rat shooting at night

[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

[warbucks]

Hi Ian
For ratting ive used a Hawk 3x9x40 map6 scope and it been spot on, as for your idea of getting a Walther 3x9x56 ill scope, ive tried illuminated scopes and i found that even on the lowest setting it was too bright, your eye was picking up the cross hair and you lost the rat behind, the 3x9x56 spec should be ok???, but for a ratting/allround scope a wide angle scope is of more use than highish mag. Ian as a suggestune if you thinking about treating yourself to a new scope, what about getting one that is known to work well with a night vison add on (Cobra Merlin e c t) this will then do your norml day shooting and if you later choose to go night vison add on, you dont have to buy a scope again. Over the last few weeks ive use the Cobra merlin n/v on a M T C cobra 3x9x50 for short distance rat shooting and there very good, with a laser there capable of getting out to 80 yds, AGS and Falcon scopes are also compatable with n/v add ons. Over the last four years ive averaged over 50 rats per week all at one permission with a v/p red filtered gun lamp, but at differant places rats act differantly, some times even a little bit of red light and there off, if there used to total darkness.

Dave (warbucks)

[pigeonian]

once again loads of advice to ponder on


thanx guys

really really tempeted by this

http://cgiWalther-3-9x56-Illuminated...item35a2095dd1

####