Ideal rat shooting rig?

[ross H]

I've never once been out and had a rat 'present' itself in any shape or form mate, some ran out from under my feet and sat a few inches away - others sat on piles of rubbish 40 odd yards away ( impossible to get nearer to due to...that's right, more piles of rubbish and rats ).
So show me a rifle that's zeroed at these maximum ranges and therefore able to pin point the small areas of head/heart etc and I'll buy 100 of them.
We were paid to get rid of rats from three refuse sites, quite lucky I suppose. So after 2 years of trying out various kit and rejecting a good deal of it, we came up with the ideal stuff for our needs - but even with gear tailored for the job, you're still going to get runners or have mishaps - fact. Another fact is, choosing a single shot, .22 rifle will definately cut down on the runners and help you to deal with the ones that are 'struggling'.

a single shot may well be what you prefer and i definatly know what your talking about on reloading mags but to say a rat has never presented itself means surely thet you have never ambushed them. if you do this normally they are not in a huge rush to run so you can place your shot roughly. mishaps are a definate but they can be limited by shooting at vital organs rather than gut. i personally would prefer i missed 10 shots than have 10 runners if that means my bag is smaller so be it. a rat may be vermin but it deserves to die in dignety. this is only my opinion. if your happy to do it then fair enough.

[ross H]

[QUOTE=Chris St. MH]
I often only get to see the rat fleetingly (for example moving between rocks on a beach) so surgical shot placement isn't something I acheive very often. QUOTE]

why dont you try and bait them so you have a better shot

failing that a howitzer would be ideal

ps do you find you get a lot of ricochets with the rimmer of the rocks?

[stillair1]

.177 for me. A close focus low mounted night sight would be even more effective. I have had the best sucess ambushing them at a certain point in there run.I would be worried about .22lr ricochet in a confined space. Stopped using Lapua HP for rabbits and went back to the old faithful eley hp.Excellent accuracy from Lapua, but upper body shots were not as effective.

[Craig-P]

a single shot may well be what you prefer and i definatly know what your talking about on reloading mags but to say a rat has never presented itself means surely thet you have never ambushed them. if you do this normally they are not in a huge rush to run so you can place your shot roughly. mishaps are a definate but they can be limited by shooting at vital organs rather than gut. i personally would prefer i missed 10 shots than have 10 runners if that means my bag is smaller so be it. a rat may be vermin but it deserves to die in dignety. this is only my opinion. if your happy to do it then fair enough.

Ambushed a rat? How? When it's preening perhaps? Or maybe when it's basking in the sun?
Sorry, but they stay still for a few seconds inbetween grabbing chunks of food ( which is why tied down or liquidized bait provides you with more time ) or scrapping between themselves. Sure, we've had them when they've been sitting still, unaware of anything ( perhaps this is an ambush? ) but I've never found one sitting there relaxing with it's thoughts...are you sure you've not been shooting small mixied rabbits?
And whats all this about gut-shooting them? Where have I said that's the best place to land your shot? I've mentioned that mishaps/mistakes happen due to ill shot placement but not once have I advised that a pellet in the 'bread basket' is the way to drop them. I have said that should this happen then a .22 stands more chance of stopping them or slowing them up for a shot shot...
Besides, if they are wounded or showing any intentions of turning their cards in, their brothers and sisters soon see them off when they get back to their cozy little houses - trust me on this one.
Jesus, it seems to me that Richard H's benchrest ambush method is the only to slot norvegicus...everything else just isn't cricket

[Born Again]

everything else just isn't cricket

Now rat cricket is a totally different game, apparently you need a sloping 8' x 4' board in an alleyway, the "Bowler" flushes out the rats by beating on dustbins, the rats rush up the alleyway, up the board, and jump off the top, where the "batsman" is waiting, a "run" is scored for every rat that is succesfully returned to the sloping side of the ramp.

[stillair1]

Ambushed a rat? How? When it's preening perhaps? Or maybe when it's basking in the sun?
Sorry, but they stay still for a few seconds inbetween grabbing chunks of food

How long do you need with rifle in the shoulder ready to go at 12yds.
Granted once they become clued up or are coming out of everywhere you have a problem if you are trying to cover less than a narrow field of fire.

[Moggie]

Snock has one, if its still for sale!

[Craig-P]

How long do you need with rifle in the shoulder ready to go at 12yds.

Well that's exactly my point isn't it - but by the sound of things gathered by reading this thread, what I really should be doing is:
Put in a call to the police station and tell them I'm going ratting at Farmer Bills place. Upon getting to Farmer Bills, I should present him with a bottle of his favourite tipple and ask him if he's noticed the crop damage due to rats and how I will sort out his problem as I understand country life, watch Countryfile and put Countrylite on my toast of a morning.
After helping him with some bailing, I'll make sure that my pre-baiting, dusted, fumigated, clearly marked and illuminated for the previous 4 nights, singular rat run is downwind of me and not at any sort of angle - heaven forbid a less than square on, headshot should present itself due to a slap dash effort at finding an ambush site.
With all this checked, I should then unslip my rifle, obviously it will have remained in the cover until I'm ready to shoot and don my wonderflague as I will have turned up smart to meet the Farmer. This is only after I've performed thorough research and produced a detailed diagram showing the tectonic properties of my backstop area.
After attaching suitable pieces of natural vegetation from the rat's environemt to my ghillie suit ( pallets, bags of rubbish, animal feed and old fridges work best ), I can turn my attention to the rifle.
Then carefully fill up a 700 round magazine ( that way my rifle will never be out of ammunition and I'll never miss ) - carefully inspecting each ( washed, lubed, sized and weighed ) pellet that I've taken out of my sterile neckpurse, before loading them into the mag - obviously this becomes second nature when you've shot a few rats and takes less time.
Then I should attached my lamp or NV weaponsight and check the zero by firing a few dozen shots. If I'm using a lamp, I should dim the flood and rotate the coloured filter every third or so second ( they get used to red, see ). Then I should top the air back up on my regulated, multishot, silenced PCP and fire off three settling shots before firing five more shots over a decent chrono - if fps variation is over 3fps, I should strip the rifle, scrub the barrel check the reg and then start back off at step 2. It goes without saying that all this should be done stealthily, as Ratus won't hang around for very long after he's finished his sit down set meal for three.
After finding a comfortable shooting position - I personally perfer prone over a comfy bean bag for rat shooting, I should focus my scope on the target area to eliminate parrallax error, then wind down to a low mag ( fixed power scopes are useless for ratting ) and check that the spirit level that swings out from the belly of my scope is centralized.
Then I need to point the rifle at the rat ( unloaded, obviously, I don't need to explain the dangers of pointing a loaded air rifle at a rat ) and repeat the above.
With the rat in sharp focus, I need to read off the range and dial in the range setting to the turret - the setting will be kept on the inside of my BC lense cover ( the settings themselves will all have been worked out long before on a rat environment simulated range ).
Then unfold the legs of my bipod, place a camo veil over my face and repeat from step 4 - making every effort not to spook ratty.
One last check of the windicator and spirit level whilst I take up the first stage of my mutliadjustable trigger and then monitor my breathing - if the wind has shifted direction at any point - I'll unload the rifle, clear up, milk the cows for Farmer Bill and then get off home - if not, if all the above is OK and the mildot reticle is resting firmly on the rats left venticle or on the pre-frontal lobe, I'm fine to release the shot.

Then I need to pick it up with 6' tongs and burn it in 3 gallons of kerosene immediately, whilst wearing an NBC suit, before settling down to enjoy another quick shot....

[hazan#1]

All i can say to that is made me laugh , very much.

[Lefty Gunz]

Very good , oviously pays attention to the magazines advice

[RichardH]

Well that's exactly my point isn't it - but by the sound of things gathered by reading this thread, what I really should be doing is:
Put in a call to the police station and tell them I'm going ratting at Farmer Bills place. Upon getting to Farmer Bills, I should present him with a bottle of his favourite tipple and ask him if he's noticed the crop damage due to rats and how I will sort out his problem as I understand country life, watch Countryfile and put Countrylite on my toast of a morning.
After helping him with some bailing, I'll make sure that my pre-baiting, dusted, fumigated, clearly marked and illuminated for the previous 4 nights, singular rat run is downwind of me and not at any sort of angle - heaven forbid a less than square on, headshot should present itself due to a slap dash effort at finding an ambush site.
With all this checked, I should then unslip my rifle, obviously it will have remained in the cover until I'm ready to shoot and don my wonderflague as I will have turned up smart to meet the Farmer. This is only after I've performed thorough research and produced a detailed diagram showing the tectonic properties of my backstop area.
After attaching suitable pieces of natural vegetation from the rat's environemt to my ghillie suit ( pallets, bags of rubbish, animal feed and old fridges work best ), I can turn my attention to the rifle.
Then carefully fill up a 700 round magazine ( that way my rifle will never be out of ammunition and I'll never miss ) - carefully inspecting each ( washed, lubed, sized and weighed ) pellet that I've taken out of my sterile neckpurse, before loading them into the mag - obviously this becomes second nature when you've shot a few rats and takes less time.
Then I should attached my lamp or NV weaponsight and check the zero by firing a few dozen shots. If I'm using a lamp, I should dim the flood and rotate the coloured filter every third or so second ( they get used to red, see ). Then I should top the air back up on my regulated, multishot, silenced PCP and fire off three settling shots before firing five more shots over a decent chrono - if fps variation is over 3fps, I should strip the rifle, scrub the barrel check the reg and then start back off at step 2. It goes without saying that all this should be done stealthily, as Ratus won't hang around for very long after he's finished his sit down set meal for three.
After finding a comfortable shooting position - I personally perfer prone over a comfy bean bag for rat shooting, I should focus my scope on the target area to eliminate parrallax error, then wind down to a low mag ( fixed power scopes are useless for ratting ) and check that the spirit level that swings out from the belly of my scope is centralized.
Then I need to point the rifle at the rat ( unloaded, obviously, I don't need to explain the dangers of pointing a loaded air rifle at a rat ) and repeat the above.
With the rat in sharp focus, I need to read off the range and dial in the range setting to the turret - the setting will be kept on the inside of my BC lense cover ( the settings themselves will all have been worked out long before on a rat environment simulated range ).
Then unfold the legs of my bipod, place a camo veil over my face and repeat from step 4 - making every effort not to spook ratty.
One last check of the windicator and spirit level whilst I take up the first stage of my mutliadjustable trigger and then monitor my breathing - if the wind has shifted direction at any point - I'll unload the rifle, clear up, milk the cows for Farmer Bill and then get off home - if not, if all the above is OK and the mildot reticle is resting firmly on the rats left venticle or on the pre-frontal lobe, I'm fine to release the shot.

Then I need to pick it up with 6' tongs and burn it in 3 gallons of kerosene immediately, whilst wearing an NBC suit, before settling down to enjoy another quick shot....

Hows the Stella Craig

You're right all this surgical airgun sniper business is too much hassle.

I'll stick to this and simply sweeping up the body parts before adjourning to the pub

Its noisy and expensive (and doesnt generate the textbook AGW "thock") but its guaranteed "humane" ( ) and above all bloody good fun which is after all the point of the exercise otherwise we'd just poison the ****ers and do something more useful with the time.

Richard

[shootist]

At last! Words of ineffable wisdom from a true airgunner.

[Craig-P]

I see you've got the olive green windicator on your 'rat rig' Rich - very precise mate, like it

[16 Grain]

I use a RWS Scimitar in .22 with either a Bushmaster 3-9x40 on 3 mag and a lamp (Nite Hunter), or i'm just sorting out mounting my NV scope on it too.

I too use a .22 Scimitar with NV for rats. Best thing for ratting in my opinion.

[Chief Wiggum]

I use/will be using a Gas Rammed Theoben Sirocco .20, i set it up today and its very nice to shoot