What about a nail gun?

[GBov]

As my wringer use is still giving me broken backs as well as necks and lots of bleeding and bruising I am trying to come up with a better way.

And, after looking at that zinger thing I thought, why not a nail gun?

They are quite dangerously powerful and rabbit skulls are not that thick or hard.

Would it work, do you think?

 

[MaggieJ]

Once upon a time I asked about this on another forum. I was roundly abused for even considering it. (Hey, I was just asking. :? ) What I suggest is that next time you dispatch a rabbit, you try it on the dead rabbit and see if that helps you to decide if it would be a humane and effective method. If you do this, please report back and let us know how it went.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I would be concerned that the diameter of the nail would be too small to cause enough trauma for an immediate death.

A paramedic I know was called to a home because a guy with his face covered in blood knocked on the door late one night. The paramedic thought he had a broken nose, so applied pressure with a gauze pad to his face, whereupon blood started squirting from the back of his skull. :x

It turns out that he had been involved in a drug deal gone bad and was shot execution style with a 9mm pistol and left for dead. When he came to, he walked 5 miles before arriving at the house for help. The bullet had passed between the lobes of his brain and exited through his face. Amazingly, he survived.

 

[katiebear]

No offense to the zinger folks..but you can get a less expensive bolt gun..My Ballistic cost 60 bucks before shipping and it is a really nice way to dispatch..
I would think a nail gun would be to powerful..and the noise of the air compressor would be to much for the bun..you want them calm...

 

[Miss M]

I think you might not be able to get a nail gun to actually do this, unless you have an old one. They are made now, if I'm not mistaken, so they will not fire into a soft surface. I'm not sure you could convince the nail gun that the rabbit's head is hard enough. If you're going to try it, I'd try it on a dead rabbit first, like Maggie suggested.

I have wondered, too, about things such as what MSD posted. We currently dispatch with a pellet gun to the back of the head, below the skull, aimed toward the nose. I wonder if we've ever bisected the brain like that. Maybe that's been responsible for some of the times we've had to take a second shot.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I have wondered, too, about things such as what MSD posted. We currently dispatch with a pellet gun to the back of the head, below the skull, aimed toward the nose. I wonder if we've ever bisected the brain like that.

Hmm... now that makes me rethink this issue.

The lead pellets are about the same diameter as the nails you use when framing a house- so the question is, do the lead pellets flatten out and cause more trauma, or do they pass through retaining their original shape?

 

[Zass]

The lead pellets are about the same diameter as the nails you use when framing a house- so the question is, do the lead pellets flatten out and cause more trauma, or do they pass through retaining their original shape?

The copper coated bb lodged in my jaw has retained it's original shape, according to my dental x-rays....

The lead shot I sometimes pull out of my husband's squirrel and small game animals seem to retain there shapes pretty well.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I think you might not be able to get a nail gun to actually do this, unless you have an old one. They are made now, if I'm not mistaken, so they will not fire into a soft surface.

I *think* the old ones would shoot nails if you pulled the trigger even if the tool was not pressed against a surface. Now they have a little "guard" that has to be depressed before they will shoot. Of course, you can just pull that guard back with your fingers to bypass the safety feature anyway, but it does prevent accidental discharges.

 

[GBov]

I tried my big stapler on a dead rabbit when I started wondering what else I could use.

It didn't work, not strong enough and the staples didn't penetrate.

Which is why I started wondering about an electric nail gun, no compressor noise to fluster bunnies and easier to use anywhere in the yard than a compressor powered gun.

I once drew up a design for a spring loaded bolt action dispatcher but my skills only went far enough to draw it rather than make it. :lol:

 

[MaggieJ]

GBov, I'm wondering why you are getting the broken backs using the wringer. Is it an actual Rabbit Wringer or a homemade version? Is it possible that the problem might be the height at which the wringer is mounted or perhaps the angle at which you are pulling? I've never used one but I've never heard of anyone else having this problem with a wringer.

 

[Celice]

The lead pellets are about the same diameter as the nails you use when framing a house- so the question is, do the lead pellets flatten out and cause more trauma, or do they pass through retaining their original shape?

The copper coated bb lodged in my jaw has retained it's original shape, according to my dental x-rays....

The lead shot I sometimes pull out of my husband's squirrel and small game animals seem to retain there shapes pretty well.

you know when ever I use mine and I fish the pellet out of the head it's always flattened at the tip. I use .22 cal lead hollow points and that maybe why they flat out when they hit. I always have a very dead rabbit after so I never really payed attention to it.

I think a powerful nail gun could work though I think it would have to be a long nail just to be safe, but I think the air compressor would scare the rabbit.

 

[Frankallen]

What's wrong with a stick behind the head? You are getting to technical, about killing a Rabbit?

 

[Miss M]

What's wrong with a stick behind the head? You are getting to technical, about killing a Rabbit?

I don't know about the OP, but I do not have good aim when swinging a tool. I could never trust myself to hit the right spot on a rabbit.

 

[Zass]

you know when ever I use mine and I fish the pellet out of the head it's always flattened at the tip. I use .22 cal lead hollow points and that maybe why they flat out when they hit. I always have a very dead rabbit after so I never really payed attention to it.

Yep,
hollow points are marketed specifically for that expanding trend:
http://www.crosman.com/177-hollow-point ... lets-500ct

I'm really glad it wasn't a hollow point that was fired into me.

 

[MaggieJ]

What's wrong with a stick behind the head? You are getting to technical, about killing a Rabbit?

I don't know about the OP, but I do not have good aim when swinging a tool. I could never trust myself to hit the right spot on a rabbit.

I'm with you on this, Miss M. There is nothing "wrong" with "bopping", Frankallen, but it is not the best method for everyone.

 

[akane]

I find it fully worth investigating pellet guns, bolt guns, nail guns, etc... as methods. When such methods work it is faster, simpler, more foolproof, quicker kill, requires minimal strength, and doesn't bruise the meat. There is no way I would have gotten my champagnes up into a rabbit wringer. I've had rabbits pop out from under the pole when doing broomsticking and did have it fail once so I had to line up and pull again. I never had my pellet gun fail. The only second bullet I put in was probably unnecessary. I don't even want to try bopping. Especially without seeing it in person. So much could go wrong. I may have to face it with my guinea pigs. Or build a co2 chamber. I tried breaking necks by hand on chickens and utterly failed repeatedly so I had to quickly come up with a solution.

 

[Miss M]

Exactly. Anything that provides a quick, never-knew-what-hit-them dispatch is good, as far as I'm concerned. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

For that matter, we tried one of the more common ways of dispatching a chicken on our first chicken. None of us really liked how that went (it went fine for the chicken). After that, Bunny-Wan Kenobi asked if he could just get his pellet gun and try that. He proceeded to dispatch the whole lot of chickens with his pellet gun.

I'm really glad it wasn't a hollow point that was fired into me.

:shock:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

What's wrong with a stick behind the head? You are getting to technical, about killing a Rabbit?

Nothing at all, Frankallen, if that is what works best for you.

One of the major things I think we all strive for when raising livestock is ensuring that the animals we dispatch have as quick and painless end to their lives as possible.

Since humans are fallible, we all botch kills at one time or another. I know that this causes me pain and guilt, and know that others like me feel the same way... so we are ever searching for the elusive and likely unattainable "perfect method".

I doubt we will ever find it- but we can at least experiment with various methods in the hope of finding the one that we personally are able to perform to get a clean kill the majority of the time. I think that is the most that any of us will ever be able to expect of ourselves, and we owe it to the animals in our care to find the method that works best for us.

 

[Schipperkesue]

Instead of trusting your aim and using a heavy metal bar to the back of the head, I use a horizontal fixed bar on my fence top and swing the rabbit. A swift decisive swing is fast and catches the rabbit on the back of the skull, causing both a blunt force trauma as well as a neck snap as the head whiplashes over the bar. You have to be fast and confident though. And you have to be able to handle the size of the rabbit...so not for everyone.

 

[katiebear]

I tried breaking necks by hand on chickens and utterly failed repeatedly so I had to quickly come up with a solution.

I found a great way to dispatch chickens...Take a traffic cone (the orange rubber ones) cut off the top , about three inches..hang it in a tree. upside down, put the chicken in head out of the hole, this lets the blood flow into the head and kind of trances them..slit the throat on both jugular veins, when bled out remove head and remove chicken.. This works great, no running or flopping no broken bones or bruised meat.