Very Short Range Rats

[bigruss 21]

just picked up a new permission on a small holding that has a bad rat problem , they have buried under the guys 3 chicken pens and a little duck pond .

 

because of the layout of the place there are only 2 places to shoot from and the furthest away is about 12 yds down to the closest about 5 yds .... went up in daytime and night with NV and lamps but was having so many pass throughs with pellets I gave up after an hour (hit about 15 picking up about 5 ) not good ..... tried baiting them further away from there holes today to no avail ... as there is so much food about for them they wont stray far .

 

he cant use poisons for obvious reasons and has tried trapping them but to slow a process so offered it to me along with his 2 acre wheat field full of pigeon and rabbit ...so want to make a good impression on the rats and get a freezer full of fur and feather .

 

Tried crosman destroyers in hw97 and hw100 and there terrible in both ...

 

any tips people on pellets or anything really lol ..

[ratbuster 807]

At that distance I would try loading the pellet backwards, would give enough accuracy to kill the rats without any suffering, and the pellets will stay inside the rat. Best to use regular flatheads / target type or dome shaped pellets " the other way round " Are you using .177 or .22 ?

 

Or get yourselves a 9 mm garden gun , would do the trick at that distances......

[bigruss 21]

.177

[jocky 198]

l had the same prob with 177, only use 22 for rats and roost shooting pigeon now and 177 for rabbits. i use air arms field in both.

[ratbuster 807]

Yes, that's a wise move, pump up the caliber and over penetration will become less, because the velocity from the same gun will be lower, hence less penetration

[paulk73 151]

terrier and smoker pal. i know its not airgunning but if it keeps you 2 acres of rabbit shooting. sometimes shooting aint an option.

[shergar 42]

+1 for the garden gun but won't be worth it as need a shot gun certificate maybe try a pistol or lower power gun like a crossman rat catcher in .22

[hoggysreels 76]

.22 and perseverance mate ... enjoy the task, some people would give their right arm.for the chance ...atb

[bigruss 21]

terrier and smoker pal. i know its not airgunning but if it keeps you 2 acres of rabbit shooting. sometimes shooting aint an option.

he wont have dogs up there mate , I suggested it to him as soon as I saw it but he's a bit of an old eccentric bloke and very stuck in his ways ... he said the dogs would scare the chickens which to be fair all run loose within the small pens ... shame as a good mate has 2 patterdales which ive seen working and are unreal to watch ... never seen dogs move as quick

[big napper 3,572]

hi mate, i shoot rats at the top of my yard which is only 14 foot away and goes to 60 foot with a .177 prairie that's doing 11.7 ftlb with jsb exact domed pellets and with head shots they go straight over and only flinch, as long as you get a head shot mate they wont go anywhere, atb with your new permission. ( most of the shots are around the 14 ft mark )

[paulk73 151]

bigruss if you think yhe pats are fast on rats, you want to watch a couple of plummer terriers on them.

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

Get an 8 ftlb smk or something with a half decent 4x40 scope and smash away. Should still group decent enough to kill at 15 yards with decent pellets and it wont over penetrate. Cheap option

[Coypu Hunter 486]

Try wadcutter pellets like the RWS Hobby or similar. They're normally pretty accurate at short range, and shouldn't overpenetrate.

 

Otherwise, get a Ratcatcher and plink away!

 

I have a Crosman 2240 .22 CO2 pistol to which I've added a shoulder stock, so it's now basically a low-power ratcatcher with a pistol barrel and no silencer. I use it for rats inside my chicken shed. It runs at 6 fpe max and splats the little buggers nicely -- no problems with overpenetration.

[mark williams 7,550]

A shot to the head and it is dead regardless of calibre mate.

Sit yourself down with "shooting sticks" or if available a good support and shoot "head only" shots - that`s the RULE

 

atb

Edited November 10, 2014 by mark williams