rat shooting at night

[warbucks]

Hi Ian
The best lamp for airrifles is the variable power, like the Deben mini pro with a red filter, you can put just enough power on to shoot so there's less chance of spooking the rats, a cheeper but not as good a way is from Deal extreme they do a ultrafire 501 r2 torch with a five mode switch its rated at 250 lumens at full power they cost about £11 then there's the cost of batteries e c t on top of that. The idea of you putting out the solar lights is a good idea in that it will get the rats used top a little light, there fore maybe allowing you to use a lowish powered lamp. Do you have any torch at al that you can put a bit of red bag/paper over just to try how jumpy the rats are, if there not too jumpy a red filtered gun lamp/torch should work. If say the rats are comming out from under a shed couldnt you put the solar lights around this hot spot, and bait it for a few days, even if this ment that you had to move the lamps to charge in a different position in the day time then put them back around the hot spot for when it gets dark, if you can just get enough light from the solar lights to see to shoot, the rats will eventully come out and feed on the bait, they might not do it first night though, if the solar lights dont give you enought light like this it will still help for you to use a low powered red filtered gun lamp/torch. You need bait that they cannot pick up and carry away ( peanut butter, runny cat food e c t ).

Dave (warbucks)

[pigeonian]

thanks for the reply ...the rats are used to the lights now as they are positioned round the bowl that the food is in .
got another 6 last night would of had more if i had of had a bit more light ....
i will try wot u said with the torch

cheers ian

[warbucks]

Ian.
With the gun lamp/torch, if you can just see a rats come out with the solar lights, but there's not enough light to see to shoot, start with the gun lamp on as lower brightness as you need to shoot with, and start with the lamp above the rat, then slowly bring it down onto the kill zone. If youve to scan with the lamp to find the rat in the first place, move the lamp slowly, when you see the rat at the edge of the beam, again move the beam above the rat and come slowly down on to it, and get the shot off as quick as possible, a red filter is good in two ways one is it doesnt spook the rats as much and two the rats eyes glow back at you red, giving you a perfect aiming point, just be careful moving the lamp about on the rat, because they see this as movement, and it can spook them. You sound to be doing very well so far, as there numbers get lower and the remaining rats wise up they will get harder to get, but its possible that you might just about get them before they have chance to wise up, keep up the good work.

Dave (warbucks)

[pigeonian]

cheers dave being quite new i am trying to take in as much as i can ....always had an air rifle laying about but after reading through dozens of topics on here didnt realise how tactical shooting can be .....

thinking of buying a walther 3x9x56 illuminated scope as i had one of these on a rifle i had a few year ago and when the light went to minimum what i can remember shooting in same allotment this scope was really clear .....only reason i know its this scope as tnite i found the original box in the attic ....i bought this from a gun shop in gloucester about 10 yr ago with a hw97k while i was working down there ....

good choice or not ?????

[Bellycrawler]

The Deben Atom with a dimmer might be worth considering as well

[mattrob1502]

Have you considered buying yourself a Gen 1+ night vision scope you can get one for about £250.00 to £300 and at the ranges you are probably shooting at you would get loads and no light problems to worry about, this would mean that you would have a dedicted rifle for the purpose so could get expensive.

Or you could get an add on (a night vision device that attaches to your dayscope), often they come up for sale on here

I know its an expense but you cant beat night vision i have just come back from rabbiting tonight and my Dad has 9 rabbits ready for him in the morning all taken with a night vision scope (albeit it is a Gen 2+ unit) it just makes shooting in the dark so much easier

Failing that then what about a torch with a red filter attached, i found that a red filter doesnt seem to bother them as much as white light does.

Whatever works for you, all the best

Vince

[probuck]

You can take the cheap option or go all out with night vision.
I used the HW100KT .177 with a hawke night eye 4-9x50 IR zerod at 30 yards with a 70 meter deben stinger tracer with a red filter just a few nights ago and my mate had a BSA scorpion T10 .22 with a night vision scope zerod 10 yards. He shot 8 within an hour, i didnt even get chance to see a rat nevermind shoot one! It depends on your budget but night vision will always make a set up like mine look inferea, well it did the other night