RAT HUNTING CHRONICLES

by Ron Stephen

As the sun is about to set over the Chicken buildings/Ratting grounds. Time to gear up and get ready for the nightly invasion of fury terrorists…

The buildings are all connected, covering over 2 acres, of Rat-o-mania.

That’s a LOT of rats!

The silo’s are full of chicken feed that is automatically mechanically distributed through-out the chicken cages containing 25,000 to 50,000 chickens…

Row, after row, after row, of mechanical driven automatic feeders, providing a “Free-for-All-Feeding”. When the lights go out,… the rats COME out, (in DROVES !)

Rows, and rows, and more rows of chickens with open troughs of feed available 24/7. with this much grain spread through-out the building, it’s easy to see why there are thousands of rats each night

Here is where they will be moving up in the rafters, right over your head, behind you, in front of you, beside you, between your feet, and all around you.

Yes, several times I have considered taping up my pant legs so they don’t go crawling up my leg! EWWwwwww!

OK, So,… moving on.

Weapons of choice.

Low to medium powered single projectile type guns do work very well. Either Co2 or low pressure HPA/PCP guns do very well,… BUT !,… they do have some disadvantages. Those disadvantages include the fact that you will be shooting in near total darkness, using only a flashlight to hunt them by.

Green lights works OK, and are better than standard white lights, but Red lights seem to work a little better. This is because the anatomy of a rats eye has different “Rods and Cones” as compared to Human eyes. Humans see a color spectrum of Red, Blue, Green.

Rats see a spectrum of Blue, Green, and low I.R.,… (they do not see Red the same way we do).

They see red as more of a “Grey shade” (almost like a shadow)… and therefore they do not Alert and Spook as quickly when using a red light for spotting them.

Another disadvantage to using a single projectile type of gun is that the rats are being shot at ranges usually in the 15′ to 45′ range. (we are talking FEET, not Yards here). this means that zeroing a gun with a scope for this short of distances is almost impossible. if you zero a scope for only say 25 FEET,… then the “Line of Sight” vs. the “Line of Flight” is extremely narrow. sometimes as low as only 6 to12 INCHES closer or further than you 25′ zero.

Seems easy right ?,… but here’s the deal,…

when you DO spot that rat at the perfect zero distance,… he is RARELY sitting still, AANNNNDDD, he is either moving towards you or away from you.

Now remember,… It’s almost COMPLETELY DARK, and you are trying to find a MOVING rat, moving through the rafters, using a fairly dim red light. By the time you actually ACQUIRE him as a target, he is no longer at that sweet 25 or 30 feet. SOOoooo,…. that means you catch him stopping at say 15 feet from you,… OR,… maybe its 40 feet from you, and you’ve only got 2 or 3 seconds before he starts moving again.

So at this same moment, is when you are trying to figure out,…

“OK, Now do I give it 1 mil-dot Hold under ?”,… “or is that 2 1/2 mild dots Hold over”,…. or,… “oh crap,…. nevermind,… he’s moving again” ! LOL !

Trust me,… it’s not as easy as it may seem to be shooting rats at such close quarters. you basically just have to experience it to understand it.

It can actually be pretty exciting, AND is SOOoooo Much FUN you won’t believe it!

So SCOPED guns present there own challenges in these conditions, and “Open Sights” or “Iron sights” actually are BETTER than scopes.

Here’s a couple of scoped guns I’ve used for the job…

Also, Red Dot type sights are a bit better than scopes, because they generally are mounted lower to the bore of the gun, but,… they still do suffer somewhat similar issues as a scoped gun, trying to zero at such close range.

Should I hold over the dot ?, Under the dot ? Where’d he go? how far is he away? Is he moving towards me? Away from me? man it’s so dark, Where’d he go again ? Do you see him yet ? OOHHHH THERE HE IS, right over your Head ! HEY, Duck Down and Hold Still While I shoot ! … DANG IT ! My flashlight battery just went dead ! Just stay still where you are, and I’ll try not to hit you !

SO, the moral to the story is, if you will be using a “single projectile shooter” for close range,…Then open sights and a good red light are the best choice.

(Of course there are then the guys who have Night Vision set-ups on there guns, which makes shooting the rats at 20-30-50 yards possible), AND THAT MEANS, you no longer have such a short window of usable zero’d distances….

but that’s an entirely different subject !

OK,…. so what’s a guy to do ? ? ?

Well,…This type of shooting is absolutely perfect for the old vintage Trapmaster’s , with their limited power and range. Add a little creative ingenuity and a custom fitted weaver rail,… a small flashlight in a scope ring,… and Waa-Laaa ! ! !,..

You’ve got yourself one HECK of a “In the Dark at Close Range Ratter Gun” !

Here’s mine…