Invaded

[jjjohn]

Well for some unknown reason we have had rat after rat appearing down the garden
usually from about 8pm onwards.We have only the other week replaced the old shed for
a shiny new one so that is /was a worry.In the last 8 days Ive shot one of them every evening
however they were quite big ones now much smaller ones are showing up.At first I nailed them with my .22 Gamo GX 40
but just about an hour or so ago I gave my .177 HW 99S a try.Iv'e always been a .22 fan but tonight I can see why some shooters like the smaller calibre,my 99s is running at 11.3 and with a superdome flying at ''warp speed'' towards another rat
it hit so hard ratty did a high backflip and was stone dead on landing back on the ground. Anyway has anyone else seen an increase in rodent activity? I'll be shining my torch through the dining room window again soon and i'm pretty certain there will be another one.
Thanks to my tinbum tuned 99s that last rat didn't know what hit it.

[TonyL]

Luckily I've never had such a problem here and I've only ever had to shoot them on permissions years ago. Very well done on your efforts and I'm sure you'll have sorted them all out very soon.
I'd always favoured my trusted .22 Hobby for Roland duties but you've just proved to yourself the effectiveness of the .177 on rats which a good few others have also pointed out in more recent and enlightened times. Keep up the good work.

[MartynB]

I'd always favoured my trusted .22 Hobby for Roland duties

When I had a rat shoot in the 1980's the .22 Hobby was very effective out of the Innova and made a distinctive noise on impact of a rats skull

[Bellycrawler]

Another vote for flat heads.

[PCPShooter]

Yes, unusually high amount of rats (just in largish garden / round chickens etc) for first time since covid, was just saying same thing

I usually enjoy a bit of NV sniping, but it's turning into a chore now ..

[angrybear]

I normally have a few under the sheds feeding on bird feeder spillage but at the moment there are no "game trails".

Scorpion .25 with an ATN 3-6 thermal deals with any that do appear.

[howdener]

Whereabouts in Hull do you live john? My old work partner lives down Bricknell Ave and has loads

[jjjohn]

Near Sutton mate.
Re ammo its Superdomes in.177
Bisley pest control in .22.

[rapidresponse1]

since ive took my bird table down only se the odd one lad at back of me keeps pigeons so we are always going to have them

[Neil54]

Funnily enough I am the complete opposite.
There used to be a trail to and from my bird feeder. This year nothing.

[robthedog]

I had one job(10 acres) where i worked one day a week, the wood area was over run with them, they even got in to the house, a few were trapped in there, then they just disappeared within a week, now only see the odd one
I did shoot one there, in the wood, it was that big it actually got stuck trying to get through the 2" diamond mesh fencing, it was huge, .25 80 with polymags took care of it though

[rapidresponse1]

ive seen some big ones in the past

[Waddy]

There are rats near us, unfortunately there is a "special" lady who feeds the ducks grain on an evening, & unsurprisingly it's drawn in a few rats. I dread to think what it's like in the houses right next to where she is leaving the grain. Not hard to see several rats at once near dusk where she leaves the food, the problem is it's not the sort of place you could shoot, maybe a proficient catapult user could whack a few.

Had a big one at the patio door last year when it dropped very cold, my wife rang me at work terrified it was going to get in. Probably shouldn't watch so many "creature features" lol. Wish I'd been at home though.


.

[burtucantbeserious]

Bird feeders please put well away from house and buy a decent pair of binoculars to see the main attraction, because if not you get holes and runs right by your front door. Baited rats years ago with chocolate and all sorts of goodies, strangely whilst sitting waiting at the neighbours house with gen1 nv. After my darling partner of the time had let the dogs out into the garden to releive themselves, didn't scoop it and had a perfect target.Strangely better than chocolate and peanut butter, job done.The arguments we had to move the bloody bird feeder away from the house beggers belief.

[where's it gone]

Fenn mk4 trap. in a tunnel does away sitting rock still in the oncoming weather.
The setting and releasing caught dead rats keep to on your toes as the danger of physical harm is present.
Remember, there's never one rat.