Scare a rabbit to death?

[Csspecs]

You can scare a rabbit to death. I've seen it happen to domestic rabbits before.

We had a lot of rabbits when I was a kid, anyway I was out back and whoever was feeding them dropped a feed dish onto one of the cages. One of the rabbits jumped and must have broke its neck by jerking that hard.

But I'd guess that its more likely that if you pulled the fur you would find a hole. As for it not exiting, there is a good chance that at closer range the round will expand more and penetrate less, I shot a large squirrel from sub 25 feet with a .22 and had the round expand to about .35-.40 and traveled at most 6 inches.

 

[hogdogs]

I have seen a domestic die "in" fright, I don't know if it was of fright or the possible broke neck... I used to get free pitbulls from a well known breeder of "game" dogs before it was an illegal sport nation wide... The ones I got were the ones who didn't make the "cut". One got loose from a yard chain when the screw link came unscrewed. He ran down the road with me right behind on my bicycle and into a neighbor yard and right up to a rabbit hutch. when I arrived some 10-15 seconds (maybe a few more) he was barking at one bay and the doe bunny was dead as a door nail. The owner was a VERY COOL cajun guy... He came out with a .22 rifle and said "Boy yer gonna shoot that dog and mow my grass and I will let this go..." Needless to say I returned home with the leash and collar in my pocket and grass clippings on my shoes...

I wonder if the bunny I shot at didn't leap up and break his neck landing on it... I really inspected hard for a wound. I have missed the last few squirrels with the exception of one (last one I tried) and it was a dirty shoot that required a bulldog to hunt it down for me wounded. I need to set down and adjust the scope but neighbors gripe with more than a few shots... My crosshairs were centered on the base of skull so a hit would have been a head shot (should be one inch low at 50 feet if zero on 60 yards I reckon since rings are tallish see thru), shoulders, or lateral in the back along spine. Any of these should have created visible damage... Not sayin' I did a perfect job lookin' and we will never know and "Deadly" the bulldog wouldn't know a bullet from a bone or even a rock the way she eats these things...
Brent

 

[Swampghost]

Barking squirrels. That's one that I hadn't heard of in a long time. Common back in the day also farther north.

The tree rats around here are only suitable for the landfill as they become dead. The neighbors behind me feed them, I bait them. I'd like to think that I'm wining but I've been at this for almost 10 yrs.

 

[hogdogs]

We called "limbing"... literally try to hit a 3-4 inch limb center and the running squirrel would fall... He would sit stunned a second or "dig for traction" trying to get underway... Bang flop dead tree rat... ruthless punks we were but we all ate gooooooddddd...
Brent

 

[troy_mclure]

the funniest shot i made on a rabbit was with a .22.

it jumped up and was running dead away, i pulled up and shot, and it went tumbling.

when i picked it up there was a exit hole in the top of the neck. then the smell hit me.

i had shot it strait thru the but, my buddy said "rectum, durn went and killed em"! lol

 

[LordofWar]

Maybe it went through the a** and broke it's heart

 

[Art Eatman]

LordofWar, a buddy of mine did exactly that to a coyote, with a .25-'06. But a rabbit doesn't lift his tail like a cat or dog. No little brown eye winking back at you.

 

[45Marlin carbine]

I did that once with my 4th of July & New Years noisemaker 4" steel pipe 'cannon' that shoots welding gas. it ran out of low bush after I fired on the 4th and collapsed right in front of us.

 

[Miller77]

Me and a buddy were shooting ground squirrels with our 20 gauges one time. he shot the thing and it jumped a couple feet in the air and died instantly. we were using bird shot and when we looked at the animal the only damage was a little hair missing from its arm: which was broken. It was weird. Maybe they dont have a very good pain tolerance

 

[johnwilliamson062]

Domestic rabbits can scare to death and they can also scare so that they will run in their cage until they die. At least I had an Aunt that raised rabbits for a while and she says both happened.
I vote for the you just didn't see the wound or or you bounced one off its head since it did the flip though.

 

[hogdogs]

What was funny was watchin' "Deadly"... she took it from me and put it down nosing it and rolling it around looking for the exit wound and lookin' up at me as if to ask "What now?". she would start to walk away and snatch it back up when I went to it... It took several "Git that rabbit, girl" commands and threats of "I'll give it to yer sister "Rookie" or "tater" over there if you don't want it..." Before she figured "Awe heck... may as well just start with the head..."
Brent

 

[butterboy]

I once shot this giant rat with a .22 cal riffle,at about 10 yards, he must have been sick or dieing cause he was just sitting there . but about 4 inches above his head was a huge window ,that if I had broke, would have ment a beating from my uncle .lol
Got him though , we all thought it was funny..

 

[comn-cents]

Ya ever hit a ground squirrel with a 170 grain hollow point at 25 yrds, out of a 30/30? Not sure if I did either!

 

[hogdogs]

comn-, It took a second to sink in but that was funny...
One day deer huntin' as a teen, a squirrel had barked and bothered me for a couple hours in late afternoon. I am confident he scared off the deer. So before I left I squeaked my lips and when he looked at me I sent a 12 gauge 1 ounce slug his direction mainly just to show him who was boss and dang if I didn't hit him square in the chest... I couldn't find the entry wound on him either....I did find a head, one front leg and a tail in about a 20-25 square foot spot...
Brent

 

[troy_mclure]

hogdogs, i saw that happen once. i was laughing my but off!

 

[Xwrench3]

it has been well over 30 years, but i had the same experience. only i was using a FAST beagle (she would bring the rabbit by 3 times, if we failed to shoot it in that amount of time, she would usually bring the rabbit back in her mouth!) and a shotgun. not only couldn't we find an entrance wound, but when we skinned it out, there were no holes anywhere in the pelt. our thinking was that the dog was running it fast, and when i shot, the little furball had a heart attack. boy, i miss that dog!

 

[Jseime]

I have never scared one to death but i sure have scared the daylights put of them... a .22 bullet hitting very close as they run can produce one heck of a jump.

The .270 is the only way to go for rabbit... you know when you hit one of those big ol prairie jackrabbits we have here cuz it smears em straight from hell to breakfast.