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Shooting Rats


Sammy_D
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Good evening guys. At my farm we have a rather large skip. Every morning around 8 I usually see 4 or 5 big old rats running around the yard. I dont get time to shoot in the day but was thinking of camping out for a few hours at night to shoot them. Now what I was wondering is instead of a nightvision scope what else can I easliy see them with and pick them off without scaring off. I.e if I shine a big lamp/light on them, will they run off.

 

My other question is what colour light would I need. Im told rats cant see red. Is a red lamp easy to see them with?

 

Thanks

 

Sammy D :good:

Edited by Sammy_D
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As far as I'm aware it is illegal to hunt quarry using night vision in the uk?? I'm near certain theres already a topic covering this elsewhere on the forum :good: As for filters any time I've read/seen people shooting rats at night they have been red.

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Quarry is a general term for live animals that can be hunted. So rats, pigeons, magpies, rabbits and crows etc are all considered legitimate quarry. As for the night vision thing, theres something in the law that states you cannot use night vision of any sort to assist you in hunting quarry. Lamps with or without filters are alright but for some reason NV isn't. I'm sure theres someone on here that could post the specifics of what I'm trying to explain lol.

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Sammy,

 

I have NV equipment but don't use it for shooting rats. We still have a lot of crops in store, and the little whiskered tossers seem resistant to almost all poisons. We don't have enough rats to warrant a full-scale assault using terriers and smoke generators, but they still need to be controlled.

 

I prefer to hunt them down with a .410 fitted with a Beamshot laser marker, and a lamp fitted with a dimmer.

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vermin can be hunted with NV, as many of us do.

 

if you don't want to go down that route - a low wattage light in the vicinity of the rats is ideal - it will take them a few days to get used to it, but once they do you could then bait the area (peanut butter is good, cos they can't run off with it) and lie out in wait.

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Quarry is a general term for live animals that can be hunted. So rats, pigeons, magpies, rabbits and crows etc are all considered legitimate quarry. As for the night vision thing, theres something in the law that states you cannot use night vision of any sort to assist you in hunting quarry. Lamps with or without filters are alright but for some reason NV isn't. I'm sure theres someone on here that could post the specifics of what I'm trying to explain lol.

 

 

You are thinking of the Game act, the General licence, and the deer act.

 

These stop you shooting Pest birds (apart from feral pigeons) Game, and deer with NV (or with lamps, for that matter).

 

There is nothing along these lines in the mammal act(s) so it is perfectly legal.

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Shooting vermin with night vision kit is perfectly fine, i use a cobra merlin and when i call the police to let them know i`m out i tell them to make a note i`m using night vision equipment and that if people hear gunshots but see no light it`s just little old me, that and if some plum of a policeman comes out he doesn`t nearly blind me by scanning a searchlight of a torch at me, which has happened before.

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