The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: escapedtothecountry on September 03, 2012, 07:53:48 pm
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We only have 2 acres but there are loads of rabbits. They are a real problem. A chap comes around every now and again and shoots some of them. I am less successful with my air rifle. I wondered what experience anyone had with the use of snares? I'm not into killing things for the sake of it, but I do need to do something.
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have you tried carrots?? ;)
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have you tried carrots?? ;)
No but they have tried mine.. and other things too
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I was a dab hand with a wire as a youth. Not sure how PC it is now. I still have a longnet somewhere too. Both things work on the right days, or you could try getting someone in with ferrets if the warren is on your ground.
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I was a dab hand with a wire as a youth. Not sure how PC it is now. I still have a longnet somewhere too. Both things work on the right days, or you could try getting someone in with ferrets if the warren is on your ground.
Suspect there is more than one warren - plenty of holes that you put your arm down to past your elbow vertically into the ground. Suspect previous owner didn't do much to stop the damage to the ground being done which is strange as apparently they kept horses which I would have thought would have been quite dangerous as they could easily have had one of their legs go straight into one of the holes.
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Well, were I to be setting a 'hypothetical' wire, then I wouldn't be doing it at burrow entrances anyway - the rabbits are too cautious and they don't get caught. The place to set them is where rabbits have to squeeze through somewhere - where they push under fences is good. The other place to set them is on 'tamps': rabbits tend to hop and land in the same places, so if you look at their runs, where the grass is worn, it should be worn shorter in a series of 'spots' than others, if you set one at the front of one of these, at about fist height, they will end up pushing through it, even better when there is a tuft beside the run at that point. You use what is known as a 'tealer' to keep the snare at the height you want it (this is a forked twig) and peg the wool into the ground with a hazel peg just over a finger thick. Bury your snares for a week first (remember where!) and when you are setting them, rub soil on your hands to mask your scent. Check them every few hours.
You will find the rabbits will either kill themselves very swiftly in 'textbook' style or just sit there when they realise they cant move (the wire will stay pretty loose in this case) so all you do is pic them up and stretch them.
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We have used Fenn traps, which by law have to be checked once a day but I checked much more often, I believe snares are the same. Nasty but sometimes necessary. If I had the confidence I'd try for some of our bunnies, but would probably get a cat.
Local gamekeeper set one for a problem fox a few years ago - got a badger-with a temper! had to lean over the fence with bolt croppers to free it and it tried to attack us, glad the fence was there.
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SteveHants is spot-on with his instruction, and I got a supply of snares from a fishing shop a couple of months ago. They must be checked often.
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How quick does it actually take for a rabbit to die using a snare?
The thought of it wriggling and panicing as the life is squeezed out of it
would put me off ever considering this method.
I think we've moved on since 'Trapper John' days.
Get someone who knows what the're doing, has the right rifle, to do the job.
You find you might sleep better, and not have dreams of rabbits squerming on a wire
and their little lives being slowly drained from them.
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Ahh BangBang, you're just a big old softy aren't you. :D
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"Getting someone with a rifle" sounds easy but it is not. Firearms are now very tightly regulated indeed, as is the ammunition which they use and the circumstances where the gun can be fired.
The .17 calibre favoured around here by the police reduces the value of the rabbit to zero by its impact, so increases the cost to the landowner.
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How quick does it actually take for a rabbit to die using a snare?
The thought of it wriggling and panicing as the life is squeezed out of it
would put me off ever considering this method.
I think we've moved on since 'Trapper John' days.
Get someone who knows what the're doing, has the right rifle, to do the job.
You find you might sleep better, and not have dreams of rabbits squerming on a wire
and their little lives being slowly drained from them.
Is that a haiku? ;D
But seriously, when they do strangle themselves they don't take long because usually they are running and they pretty much do themselves with that first push through. When they slip through gently, you get the 'sitter' situation that I described before.
You could try longnetting if you wan to take a good few - the only faff is the net itself, I think electric fence posts are probably the thing to run it out on, I used to use hazel (again), but it is quite cumbersome. There are two ways of doing it - you run the net out in situ between the grazings and the warren along a fence or hedge preferably with the back of the net tied up off the deck so the bunnies can move freely (in the day - unless you are some kind of masochist). You then sneak in at night and drop the net (so tie it using loops and a bow at one end) and scare the rabbits into it using a dog or moving along clapping etc (some people use bags on string with pebbles in so they 'flap' carried between two people).
Or: If you need to do the whole operation in one night (can't think why you might do that.... :innocent: ) - you attach the net to the posts and fold it in such a way that you can release it walking backwards (so you line the posts up with the net hanging down between them), making up some sort of 'jig' to rest it on is fairly easy, you then cary the lot round your neck. (I have heard of people rolling it round their torso and then putting a coat on over it - again, I can't possibly think why one might be doing that, either.... ;D ). You pay the whole lot out between the rabbits and burrows, staking in the posts as you go, then drive the bunnies back into the net. For this to be truly effective you need a dark, moonless night with a breeze (not a gale - they stay under the ground then) blowing your scent away from the feeding rabbits (ie towards the burrows).
Either way, once you have spooked the rabbits you can turn your torch on and go along the net killing the rabbits tangled in it.
When doing this, walking lightly and knowing where the wind is blowing your scent is vital. Its no use doing it on a shiny night - the rabbits will see you from miles off.
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Thanks for all the advice - very helpful.
On shooting - we have had a chap who shoots rabbits all over the place come twice - think he has had around 20 rabbits off our two acres. I have got 6 with my air rifle.. but as we know they breed like rabbits.
The thing is I think why am I bothering on my little two acres when I am surrounded by flat farmland.... as there will undoubtedly be thousands more just waiting to hop on over.
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If only I lived closer to you! I would love to fill up a freezer of rabbits :yum: :yum:
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The thing is I think why am I bothering on my little two acres when I am surrounded by flat farmland.... as there will undoubtedly be thousands more just waiting to hop on over.
Get used to rabbit pie then.... ;D
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And of course the previous owner surrounded two sides of the plot with conifers which are now huge - so we have plenty of pigeons too! If suddenly the shops ran out of food I think we could survive for a long time on the pigeons and rabbits if we had too! ;) ;)
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Welcome to the rural idyll :)
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Ahh BangBang, you're just a big old softy aren't you. :D
Hard as nails me.. ;D
It's not the killing I object to it's the snaring method. and snares dont just get what you want rid of,
they entrap anything that gets tangled in them. Cats, birds ...etc.
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I must have set thousands in my time and never caught anything else but rabbits. I can see how you might end up catching a cat, but the only bird I can see being large/daft enough is a pheasant.
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That is interesting.
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a well placed snare shouldnt catch a cat because cats dont hop. i was taught the idea with a snare was to catch the babbit mid-hop. so placed between spots. i havent snared much and i havent heard a 'true' story about a cat being caught either. but good placement is the key.
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a well placed snare shouldnt catch a cat because cats dont hop. i was taught the idea with a snare was to catch the babbit mid-hop. so placed between spots. i havent snared much and i havent heard a 'true' story about a cat being caught either. but good placement is the key.
There was always the apocrophal 'boy who snared a cat' when I was growing up, but I never saw evidence for this. The reason I suppose you could catch one is that I often used to snare where rabbits pushed under a fence as well as tamps, but if I know cats, they would probably go over it...
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Check out the RSPCA's statistics on snares and the animals they inadvertantly trap!
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Clever trappers include a breakaway in the snare which allows animals you are not supposed to catch ( cats badgers etc) to get free. It just releases the trap.
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Between now and winter try to find out where they are in the burrows and get a ferreter in.
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I do realise rabbits are a problem and as I can't shoot (just not good enough) we rely on the cat to kill lots of the youngsters.
Having seen (given to me for rehabilitation by Tayside Police) a Buzzard with it's lower leg hanging by a tread of skin and stinking of gangrene, I wouldn't like to use a snare.
I am sure it's like anything else, if you experienced on where to locate them, set them etc they can do the job swiftly but not for the inexperience I would have thought.
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Check out the RSPCA's statistics on snares and the animals they inadvertantly trap!
and then take a pinch of salt and find something believable to read
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Snares, very effective but need placing and setting properly.
Always set them on the rabbits "run" or its "pad"... rabbits use those as their "motorways" so to speak.
Snares need frequent checking, at least 3 times daily so for me setting snares is a weekend activity.
.177 rimfire rifle wont destroy a carcase and it is quite usable if its shot with one of those, I regularly use a .22 rimfire rifle to hunt rabbits, a clean head shot is possible up to 50 metres away... and up to 100 metres with a .177 as the round is much flatter and of a higher velocity.
The trouble I have is that the rabbit population has been destroyed by foxes, although there is more now that we have been proactive with fox control over the last couple years.
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I used to be a supporter of the RSPCA until they got taken over by the extremists. It's a shame that the abuse of their quasi official status gets in the way of the value they could add. Our local vet sighs heavily when talking about the calls he gets about the odd lame sheep in a flock.
Rabbit population around here dipped for the first time last year but is the biggest I've seen it this year. An early evening walk round my ten acres and I'll see perhaps 30. I can't get an FAC for my land because of I'm next to a main road, but my local gamekeeper, is very down on the .17HMR beloved of the firearms officer (is that the same as a .177?) because its very expensive and very noisy because of its velocity. He reckons its great at long distance but very destructive at 100/150m. The firearms officer says it doesn't ricochet like the .22 but fragments on impact: perhaps they specify a particular round
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No, we're talking the same round. Usually referred here as the .177 rimfire (not strictly true .177 is the actual air rifle round). The .17HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) is basically a .22 body with a .17 projectile tip added. It has twice the velocity of a standard .22 magnum (about 2500 feet per second) and much more accurate. The .22 is better for "less destruction" use at close range due to its heavier lead end and "drop". The .17 is available in soft tip and is less destructive.
The .17 is actually the round that "snipers" prefer..... and not the big long case round we see in the action films.
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30 rabbits in 10 acres.... have seen mid 20s inside my 2 acres of which all the outbuilding and house are built in that area - so that gives an idea of how many of the fury critters are around here. If food prices keep rising maybe they will soon become an asset! ;D ;D
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Check out the RSPCA's statistics on snares and the animals they inadvertantly trap!
and then take a pinch of salt and find something believable to read
Haven't read it but I can imagine, I once read some stuff on a vegan website, all about what murderous b*******s beekeepers were.
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Another suggestion would be a rabbit 'dropbox' google it for plans and how it works. but basically a non-leathal, fairly quarry specific trap. leave it a few days before setting to allow rabbits to get use to the 'tunnel'. Never used one myself but have seen good reports! I'd be out with rifle and lamp.
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I go out with whippet and lamp.
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I go out with whippet and lamp.
Yes, but what about the rabbits? :)
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Clever trappers include a breakaway in the snare which allows animals you are not supposed to catch ( cats badgers etc) to get free. It just releases the trap.
Rabbit snares are tied on with wool, and this is your "breakaway", should you snare a badger. However, you'll miss rabbits if you set the snare much wider than your fist, thus discouraging badgers anyway.
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I have been lookin ginto the drop boxes & think we will try one of them - manufacture in progress.
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I go out with whippet and lamp.
Yes, but what about the rabbits? :)
as a suggestion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/rabbit (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/rabbit)