Fun Weekend

My buddy calls me on Friday and ask if i was interested in a little hunting. I assured him i was but i must first get a kitchen pass from the missus. I secured my pass and we are going hunting Saturday night. Woo Hoo.

You see out here in West Texas it is cotton planting time. When the cotton emerges and is about 1-2" tall, all the local wildlife likes to eat it. It cost the farmers anywhere between $8-$25K per year in crop damage depending on the size of the field. The farmers like for us to go out and terminate as many of the local crop damaging varmints that we can. Naturally we enjoy shooting the rabbits and such and it keeps us hunting throughout the summer months so we are all for it. On a good night, we will terminate 300 plus jack rabbits. One time i actually ran out of Ammo.

We started out little Bunny Blasting Club in October of 2003. We used our .22 Long rifles and had a blast. Problem is a Jack Rabbit can take 15 rounds from a .22 and keep moving. As the time we by we upgraded to the .22 mag. Then the .17 cal came out and a few of us adopted that as our primary varmint gun.

One day i called my Uncle Bill and we were talking about what gun would be best for bunny blasting. He had been out hunting with us and knew how much ammo we went through on a hunt. By the way, when my Uncle joined us, we used our SKS's that night. A 7.62 X 39 will decimate a Jack. Any way he told me to price the ammo and then buy the gun. I did and i ended up hunting with a .223

I bought a Savage .223 with scope and bi pod and since then that gun has slain more critters than any other firearm i have. Out here i have taken Jack Rabbits, Cotton Tails, Bobcats, Coyotes, Opossums, Snakes, Badgers, Deer, Armadillos, Skunks and Foxes. It is an awesome little gun sighted for Zero at 150 yards. You shoot this gun and it will make you think your a good shot.

1900 hours and i pull up at Mark's house. His grandson Tooter is joining us. Tooter is 14 and learned to shoot by bunny blasting with us. He is a decent shot but he is young. What i mean is that Grandad buys his ammo so he shoots a lot. Mark and i laugh that when he starts buying his own ammo, he will get a lot better. We start loading gear. I brought my Savage .223, Ruger No. one 22.250, .22 Mark IV target pistol with iron sights, 3 million candlepower spotlight and night vision. Mark loads a .22 Mark IV pistol with scope, .17 cal HMR rifle, Ruger No. One .223, .17 cal Mach 2 for Tooter, 25 million candlepower spot light, yes 25 million. This light is so big it mounts on the vehicle with suction cups and is directly wired to the battery. It is bright.

We head to the fields and try to get there about 1 hour before dark so we can do some long range shooting during the daylight hours. About 30 minutes after dark the Jacks will come out and the fun begins. Tooter and I are in the back of truck and Mark is driving and working the light. He shines the critter and we waste it. It is a blast. Naturally Tooter and I have a little competition. Since he is shooting the .17 Mach 2 he doesn't have the long range that i have. He takes the close ones and i reach out for the long ones. My longest shot that night was about 150 yards. It doesn't seem far, but try to hit a rabbit at 150 yards at night. It is not as easy as it sounds. My best shot of the night was a Jack running in overdrive. He was about 50 yards out and running parallel to us. It was funny to watch the energy exchange. Here is a rabbit running about 25 miles an hour and travelling in a forward motion. When that .223 bullet impacts the rabbit, it changes the direction of travel but doesn't immediately stop the forward motion and the rabbit will be tumbling at 25 miles per hour. It is a great physics lesson.

Tooter got a couple of good running shots. One of them he even shot in the head. You can tell a head shot because the rabbit will start jumping straight up and down. They can jump pretty high. All in all it was a slow night. We only shot about 25 rabbits all night.

Jack rabbits are funny. Their defense is to run. A Jack can reach speeds up to 40 mph. They will for about 30 yards and stop and listen. When they stop, you have to be ready to shoot. For some reason they seem to run towards the light also. I haven't figured that one out yet.