Rabbits

[PBJ]

We have a plague of rabbits this year plus with the Morongo and Pioneer Town fires, lots of game moved on towards my house. I had 100+ quail in the yard when I came home this afternoon and one very silly rabbit just up my drive a few yards. Out came my first air gun, a Crossman/Mendoza, and off went a .177 Gamo Hunter. Quick follow up shot and bunny was done for good. I don't mean to bad mouth Orange County, I drive there to serve at CC Costa Mesa every week, but is sure is nice to be able to shoot in your own yard (we have almost four acres) and hunt from the front porch to boot. If the Feds would allow air rifles on dove I could limit out every day in my front yard. I have to shoot around the doves to hit rabbits and jacks!! Our neighbor to the East had a picture in this weeks paper of a doe and two fawns in their front yard and we have had bobcats come to the back porch and look into the house. Coyotes are like visiting beagles and there are lots of little vermin type critters with kill zones the size of a quarter all over the place. Only thing better would be to have enough acreage that I could shoot shotguns and small bore. As good as an air rifle is for most game, my Ruger 10-22 is hard to beat when it comes to ease of follow up shots. I am attaching a photo of the #1 hunter on our place, this guy is a pro and is not above caging some steak from my wife or myself (his predecessor would spend an hour or more following my wife around the house while she did chores.

[longislandhunter]

Sounds like a perfect shooting location :)    I have plenty of rabbits, squirrels, starlings, mourning doves, and even a couple of woodchucks, that show up in my back yard on a fairly routine basis,,, but the Mrs. has declared the back yard as a "safe haven" area for all the furry little woodland creatures and the only time an airgun is permitted to be fired there is when I'm target shooting or sighting in a rifle. Funny thing is the animals somehow realize they are safe.  Many times I'll be sitting there shooting my air rifles and the rabbits will be 10 yards away munching on grass, the squirrels are sitting at the feeders, the starlings and doves are perched in the trees or on the ground feeding with abandon, it's amazing, and a little frustrating to say the least.  On another note,,,, the bird in the picture,,, is that a road runner?

[rabbit]

Hello,

        Beep - Beep !!!!!!!!!!!!!!        

                                       Rabbit

[PBJ]

Yup, this one does not have a name, but the one that came with house when we bought was named George. He would bring his wife to meet us and later any of his kids that made it to junior adulthood. He would knock on the door to get in and would go and stand by the fridge and wait for food. Where we live, roadrunners will hang and try to catch quail that are slow and the quail will band together and really beat up a young roadrunner. My wife lets me shoot as I please as she is tired of the rabbits eating everything including the cover on the Bar-B-Q.