Rootin' rabbits over Easter

[ManDownUnder]

The Great Easter Bunny Hunt - something I've always wanted to do. And this year... I think I got addicted.

Here's how it went for me... kinda.

Day one Wednesday arvo. 4th of April. 1/2 day at work down to the airport and I was running "a little late". Like - checking in 15 mins before departure time. Gun case in one hand, ammo bos and duffle bag all checked in.

"Oh sir - you'll need this wee sticker on the gun case, and take it over to counter one to check it please"... done. No dramas, I'm on board and fly South to Chch happy as a pig in poop. I'm on my way

Land at Chch... pick up my stuff and meet the posting king himself - Sniper. Wee problem... my gun case arrives, but the ammo box (containing 500+ rounds of ammo)... err... didn't. And nor did my luggage.

No worries. I'm sure Air NZ was keen to trace a steel case of high explosives lost somewhere in an airport or plane... so I reminded them of the contents... waited for the next flight... nothin'. Ahhh well. We get a text from Biff telling us to hurry up as (and I quote) "he's hungry enough to eat a fried fart". Ok - so we get moving.

Meet (the gorgeous) Miss Sniper, picked her up and we're away. A few rounds of the block and we found the pub. And there they are, Joni, Kickaha, Biff and J, Snipe and Miss Sniper me and (JohnB?). Anyway. A good ol' bullshit session. Took me a mo to get over my shyness of course. Joni wasn't TOO drunk... kinda giggly really

I digress.

Eat drink and be merry that night, head back and stay at Sniper and Miss Snipers place, up in the morning brekky and we're off. About to close the door and Sniper asks "left anything in there?"

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA let's just go!" (Mental note - NEVER do that again). Sniper's being kind enough to post back the potlight, spare bulb, my cap and the earmuffs I left there (DOH!)

We're off to gun city... ALL RIGHT!. Now... need some ammo, some ear plugs and a wee peek at the Mossburg pump with 2 barrels... naaaaaaaa not up to scratch. Looks a bit cheap... rinky dink and light...

Righto... 250 rounds of shotgun ammo ought to be enough? Oh hell - a packet of buckshot too please! Sold - we're off.

....550 kms later (fuck the South Island's a big place)... and we reach Alexandra. Ring Smokin'... where are ya? And more importantly - where are we staying? Leaving the Luggate pub you say? Righto - see ya soon.

We found our digs, spread out a bit. A room with a queen sized bed in it, and another room with 2 bunks and a single. I took the single. Met the boys coming down for Greymouth and they're set up - ready to go. The Hilux is obviously ready for offroad action, shooting cage on the back and loaded to the gunnels with something under a tarp. NICE... they've done this before and I reckon well get a few if we can get out and about on that thing. Little did I know the only thing missing from it were the wings.... shit that thing can move.

Anyhoo - off to meet the rest of the crew... head over to Wabbit's place (Wabbit aka Gaelene... absolute nutter... LOVELY lady). More on that soon. We grab pizza for tea, may be drink a little too much and meet the crew. I don;t remember them all...

ballbags and his family... complete with a wee dog... that's a little dog that weed on the mattresses laid out, and anything else handy for the rest of the trip. Henceforth referred to as "piddles"

Smokin, Crumpy (aka Wooly... the hilux owner), me, Snipe... shit who else... Possum and a whole bunch of others I don't recallt he names of... decided there was too much containerised beer and proceeded to help resolve that crisis before it got overwhelming

Smokin got a few photos... they'll tell a story I'm sure

[ManDownUnder]

Anyhoo... off to bed that night back at the unit and there's a certain side effect that drinking a lot of beer has on me... I get a little gassy.

I woke in the night feeling a tad bloated. but it's ok... ease it out... no big deal. a bit whiffy but hey - they're all out cold anyway. Snoring though. Earlugs... where'd I put those bloody earplugs. AAAAAHHHHH silence!

Back to sleep to be woken by light shining in my eyes. Strange - it's early... and the next night's an all nighter. A sleepin might be an idea? But alas no.

ok - upsy daisy... feeling that bloated feeling again. I'll have a bit of a laugh... dropped one in (the empty) room of Crumpy and shut the door. I left too soon though. The fart stayed in my pants and followed me back out to the lounge - and cleared the place. Kinda proud of that one - in a 3 year old way. What a ripper!

Back off to Wabbit's place to meet up with everyone and head over to the park. I'm starting to get a wee reputation as an Honorary JAFA by now. I play along see how it goes. The first question I get "Where's your Latte?".

So I give as good as I get and it escalates into some fucken funny abuse flying around. I can see my role in the team is pretty much set in stone already.

Off to the park where the guy organising the thing sets out to point out a few things, including the fact they have a JAFA in their midst - someone that reqeusted a 1/2 strength double this creamy that fuckn frappo something. The whole damned team looks at me, points and laughs pretty much. I was so proud. I'd finally overcome my shyness and was valued and loved!

Anyway - the block draw done, we're about to leave and I hear it's the same block they've previously had... 250 rabbits off the thing last time. Not good.

[ManDownUnder]

Get over to the block, load up, jump on Crumpy's ute and we're off.

Bloody awesome country. Gobsmacking. A little cold but I have the gear on so it's sweet. I took the shotgun with me and loosed off a few to get the hang of it. Nice gun (thanks to he who loaned it to me) although the rabbits don't like it much.

A bit of shooting that morning bagged a few and got my first ever black rabbit. Kinda cool.

Sniper grabbed his trusty and very worn .22 and headed out too. First round he fired off with a subsonic, through a silencer and.... I though it was a misfire. I heard a quiet "click-ick" (literally) as the action was worked... and that was it!

Then another - and another. Nope... that's the sound it makes. hooooo kaaayyy.... took a bit to get my head around. My first impression was that it would be better if he'd thrown the lead at the things - what kind of rig is THAT??

And yet the bunnies seemed to be just as dead, and falling rapidly. Seems it doesn't matter how flash the gear is if you know how to use it. And (Snipe - not ego jerking you)... the guy knows how to use it. I learned a lot.

Life lesson #1.... it doesn't matter what you have, is it's adequate and you know how to use it. Dude that was impressive shooting. I know it's what you do/did but still... the rabbits would not havbe ben more dead, and I don't think you'd have done much more if you'd spent an extra $10,000.

[ManDownUnder]

ok - nice day - long day... walking plenty and shooting rabbits. Quite relaxing really. Bagged a few (dunno how many - 20... 30?? dunno).

Snipe and I were walking along and saw something "Rabbit?". A wee way out. Snipe scoped it naaa... a rock. Ricochet's are bad things so... he didn't shoot. I wasn't sure asnd thought "What harm in shooting a rock?" I mean nothing ventured. Bang!

The rock rolled over shot through the heart. hmmm... fluffy rock!

Back, dinner, and we head on on the ute, spotlight ear lugs and we're off. My God can that thing fly! Cruising along the paddocks till a rabbit's spotted then it's ALL on. Crumpy boots it, the ute takes flight and it's all good til you hit a hump, or a rabbit hole or any of 100 things that ruins the smooth run. Everyone and everything gets chucked around on the back, and how the hell Smokin manages to shoot ANYTHING while bouncing around like that I'm not sure. Snipe, being his usual self is quietly issuing death certificates to the bunnies left and right. Click-ick click-ick.

The rain came in my gear paid for itself. Dry and warm even though everything else was cold and wet. Eventually it got soaked through through and I started to get a bit damp in it. It was 2:00am or somethin' so we went back to the woolshed and I spread out on the floor for a kip (a talent I have - wooden floors are fine by me).

Dumb move. The combined effects of me being in Alexandra (not warm), lying on the floor (not warm) in wet gear (not warm)... you see where this is going.

I woke up... COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cold to the core. Gotta do something about it - and I heard a car running.... someone has the heater on! It's Stu. ALRIGHT LET ME IN! I warmed up and slept some more, we turned the heater off the car was warm and I slept some more. But then got cold again. Not good.

Slowly dawning - the thought that maybe I should get out of this wet gear! THERE'S AN IDEA!. Changed in the woolshed and back to the car. Slept soundly till 7:00 when there's a knock at the window and Wabbit (aka Gaelene) is grinning like a mad thing through the window and the boys are all standing around laughing. Smokin didn't get his camera in time (thank God for that).

[ManDownUnder]

A bit more shooting that morning, we round up all the rabbits, I nearly spew from the smell of the things while attempting to put them on the ute to carry them back to the park for counting.

One... two three.... *choking back the spew* - ok stopping now! I literally got to 3. Not good. AAAAAAAAAAAAAA well.... it's my birthday - I'll treat myself to not spewing.

Back to the park and laid all the rabbits out and we got 1021 in total. A good haul I reckon and Smokin later confirmed we came 4th. Snipe and I shot over to the airport to fly out of Queenstown and I got hom absolutaly buggered. My wife kindly asked if I wanted to get dinner or do anything (it's my birthday after all).... errr no... sleep!

So that was it. A shower when I got home and I was done. Knackered, happy and keen to do it again next year.

Snipe - smokin... I know I missed a lot of stuff... photos too! Chip in guys.

MDU over and under!

[Jantar]

A bloody good write up. But you missed some rabbits. There are still almost as many on my property today as there were last week.

What block did you get?

[scumdog]

Colourful write-up!!

A few years ago 500 rounds wouldn't have got you through but the numbers are well down - despite the Chicken-Littles of the farming world claiming 'rabbit numbers are worse than ever'.


Saw a few of the teams at the Shingle Creek pub lunchtime Saturday - they looked a little weary and slow, understandibly so.

[Colapop]

Those poor defenceless wabbits!! Surely you could have shot some greenies as well! Sounds like you had a great weekend and a cracker b'day - although I'm a little suspwect about you and Sniper cuddling in the car....

[Virago]

Sigh........



Bigger sigh.......



Good write-up - wish I'd been there!

[0arbreaka]

fucken hell, I wish I was down there. Im going to make an effort to make it down for it next year. Good write up, bling awarded.

[Krusti]

When I saw the title of thread I wondered what it was gonna be about.....good write up.

Thought it may have been this bunny ya shot..

[BigG]

I've herd of Sheep Shagers but not Rabbit Rooters............ ......Good write up mate.

[Sniper]

What a bloody fantastic weekend. I got home feeling absolutly knackered. I had a blister on my foot, a bruise on my collar bone, bruises on my knee's, thighs, kidney areas, shoulder but I was as happy as a druggie who has just found a bag of P on the pavement.

MDU, you have done a bloody fantastic job of writing that up. I have stories that will last a lifetime, cheers for everything. Anyway, heres what I remember...

Went straight from work to the Airport to pick up MDU on the 4th. Alls good, his plane is a bit late, but no worries. Waited and met him at baggage collection where he went and collected his boom sticks and asked me to look out for a couple of items of luggage. Easy peasy, until no more luggage is appearing... So off we go to ask the nice man behind the window to see wha he can do about it. We opt to wait for the next flight and he even gives us drink vouchers which was damn nice of him. MDU and I head up to the bar and have a drink while people make wide berths around as because of this large case that obviously contains something hazardous to their health. Anyway, we had a laugh about how AirNZ could lose something like 600+ rounds of ammunition. Back downstairs to be told, nope nothing. Cool, we can go have dinner and then maybe pop back.

Headed out to the car laughing about it while also thinking up alternative options if they don't show and how cold MDU will be if his clothes dont show up....

Then we were off to dinner which was an adventure in itself. I was adament the restaurant was in St X and MissSniper was sure it was in St Y. No problems, we were both wrong, it took a phone call from a hungry Biff for us to find the place (Thank Biff and Kickaha )

Anyway, dinner was pretty uneventful, nice chatting to all and catching up with everyone. Biff and MDU found a girl who they wanted to carry on walking up and down the stairs more often.

And then it was off to bed for a nice sleep before driving down to Alexandra.

Got up in the morning round 6 and started with my packing (Im disorganised at the best of times) wondering if 500 rounds really was enough. But MDU had very kindly offered the use of his ammo if I ever needed it which I was very grateful. Got everything packed and set out neatly and went through the mental checklist (which was a bad idea) and seemed that I had everything. Read on to find out that I really didnt have it all...

Off we went to Gun City to veiw some more boom sticks and me to think about trading in Stephanie (My stirling) for a 10/22. But I just couldnt do that to my girl, she has taught me much and treated me well. MDU bought some ammo (Enough for a small war) and some earplugs and off we went.

Stopped for supplies on the way out and off we were.

[Sniper]

The drive down was pretty uneventful, MDU regailled me with stories about his youth and things he's done. He is one bloody knowledgable cookie Im telling you. I would trust this guy with my children (If I had any). We stopped in Oamaru and had a bite to eat and admired the GN125 that pulled up in front of us. Amazing town, the keys were in the bike and he didnt seem to care.

A few hours later and we ended up in Alexandra. I saw a rather cool bridge and we decided to go have a look at it and then contact Smokin to find out where we were going to bunk for the night. I did kind of wonder what Mr Plod would say had he come across us and here we were, the only car under this bridge with the boot open and two men admiring around 350 shotgun shells and over 1200 .22 rounds.

Smokin rung in and we were off to find out digs and relax for a bit before meeting everyone. I can quite happily reccomend the Alexandra Tourist Park. Very nice clean rooms and friendly staff. Within 30min Smokin and the crazy old bastard who we came to know as Wooley (aka Crumpy, aka Grumpy, aka FUCKEN STOP!!!) turned up Bloody good sorts if there ever were a pair. Were kinda curious as to the sexual suggestions yelled at between the two, but once they started hitting on MDU and I we realised we were safe. They started unloading the truck when we realised that they had come prepared. Whilst we had managed to forget our spotlights, water, wet weather gear (in my case) and hat. BBQ, venison, steaks, everything except the bread Once we were all settled in, we went out to buy alcamahol and pizza and meet everyone else.

I didnt drink anything being the good sober driver I am, but I met some bloody good sorts. Chatted about everything and anything from paintball and shooting taggers to Piddles the puppy who pissed on everything.

Round 2130 we went off to bed via the bottle store for ice where thanks to the nice young lady behind the counter who we deemed to want to have Wooleys babies we got some Speights overalls (henceforth known as body condoms) and some speights cups. Damn nice of her

Back at the camp we went over the last of our prep and then all hit the sack (and then went to bed) Woke up a variety of time because of snoring, coughing and excitement. MDU had the right idea, I should have bought earplugs. Anyway, awake at 4 and out of bed at 0530 because I heard Woodey climb out of bed and figured it would be a good time to get up.

Had a good brekky of bacon and sausages and then off to the house to meet everyone and russel up a meeting place at the park to see which blocks were drawn and where we were. As you heard from MDU, our block was (apparently) not meant to be a good one which Im glad they were wrong about.

We were at the park laughing quietly at MDU being a Jaffa and ordering his Latte. He never did, but it was funny none the less. We had our block drawn out, I was added to the registered shooters list because one guy never showed up and we were off. 30 mins out of town we pulled onto a block, met the farmer, layed out our gear and then the fun began...........

[Sniper]

So we were unpacked and we went off in the hilux to go look around and plink off a few rounds. I wasnt too optimistic after being told there weren't lots around last year, but hey, it was a good way to spend easter. Made our way into the first paddock, rounded a bend and the ridges either side of us moved and ran away. There must have been about 50 rabbits on one side of this ridge alone. I didnt have time to fire a shot, I didnt have my mag in the rifle and I wasnt expecting so many so soon and at 1100am. Smokin hopped off with his rifle (A rather nice .17HMR) and went for a walk about and I carried on in the back of the hilux for a while. Shot at a couple of the little bastards and then realised that it was easier on foot so I hopped off and went walk about.

Made my way down the trail to the river and started plinking the little bastards off like there was no tomorrow. I nailed 23 in less than an hour by just walking up and down this 400m stretch of bank. At that stage my favourite was the little bunny whos head I could only just see above the grass. One round through the eye later and 2 others stood up right next to him. It was brilliant, put 2 rounds through their eyes as well and went over to pick them up and see how they were. After picking them up I decided that shooting them in the eye was a bad idea as the little bastards tend to leak brains and blood all down my legs.

Walked down and chucked them on the back of the ute and then Wooly says, "Have a go on the shotgun". Cool, haven't done much shotgun work, cant be too hard thinks I. Rigghhhht. Ok, so I hop on the back the hilux and off we go. Now imagine this, we are happily plodding along and next thing we see a rabbit make the bolt. Woolys foot goes to the floor, I hang on for dear life and attempt to shoot the fuzzy little bastard who is in more danger of getting run over than being hit by the shotgun and off we go. Was brilliant looking back at it, but after 2 or 3 runs I decided that Im safer (and a better shot) while walking and using Stephanie.

I left Wooly to his devices and went off to shoot at stuff in the opposite direction. After a while I realised I made a fatal flaw. I didnt have anything to carry the rabbits and trying to carry (at that stage) 8 rabbits in hand was a tad uncomfortable.

Cheers for the blurb about my Shooting MDU, maybe I was just lucky... (Although I don't know about my 120yard shot, but there was noone around to see it)

Now for MDU's shooting, I have to be honest here. Watching him when he first got out was interesting. The barrel tended to wave up and down and round and round and there was talk of the rifle needed to be sighted in. After about and hour you should have seen him, he was in his groove. 75yard shot bang through the heart of my rock , and the rabbit count was quickly rising. He started off averaging 5 shots per rabbit and by the end of the day I dont even remembering him missing. Nigel, you did bloody well mate. That rifle and shotgun became an extension of yourself and you proved to yourself (and everyone else) that you are one hell of a shot. Well done dude. I even lent him my .22 and shit did he become deadly then, Im sure he nailed one on the run too, something I had managed a couple of times during the day and was seriously not expecting from MDU. He turned into one hell of a shot and anyone wanting to shoot with him, I reccomend it. Nigel is a safe conciencious hunter and he makes his shots count!!!!!

Smokin's shooting with the shotgun was phenominal. Watching him go was absolutly amazing!! In the space of an hour and a half he had nailed 67 bunnies and we had to go back and offload. I felt a bit bad because at the end of the hour I could see that the recoil was starting to have an effect. Smokin, mate, you did fucken well in my book, I wouldnt have been able to last that long.

The funniest part of that shoot though had to be when Wooley (who had hurt his back) lept out of the hilux after Smokin had just nailed a bunny. It wasn't quite dead and was trying to get to a burrow, well, Wooley wasn't having any of this shit. He leaps out of the car and does Mach 2 towards this bunny, WHILST TEXTING STEVE (Private joke) before jumping on its head to stop it. I don't think Smokin could shoot straight for a few minutes after that, I couldn't spot too well afterwards and I think MDU was pissing himself just as much.

There were a couple of instances where Smokin, MDU and myself were ready to bail off the back of the hilux that was doing 80KPH towards a bunny and a large end of the world looking cliff only to stop a foot back from it.

There were a variety of stories that come with that night which were brilliant, but alas, I'm still too tired to remember most. I do remember the Bear though But Im not saying a word about that.