We don't have rabbits, but for the past couple of decades we have had squirrel problems. They would bark at us in the hot tub (with that awful grating sound they make) and throw pine cones down at us from the conifers (those dang cones hurt when they fall that far). We put up with all that for the longest time, but one day about 5 years ago I purchased a small BB pistol (the kind you can see the BB come out the barrel), thinking that we'd deter them from staying so close. I shot one that was barking (literally only 10 feet away), and he just ran up the tree and kept barking. The next day we discovered that he'd torn up the seat cushions on our deck furniture.
That was the last straw - off to Cabela's to purchase a sniper pellet rifle. Several years, and a couple of hundred dead squirrels later, this year so far, our back yard is completely free of the pests. If you go the pellet gun route, I'd recommend paying a little extra for the hunting pellets - the accuracy is astounding.
Funny side story - some time ago we had the tree guys come out to cut down 4 extremely large conifers - that morning I'd shot a squirrel and forgot that it was at the base of a tree (I'd not had the chance to remove it) - the tree guy simply remarked "I sure am glad that I'm not a squirrel!". Evidently I'm not the only squirrel hater in these neck of the woods.
