A .22 air rifle at the UK legal limit of 12ftlbs (down to about 10) is sufficient to take rabbits from between 30 and 40 yards depending on how good a shot you are. You can go out further than this of course, however bear in mind that you are always after a humane kill. I was out for 'one for the pot' last night before dark and so didn't bother with my Evanix GTL480 semi-auto.
Instead a single shot break barrel Gamo Whisper Fusion with a Gamo 4x32 sight on it was more than sufficient for sitting out hidden away from the burrows. Bear in mind that you want to keep the quarry, so make sure the rabbit is far enough away from the burrow hole when you take the shot. Usually a head shot will drop them instantly but sometimes they get that final adrenaline burst which means they can bolt back inside the burrow and you will lose your dinner. I used my usual pellet of a BSA Storm .22 which I basically use for everything and in all my air rifles. (Too lazy to test out others and they are fine)
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| More preparation than this is needed! |
Rabbits are not pleasant to prepare if you haven't done it before. Head off, guts out and then remove the fur (plenty of videos on YouTube etc as to how to do it). It does get easier the more you do it. I prefer to drop the guts out in the field and leave them in the hedges for the foxes and crows but bear in mind lots of landowners and farmers won't want you doing this.
Ideally you want to use a rabbit size of around 1kg, anything smaller and it won't have much meat on it, bigger and the meat tends to be quite tough.
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| A nice Hertfordshire Rabbit. |
Rabbit meat is lean, but can be quite dry.... my answer is just to make the traditional British dish of Curry! Being lazy I just use a supermarket one.
My original plan was to eat outside cooking on an open fire with a bushfire pot .... but ended up in the kitchen as everyone else was moaning that it was cold. ...Curry came out okay though
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