Rats?

[libs]

Bit of a strange one, headed out at 0630 today with the 12 bore and .22 with the intention of bumping into a few pigeons and rabbits. After missing one rabbit at ~70 yards (still getting to know the rimfire) all the others ******** off and that was that. Shot a few corvids with the shotgun, got bored and decided to head up to the farmhouse for a cup of tea.

 

On my way up I walked past the now empty cattle shed and noticed a carpet of large rats eating some feed... directly below a 'rat-repelling device' They were so brazen, continuing to eat with me only 10 yards away. I couldn't use the shotgun as there were horses very close and a water line ran about 6 inches above the straw line along the concrete I wished to use as a backstop. I was slightly hesitant about using .22 against solid concrete so i decided to disturb the rats and banked the straw/ **** / mud up against the wall and retired back about 30 yards to sit on a bale at the other end of the empty barn. 10 minutes later the vermin popped back out of their tunnels and twack I got my first one, waited another 10 mins surfing facebook on the iphone and sorting pub timings for the week and they popped out again. Another .22 sub, another rat in the bag.

 

Did this for an hour until I was needed elsewhere, bloody good fun if you ask me. Looking forward to my next session of chilled brown rat bashing! Very different shooting but I throughly enjoyed it.

 

The rubbish picture below gives some idea of what I was doing, it was certainly interesting shooting between two bars

 

[Bowen20]

I loved rat shooting it was ace it's some of the best shooting ever. And the best thing about it is they just keep coming back out even in the day. I preferr lamping them but shooting through the day is good too. I used to shoot them with the .17HMR they used to make a real nice thud. Now that was excellent lol. I wish I had more rat shooting permission it's definitely up there with foxing for me.