Rats

[870P]

What?
- You are turning down a perfectly reasonable reason to buy a new airgun and develop a new hobby!?!?!?

Might just has well build yourself a rat-bucket-trap... and move on to something else.

A sub 500 fps airgun is fine for situations where you want to minimize downrange hazard, if downrange hazard isn't really a thing then I'd prefer a .22LR to a full power airgun.

Bucket traps aren't too effective around here, as I believe most of the neighbors use them and the rats have learned to avoid them, along with sticky traps and spring traps unless they're well situated.

Current kill count is 103 with the rifle, maybe another 30 with traps, since May.

 

[KDX]

Do you think anyone would notice if you were shooting a pellet gun in .22cal over 500fps and under say 900fps? Perhaps it's time to get a better air rifle.

 

[870P]

Do you think anyone would notice if you were shooting a pellet gun in .22cal over 500fps and under say 900fps? Perhaps it's time to get a better air rifle.

I think so, especially with undercover police stakeouts apparently being a regular thing in the area.

 

[KDX]

I think so, especially with undercover police stakeouts apparently being a regular thing in the area.

You are SOL then.

 

[stampede]

A sub 500 fps airgun is fine for situations where you want to minimize downrange hazard, if downrange hazard isn't really a thing then I'd prefer a .22LR to a full power airgun.

Bucket traps aren't too effective around here, as I believe most of the neighbors use them and the rats have learned to avoid them, along with sticky traps and spring traps unless they're well situated.

Current kill count is 103 with the rifle, maybe another 30 with traps, since May.

You are getting too good your pellet rifle..

You should switch to a sling shot to make it more sporting.

 

[FreedomIsn'tFree]

Living in Alberta we don't have to deal with rats here, unless we count the Federal liberal government rats and then we'll have to use more then a pellet gun I would guess.

 

[870P]

I finally got some better pellets, Crosman Destroyers.

So far I've only shot 3 rats with them but they seem to be noticeably more effective than the pointed pellets I'd been using, with 2 rats DRT from center mass body shots, and one that had an extremely dramatic reaction when hit although it managed to run away.

Not bad considering I only saw 5 DRTs in the solid 110 hits I made with the pointeds.

 

[kodiakjack]

I finally got some better pellets, Crosman Destroyers.

So far I've only shot 3 rats with them but they seem to be noticeably more effective than the pointed pellets I'd been using, with 2 rats DRT from center mass body shots, and one that had an extremely dramatic reaction when hit although it managed to run away.

Not bad considering I only saw 5 DRTs in the solid 110 hits I made with the pointeds.

Nice. Yeah I think they’re great pellets. I’d like to see them scaled up to shotgun slugs.

 

[sillymike]

That would be interesting!

 

[870P]

To my surprise I even find that the Destroyers out penetrate the pointed pellets on my wooden target backstops, except at long range.

What's more is that they are a lot less prone to deflecting if they hit at a low angle, this might be important on live targets as I suspect that the pointed pellets are deflecting off rat's highly sloped skulls at least some of the time when they're shot from the front.

The only problem is that they are noticeably less accurate, although it could just be the gun I'm using.

For the mostly close range shots I'm making its probably not a huge deal however.

 

[kodiakjack]

To my surprise I even find that the Destroyers out penetrate the pointed pellets on my wooden target backstops, except at long range.

What's more is that they are a lot less prone to deflecting if they hit at a low angle, this might be important on live targets as I suspect that the pointed pellets are deflecting off rat's highly sloped skulls at least some of the time when they're shot from the front.

The only problem is that they are noticeably less accurate, although it could just be the gun I'm using.

For the mostly close range shots I'm making its probably not a huge deal however.

Oddly enough, for me, they were the most accurate out of my gun.

 

[marshall]

Yrs ago I blasted scads of gophers with some old Slavic 177 brake open ,if you hit them they where toast.
I think a bit more gun?

 

[Evanguy]

I was doing the same thing but with a 22LR. Did a great job, but the little buggers are smart: I'd get 2 or 3, and they would hide for a couple of days before coming back into the open. Then I started using the 20ga. Wait until they are grouped together and get 3 at the same time.

Haha as i was reading i started wondering if this was my post then the 20 threw me off. I did the exact same thing but moved to my 12 after the 22 could only hit 1 or 2 of the 4 or 5 trying to fit out of the same time. The 12 with no8 11/8 loads does em all in.

Makes a mess though.

 

[trevj]

Basic round nose pellets or flats.

Pointed at low velocities just penetrate well. At high velocities they penetrate even better.

How thick is a rat?

Start to see the picture?

You really need a performing airgun if you are going to get any benefits out of a hollow point or otherwise expected to expand pellet.

If you are limited out by the need to stay sub-PAL, get a .22 or even larger bore if it can be afforded, and some basic pellets, whatever shoots well. If you can't get energy from velocity, you get it from mass in motion!

After that, it amounts to watching a lot of the UK videos of their Ratting experiences, and paying attention to how much effort they put ob shot placement.

An anchor shot on a rat with a low power air gun, is a pretty tiny kill box.

 

[GerardSamija]

No need for a hollow point on rats at all. Put a field target round nose pellet between the eyes from the front at 5fpe and the eyes pop halfway out, rat done, end of story. Go for higher power and you make a mess and wake your neighbours. Same from the side, easy stuff. Marksmanship and a dead nuts reliably accurate pellet gun do the trick. Of course I'm talking from the Pardini end of things... but even a relatively low end airgun can do the job, provided the barrel is decent.

 

[870P]

I'm satisfied with the performance of the Destroyers, which even at these low velocities seem to be expanding at least somewhat, resulting in the rats either being DRT or living just long enough to dash though a nearby fence into the dense bushes beyond.

I had a .22 years ago, it killed rats and other pests ok but it suffered from a rainbow trajectory and a lack of penetration at range if you weren't using pointed or round pellets. Basically it was really underpowered at sub 500 fps, whereas sub 500 fps .177s at least still have a flat trajectory out to 25+ yards and decent long range penetration.

It's tough to get good shot placement when you're using a gun with terrible trigger and iron sights, and are usually shooting through a least one chain link fence, if not two, at an angle, at targets that either can't be seen clearly or are mingled with livestock that you don't want to hit.

Even so, I'm running out of rats, better gear would be complete overkill.

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

Great little unit fer sure, but it takes all the fun and shootin' practice out of the equation for many folks.

Best method I use be little dabs of peanut butter with bits of Alka Seltzer tablets mixed in. Rat's don't handle the gas pressure generated by the reaction with stomach acid worth a fook.
The popping sound of rats blowing out at night sure makes for giggles though.

I still use my old TEX 086 pistol though for rat sized critters out to 20 yds or so using RWS 8.2 gr Superpoint 177's. These pellets shoot fine from my HW 45 as well.

 

[kodiakjack]

Great little unit fer sure, but it takes all the fun and shootin' practice out of the equation for many folks.

Best method I use be little dabs of peanut butter with bits of Alka Seltzer tablets mixed in. Rat's don't handle the gas pressure generated by the reaction with stomach acid worth a fook.
The popping sound of rats blowing out at night sure makes for giggles though.

I still use my old TEX 086 pistol though for rat sized critters out to 20 yds or so using RWS 8.2 gr Superpoint 177's. These pellets shoot fine from my HW 45 as well.

Ok, ok. I’ll be the first to call Bulllll Sheet on that one! Lol. No way that’s true. I think you’re an inch too deep into the Sunday night story-telling liquid. Pics or it didn’t happen and all that Jazz.

 

[870P]

This guy just got JFKed, it was only 6 yards away but still a tricky shot to get him through two angled fences.

I think there would have been a high chance of a pointed pellet glancing off in the same circumstances.

 

[cdill]

Sorry to go off topic 870P, but this is what you need for quick removal of vermin.

My father has told me about the owner of the small general store in the village next door. He also sold bagged feed which he kept in a shed next to the store which was attached to his house. This was an old fashioned wood frame shed set on boulders with basically a crawl space underneath. As you can imagine this was ideal for rats to live in.

The fellow kept a couple ferrets and would set them free inside the shed where they would quickly kill any rats inside the shed and then duck down a hole into the underneath where they would proceed to kill the population of rats. My father would go there on a Saturday morning which was apparently the usual time for the owner to perform this chore. Dad told me that the squeal from the rats was shocking, and they scrambled to escape from underneath the foundation. Some would scramble up into the shed only to be trapped and either killed by a ferret who would pop up or with a shovel by the owner. The others would crawl out around the rock foundation to attempt to run away with limited success.

That was entertainment during the late 30s to early 50s for a farm boy.

Actually I very well recall the owner of the general store there who was somewhat of a character in his own right. The sale of bagged feed was gone by the 60s along with sale of White Rose oil products since the owner was an old man by then, but he still had the Shell gas pumps.....not the old fashioned glass canister ones though where you hand pumped the gas into the glass measuring chamber before allowing gravity to feed it through the hose and nozzle into your tank.