Living with the cottontail and growing fruit


I walked around my nursery yesterday to see what kind of footprints were out in the 3 day old snow. Not one print in the nursery! A few cat, and fox prints around the fence. 3-4 years ago rabbits were devastating the nursery. Keeping cover mowed down and shooting every bunny on sight made them very scarce.

6 Likes

These two are very sweet until rabbits chew on my fruit trees! They both are all teeth when it comes to that! The one is part boxer and he uses those paws just like hands. They are both smart so pulling the wool over their eyes is unlikely!

image

7 Likes

So love your dog!

1 Like

The catahoula has decided he is not my dog at the moment due to a recent encounter he had with a skunk and a bathing episode that involved tomato juice! The other dog is not happy with me either about its bath over a possum ! if they see water they run! The possum smelled worse than the skunk i think so i bathed him with a wash cloth and rum. Hopefully they are over it soon because the weather man has already mentioned snow! The picture below was an unrelated bath but it gives you an idea how they feel about it!
image

6 Likes

No kidding about Boxers using their paws! Ours will full up ‘box’ with us when she’s excited. She’s part border collie, part boxer and a ton of energy.

1 Like

The catahoula does not get to come see me as much because both original owners have passed away. I offered to take him but the son kept him. If he can get away he comes over. My dog who is a mix aka mut boxer x lab I think pushes the rabbits all the time. He’s just waiting for winter to hit hard so he has more to do. He is keeping the deer out of the orchard lately. Once the snow comes the rabbit will be here .

9 Likes

So love your dog!

1 Like

The dog and I are watching for cottontails but I don’t dought some rabbits are getting past us. We have fences up, tubes on trees in outskirts, and we continue to watch and we will see where we are tomorrow. We are desperate for the moisture also so this snow is overall a really good thing.

3 Likes

one year, evil bunnies cost me more than $300 in ornimental plants plus a bunch of figs.
i built fences, sunk chicken wire into the ground, learned to shoot handguns n started carrying one.
it was a standoff.
then, i met n courted my feral cat, drifter.
she loves a rabbit meal more than anything.
evil bunnies are now extinct in this area.
cat food is for days when her hunt is poor.

8 Likes

The right cat is a great solution!

2 Likes

Here is my bunny killer. This Precharged Pneumatic .22 Cal Air rifle is suppressed and has zero recoil.

8 Likes

Someone is still waiting on the rabbits to come back but so far the rabbits declined a rematch

6 Likes

Do you lurk in a blind to spot them?

What is brand on your .22 rabbit weapon?

17HMR is a bunny destroyer if you live out of town… Super accurate out to 150meters or so.

2 Likes

I thought he said it was an Air Rifle? Using 22 caliber pellets… Sorry… you didn’t reference his @39thparallel thread… so I may be misspoken.

Yeah he did, I was just stating, for those interested, 17hmr works great…

2 Likes

I was a bit late with my edit… sorry…

1 Like

MP Sent

1 Like

@hambone @TheDerek @BobC

Rimfire rifles and shotgun work great. I like air rifles because the suppressed ones don’t alarm neighbors and don’t require special permits like a suppressed firearm. the one in the picture is AIR FORCE brand. The company makes rifles up to .45 cal you could hunt big game with. PCP Airguns are expensive but, the spring powered ones are junk in my experience.

3 Likes