My friend lives on a small island, 12 square kilometer, but there are about 10,000-14,000 rabbits. So when he asked me if I had any plans the first weekend in September, the answer was easy. I was ready. Or ‘we’ were ready as I asked if I could bring a friend. The answer was yes so I called my other friend and asked him about his plans for that weekend, he had the same answer as me.
Friday morning, I left home around 4, went to my friend’s and then drove 3 hours to the ferry followed by 1 hour sailing to the magic island. We were only driving 100 meters from the ferry when we saw the first number of rabbits. They were everywhere. On every field, every where we looked we saw rabbits sitting in the sun.
We met with my friend, got out our bows and were ready for some rabbit hunting. A field with a few cows, just behind the house, was the first place to hunt. Only a few steps into the field and the first rabbit was sitting only 20 meter from me. I drew and with the green dot on the sight pin on the rabbit I let the arrow go. Hit, but not a good hit and the rabbit ran into the bushes and down the hole. Bad start. Soon after my bad shot my friend made a perfect shot, and the first rabbit was delivered. After a while I put an arrow into a rabbit and this time I hit in the head. I had my first rabbit too.
We took some early dinner, then spilt up and out to find some more rabbits. I hunted on a big field, again with cows. Cows mean short grass and some high thistles and it made it easier to crawl closer to the rabbits. I made some nice shots and, of course a few misses but it was a very exciting hunt. I had my new Drift Ghost action cam, on my cap, and I got some great videos, when I remembered to turn it on before the shot. When we all met back at the house we compared notes and then we had some rabbits to take care of before bedtime.
Next morning we were up early and ready to get out again after more rabbits. The weather was nice but maybe too much wind that made it difficult to hold a steady aim. We enjoyed a nice morning hunt, stopped before lunch and then drove around the island before going back out for some more hunting. We saw a lot of roe deer and I was filming a really big roe buck only 5 meter from me, stalking in ninja style. I got very close to the buck before I found out my moving the bush I was filming behind was a bad thing. The buck saw the movement and the last thing I filmed was the back end as he ran out of sight.
It’s hard to hunt in this area without damaging the arrows and one rabbit was sitting in front of a big stone, and I knew before I took the shot, that the arrow probably, would hit the stone. But I was hunting rabbits so knew the consequences and a split second after I hit the rabbit, perfect, I heard the sound of the arrow hitting the stone. I have it all on video complete with the sound of the arrow hitting and breaking on the stone. It was the only one I destroyed and, I got the rabbit.
Sunday morning we had a few hours to hunt before the ferry left and when the sun went up, we were ready. Another great morning, sun and less wind, but still a lot of rabbits all over. I saw a rabbit and measured the distance with my binocular, with built-in rangefinder, and the red numbers, showed me 60 meter. I got down on my hands and knees and slowly crawled closer. The rabbit didn’t know anything and when the distance was 30 meter, I drew my bow and took the shot. A perfect head shot and again all on video. We only got a few rabbits before it was time to go to the ferry. It was a great weekend and as we put the bows in the car it was two happy bowhunters who drove onto the ferry for the trip back home.
On the trip home we talked about the hunting, the good and bad shots and the fun we had. All together we had a great weekend, with bowhunting, nice friends and a lot of rabbits.
