey choke on there... well you know what would have happened..
Most of the shot went into the spine. We took the back legs and the skin. The rest is yote food for tonight.
