Hunting (part 8)

So we have half filled the pot with cold water and put on the range, now on a high heat bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Remember, rabbit doesn't have much fat on it and all the muscles are worked hard so apart from the back (saddle) the meat is quite tough so this will need to simmer for around 2 hours or when the meat falls off the bone. When the rabbit is cooked, put to one side and leave to cool in the stock, that's cool not cold and then separate the meat from the bones. Discard the bones and put the meat in a sealed bag in the refrigerator. Make about 1 litre of chicken stock, i like to make my own but you can get some pretty good stocks and stock cubes from the supermarket these days. Dice 2 onions, i like the red variety, that is one per rabbit and cook in about 50g of butter until they are translucent. Then add plain flour to form a thick paste (roux),and cook the paste gently for 5 minutes. Slowly add the chicken stock so the thick paste (roux) forms a sauce, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Take the meat from the fridge, it should look like this and cut 2 heads of broccoli into florets, (you can add some fried mushrooms if you like). Mix the rabbit meat, broccoli florets (mushrooms optional) and slowly pour the sauce over so there is enough to coat all the mixture and check the seasoning ones more.

Pour half the pie mixture into a suitable pie dish or in my case i like to use earthenware pots, like the one above and put in the refrigerator to set.

In another dish pour the rest of the mixture and put in the fridge to set. Like the one above, this one i made some creamed potato for the people who aren't keen on pastry and you can either spread the potato on top and mark it with a fork like the one i have done on the next page or you can put the potato in a piping bag and pipe it, which ever way they both look good. !

Here i have made some short pastry for the pie in the pot, i used 100g of butter, 200g of plain flour, salt and water to bind it and rest it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. So roll it out to an even thickness and cut round it and just place the sphere of pastry on the top. You can see the finished product of both the pies on my next page.

Hunting (part 8)

Well this is the finished products. Cook in the oven for around 45 minutes to 1 hour on 18O0C, gas mark 4 until the potato is just going golden brown. The first one is the one we talked about with the creamed potato. As we didn't add mushrooms, i like to serve this depending on the time of year, some sauteed wild mushrooms (what ever i can pick), roasted baby carrots and parsnips roasted in butter and honey. This really does make a good feed, Try it.!!

This is the second one, the pie in the pot. Cook this one for about the same time but brush the pastry with a little milk and sprinkle with some salt flakes, this will help the pastry go a nice crisp golden brown. This pie i like to serve with some nice creamy mashed potato, cabbage and bacon and buttered leeks and again makes a good feed. Well i hope you try these recipes out and hope you like them, there is nothing worse than letting good game go to waste and rabbit is so under rated, it contains less fat than chicken and cooked correctly tastes great.
Get cooking. !!

Hunting (part 10)

Well after a couple of quiet months the time has come to take a look around the fields and see were all the life has moved to. The above picture was taken from the opposite side of the valley from the farm were i often shoot on my way to Botallack. Normally these fields would be alive at this time of the day but as the weather is changing the bunnies are coming out later.

Down in the bottom of the valley were the sewerage works sits in a few of the fields i had permission on and has been taken over by South West Water i think but don't quote me on that was at one time a great hot spot but doesn't house as many rabbits as i would like, still a great time of the year to charge your lamp up and start the night shooting, a personal favourite of mine.

The picture above is the bag after a good night out at the airport, St Just, Lands End. I love the airport, its silent, not much passing traffic and you ain't gonna bump into any one there, well if you do, be worried. Its a massive open field in the middle of nowhere with the cliffs at one end and a road to Lands End point at the other, a great place to shoot, but you don't want to run out of charge on the lamp.

A couple of hours out with the S410 around 9.30pm in the valley at St Just gave me these nice sized bunnies for the bag. I don't like to shoot too late down there as the fields are full of cattle most of the time but there are a few fields that are empty but they are hidden away and there location is, well, that's between me and the fields.

My perfect lamping rig. I think so anyway. The lamp is by Clulite, the torch is rechargeable by Bosch, Scope is a Bushnell Banner, dusk and dawn, Harris bipod, Yukon monocular night vision 4 X 50 and the rifle is a Weirauch HW100 carbine 22. What more could you want !!!!!

Hunting (Part 9)

Well after not a very good month or two, i managed to get out to my favourite shoot, good old St Just, i took both the rifles with me, my Air Arms S410k and the Weihrauch HW100k After getting an hour or so shooting i had 4 nice sized rabbits. The picture of them was taken at the bottom of the valley just before i headed off back home.

The picture bellow is the field i took them from. It is quite away down from were i was laying so it is imperative to make sure your scope is spot on and shoot high. I love this field it tests your patience.

This is a massive granite pile were i climb and hide in the gauze just to the left and pick them off around the 35 yard mark. I generally spot this field from the farm so i know if it is worth the climb. To give you an idea of the distance this picture was taken from, i was stood 1 field back from were the cow is and then you have 2 fields, a stream, a road and then the granite pile.

The last picture on this page is some of the equipment i always have at hand as my St Just shoot is massive. We have my spotting scope, i don't normally use the tripod, only when I'm zeroing in. Then we have got a set of bins (binoculars), a gen 1 monocular (for lamping only), then my trusty rangefinder, this bit of kit is great, tells you exactly how far away you are, then a pair of walky talkies. I always take one and my wife has the other for emergencies, a must.

Hunting (part 5)

This is my step by step recipe for shooting the rabbit, preparing the rabbit, and serving the rabbit. I always prepare the rabbits when i return from my shoot as i find when the bunnies are still a little warm it does make the process easier. First i have removed the feet and the tail ready for the skin to come off. I start at the tail by using your fingers, prise the skin away until you have completely exposed the back legs.

The rabbit should look like the one above. There is a piece of sinew between the back legs, the reproductive organs, this has to be cut through with a sharp knife to prevent tearing the stomach. Then hold the rabbit by the neck and slowly pull the skin towards the head.

When all the skin has been removed from the body, as above, with a sharp knife cut through the neck and spinal column and discard in a sealed bag.

Make a cut in the middle of the stomach, cutting towards the front legs to expose the innards. With your hand, ease the innards out taking care not to burst the stomach (the smell isn't pleasant, make sure there is plenty ventilation). When all the innards have been removed (paunch) wash the carcase out in cold water thoroughly.I like to do this in the field, the Willey old fox will clear up your mess.

When the carcase has been washed out, put you hand into the cavity towards the front legs and pull out the membrane to expose the heart and lungs and remove them. From the rest of the innards, you can keep back the liver and kidneys, (offal). The offal should look like the picture above, from the left we have, Heart and Lungs, Liver, Kidneys, they need to be washed very well. If the liver has white blotches, this is the sign of an unhealthy rabbit, i would dispose of it. This recipe doesn't require the offal, but it can be used. When i supply my local butcher with rabbits, i skin them paunch them and put back in the stomach cavity the offal so the customer knows they are organic. Remember always dispose of the waste correctly.

Hunting (part 4)

Well i haven't had much time on my hands to report any hunting news or pictures with the weather being so bad, work and the first addition to my clan, but i am pleased to say i have been wandering the southwest country side with rifle in one hand and camera in the other. I have been in Somerset for a while but that was work and no time for play and been to no end of places doing some small contract work but I'm back and have been making a few adjustments to my guns. Both are now fitted with Bushnell Banner scopes, Harris Bipods and what a difference. I picked up a Bushnell Range Finder and have been making some spot on long range head shots and with the bipod, i have never rated them but i have found them great in the fields were i shoot. I have noticed the rabbit population is a little low on previous years but i put this down to the weather so I'm having to go a little further a field. I have been making a few trips to the village a couple of miles away from St Just my usual were i have permission, a place called Botallack which is accessible through fields so i can normally pick up a few bunnies on the way.

These two bunnies were taken with the HW100 from one of the fields on the walk to Botallack off the bipod. I marked them at 38 and 42 yards on the range finder and perfectly placed in the back of the head, or and the Collard Dove was sat on a telephone cable running across the field, another one for the freezer. If you read part 5, 6 and 7 (Rabbit and Broccoli Pie) i have used these two rabbits in one of my own recipe for a rabbit pie. I have done the recipe from preparing the rabbit to making the pie and serving it. I will do another dish at a later date, a little more complex, a dish i do at a highly awarded hotel i work.

This is a bag i took a good few weeks ago. Just past a caravan which is occupied by a friends sister there is a large pile of slate, which over looks a small field tooked out of the way. There is always a good amount of life there. I lay on the top, bipod ready and took up residence there for the next 45 minutes. I was marking the bunnies with the Range finder at 32 yards, taking into consideration i was shooting down so i was to aim a little high. The first one popped its head up disturbed by a local Magpie, i switched to mark the Magpie knowing it was going to cause me some trouble, perfect 35 yards, i knocked off the safety and with the HW100 whacked it straight in the chest and we have silence again. The thud of the Magpie hitting the deck spooked rabbit No 1 so i did a quick recce of the field and picked up a few in the hedge row. I waited for them to venture out and marked another one, a single neck shot bowled it over. Within 10 minutes another one was out and another neck shot at 30 yards. The waiting game got the better of me and had to move on.

I took the third rabbit from this hide (over grown corrugated tin hut), it is perfect but it is a shame there isn't much going on in this field now, but just behind the hide are a group of trees which hold a lot of Woodies and the odd Squirrel, Woodcock and members of the Corvid family. So like i said, the next few pages are dedicated to cooking and eating your game. Check em out and try it.
Keep Hunting !!!

Hunting (part 6)

This is were you take the Heart and Lungs from which is towards the front legs. So wash the rabbit and in the cavity between the rear legs with your little finger, push through the tube and reproductive organs and discard and wash out.

The rabbit should look like this (the one above) and is now ready to prepare (joint) and poach.

So this is the rabbit jointed. The back legs cut through, the front legs removed and the saddle (back) trimmed of fat and sinew.

I always keep the roasted carcase of a chicken for flavour and put it in the bottom of a heavy pan and place the jointed rabbit on top.

Roughly chop an onion, two carrots, 1 bulb of garlic (with skin) and 5 bay leaves and put on the top of the rabbit and fill half full with cold water.

Hunting (part 3)

The fields on my St Just shoot are looking empty, but as i said in another part of my blog, there are a lot of milky doe's (don't be tempted to shoot them) and as you see in this photograph, it is littered with pigeons. I walked up this field and as suspected, racing pigeons. You don't want to be shooting these birds, they are someones pets and lets face it i wouldn't like it if someone killed my pet, would you. Be very observant when shooting pigeons, look at there legs. If there have rings on them or you can get very close to them, leave them.

By this stream in the summer it is over grown by Japanese Knot Weed, a real pain but this time of the year its died off and in a few months will be over run with rabbits and if you own a shotgun or a 410, you will find the odd Snipe or three.

This small cops makes a great place in the summer months for woodies and Snipe. There is something quite enchanting about the silence of woods in the winter. Behind the tin hut is a great place for a natural hide and coming towards the end of the summer if you have the equipment, it is a good place to go lamping in the field just behind but there are a few badgers i have to share it with.

In the height of the summer, this is my favourite natural hide. It is situated at the other end of the cops in the picture above and leads right over a few field were we have a new strain of rabbit. We already have a strain of black bunnies which stick to another field just a mile away, but just to the left of this hide i spotted a white rabbit no more than 10 yards away.

A cheeky Squirrel, the first one i have ever seen on my St Just shoot sits looking directly at me. With my rifle over my shoulder and camera in my hand i thought a photograph rather than shooting it. Hopefully i will see more in the next couple of years, we will see.

This field in the summer is full of bunnies but a lone rabbit sits with clumps of fur missing. It is Normal for the doe's to pull clumps of fur out at this time of the year to line her nest for the first batch of young.

Always the same. Not many rabbits but at the top of the field a fox sits and waits, you can almost guarantee there will be another close by. I have noticed in the last two years on my St Just shoot especially, the fox population has risen by 70%. I have done a few dawn shoots and have spotted more fox than rabbits which is a bit of a pain for me.

Hunting (part 2)

The weather has been good down here in Cornwall at the end of February and beginning of March, so i have been checking my shooting grounds for milky doe's and spent allot of time getting permission to shoot on new grounds. With some luck on my side and talking to the right people has paid off. It looks like i will have a good summer.

As the weather has been on my side, its time to check over my rifle's and get them zeroed in, again at 35 yards. I don't like to take any chances of missing the all important head shot for a clean kill, plus stalking a rabbit so it is in your range and you are comfortable with the distance plays a big part in the kill.

When i am zeroing i always find a quiet field away from the public, a thick piece of wood against a stone wall and a target and your almost ready. Make yourself a tripod to rest on. I use three pieces of cane bound together about 6 inch from the top and cut the bottoms off to suit your height. "Simple"

I was browsing the field behind were i was shooting to make sure there was no cattle in there.
don't upset the farmer, he can take the permission away to shoot on his land allot easier than it is for you to acquire it.

I like to shoot in groups of 3 sometimes 5 so make sure you have enough targets with you, and enough pellets. When you fill your gun with your air tank, don't make the mistake of an over fill.
If you do over fill, this wont make it more powerful or make it so you can take more shots, it can damage your rifle and it will without a doubt make it less powerful and the time you have spent zeroing will have been a waste of time and journey.

A slight adjustment on the scope turrets and its time to shoot another group. I like to have two targets on my bored. You can get quite comfortable sat there.

If you can have someone spotting for you it can make life easier. Ever time you shoot a group, if you have to walk 35 yards to your target and 35 yards back you will find yourself a little out of breath and with your heart beating it can make your next group off target. If you do find yourself spotting for yourself and doing allot of walking, make a point of sitting for a minute or two to get your breath back

All done and dusted, that's the Air Arms S410 carbine zeroed in ready for the summer. It will be checked again on probably another couple of times before i go out on my first hunting trip.