rat shooting at night

[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

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[pigeonian]

going to try the torch with a red filter tnite .let you know how it goes

cheers ian

[Ruger Red]

Looking forward to hearing how people get on with red filters as couldn't contemplate nv with my budget.

[daveuk]

A friend and i used to have a rat shoot on a farm many years ago. he bought a lamp that you couldve signalled Batman with and unsurprisingly unless we were quick, when the lamp went on, the rats would scarper.

He then purchased a red filter for it and the difference it made was amazing.

This was before NV was commonplace though so i think if the funds were available NV would probably be the most efficient method but then sometimes its the challenge thats the fun part. Unless of course you have a real vermin problem and ruthless efficiency is what you need.

As i said though i've never used NV so i can only go from what others say on that subject.

Good luck and enjoy your ratting!

[jenky]

night vision isnt really a viable option yet.

the garden i full of bushes and mesh fences you have to shoot threw and all you get is flash back with the IR light.

my plan is still the best i can think of, ill be ordering some IR led flood lights to set up inside the shoot area so we can stand back threw the bushes and behind the fence but the light will only be in the area we want to be shooting in. so we should be able to view threw all the bstructions without the glare of the IR whiting out the nv.

the range we were shooting at was under 10 yards. we sat on the path and a rat was sniffing at my jacket while we were sat.

ive used the red filter on the torch and i thought it worked ok but you said it was scaring them away?