Ideal rat shooting rig?

[Chris St. MH]

I've been doing a bit of rat shooting lately and enjoying it immensely. When you live on the coast, rat shooting opportunities are never in short supply. However, I'm getting fed-up of hefting a full length Axsor around in the car or my friend's Trooper. I'm also finding that even FAC .22 doesn't stop these things with centre mass hits. I have .22 and .22WMR rifles, but they're also full-length, not silenced and I often shoot around rocks, livestock, inside buildings etc. where rimfires aren't ideal. Likewise a shotgun would be a bit on the loud side (unless silenced) and, worse still, take the fun out of the game.

What I'd like to know is what would you recommend for ratting in confined spaces? I'm looking for something compact and hard hitting with a decent number of shots per fill or self contained. I don't care whether or not it's FAC. A calibre larger than .22 might be in order. I've never taken a shot at more than 20 yards.

[Gary C]

.25 falcon fn12 would just about do it for me. Sub 12ft/lbs would be a nice trajectory

[Born Again]

And 20 yds is definite hollow point territory.

[RichardH]

BSA 635 Magnum (.25 Mercury 12" barrel) would be ideal.

Fast to load, stick an aimpoint on top.

Perfect

Or my current favourite FAC Winchester 9410 (Lever action Winchester 94 in .410 shotgun) again with an aimpoint

Richard

[Gary C]

And 20 yds is definite hollow point territory.

with .25 not needed, and I'm not convinced they stop a rat any better than a domed. I don't think there's enough resistance to open them unless you hit something solid, in which case a domed will stop them quick enough

[shuckers]

for fast fire can't go wrong with a skan m32,hand stays on the grip shift,nice and compact I've been using Bobs predators for ratting in the barns no problems

[Craig-P]

And 20 yds is definite hollow point territory.

Makes no difference, as Chris already said they sometimes run from his .22 FAC, I've personally seen them scarper from .22lr too - people don't realise just how tough they can be.
I used an old Rapid MK1 .22 to great effect but found the mag a pain in the @rse ( my mate and I were shooting between 80 and 200 rats PER NIGHT on a refuse site ). With that amount of targets, at the quick pace that we used to shoot, I defy anyone not to either a. run out of pellets just as move targets show up and then have to faff about loading a mag or b. fire a barrel full of air thinking it's got a pellet chambered. An easy loading, single shot PCP would be my personal choice.
I'd have a look at getting a tricked up Stealth with a cheapish 3.5-10 scope ( one of those Leupold copies from E8ay would be nice ), sorted to use .22 Bisley Magnums, but a nice .25 setup would be very very good at close range stuff.

Craig

[ross H]

rats are tough but not as hard as squirells IMO. if you get ratty in the head he will be out like a dark barn. even with .177 they should go easily. i would go fn12 raptor in .22. low mount with a low mag scope say max zoom of 9. i normally shoot on about 5. s200 are also good for rats but they do seem to jam occasionally

[Craig-P]

But it's not everytime the head presents itself for a shot - and even if it does, that's a right small target to hit at much more than 25 yards, even more so if you take into account obstacles that are usually associated with a rats' natural environment ( I've not seen many grazing in clear pastures... )
It's at this point that .177 even with wadcutters, goes right out the window...

[Hsing-ee]

I'll have a nice .22 BSA Mercury S on sale soon, would be ideal with a low power scope and heavy pellets.

[Born Again]

It's difficult for me to imagine how a .22 FAC with hollow point ammo can not be more effective than the same setup with round head, I don't have FAC so I'll take your word for it. I'm not about to dive inside a rat but I'll dig some out of a squirrel and get some 12ft/lb pics (of the pellets). Nurse, the forceps please...

[ross H]

with .177 i just find you have to let them present a shot rather than guns blazin. the larger calibre is better. if your re zeroed at say 20 yards people should be able to hit the head of a rat anything between 5 and 25 yards surely. also if you shoot for the head and miss the chances are you will either hit the heart/lungs or completely miss. you could get a hw100k when they are available. they look good for rats because of size and the mags are good. if you want you can put the single shot adaptor on it

[lightning22]

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.

The grip cocking and indexing lets you keep your eye on the target(s) while you reload, power can be dropped at the flick of a switch and it's incredibly accurate.

It seems to fire most decent pellets well, I normally use 20.5grn Penetrators on the rats but will give some of these new predators a spin next time (they fit if you load the mag carefully)

It's also indecently light.

Rich

[Geordie]

The thing is, "centre mass" ain't gonna kill with any sort of consistency with an airgun of any power - you need to be getting either head(brain/stem) or heart/lung. Shoot anything in the guts and it'll just crawl off to die slowly...

Personally for ratting I rate something fast cycling - had great results with a Steyr LP5 in carbine format, taken hundreds with an AA410k as well, but now favouring either a pump-action Skan or martini-actioned Phoenix

Points taken about headshots being tricky, but at close range you should be well able to get the shot into the critical spot

[ross H]

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.

The grip cocking and indexing lets you keep your eye on the target(s) while you reload, power can be dropped at the flick of a switch and it's incredibly accurate.

It's also indecently light.

Rich

that sounds like a good setup. very cheap mags for these guns so you could have 5 or 6