meat damage rabbits

[GBoyd]

A question for you guys:

Me and some friends have been hunting rabbits this winter out in eastern Oregon. Generally we're walking around in sage and juniper with large rock formations and taking running shots at rabbits. Mostly they're cottontails, with a few jacks thrown in. This is extremely fun. It's a nice area to hike in and enough shooting to stay interesting. My problem is that I hate to clean the rabbits when they've been hit with a shotgun. Usually at least one leg is broken and often the guts have been hit. I probably throw away 30% of the meat for one reason or another.

I've been using a 12 gauge, with No. 6 shot and modified choke. I'd guess most of the shots are under forty yards. Any ideas to reduce damage without wounding and losing too many rabbits?
I was wondering if going to an improved choke, or smaller shot, or slower shot would help.

[plottwalker]

i have killed 100's rabbits with a 410 or 28 gauge for years, you dont normally want to use a 12 ga. on something so small /thin skinned.

[Bill W]

you could try and be a bit more sneaky and use a .22lr.  It would require passing on some shots and walking a bit quieter.

or going to 7 1/2 shot and a more open choke.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I used to hunt rabbits with dove loads (7 1/2 or and an open choke when the only shotgun I had was a 12-gauge.  Both jacks and cottontails die pretty easy, rarely had a problem with losing any.  Once I found the good spots with lots of bunnies, I switched over to a 4" barrel .357 with standard velocity round nose lead .38s.  Once I got a .22 pistol I stuck with that.

[NRA4LIFE]

I've killed 1000 or more cotton tails, snow shoes and jacks in my life, about half with .22s and half with shotguns.  Unless it was my only choice for any one reason, I would use a 12 ga.  If a shotgun, my choice was a 20, 7 1/2 or 8 shot and an improved cylinder choke.  That generally did not beat them up too bad and plenty of fire power.

[GBoyd]

Yeah, I'll try an improved cylinder choke and 7 1/2 next time. If that's too dense I might even give skeet chokes a try.

This area would be very tough to use a .22 rifle. It's a very desolate terrain that only supports sparse rabbit populations. With two or three guys walking 30 yards apart, we'll usually flush a rabbit every hour or 45 minutes. Spotting them before they flush would take an inhuman level of concentration.

[300rum]

I've ran them a lot with Beagles.  You try to shoot them in head.  I liked 6's myself, I always thought they tended to go right through them.  Since you are flushing, try 5's, they should go right through them, see how that works.

[Encore 280]

What about a 357 lever gun or pistol with bird shot?

[heronblu]

i have killed 100's rabbits with a 410 or 28 gauge for years, you dont normally want to use a 12 ga. on something so small /thin skinned.

Ive never had a problem hunting rabbit with a 12ga. I hunt for snowshoe hair in really thick stuff otherwise I'd use the .22. I aim for the head and never have had any trouble with them being too shot up. I tan the pelts too and don't even usually have to do much sewing.

[metlhead]

I prefer my .410 for bunnies. I also go with the lightest load of the biggest shot I can find, #4s work great. Fewer holes and most pass through. With a 12ga., maybe look to some 2 3/4" steel waterfowl loads as you can usually find BB.

[plottwalker]

i have killed 100's rabbits with a 410 or 28 gauge for years, you dont normally want to use a 12 ga. on something so small /thin skinned.

Ive never had a problem hunting rabbit with a 12ga. I hunt for snowshoe hair in really thick stuff otherwise I'd use the .22. I aim for the head and never have had any trouble with them being too shot up. I tan the pelts too and don't even usually have to do much sewing.

hunt behind a pack of fast hare dogs and your opinion might change. at full speed you can still hit most with a 20 or 28 ga, that you would have hit with the 12 ga,but your not going to get the choice of head shots at that point.  with how light skinned and easy it is to kill rabbits, 12 ga is over kill. ask any beagler.

[plottwalker]

i have killed 100's rabbits with a 410 or 28 gauge for years, you dont normally want to use a 12 ga. on something so small /thin skinned.

Ive never had a problem hunting rabbit with a 12ga. I hunt for snowshoe hair in really thick stuff otherwise I'd use the .22. I aim for the head and never have had any trouble with them being too shot up. I tan the pelts too and don't even usually have to do much sewing.

hunt behind a pack of fast hare dogs and your opinion might change. at full speed you can still hit most with a 20 or 28 ga, that you would have hit with the 12 ga,but your not going to get the choice of head shots at that point.  with how light skinned and easy it is to kill rabbits, 12 ga is over kill. heres what some i took last week look like with a 20ga shooting 6's. 9 rabbits were good to go, 1 had a uneatable leg.

[heronblu]

i have killed 100's rabbits with a 410 or 28 gauge for years, you dont normally want to use a 12 ga. on something so small /thin skinned.

Ive never had a problem hunting rabbit with a 12ga. I hunt for snowshoe hair in really thick stuff otherwise I'd use the .22. I aim for the head and never have had any trouble with them being too shot up. I tan the pelts too and don't even usually have to do much sewing.

hunt behind a pack of fast hare dogs and your opinion might change. at full speed you can still hit most with a 20 or 28 ga, that you would have hit with the 12 ga,but your not going to get the choice of head shots at that point.  with how light skinned and easy it is to kill rabbits, 12 ga is over kill. ask any beagler.

I imagine that with faster dogs its a different story. I hunt differently than most. My dog (blue tick coon hound and heeler) plods along ahead of me and points when she sees or smells a rabbit or grouse and I walk up and shoot it. I have the luxury of taking my time in most cases.

[GBoyd]

It seems like some people prefer the larger shot because there's more pass-through and less pellets overall. Others are saying smaller shot size because I guess each pellet does a smaller amount of damage? Has anyone thoroughly tried both options to say which one I should try first?

[AWS]

As a youth my dad and his hunting partner would have me jump up and down on the brush piles while they waited for the rabbits to flush out from under them, they used #5's.  You can pretty much clean them wth out getting blood on you hands.  Make a slit in the middle of the back and put two fingers in and pull both directions peeling the skin off the front and bac end of the rabbit at the same time.  Cut the feet and head off.  Make a slit up the belly and grab the rabbit by the front half and the real legs with the belly facing away from you and make a downward tossing/throwing motion and the guts will fly out.  Drop them in a bucket of cold salt water and pull the heart and lungs out or just remove the legs and back straps, you can even do the legs and back straps with out gutting.