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Thread: How Large Can a Rat Get?

  1. #1
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    How Large Can a Rat Get?

    Been looking over the HW 100 Owners page on FB and this chap posted photos of his latest rat shoot. Amongst a dozen or so normal size rats, about 9"~10" there was one the size of a fully grown rabbit and even thicker than that. I thought he was joking and it was a leg pull but no it is a damned rat. He said that he had shot this size rat before . Have you guys ever shot or come across something so large?

    A.G

  2. #2
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    Mmmm...and there's me thinking they couldn't get bigger than Tony Blair.....

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    Quote Originally Posted by SRV1 View Post
    Mmmm...and there's me thinking they couldn't get bigger than Tony Blair.....


    A.G

  4. #4
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    We have a few nutria here and they do get up to around a yard long. They look very much like a rat. I had a really good laugh at a roofing helper because of one of them. He was looking in the back yard where we were looking at a chimney leak and there were 2 of these things. Both were pretty much full size and my helper was ready to vacate the job site until I explained that they weren't really rats.

  5. #5
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    Ah, sweet memories......Falkland Islands 82, overheard a message saying there was a rat in one of the tents; went along with a spade to help others find and kill it. Much amusement, had I even seen an FI rat? Well no I hadn't.....until a few nights later, yomping under blackout conditions, came upon a low wall; on top of the wall is a RAT - I've seen smaller dogs! Mucho respect from then on, certainly didn't pay to meet one unarmed!

  6. #6
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    Not for many years, on the farm I grew up on, we had a lab that caught rats the size of a big cat, remember bumping into one that had picked some poison up in the middle of the day, it just sat in the yard hunched up looking at me, it made me think twice about rats I don't mind admitting, not seen anything that size for a good few years though.
    Last edited by Rabid; 30-05-2017 at 01:43 AM.

  7. #7
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    Used to have a rat and feral pigeon shoot in a factory that made whey protein, the buggers (rats) were pumped up and very strong, saw a Huge one drag a shot feral down a hole. Suppose it depends what they feed on. Caught a large one in my live trap that filled the cage, it was nearly strong enough to push back open the sprung cage door. I thumped a hollow nose pellet into it in a bit of a panick!!

  8. #8
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    used to be a grain mill near my folks . there was huge rats there. like cats .

  9. #9
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    the biggest rat i have ever shot was 28 -nches long from tip of nose to tip of tail,
    this was several years back on a farm shoot near a pheasant feeder, there was a large
    colony of rats, and i had the pleasure of taking them out , this huge rat was the alpha male but a
    .22 bis mag through the head cured his problems i had no tape measure so got a stick from the nearby hedge ,and cut a notch where the rats head was then another notch where its tail ended
    and was surprised when i got home and tape measured it. i have never seen another rat this big
    before!!!!!
    atb brian

  10. #10
    Unframed Dave's Avatar
    Unframed Dave is offline World pork pie juggling champion three years straight
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    As long as the shooters arms.

    Dave
    Smell my cheese

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Unframed Dave View Post
    As long as the shooters arms.

    Dave
    Or imagination and tendency to exaggerate.
    **WANTED**: WEBLEY PATRIOT MUZZLE END; Any Diana/Original mod.50 parts, especially OPEN SIGHTS

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by FPoole View Post
    We have a few nutria here and they do get up to around a yard long. They look very much like a rat. I had a really good laugh at a roofing helper because of one of them. He was looking in the back yard where we were looking at a chimney leak and there were 2 of these things. Both were pretty much full size and my helper was ready to vacate the job site until I explained that they weren't really rats.
    We don't call them Nutria over here, Mr Poole --- we call them Coypu.

    There was a big Coypu population in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s but they have now been pretty much eradicated.




    All the best Mick

  13. #13
    Unframed Dave's Avatar
    Unframed Dave is offline World pork pie juggling champion three years straight
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    Still see them around here now and again mick.

    Dave
    Smell my cheese

  14. #14
    Randy Bohannon's Avatar
    Randy Bohannon is offline “Junes1 is a whining bellend”
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    The size of a small cat.

    Felt under gunned with the .22lr
    "An infinite number of monkeys banging away at type writers for an infinite period of time will eventually reproduce Hamlet" Thanks to discussion forums we now know this to be untrue.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Unframed Dave View Post
    Still see them around here now and again mick.

    Dave
    I'm just going on the Defra report from a couple of years ago, Dave.

    In the 1960s the local cattle market used to have a display of stuffed animals that were classed as vermin in the UK, fifty years later I still have nightmares about encountering a hungry Coypu.

    I like Capybaras though.

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