I’m losing rabbits when I’ve lifted the purse net!

How do you manage, or is it something you just have to accept as part of the game?

Rabbiting
Edward Cook
Look on the bright side here, at least you’re getting them to bolt well!

While I don’t use purse nets as much as I used to (I now tend to rely on long nets and lurchers) there are several ways you can avoid the problem of lost rabbits.

First – and most obvious – is to always carry a spare net in your pocket; as soon as it bolts, hold the netted rabbit and set a net very quickly with the other hand.

Another way is to use bolting cages rather than purse nets. Bolting cages are simply long round tunnels made from wire mesh which trap rabbits via a one way ‘cat flap type door’ system.

They’re useful bits of kit even if you only get one rabbit at a time but they really come into their own when two or three bunnies follow each other out of the same hole in quick succession.

A third method is to set long nets around the burrows being ferreted and as extra back up, have a lurcher on hand too!

If a rabbit gets passed all that then it deserves to live another day.