Rabbit loads/chokes?

[red rick]

I thought it was a rabbit hunt. I wouldn’t be happy if my beagles were running birds and I have seen some that do . I don’t allow anyone to shoot anything other than a rabbit in front of my dogs. We don’t have pheasant, but we do have quail and snipe.

I tell everyone before the hunt starts, let the dogs circle one time before you kill the rabbit. I don’t shoot a rabbit on the jump. Don’t shoot anything but a rabbit. Don’t clean the rabbit until the dogs are in the box , tapeworms from eating the guts or fleas on the rabbit. Don’t shoot my dogs. If you shoot my dog it will be $500 dollars if you kill him or the vet bill. And be safe, it is just a rabbit .

 

[Axis II]

I thought it was a rabbit hunt. I wouldn’t be happy if my beagles were running birds and I have seen some that do . I don’t allow anyone to shoot anything other than a rabbit in front of my dogs. We don’t have pheasant, but we do have quail and snipe.

I tell everyone before the hunt starts, let the dogs circle one time before you kill the rabbit. I don’t shoot a rabbit on the jump. Don’t shoot anything but a rabbit. Don’t clean the rabbit until the dogs are in the box , tapeworms from eating the guts or fleas on the rabbit. Don’t shoot my dogs. If you shoot my dog it will be $500 dollars if you kill him or the vet bill. And be safe, it is just a rabbit .

The dog is less than 1yo and in the beginning my buddy had a hard time with him hitting a track, run for maybe 50yards and then come back to us. He got him with a set of older dogs a few times and he seems to have it. I posted a pic of the property and how it went down.

The red dot is where we parked. We headed to the west/right and he hit the track and followed the red line all the way around until the rabbit circled and was killed where the red x in the red circle is. The rabbit was wounded and we didn't know until I hear it squealing when the dog was attacking it. I walked over and the dog was sitting there next to the rabbit. He was allowed to sniff and tug on it a bit and then told find more. Where the other red line is with a small circle he jumped a very small bunny and got on a sight chase with it and then scent tracked it all the way back to me. It was so thick down in there I couldn't see the rabbit until it ran towards the back of the house and I wasn't shooting that way. He circled it back towards me and it holed up. On the way back to the truck we were walking to the part where the 3 red X are for more rabbits and we heard the pheasant cackle. We flushed several and my buddy got one and 3 more flew to the 3 red X area. He applauded the dog because he would get excited when he smelled the birds but never once made a sound. He also wasn't interested in the birds once found but wanted to rip the rabbit apart. When we hit the area where the 3 X are I watched the dog get within 3ft of the pheasant and the pheasant ran away and the dog didn't even care. I watched it run away and my buddy killed it after a flush. We headed back towards the truck/red X with circle because I hit one and didn't find it and the dog wanted nothing to do with the birds but did hit a rabbit track again. We found the bird wounded and walking along the field edge and he didn't even care. I flushed the bird and killed it. I then heard one cackle in the woods and found and killed that one. The hunt club purchases farm raised birds and lets them loose every year until thanksgiving because Ohio doesn't have wild pheasant. We were told the previous day the club didn't release any and would not be releasing any but I guess they lied.

When the hunt started he said if you jump a rabbit call him over and let him track it and don't shoot it unless he circles it. The first rabbit was jumped in the ditch line and the dog was called to check. The second rabbit he found on his own about 100yards ahead of us. My buddy raised beagles from age 14yo until about 5yrs ago and he is about 46yo. He has multiple awards for field trials and his dogs, but loss of land he went with a squirrel dog and now has both the beagle and cur dog. His cur will limit both of us on 6 squirrel on several farms and also does pretty well on Coon. I think we killed 3 coon one night within a few hours with the Cur dog. Animals were taken back to his place and cleaned in the garage and the dogs were locked up.

 

[Axis II]

One thing I noticed was I was using a low brass, Winchester 1oz #6 shot in the O/U in my pictures and hit a bird about 15 away and 15ft in the air and it didn't kill it right away. I am wondering if they aren't old shells that went bad? My buddy killed his with a 28ga on the first shot.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

One thing I noticed was I was using a low brass, Winchester 1oz #6 shot in the O/U in my pictures and hit a bird about 15 away and 15ft in the air and it didn't kill it right away. I am wondering if they aren't old shells that went bad? My buddy killed his with a 28ga on the first shot.

Far to many variables involved to determine anything from 2 birds and 2 shots.

 

[George P]

One thing I noticed was I was using a low brass, Winchester 1oz #6 shot in the O/U in my pictures and hit a bird about 15 away and 15ft in the air and it didn't kill it right away. I am wondering if they aren't old shells that went bad? My buddy killed his with a 28ga on the first shot.

High brass, low brass means nothing. That dates WAY back to a different time. Modern ammo may come with either, but it is a marketing thing. 1oz of #6 should have done the job; hoever poor gun fit or any of a number of other factors could have resulted in the miss. Hit the pattern board with your ammo to see what it is doing.

 

[Axis II]

High brass, low brass means nothing. That dates WAY back to a different time. Modern ammo may come with either, but it is a marketing thing. 1oz of #6 should have done the job; hoever poor gun fit or any of a number of other factors could have resulted in the miss. Hit the pattern board with your ammo to see what it is doing.

The first bird I didn't miss. He flew up, I shot and he fell to the ground but didn't die. We came back 30min later it was wounded and running from us until flight which it got hit again and fell and still tried taking off. I had to wring its neck to kill it. Second bird flew up and was shot and hit some tree limbs and flew only to be shot by my buddy. I will pattern it and see what the deal is.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

I have taken many pheasants with 1- 1 1/8 oz loads of 6 shot. I now load my own 1 1/2 oz loads of 5 shot and use an improved cylinder most of the time. Better chance of breaking one wing and one leg if the bird is not killed outright IME.
Actually using my frontloader most often now with 1 1/4 of 5's and mod/full chokes.

 

[Captcurt]

Like others said, watch for the dog.
After that, it's up to you. I like 6 shot for about everything. It's just big enough to kill well, but small enough to leave a good pattern.
I like 3" 6's in a 410 with a full choke. 20 ga is a great choice also.

Shot a lot of rabbits when I was in my teens. The 410 with your 3" number 6's worked swell. Filled a few bushels of squirrels with it too.

 

[RMc]

High brass, low brass means nothing. That dates WAY back to a different time. Modern ammo may come with either, but it is a marketing thing. 1oz of #6 should have done the job; hoever poor gun fit or any of a number of other factors could have resulted in the miss. Hit the pattern board with your ammo to see what it is doing.

Indeed! It is a rare hunter that takes time to pattern his or her shotgun/load/choke combination. And it is almost unheard of to find a shotgunner who patterns with goal of establishing the maximum distance at which the gun/load/choke combination delivers adequate pattern density!

 

[Axis II]

Well I rabbit hunted Saturday and we ran some thickets and jumped several pheasants that I missed. One rabbit ran past me but we don't jump shoot them with the dog. We headed to an old ditch line and cut the dog loose. We jumped two rabbits and he chased one into the corn and lost it and the other made a small circle back to me and stopped on a log. I shouldered the Stoeger about 30yards away and let a #6 shot loose and it blasted the head pretty good. No meat damage but the head was a nice shot. I say the new Carlson's Imp choke did pretty well.

 

[huntsman]

^ that’s the way to do it, some of my best hunting was with bunnies, beagles and a .410 SXS

 

[red rick]

A 410 is for the expert shooters. You are doing good to hit a running rabbit with a 410 , IMO .