Ratting With Terriers

[dagger1 8]

Just wondered do many of you terrier lads go ratting at night with a lamp is it a good crack

[Bobo 135]

Brilliant sport mate. Doing chook sheds weekly the now and getting around 100 each night. The dogs love it.

[krawnden 1,036]

I've thought about doing it but haven't yet tried. How d'you go about it in practice Bobo? D'you just floodlight the place and see what's what, or is it a case of lamp on, lamp off, one rat at a time like you would if you were lamping rabbits with a runner?

[Bobo 135]

Just rush the place where they're feeding basically,catch them with there pants down. Lamp on constantly. They panic and dive behind/under anything so after the initial bowt of catching you can then rattle them out with a bit of alkathene pipe to the waiting dogs. Nice and controlled the second part lol.

[fireman 10,992]

The more night time ratting you do your'll suss the homeward runs they make,then it's in with lamp off,in position and lamp on and the fun starts.Ratting is the only field sport i could do every day without getting bored of it as it goes and there's nothing like a few rats running over big hairy arsed men in the dark to get them screaming like women ..

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

You are right Fireman,...

 

I used to do a lot of ratting,...lived for it,.Pig farms, maggot farms,..Knacker's yards,..fecking loved it...

 

Ratting, at night,...as you know, is a whole different ball game to hunting them out of game cover, etc,..during the daylight,...Seen some amazing sights after dark,..unforgettable even..

 

I remember gathering up a Border/ Beddie terrier under my arm and bursting into a farm building,.quick as ya like,..I entered the large barn, and pulled the door shut behind me,..switching my lamp on, I could see, hear and feel,..rats running everywhere,.some hitting my knees,..and others running along the beams, up into the roof space,...then,..hanging before me, swinging macabrely in the half light, was the entire carcase of a Shire horse..!

Rats were pouring out of its chest cavity and peeking from out of the beast's arse,..it was quite surreal We were killing fast and furious,..it was amazing....

 

Lots of great times,.might jot a few tales down some day,..when I can afford a new Biro...

 

All the best, Phil.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Phil Lloyd

[neil cooney 10,416]

Yes, ratting at night can turn the most serious level headed lads into shrieking children.

We used to do a dump with a pit in it for fallen stock. One of us would get down into and start jumping on the carcasses and the sides of the pit would start to crawl with rats.

For every rat caught dozens escaped. I remember a rat jumping into a paint pot and a terrier (Duke and he was one who could finish a fox in minutes) put his head into the pot and came out wearing the rat between his eyes. Another terrier seen it and grabbed the rat and tore a perfect strip of skin of Duke from between his eyes to the end of his nose.

Don't under estimate a hard nights ratting with terriers. Great sport.

[WHWT 1,868]

Aye cant beat bit ratting at night, good work out for dog and owner. Going to new farm the night on the Scottish borders see how I get on.

 

Cheers PUD

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

We used to do a pig farm nearby and boy were there rats ,hundreds.Part of it was farrowing crates and small piglets so we had to be sure all dogs were broke to stock as we invited many lads to that spot .The weaner crates were blockwork with holes smashed out the back for them to use the runs .We fitted drop doors to these on strings opperated at the end of each row and killed literally hundreds per week.The farmer was a lazy type who hardly ever scraped the passage ways and we waded ankle deep through the shit to get to the spots with rats hoping across and terriers filthy in seconds .Farmer used to feed swill in those days and piles of bread ,bananas ,fruit and pies was the norm in the feed shed as well as drums of gone off jam

After ratting the main areas with the lamp we did the feed shed which was usually very entertaining .One night stands out when i took along a young lad who had a russel .After the usual haul we tried the feed shed and found a new delivery of jam complete with lids lol or so we thought .After killing the stragglers the lad jumped up on the drums to lamp between them.Had a few when suddenly down he went arms deep in 45 gallons of stinking jam into one with no lid .

We actually hosed the poor lad down ,mid winter and he went home in a pair of the farmers overalls stinking of pig shit .Good times ,farm shut down now by defra for bad practice .I remember a dead sow dragged out into the passage way one night with piglets still on her with rats pouring out the body cavity .Farmer said she only died that day.We also killed a few foxes trapped in the sheds that were after rats or piglets i guess .Luckily ive always had ratting spots but none to rival that place for the lamp .I used to tail many a rat ,with gloves on and drape them over someones shoulder ,thats when the girly screams are at their best lol.

[neil cooney 10,416]

Not a post to read while having dinner Foxdropper, LOL.

But I bet the pork from that farm tasted lovely. Slops makes for lovely pork and when I was a butcher we used to spot a pig coming in that was reared on slops and we'd pool in together and buy that pig of the boss, sharing it between us.

Also, when you mentioned the foxes in the sheds hunting rats it reminded me of when we'd be on the dump hunting rats there was a bog behind the dump and if you shone your lamp onto it you'd see several sets of foxes eyes as they'd be waiting for us to finish.

It was also the place I've seen the most Barn Owls. There could be 3 or 4 hunting that dump.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Our local tip used to be the place to shoot with an airgun ,through the mesh fence on land we had permission on .The dump would never allow hunters on .Use to lamp the place for foxes as you say and would guarrantee at least one for the lurcher but dodgey running tbh .Another place we did was never heaving but enough for a visit on the way back from somewhere .The walls to the piggery were 9 inch hollow blocks uncapped at the top and only 4 foot high .The rats lived in these pots ,that was until we tipped buckets of water down them at night .50 was a cracking haul from there .One night we turned up and heard the most pitiful crying imagineable which turned out to be a sow close to death in the worst case of starvation ive ever seen .i got the .22 from the truck and pts .knocked on the farm hands caravan to be met with a pisshead who got his just his just deserves as well .Told farmer what id done and never went back .Why is it some of the worst cruelty ive seen involved pigs ?.

Ive a couple of lamping places now but by far the best is the chicken farm and the free range sheds where weve done just over a thousand in a day .My boy added up the tally recently and weve done 16,930 from there to date.

[neil cooney 10,416]

That's a lot of rats.

The most we done was 169 but we did quit early that night because one dog got a bad cut on a bit of rubbish that didn't look like it was going to stop, thankfully it did.

We got over 100 several times.

We had 5 terriers the night we did 169. How many terriers were used to take a thousand ?

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

From memory we had 14 Neil ,maybe a few more .ill dig out a pic if i can.We had 150 odd yesterday .Couple of other lads off here there as well.Two sheds ,first was soaking wet with a drinker down and only 30 odd caught with a few mice .Dispelled the mith that mice wont live with rats as there were a fair few .

[fat man 4,741]

Shot them on a tip on a few occasions but never really went at them with the terriers,too many dangers on our local tip and several pipes running to drains all over the place so a dog could drop in at any time or place and we had no idea of the layout of them,not my cup of tea,RATS,dont like them and in no hurry to get near the dirty c**ts.

[fireman 10,992]

From memory we had 14 Neil ,maybe a few more .ill dig out a pic if i can.We had 150 odd yesterday .Couple of other lads off here there as well.Two sheds ,first was soaking wet with a drinker down and only 30 odd caught with a few mice .Dispelled the mith that mice wont live with rats as there were a fair few .

When we do the threshing there's mice by the thousands in a stack and they live side by side in there with the rats,so that mith your right is rubbish..