Quote Originally Posted by SSChameleon View Post
Not to hijack your thread, but I was thinking... I've hunted rabbit with a 22 and a shotgun. Has anyone tried those 9mm shotshells? It wouldn't be the most 'cost effective' way to take a rabbit, but the idea of shooting at one running full speed with a handgun makes me want to try it.

One of the places that I go fishing a lot has a rattlesnake problem of biblical proportions, so I have done a ton of testing of pistol caliber shotshells. A 9mm shotshell with #9 shot fired out of a 5" bbl at an empty coke can has trouble denting the coke can across my gun shop. Honestly, your not going to do any real damage to a cottontail with a 9mm shotshell over about 6' away, and if you did, it wouldn't kill him. I have taken two with 44mag shotshells, both within 20 feet, and I probably wouldn't do that again. I may consider it if #6 44mag shotshells were avail...

I have taken a fair number with a 22 revolver on the run at close range. Not easy but not impossible: 1. Be very, very sure of your target and whats around it. 2. Know what arc you can safely shoot in given surrounding structures, and be very sure Bugs is in that arc. 3. Make sure your buddy, kid, etc. is not in that arc 3. Aim at the nose 4. Front site, front site, front site. 5. Don't get excited and blow your trigger control.


Rabbitstew, in my not so limited experience, the further you get away from Denver the better your luck knocking on farmers doors will be. Also, if you can get off of the I-70 or I-76 corridors, your luck will increase even more. Just for example, Ft. Morgan farmers get the crap beat out of them by hunters. I have gotten a lot of refusals around there. By the time you get 45min south of the highway, almost no one will say no to birds and small game (big game is another story).