[Closed] RATS and Air Rifles/ Poison ?

This thread gives me a sense of enormous well-being.

I'm just registering my disappointment that nobody has posted that gif of Michael Jackson eating popcorn yet.
Will there be a fresh thread for the duel, or just keep it on this one?

I fear Lord Bullingdon has suffered a grave and humiliating insult at the hands of Mr Barry Lyndon. He must have satisfaction.

Oh lordy it's a tough crowd in here! Calibre of air rifle doesn't matter, .177, .22, .25 all good. To a lesser degree neither does power, a 9 or 10 ft/lb rifle will do the job as just well as a legal limit 12 ft/lb one. What does matter as others have said, is shot placement and accuracy. Head shots only, when you have practiced sufficiently to guarantee them. The type of air rifle makes a huge difference, spring piston air rifles are much harder to shoot accurately. It can be done, but takes a lot of skill and practice. They have a very slow "lock time" which means it's easy to disturb the aim between trigger release and the pellet leaving the muzzle. They are also very sensitive to how they are held and any attempt to rest the stock or barrel on anything solid will throw shots off. Pre charged pneumatics (PCP) are much, much easier to shoot accurately. The downside is they are expensive to buy. Chances are the rifle you've borrowed is a cheap springer, unless you can invest many hours in mastering it, buy/borrow a PCP (which will still require practice) or give up on air rifles.

blokeuptheroad
Free Member

Oh lordy it’s a tough crowd in here! Calibre of air rifle doesn’t matter, .177, .22, .25 all good.

Tut tut you missed the best calibre 0.20
Well in my Theoben Rapid 7 & MFR anyway

@MrOvershoot true. As the kids say, my bad...

blokeuptheroad
Free Member

@MrOvershoot true. As the kids say, my bad…

Kids are a hard audience though, not like here eh

I'm genuinely wondering if this is a pisstake.

Snap grow up. Sort your shit out.

What rifle are you using? Scopes or just sights? Some rifles wouldn't blow a coke can off a wall.

Calling some out for pointing out your lack of empathy or skill or even common sense is just shit. How old are you. 12? Put the can of stella down n look in the mirror.

Don't like poison gets in the food chain

So get a patterdale, or a jack or invest in a proper air rifle and this is the important bit learn to shoot.

Cruelty of any animal is to be abhorred.

Or better still remove the food source

Sauce ?
Snap can aim his rifle at Dereks head and hit him in the stomache. As his air rifle is frankly rubbish all it will achieve is a big bullseye bruise on Derek. Derek can then photograph the bruise and post it up on here. We can then compare and contrast to see if Derek is still the size of a starship or has shrunk since his last photo posted on here

Choice 1) shoot it. Not so easy when it very definitely won’t sit still.

Use a comb to pin it to the end of the cage then shoot with a pistol.

You also then have a backboard to stop pellets damaging anyone down the garden.

I'd be putting some old carpet in front of that slab first! Ricochets are very likely otherwise (again, firearms offence if pellet leaves boundary). To be clear - unlined paving slabs are NOT a safe backstop.

Tut tut you missed the best calibre 0.20

There's always one...

(I had to sell a .20 MFR, was a properly nice gun I never got the chance to shoot as it wasn't mine)

squirrelking
Free Member

Tut tut you missed the best calibre 0.20

There’s always one…

(I had to sell a .20 MFR, was a properly nice gun I never got the chance to shoot as it wasn’t mine)

TBH either don't get used much, pest control work is mostly HW100 & Zbroia Kozak

Thank you all, I literally had to wipe the tears from my eyes to finish reading this thread. It made my Friday just a little bit brighter.

Pm me snap if you want a good air rifle
Also regarding not finding the dead rats it's because they are cannibals and well gone before getting cold.
Would you like me to come round with the rim fire and night vision?

Poison is bad because other animals may ingest it. Shooting if you can guarantee not to cause suffering, which I doubt anyone could outwith a pest controller with a licensed powerful rifle.

Buy a Jack Russell. It's what these little Terriers are all about.

Interesting thread. Makes me realise why I don't come on here as much as I used to.

However.....I really must get my old air rifle on a chronometer, changed the spring about 25 years ago & barely used it since but we had a rat in the garden a while ago & after I'd shot & killed it I thought, 'Hmm, this old thing seems a lot more powerful than I remember'.

I saved up for it when I was at 14, early 1970's, & bought it from a sports shop in Durham for about £30, brought it home on the bus in a box.
I saw one on a gun selling site the other day for £195!

(the shop was owned by a chap called Neil Cummings, Dominic Cummings' cousin)

https://flic.kr/p/2k1Unh2

https://flic.kr/p/2k1Y8xD

Neighbour traps them and his dog finishes them off. A rather sad side effect of this is his dog now tries to finish anything off including Hedgehogs (I’ve had to deal with some badly maimed ones missing limbs etc, which all died in agony as a result).

Your neighbour sounds charming..

Wtf is wrong with some people!?

I doubt that a forty odd year old tap loading Airsporter would get above 10 ft/lbs essel. Great taste in choice of air rifle I must say. When I was fourteen I dreamed of having a BSA Mercury S!

I doubt that a forty odd year old tap loading Airsporter would get above 10 ft/lbs essel. Great taste in choice of air rifle I must say. When I was fourteen I dreamed of having a BSA Mercury S!

I'd be surprised as well TBH but a lad I used to work with has a chrono so I'll get it checked & let you know.
I used to have an Anschutz 520 when I had my firearms licence, sadly I let it lapse & sold the rifle, wish I'd kept it.

I had an Anschutz XIV carbine when I had an FAC. It was amazing. I had an open ticket and used it for vermin control. Subsonics and a SAK moderator. Deadly against bunnies and corvids.

Yep. If you have access to a chronograph it's worth checking velocity.

@dangeourbrain I’ve got a Goodnature trap. Basically, the rodent sticks it’s head up a tube where the bait is, touches the trigger, then gets smacked in the head by a CO2 powered piston. These are the traps @worldclassaccident had for… other rodents and I think he can attest to the force when he put his finger in the way.

The counter on mine tallies with the number of dead mice, though I note the instructions suggest that if you put their trap up outside, the bodies will be dealt with by scavengers.

I'm the biggest tree hugging save the whales type person but I absolutely love watching the farm videos where the terriers are let loose on rats.

There’s the thing with that. WTF do you do with a pissed off scared very alive rat once you’ve caught it? It’s all well and good catching the blighter humanely but then you’ve to get rid.

Choice 1) shoot it. Not so easy when it very definitely won’t sit still.

Choice 2) take it out of the trap and whack it over the head very hard with something heavy. Trying to handle it is really not advisable and you’re not going to manage it when it’s in the trap.

Choice 3) let it go. It’s illegal to release vermin once caught and, that aside, the whole reason for trapping it was so that its not where ever you just let it go.

Choice 4) kill it inhumanely which rather defeats the point of a humane trap and is entirely reasonably against the law. (dunking rats in buckets is just like drowning unwanted kittens which I can’t see anyone being likely to advocate or even begrudgingly accept)

You're overthinking this, No 4 and I use a water butt which means I don't take the rat out until it's dead.

In fact I can't imagine any situation where I'd want to take a live rat out of a trap...

Really struggling to understand how any reasonable person would use the 'humane' trap then drown them rather than the Goodnature power piston thingy .....

You’re overthinking this, No 4 and I use a water butt which means I don’t take the rat out until it’s dead.

In fact I can’t imagine any situation where I’d want to take a live rat out of a trap…

I shoot and control rats and have no issue in them being killed humanely where they are a problem (an animal is a "pest" because of where it is, not what it is). However, they are intelligent sentient creatures and probably suffer as much distress being drowned as a cat or dog would. Thankfully drowning them is illegal and punishable with significant fines. This link is about a prosecution for drowning a squirrel but the same law applies to rats.

I hope someone reports you to the local wildlife crime officer.

@thegeneralist I thought the Goodnature traps were meant to be humane as its a quick kill rather than poison?

Trini, yes agreed. That's what I said or at least tried to say

I think the Goodyear one looks fine. What I was objecting to is people using the lovelyfluffylookitdoesnthurttheickleratasitjusttrapsit trap and then drowning the poor bastards in a bucket of water.

which I doubt anyone could outwith a pest controller with a licensed powerful rifle.

You don't need a section 1 for ratting, nowhere close. Even shooting rabbits it's only necessary if you need the range. S1 airguns are all but redundant, they're just cheaper to run than actual rifles. A lot of folk use junior rifles or pistol carbines (usually around the 6fpe mark) for barn work as they are small but accurate. You do need to be a consistently good shot though, I agree with that.

In fact I can’t imagine any situation where I’d want to take a live rat out of a trap…

As pointed out before that's what combs and pistols are for.

Interesting how the gun owners are the ones branded as sickos and such in other threads but it's the ones that don't have a clue committing wildlife crimes.

One of the first things I was taught about the internet..Don’t challenge strangers to a fight from behind the safety of your keyboard..As sure enough one day someone may call your bluff, and then you look a bit of a tit..

Like this you mean

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/mar/12/english-boxer-curtis-woodhouse-twitter-troll?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This thread reminds me of being suitably refreshed, sitting in a mates living room whilst shooting at craneflies with an air rifle. We were using cut down ear pokers for ammo, there was a fair amount of collateral damage from what I remember.

Brilliant, love that sketch.

I reckon Snap has caught himself a few proper whoppers with this one

Take the bird food in at the end of the day. I was once told food outside during the day feeds the birds, food outside overnight feeds the rats. Bringing in feeders every evening certainly fixed a problem my parents were having.

Food outside overnight, or at least what the messy little gits drop all over the patio, usually helps feed the hedgehogs, bringing in the feeders is utterly pointless, ‘cos the rats certainly won’t be able to access them, unlike the tree rats/squirrels.
I did have one little rat living under my shed for a while, it would poke its head out if we were sat very quiet, dash out, grab a suet pellet or sunflower heart and dash back again. Haven’t seen it for ages, but there was a little mouse took its place for a while and then disappeared. Possibly both got nobbled by the bastard cats that use the garden as their larder/latrine.
Certainly the hedgehogs like the birds leavings as an hors d’ourves before the main course I put out!

Strongly suspect Amy one suggesting humane trap and relocate is spouting their ideals and Nd we actually had to do it.

Fwiw we used to get mice in the fall each year. Now I have and ultrasonic repeller I run from start of October and not had any thing in the house.

On the farm rats got a shovel to the head. ..... 1/50 landed.

Fyi never corner a rat. Vicious bastards when scared and you really don't want bitten by one

Vicious bastards when scared and you really don’t want bitten by one

Apart from anything they may be carrying they bite deep. Hurts like hell.

So we have the final words of wisdom from the rat and the squirrel.

I hope someone reports you to the local wildlife crime officer.

Where I live, aye, right.

Far safer than shooting etc and you'll find no one in a rural that'll GAS what happens to rats.

I’m the biggest tree hugging save the whales type person but I absolutely love watching the farm videos where the terriers are let loose on rats.

No, you are not "the biggest tree hugging save the whales type person" if you get pleasure from watching one animal kill another. Where do you stand on badger baiting and hare coursing?

No, you are not “the biggest tree hugging save the whales type person” if you get pleasure from watching one animal kill another. Where do you stand on badger baiting and hare coursing?

"Nature raw in tooth and claw". Spend much time in the countryside observing nature closely and you soon realise it's a killfest, even in British fields and hedgerows and that's without the input of man.

Animals hunting and killing each other IS nature, as much them eating or procreating. It's possible to take an interest in observing animal behaviour, including predation without being a sicko.

Do you class people sat on their sofa enjoying an Attenborough documentary about a lion stalking an antelope or an Orca killing a seal in the same way as badger baiters?

Someone watching a sparrow hawk kill through their kitchen window?

Animals hunting and killing each other IS nature, as much them eating or procreating. It’s possible to take an interest in observing animal behaviour, including predation without being a sicko.

And when that terrier hunts kills and eats the rat I'll happily say yep, it's barite. A terrier being set to ratting isn't nature any more than fox hunting, hare coursing, badger baiting, cock fighting etc. and watching it for pleasure isn't any different from watching anything else kill anything else.

That it's *functional* isn't the same as it being natural.

(it's also seriously risky for the dog. Rat bites kill dogs often enough.)

I absolutely love watching the farm videos where the terriers are let loose on rats

Bit of a difference between "loving" watching something ripping something to pieces than taking an interest in and understanding nature. We've had mice in the house and I've set traps, didn't enjoy it but it needed doing. Likewise I have a cat who has been known to take rabbits and on one occasion a weasel! It happens, it's his nature.

And when that terrier hunts kills and eats the rat I’ll happily say yep, it’s barite. A terrier being set to ratting isn’t nature

I agree, the setting is artificial, but the terriers instinct to kill is very much hardwired and natural. Granted,
selective breeding has resulted in that natural instinct being focused on a particular type of prey, but it was very much present in the first place.

And, the terrier absolutely would eat the rat if his belly wasn't full of pedigree chum or whatever, even my disgusting cocker spaniel is partial to the odd dead rat! In dogs, like cats the hunting instinct is separate from feelings of hunger, which is why well fed moggies still drop baby Robbins on their owners floors and well loved but poorly controlled family dogs disembowel and rip the throats out of sheep every lambing season. We might not like it, but even this behaviour is instinctive and 'natural'. Our family pets are still very much wolf and tiger whether we like it or not.

Our family pets are still very much wolf and tiger whether we like it or not.

I'm now looking at my hound and mog curled up together on the bed having a snooze..I'm not convinced either is particularly wolf or tiger like tbh!!!

You are correct however..

A juvenile response from Snap, but maybe calling someone a bastard is just a bit out of order.

Social media is hugely toxic, but this place is usually a bit better than that.

The average domestic cat owner is allowing animal cruelty on the same par as drowning a rat in a tub on a daily basis. It's just cats have better PR.

The average domestic cat owner is allowing animal cruelty on the same par as drowning a rat in a tub on a daily basis. It’s just cats have better PR.

Please explain, I don't follow?

I have a goodnature trap after the wife spotted a jumbo-rat in the garden.

It hasn't caught one yet - but the test-firing of the trap confirms that, when it does, death will be extremely swift.

It's even got bluetooth.

A juvenile response from Snap, but maybe calling someone a bastard is just a bit out of order.

I disagree. I would have been justified using stronger expletives to describe somebody who has been firing lead pellets into the bodies of rats. And then coming onto an internet forum and admitting it.

Have you tried banging on the window in a furious manner?

Calling people names on the internet. Always ends well in my experience, it’s generally impossible to make a point without getting straight down to the playground name calling.

It’s even got bluetooth.

@batfink Has it? I'll have to have a look at that as my trap is in the loft and getting to it is a PITA.

Edit - spoke to Goodnature UK who say the Chirp module won't be available in the UK until 2022. Oh well.