Shooting rats... What is needed?

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whm1974

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On a Airgun Forum I used to post at but since forgotten it's name... I had started a Rat Hunting beginners(Me of course) thread but however I didn't end up doing that as I live in a small city and have yet even seen a single where live...

Now if memory serves, I was told that a .177 pellet going at ~350 fps will kill rats cleanly as long as the shooter does his or her part. However a heavier .22 pellet at ~40 0 to ~450 fps will be more reliable.

The only thing I ever shot at with BBs are soda cans and 2L bottles. I never even used pellets for some reason...
 
A lot of the videos I have seen out of Britian have fellas using 22 cal @ around 1000 fps.

Do you already have a rifle? What are its specs?
 
earlthegoat2 said:
A lot of the videos I have seen out of Britian have fellas using 22 cal @ around 1000 fps.

Do you already have a rifle? What are its specs?
Click to expand...
What does 25 foot pounds come out to? I believe that Britain requite a FAC to own firearms.
 
Crossman 2250 (22.cal) with Bug Buster scope. The scope allows you do go very close into places like IVY where they come out to raid the bird feeder. I have a TKO Shroud, which makes the firing of the gun TOTALLY silent other than the trigger Spring. It is quite a sport. They have great hearing and very cautious. I hunt them on Summer nights.
I put a steel receiver and a Lothar Walther Barrel. Extremely accurate.

sPKN2UY.png
 
True story, the first time I've seen .22 LR shotshells for sale, I actually thought they were for shooting Mice and Rats...
 
When I was probably 8 or so I used a Crossman CO2 revolver to shoot rats.

My dad used a long board to shake a wood pile and drive rats into the open. I shot them as they ran for cover. Looking back, I’m amazed I hit any of them at all but In hindsight it was really interesting practice. Those things are small, quick, and they don’t stand still until they find cover. But we needed to kill the rats and it was more fun than poison, so a win/win from the human side (I’m sure the rats would disagree).
 
Ed Ames said:
When I was probably 8 or so I used a Crossman CO2 revolver to shoot rats.

My dad used a long board to shake a wood pile and drive rats into the open. I shot them as they ran for cover. Looking back, I’m amazed I hit any of them at all but In hindsight it was really interesting practice. Those things are small, quick, and they don’t stand still until they find cover. But we needed to kill the rats and it was more fun than poison, so a win/win from the human side (I’m sure the rats would disagree).
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How heavy was the trigger pull? Steady hand would be required.
 
No idea on the trigger pull. It was nearly 40 years ago now, and the thing was a copy of a colt double action revolver so it may have been 10+ pounds.

The trick wasn’t so much the steady hand as getting the lead right. Assuming the pellet was going 300fps that is up to a 10th of a second to reach the target and google tells me a rat can run over a foot in that amount of time. Plus they jump like crazy. I’m even more amazed I hit them now that I do the math on that, but fortunately we didn’t have google back then so we didn’t know how hard it should be.
 
Ed Ames said:
When I was probably 8 or so I used a Crossman CO2 revolver to shoot rats.

My dad used a long board to shake a wood pile and drive rats into the open. I shot them as they ran for cover. Looking back, I’m amazed I hit any of them at all but In hindsight it was really interesting practice. Those things are small, quick, and they don’t stand still until they find cover. But we needed to kill the rats and it was more fun than poison, so a win/win from the human side (I’m sure the rats would disagree).
Click to expand...
The issue with poison is that once you place it, it is now out of your control. Rats are prey for a large number of species such as large birds, snakes, and etc. Plus there are dogs that are will hunt them down as well.
 
Speaking of the Rat Worshipers in India, I wonder if the rest of India makes fun of them for worshiping Rats of all things? The first time I heard about that, I thought it was someone trying to pull a Poe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

Anyone know anything about India's Laws on Airguns? Like are they allowed? Doesn't that Country have a very problem with a rat plague?
 
First you need some rats to shoot. I have a few rats leaving in a burn pile. They stay out there so I leave them be as they are food for my hawks that have a nest in a tree along my back fence line. I would never set poison. Now, I have visited working farms were there were plenty of rats and I imagine a dedicated rat hunter could set up at night with thermal equipment and have a field day. When I was a kid there was a bounty on nutria, an imported asian water rat! I took out a few for pocket money, okay, more than a few, a whole bunch :). A head shot with a pumper at close range would do it but I usually used a .410 or .22 for more range as they get rather shy when one starts hunting them.
 
3Crows said:
First you need some rats to shoot. I have a few rats leaving in a burn pile. They stay out there so I leave them be as they are food for my hawks that have a nest in a tree along my back fence line. I would never set poison. Now, I have visited working farms were there were plenty of rats and I imagine a dedicated rat hunter could set up at night with thermal equipment and have a field day. When I was a kid there was a bounty on nutria, an imported asian water rat! I took out a few for pocket money, okay, more than a few, a whole bunch :). A head shot with a pumper at close range would do it but I usually used a .410 or .22 for more range as they get rather shy when one starts hunting them.
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Actually Nutria or Coypu is a large South American Rodent with orange teeth. Since they only consume plants, they are good eating... Did ever eaten a few?
 
Well, I guess at 66yo I occasionally mix up things as to origin (maybe it was another invasive, carp, I was thinking of) but as far as we were concerned they were big rats. Nonetheless there was and still often is a bounty on them and I took advantage of that. And there is a bounty for a good reason. As to eating them, I put them in the class of animals sometimes eaten such as possums, raccoons and Hoover Hogs. Though you are correct, they really are mostly grain (rice) fed and as nice for eating purposes or better than pecan fed tree rats. But, frankly, I will pass. ;)
 
When I was about 11 I got a bounty on Sparrow, mice, and rats at varing rates from Dad's Boss around the grain elevators and cheese cloth storage. The sparrows and rodents would build nests in the machinery and cause issues and the rats and mice would occasionally decide to gnaw into bails of cheese cloth and so damage it and reduce it's value.

Yea Olde Daisy BB gun did sparrows and mice OK, but really ticked off rats. Sometimes they would charge after being hit! I soon found that using .22 rat shot in a steel building on a concrete floor was a bad idea. Eventually a CO2 BB gun with higher velocity ( based on soda can penetration ) did the rats... but I had to watch those angles so a miss did not "Elvis Presley" …."Return to sender!"

-kBob
 
kBob said:
When I was about 11 I got a bounty on Sparrow, mice, and rats at varing rates from Dad's Boss around the grain elevators and cheese cloth storage. The sparrows and rodents would build nests in the machinery and cause issues and the rats and mice would occasionally decide to gnaw into bails of cheese cloth and so damage it and reduce it's value.

Yea Olde Daisy BB gun did sparrows and mice OK, but really ticked off rats. Sometimes they would charge after being hit! I soon found that using .22 rat shot in a steel building on a concrete floor was a bad idea. Eventually a CO2 BB gun with higher velocity ( based on soda can penetration ) did the rats... but I had to watch those angles so a miss did not "Elvis Presley" …."Return to sender!"

-kBob
Click to expand...
Yes pellets not BB's you silly boy...
 
Like a said, I have yet to so much see a single rat in the City where I live. And I been here most of my life. So I'm assuming that rats are well controlled?
 
Check out "Team Foxer" on You Tube. I can watch those Brits shoot rats for hours on You Tube. They have all kinds of night vision electronics on their air guns. I imagine the cost runs into thousands. How far do you want to go?
 
total recoil said:
Check out "Team Foxer" on You Tube. I can watch those Brits shoot rats for hours on You Tube. They have all kinds of night vision electronics on their air guns. I imagine the cost runs into thousands. How far do you want to go?
Click to expand...
Not that far. Are conditions set in England for the faster reproduction of rats(and maybe rabbits)? I know down under there is a huge problem with rabbits...
 
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