(PICS. !!)A Little Warm Up!!(JLM BUNNYHUNT STYLE)

[Shawn Leonard]

Today a few of us got together to do a little warm up bunny hunt, before our big Joan Leonard Memorial Bunny Hunt. There was 7 of us total, Curt,Jamie,Damon,Jamie(Gaffey-27),Izzy and myself. What a great time we had!! Curt arrived early so we went for a little walk, within 2 minutes we both had missed a bunny and in the next 15 minutes we were joined by Terry. He got in on the action right away and had some shooting. We headed back to the house to await the arrival of everyone else. Wait until ya here the rest of this. I am sure everyone will be on with a story or ten. stay tuned for pics. too!! OOHHH YEAHHHHHH!!! Shawn

[ishiwannabe]

Gotta eat, remove some thorns, take some advil and help get the baby clean and in bed, then I will DL and post the pics....

Lots of bloody snow today!!(Some of it was even from bunnies!)

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

[Izzy]

Im dethorned and I didnt leave what God gave me snagged on a rosebush bush somewhere but I did have to check!It was good to get out there with you guys again as one weekend always leaves me jonesing for more.What a good time.I think I took 7 shots and 2 hits.Lost 2 arras and had a ton of fun.Shawn is funny, he kept appologizing about us not seeing a lot of bunnies.Are you kidding me?We saw about 40 and brought 5 to bag.Terry was a shooting machine with 2, Shawn 1 Damon as usual puts one down and Guru bagged him one.All this happened in 2 hours so the hunting was incredible.It was a good warm up and again THANK YOU Shawn!OHHHH YEAAAH!

[ishiwannabe]

Setting up a push...
 


Five minutes out of the truck...
 

Curt in some nice stuff...
 

An amazing follow up. Good hit, and the bunny still went a long ways.
 

Another hero shot...
 


A great hunt all in all. I lost three carbons...not the "expendable" woodies I just made. Six shots, know I hit one, think I hit another.
First time I ever had to go hand to hand with a bunny...but we will let Terry tell that one.
Thanks Shawn for opening your home and your stomping grounds to us for this. I know I needed it. It was great seeing everyone again, especially knowing its just a few weeks until we can do it again.

[IndianaBowman]

What a great time! Shawn, thanks a million for hosting. Ok, let me start with a lessons learned list.
*Shawn gets around amazingly well for being just out of a pretty dramatic surgery. I'll let him give you the details, but I was busting my butt out there and Shawn came through with his intact!
*Get out and get some exercise before you come. I know it is only rabbit hunting, but 3 hours of hunting liked to kill my old fat bones.
*Ishi can get really low to  push out rabbits. He had to belly crawl through a thorn thicket just to get out of a place AND he pushed out a rabbit!
*Young thin legs can clear a creek jump much better than old fat ones.
*5 degree temperature can be downright hot.
*New York rabbits would kick the crap out of IN or TX bunnies.
* You can shoot all the way through a rabbit without even slowing it down.
*Bring good brush gear. My denim overalls were in shreds.
*If you aren't bleeding you didn't "jump" the right areas. Guru had a nice blood trail down his face as did Shawn and about everyone else.
*"Jumping brush" is a new term to me that means you wade into a thicket of briars and sticks and fling yourself up and down into them.
*Jamie does a really nice Superman dive.
*These TradGang guys are amazing. A better bunch you will not find.
*If you flip over on your back and do a full backflip the rabbit in your pouch will fall out.
*Bring cheap arrows.
*Guru really is as good of a shot as everyone says. He threaded an arrow through a spot that I could not even see daylight through. Nailed the rabbit through and through.
*Shawn can shoot about 9 arrows faster than anyone I've ever seen.

Thanks again everyone. It was a pleasure spending an afternoon with you!

[mcgroundstalker]

[Shawn Leonard]

Yup, 5 minutes out of the truck and Damon says to me as he is walking by a pile to set up watchers,"kick that I am sure there is a bunny in there". He keeps going to set up Izzy and Jamie(Gaffey). Terry is right at my side as I step into it and out starts the bunny, well Terry nails him and as he is coming out the other side with the arrow in him Curt shoots, later we find Curt hit him too. The fun than begins with a couple more shots and a great head long dive in some nasty stuff by Ishi(jamie 1)but he did not quite snag the bunny. We surround it and damon gets another hit on it and than to Jamie, who shoots misses, throws his bow and dives again this time catching the bunny. I wish we had video it was awesome. We than started the push and I had 4 rabbits cross in front of me and Jamie pushed two more. 7-8 rabbits and the hunt was 10 minutes old. More to come, I know we shot 51 times and had 5 dead bunnies and at least several more hit, that managed to get away. What a great time! More to come!! OOOHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Shawn

[ishiwannabe]

It wasnt so much a superman dive as stopping after I hit the multiflora rose bush at full speed ahead...  :rolleyes:

[IndianaBowman]

Jamie, I was duly impressed whatever the reason!

[larry]

great post Terry, I just love hearing the revelation that newcomers get!!

now you boys have got me pumped!!

[ishiwannabe]

Thanks Terry, I jsut didnt want him getting away...again.   :D

[Guru]

Terry, Loved your list bud...too funny        

Terry sure didn't waste any time, he had two rabbits killed before we'd gone 100yds!!

Jamie's flat out run after Terry's first rabbit was just hilarious....his involuntary swan dive as he tripped going full bore in a foot of snow still has me laughing when I think of it        

Terry's first bunny and his retriever Jamie.....

   


Never did get a pic of Terry's second bunny.


Shawn was next to make good on a shot with his RER "bunny Bow".....

   


Then I got the shot I'd been waiting for...a bunny sittin' under a rose bush...I actully took my time on this shot and made it count. But these rabbits a no joke!! He took off, hit a barbed wire fence, bounced off it several times and finally shook the arrow and was off again before I could get to him!  A good blood/and pieces of intestine trail led us to a blowdown,we searched for him for a while as thinking he had to be in it somewhere...just when we were about to give up, Izzy found a speck of blood out the other side,and within a few second Terry yelled that he had a hit bunny in front of him.....I was grateful he'd found it and recovered it for me.Then Damon got one with the JLMBH traveler bow, how cool is that!!

   


 My bunny took a hex blunt right behind the front shoulders and made it over 100yds!!! You can see in the pic where the arrow hit him.....

   

You really have to hit a rabbit thru both front shoulders or forward to stop them quick!!

be back later......

[drewsbow]

           

[ishiwannabe]

Not even a beagle...a retriever...  :rolleyes:        

[Gaff]

awesome stuff guys!! had a great time seein ya all again. i had 3 shots, all close misses, and by close i mean all less than 5 yards!!    

chris.... er.. jamie.....er... whatever i answer to anything!!! lol  :confused:  

hey shaun, from now on call me gaff thats what all my buddies call me. at least to my face anyway..
 

[Shawn Leonard]

I am terrible with names. Curt has it right. I was walking Izzy and Gaff to set them up to be watchers when the cover got really good. I placed them and started in, when a bunny caught my eye. It was about 10 yards under wildrose bush.] I took the shot and pinned his hind legs together, and than went diving in the bush. I grabbed the arrow as he was trying to get away and hauled him in, not bad, 400 yards and 3 dead bunnies. Damon, bought the JLMBH traveling bow which he won at the raffle last year and managed to kill his bunny with that. As Curt said that was awesome!! OOOHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHH!!! Shawn

[ishiwannabe]

Yeah Damon is turning into a bunny killing machine. I have five or six pics on photobucket of him and bunnies....lol.

Great time. Im still smiling.

[SKYLER W]

Great shootin guys! Wish I could of been there...  

[Jerry Wald]

Boy bonding sooooomuch funnnnnnnnnnn

Great hunt and sounds like you had a blast

Jer Bear

[Shawn Leonard]

Curts shot thru the thickest stuff ya ever saw towards the end of the hunt was awesome. I still do not know how the arrow got thru. That rabbit was last seen with 10"s of Curts arrow in him running dead away at 100 yards, we never found him. I did apologise because where I saw all the bunnies last night we only saw 2 but 100 yards away we saw 30 so that made up for it! Sorry Izzy!! OOOHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Shawn