A local hog farmer has a big problem - rats, hundreds of them.
Obviously can't place poison baits and can't shoot lead shot for fear the hogs (6000 of them) may eat the pellets.
I am going to try a solution by loading hard sorgum seed in place lead pellets. Tried a few loads on paper and the patten at 10yards
is awesome.
Any other suggestions are welcome!
Hold Still Varmint; while I plugs Yer!
You could try rock salt
Von Gruff.
Exodus 20:1-17
Acts 4:10-12
BB gun ? Jedman
You want a good airgun shooting non lead pellets. .177 tends to be faster but IMO lacks punch.
Sheridan 5mm's would do it, you control power.
A more modern PCP repeater in .22 would certainly work. Some use night vision, some use red lights to bring up the eyeshine.
Lots of head shots.
One shot with a shotgun even with rocksalt or sorgham and you will spook every rat inside 150 yards.
Where with a good quiet airgun you can sit there and take one or 2 shots a minute for hours.
Best of course is to find a place where the rats are thick and the hogs can't get to, and pellets can't get to the hogs. Like under the floor. Set yourself up a hide and be prepared for some shooting.
Here is a video of how it is done.
Last edited by GhostHawk; 04-08-2017 at 09:55 PM.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".
Benjamin Franklin
Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
James Madison
If their hog barns are set up like the ones here there is no "Under floor" but a deep concrete tank with the floor above slats. This allows waste to fall thru and be liquefied and easily pumped out. The other issue with the abundance of food available the term rat brings on new meaning these can get fairly big in these barns. Due to the abundance of food poisons don't work as well either. ANother that might work close is rice or a coarse ground walnut shell.
If you want to shoot them then have at it. If you want to supplement your sporting activities to get rid of them, then you can use google images to search 'bucket rat trap' and you'll get the idea behind a simple, cheap, always-armed rat trap. Some people use antifreeze, I used high concentration salt water. It pickles the rats and keeps it from going rancid and reeking if you're not around to clean it out, and it keeps it from freezing in the winter months too. Of course the issue of smell may be moot if it's at a hog farm, in which case it'd be non-toxic and the rats can double as high protein hog feed.
Any reason why you couldn't use steel shot? Being non toxic if they do eat some it should pass right through without doing any damage. I don'y know of any bio-degradable stuff that would be heavy enough to carry the energy required,,, field pea's maybe????
Me and a friend use to hunt little terriers years ago, there was a chicken farm we would hit often that was absolutely plagued with Ratts! We did this at night with flashlights, We would slide a big door open and the Ratts would try and flee, the Concrete floor looked like it was moving! We would each take a Wall line to turn as many as we could (ratts like to run a wall line) i even duct taped my coverall pant legs to my boots so no worries of them getting up my pant leg (you could feel them bouncing off ya!!!) the little terriers would DESTROY a ton of them. 150 Ratts in an evening was a normal number. We would pile them in the chicken manure to be ground into fertilizer. GROSS is an understatement! This chicken farm was owned by a Vietnamese family (maybe they ate them? lol) We wore protective clothing, stripped down and changed afterwards.
Looking back it would have been a BLAST to sit and shoot them with an air rifle
Winchester now has a .22 load with Tin boolits.
Currently casting and loading: .32 Auto, .380 Auto, .38 Special, 9X19, .357 Magnum, .257 Roberts, 6.5 Creedmoor, .30 WCF, .308 WCF, .45-70.
Skip one day of feeding the hogs. The rat issue will be temporarily over tomorrow.
I am for the night vision and good air rifle. years ago we had .22 gallery loads. they were shorts and loaded with sintered iron hit any thing and they just come apart. they were made for shooting galleries at carnivals.
I shot some rats with them and there was never a exit hole.
+1, hogs will eat near anything or anyone if they get hungry. Don't skip feed too long, or they'll eat each other.Originally Posted by dbosman
BDGR
Seems that hog farming and rats seem to go together. We found that a .410 loaded with white rice did a nice close area job.Robert
No, no, no, no, no! Guys- you have it all wrong! Barrel trap with ramp, iron rod with soup can smeared with peanut butter. Leave the bottom empty! As the rats get caught, they get hungry. Eventually they eat each other. You RELEASE the last one in the barrel! He now has a taste for his cousins, hunts them for you! Problem solved! Of course I do like shooting games myself, but this way is much more devious!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would try this. It works well with mice around here I know a couple people who have done this with success. RATS I don't know they are smart and large.If you want to shoot them then have at it. If you want to supplement your sporting activities to get rid of them, then you can use google images to search 'bucket rat trap' and you'll get the idea behind a simple, cheap, always-armed rat trap. Some people use antifreeze, I used high concentration salt water. It pickles the rats and keeps it from going rancid and reeking if you're not around to clean it out, and it keeps it from freezing in the winter months too. Of course the issue of smell may be moot if it's at a hog farm, in which case it'd be non-toxic and the rats can double as high protein hog feed.
Wooden bullets, blow gun darts?
I'd just go for a bucket or maybe a trash can trap for a serious infestation. Not nearly as much fun.
Might try "darts". Try some of those 6" bamboo skewers in a good break barrel .177 rifle.
That's what I'm talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIlYiiCGLI
This is set up for mice- might need to scale it up a bit for rats. The CDC has put out that Lyme Disease in the North East is going to ramp up this year due to a sharp increase in mice population- getting rid of tick taxies makes good sense on lots of levels.
The essence of education is self reliance- T.H. White.
Currently seeking wood carving tools, wood planes, froes, scorps, spokeshaves... etc....
Posting Permissions
| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
Reply With Quote