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Pellets for rats


bluesj
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A flat head pellet in .177 is a fantastic  pellet for rats as long as your not shooting them beyond  25 yds .as the energy will drop off quickly. 

If you want a bit more range but still the thump you can try the h+n hunter extreems. Excellent on rats  .Ps.

Ive shot thousands of rats with a  .177 pump up pistol at around 10 -15 yds and it killed better than a .22 roundhead at 11.5 fpe  .

The key to killing em is a fast light pellet that delivers all its energy in as short a distance as possible .= .177 wadcutter 

Rws hobby /co2 pell being my fave  

36 minutes ago, snipper said:

Jsb heavies or good old Bisley mags 

These are the opposite of whats ideal .

They will pass straight through the rat delivering little energy to the beast and go on to bounce about inside a barn 

Making close range ratting in a shed a bit dangerous  .

Edited by Ultrastu
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13 minutes ago, spurs 14 said:

My hw100 is super accurate with Diablo field pellets so that’s what I’ve stuck too on all quarry , 

Can't argue with the diabolos being accurate, after just a few shots I was hitting a .22rf end on. I was just wondering if there was something as good but would deliver more of its energy into the target.  

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The key here is the range your expecting to shoot the rats  .An air arms field will be best if your expecting to be shooting at 25 yds + 

But thats usually a long ratting shot ime.

If your gonna shoot them around 15 yds then why not give your self the advantage of a flat head (accuracy should  still be fine ) ps air arms do flat head pellet and they are very good (for accuracy and rat splatability ) 

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42 minutes ago, Ultrastu said:

A flat head pellet in .177 is a fantastic  pellet for rats as long as your not shooting them beyond  25 yds .as the energy will drop off quickly. 

If you want a bit more range but still the thump you can try the h+n hunter extreems. Excellent on rats  .Ps.

Ive shot thousands of rats with a  .177 pump up pistol at around 10 -15 yds and it killed better than a .22 roundhead at 11.5 fpe  .

The key to killing em is a fast light pellet that delivers all its energy in as short a distance as possible .= .177 wadcutter 

Rws hobby /co2 pell being my fave  

These are the opposite of whats ideal .

They will pass straight through the rat delivering little energy to the beast and go on to bounce about inside a barn 

Making close range ratting in a sed dangerous  .

Who mentioned close range ..... most .177 will penetrate  at close range .....

If your shooting close range with a single shot you can also load the pellets skirt first (obviously not with the hw100) 

Stick with diabolos and don't over think things ......

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Its the nature of ratting .having done loads of it for a long time . 

Shots are usually taken between 5 and 20 yds  .

Some much closer  .i can think of probably only  5    30yd+   shots ever .

And ive tried  3 cals , loads of different pellet designs at different  energies .

And a sub 12 .177 wad cutter is the king  imo. It allows  you to take shots on a rat in the front half of the body. Not being restricted  to head shots .this means that u can hit them walking along beams if your good  .

Also the safety aspect isnt to be readily disregarded .

I swapped from .22 cal pellet as one of the  chicken barns i shot in had a lot of ply wood   around it .and a shot that went through a rat (which would often jump and run ) would bounce off the ply and around inside the barn.in the dark (using nv) its very scary .

The.177s  stopped this and i felt comfortable taking shots on rats at up to 3 yds .

 

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1 minute ago, Ultrastu said:

Pretty sure a 25 year old tin of pellets will be massively oxidized and wont do your gun or lungs much good  .

Let alone be accurate  .

They are likely to damage your oring on the mag   

Surprisingly they look as good as new, they are lubed  

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I only have a 22 and it’s a old spring break barrel but over the last 15 years I have put thousands of pellets, it’s accurate and has killed most things over the years.

I keep my air gun shooting simple, domed pellets for everything, they are the best all rounder.

If I want to splat a rat at close range I just put one in backwards! Simples 😀😀

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Pretty much any pellet I've ever fired at a rat has gone through regardless of flat or domed or 177 or 22. They don't seem to have a bone thicker than rizla paper in their body. 

Just be careful in barns as you can cause damage to the thin roofs or catch one rebounding. 

Flat heads reduce it but not by much imo.  

If it's possibly try baiting them, a tin of cat food with holes punched in it does the trick and then you can put it where you like as  they can't carry it away. And a head shot rat don't care what hit it. 

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33 minutes ago, GingerCat said:

Pretty much any pellet I've ever fired at a rat has gone through regardless of flat or domed or 177 or 22. They don't seem to have a bone thicker than rizla paper in their body. 

Just be careful in barns as you can cause damage to the thin roofs or catch one rebounding. 

Flat heads reduce it but not by much imo.  

If it's possibly try baiting them, a tin of cat food with holes punched in it does the trick and then you can put it where you like as  they can't carry it away. And a head shot rat don't care what hit it. 

Good advice, only part I do disagree on is the headshotting bit. 
 

I head shot every species with exception of rats and sometimes magpies. Rats always just get a boiler room shot, don’t want to be missing the horrible creatures messing about with a headshot. They don’t travel very far with a shot to front end in my experience. It’s got to be more humane than poison either way.

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I watched a short clip of a rat getting shot last week,  I seem to watch quite a few, who doesn't like rats getting shot.

The rat was shot with a 16 grain pellet from a crossman doing 8ft/lbs the fella said, close range dead, no movement no twitching or helicopter tail.

I do find if one pops up and I'm loaded with an accupell I have to have soil behind it because I know the pellets will whizz through, I know the pellet can bounce off concrete. 

That's why I use pest control when I know I'm ratting. 

I watched another video and the guy was using a .177 shot a rat on a beam and you could clearly see the hole appear in the corrugated concrete behind it,  what was behind the concrete or asbestos I've no idea.

1 hour ago, zipdog said:

head shot every species with exception of rats

Absolutely,  crosshairs on the chest POP! I hit one in the garden last year, it was peeping  out so aiming for the head,  it pulled back ever so slightly as I shot, took out both eyes and needed a follow up shot.

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I’ve shot a good few rats down the years with different calibers and pellets. For the last lot I used .22 JSB Exact Jumbo RS out of a sub 12 ft lb springer. These pellets are only 13.43g and give good expansion. I never had so much as a twitch out of any of them.

Edited by Whitebridges
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