Bop and Bleed Rabbit Dispatch

I use a hatchet on our chickens. I don't care for the kill cones. I use the bop and bleed on the rabbits. I don't care for the cervical dislocation.

Something in this video resonated with me. As a kid, I bow and gun hunted deer. I noticed the bow hunted meat was superior. I did not quite understand why.

Do you notice a meat quality difference that can be traced back to kill method?

I wanted to give an update to this thread.

I am growing out our last bunch of meat rabbits. It gets too hot here to breed or grow out too late. I am a week or two away from processing weight with the grow outs.

We have processed 2 other rounds of grow outs so far.

I have tried the bop and bleed, broomstick method and the karate chop, which is a different and faster method of cervical dislocation.

Karate chop - Pick the rabbit up just in front of the rear legs with your hand wrapped around the back and fingers going under the belly. The rabbit lifts its body up somewhat and you end up with the rabbit at about a 45 degree angle. Knife hand strike behind the ears at the top of the neck and you have cervical dislocation. It is quick and I preferred it over the broomstick type cervical dislocation.

Broomstick method - This is the most popular one. Google will give a better description than I can. Suffice to say, it is also a method of cervical dislocation. I didn't care for this one. It is just a longer, drawn out, karate chop method.

Bop and bleed - I made a cedar club for this but you can use a stick or piece of rebar. I sit the rabbit on a table and calm them down while holding in front of the back legs. They are seated. When they relax, you hit the rabbit over the head between the eyes and ears. They are immediately unconscious and the brain swells. As the brain swells, the rabbit body convulses for 10 seconds ish. I hang them upside down by the back legs after that and cut the artery in the neck.

I noticed a much more thorough bleed out using the bop and bleed verses cervical dislocation. There are some nuances to the bop and bleed that come with time and experience. I can see how the rabbits head is shaped now, and also the head size, and that informs me on how hard to bop. They are not all the same so some need a harder strike where others do not.

I am guessing that the the bop and bleed keeps the heart in play pumping out all of the blood verse dislocation where it seemed to be a gravity type draining once you hang them upside down and cut the artery in the neck.

Now I am interested in trying to bleed a chicken out verses using the hatchet like I currently do. It may be more thorough as well.

Has anyone tested both both methods with chickens (hatchet verses kill cone)? What did you think?