Around here airguns above a certain muzzle velocity are classed as firearms making them illegal
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My dad and I love the 22 magnums. We use the hyper velocity cartridges. For me, a good quality trigger is the most important thing for long range shooting. I use the AR Gold Trigger in my 6.8 SPC. The rounds can be reloaded fairly cheaply since it requires minimal powder and light-weight bullets. The accuracy is unbelievable and the gun can be used for deer, hogs, etc. The XLR kill light allows shooting up to 250 yards at nightâthis is an exaggeration IMO, I would say 150.
Edit: I have the older model trigger, which Iâve tuned down to probably less than a pound. I donât have a device to actually measure the pull.
Ive reloaded some 223 cartridges using 40gr ballistic tip bullets and blue dot powder, reduced charges and they are super quiet and virtually no recoil, great out to about 200 yards also⌠Gotta be careful tho, too much of a fast burning powder like that will wreck your gun, and possibly your face as well!
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.223 is too expensive to use on bunnies n rattlers. 22lr is plenty for them.
a rifle didnât work for me. i was constantly running in the house to get the rifle.
handguns i have with me, at least during snake season.
i put a red dot on this n then shot 10,000 rounds of practice.
i never miss anymore.
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Hunting for wabbits was pretty good today with a little soft snow cover and finally some settled weather. The bunnies are so much easier for my old eyes to see when they hide on a white background.
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As a kid in northern Illinois I tracked rabbits thru the snow to their daytime hiding spot. They usually hid in a clump of grasses about the color of their coat. They could see out which allowed a bb shot to the head. Actually canât remember missing but I wonât do that now for fear of injuring one that ran off. They were easy to dress out and good eating compared to most wild game.
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As a kid, I wanted a pet rabbit, so followed some rabbit tracks through the snow in a cornfield until they disappeared into a hole by a cornstalk. I sat there patiently holding an open gunny sack ready to catch one if any emerged. Finally one popped out and surprised me so much that I missed catching it. At the lunch table I told my farmer dad and many siblings about my attempt. " You have to put salt on its tail," my dad, who seldom joked, told me. So after lunch I took the salt shaker along with me and squatted there again, but no rabbit appeared that time, so I never got a pet rabbit.
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The pears are not the only bumper crop. The rabbits had a bumper year as well! This winter may get interesting! 
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I have a few rabbits around my orchard and yard and they have caused only a little problem. From looking at the damage posted before they can be very destructive but at my place they only nip off small plants (pencil size). Being small time I can put hardware cloth around the plants to prevent these bites. We are lucky in that it rarely snows enough to help them reach over the wire.
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Here, the rabbits have discovered the snap peas
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I have had one nibble on a tree. I dont have tons of rabbits, do have redtails and coopers and owls in the woods. So im lucky there.
A $12 bale of alfalfa field hay with a tarp draped over it for snow protection seems to keep them happy. I use whats left in spring to add to my hay tree surrounds.
Im probably just lucky in my micro-ecosystem.
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Boooooo
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@TurkeyCreekTrees
You most likely now have dealt with our rabbits and other rodents and deer. I hope things are well since you live so close by. This is truly a land of plenty. Raising fruit is rewarding but its not easy. The land comes with rodents and they stepped up their game this year and defeated tree guards on multiple occasions demonstrating they have adapted on my property. They cannot however beat nature. The rootstocks I use in most situations are not the type they like to eat. They attack elm instead before these.
Many apples did not have a chance. How did you do @39thparallel ?
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We had a little rabbit damage on some permanent mother trees that I failed to put window screen around the base of. We have everything caged or inside the nursery fence which is rabbit proof and deer proof under normal circumstances. We have almost zero deer in the area around the nursery. Too many neighbors and two of those love to target shoot in their yards.
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I know the ones your talking about. We occasionally got stray bullets years ago but these shoot more and drink less so we seem to be ok now. Some kids shot up a bunch of lights around the pond a few years ago.
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I have very little rabbit damage now. Tree guards on all young orchard trees, Fence around the nursery, Move down cover in the Fall, Motion activated pest scare gadgets, Nightly air rifle armed patrols in the Fall and Early Winter.
Pack Rats and Voles are a bigger issue now. If the wouldnât get hit on the highway all the time, I would have an Army of Barn Cats here.
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I had some type of rodent chew my large apple trees inside the guards this year
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Often times people move to the country from the city and shoot off thousands of rounds of bullets. Itâs a new thing to them. I was raised differently being from the country. The old timers when I was a kid expected kids to have a rabbit for every cartridge. They looked down on people who shot a lot unless they needed the practice. They would consider people who shot like that the same way you would think of someone who came to your house for dinner and ate the one entire apple pie themselves. They were very frugal and strict and did not believe in wasting. I can remember once they got very upset over some people target shooting. If you did need to practice a lot they did not consider that bad always but they regarded people like that as ignorant , wasteful, or crazy and still do. A lot being over 100 rounds that was looked down on. Someone shooting 1000 rounds was inexcusable that was wasteful. One old timer would say to another after 100 rounds were fired what were you all shooting sounded like a war and it better be followed up by saying rats, ducks, rabbits something. On the occasions it wasnât for a good reason the old timer would say Clarkie stay away from that guy and he would whistle do a slight circle around the side of his head to say the guy was crazy he was shooting at nothing. When I was about 9 I saw a repeater and asked the old guys where i could get one they said you donât need it thatâs for city people who canât shoot they need the extra bullets. They thought if you had a gun you better know where the bullet was headed. City people moved to the country and shot their cars, cows, houses and so on many times. They would park a car in the field to fix up later come back find the glass shot out and full of holes lets just say how would you feel?
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Voles
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Yes I think so as well. Voles are bad.
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