rat hunting

[jamaldog87]

It's been really hot here in FL(it's was 85 that night) and i found a good spot for rat shooting( it's a old dump were poeple still dump at).  I fill in some of the hole during the day with water and there was only 3 hole openings that they could come out of. so at about 5pm i set up my kill zone. I put a red varmint light up in a tree above the holes pointed down so i could see , my new recurve bow(i got it for 1$ at the goodwill) with bunt arrows, my slingshot with 44cal. bullets, my 2200 and H&R.  I put the bow first in  my hands cause i only have 5 arrows and the first rats at 5 are the easiest.  at 5:36 one comes up and i fire a arrow and miss and fire again and still miss, i see one one come up from my left and i fire and hit him in the body and it's my first kill.  It's real dark now and it's time for lights and guns. More now were coming and running and it's like the way i hear parrie dog hunting was like with fast shooting. I fire off all 15 and kill 7 out right and i pick up the 2200 and take one as his head comes above ground and i quickly reload and  pick off 2 more on the run. I see that the airgun was too slow so it's back to the H&R and after 45 mins of stirght shoot 50 rats are dead, 20 were wounded, and untold numbers  had ran away. I kill the wounded and put all my stuff back in the cart and go home( the bugs are really bad too because it's been so hot). Next time i am ask my new friend to come cause this is so wild shooting.

[iiranger]

In the "good old days" before WW II, when he was young, the youths in the neighborhood could go the the lumberyard and pick up free boards from the scrap heap, almost full sized and useful... FREE... Try that today... His other "slobber" story, the "gang" would gather up the family rifles and air guns and all the ammo they could afford and go to the city dump and shoot rats. Sounded thrilling to me and I wanted to try it. No dice in my era. Insurance on the city dump forbid non employees... "Progressssss..."

b). If you are well nourished and getting plenty of vitamin B 1 / Thiamine, the body will excrete the extra out onto the surface of the skin and you will taste and smell AWFUL to bugs. You won't believe this until you do it and then you still won't believe while the bugs swarm but don't light, well, a few scouts will light and re confirm that you taste BAD... Now if you are living on twinkies and beer, taking 25 mg of Vit. B1... NO RESULTS... If you take a balanced B complex and 50 mg B1 ... Normal/natural source is liver. If you cannot take cooked liver (I CANNOT), you can take dried liver tablets and just swallow them. I can suck them to disintegration.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Enjoy. Luck.

P.S. Prairie dogs are 2nd cousins or so to rats, all rodents. Yes, it is shooting like this. But you don't have to travel as far!!!

[jamaldog87]

there a lot of area here that there lots of rats at. I have never seen so many in one place like that. I took about 10 the other night cause the rest have seen to not just run out there to get shot. I am a varmint hunter at heart and i will aways find something to shoot for coons to starings.

[woodchukhntr]

I used to like to go rat hunting in the days before landfills.  When I was a kid it kept us off the streets, I wonder if that is a part of the problem today?  I've used everything from a slingshot to a 12 ga.

[jamaldog87]

the pest hunting here is pretty good most of the year. some places the starling and rock dove shooting is like Argentina!!!

[woodchukhntr]

Lucky guy!  I haven't had decent pest hunting in years.  There was a farm that was overrun by pigeons that I hunted on.  The barn had a cupola in poor condition that they used to enter/leave and roost in.  I had a ball with a pellet gun for a couple of summers.  I would shoot a couple, they would leave and come back in a while.  I could do this 2 or 3 times before they would leave and not return until I left at dark.  When I came back the 3rd year, the farmer said that after the last time I was there, they didn't come back!!  One time I shot one that fell wounded to the barn floor, a young cat about the size of the bird came out and nailed it.  That was the proudest kitten you have ever seen.  I supposed he brought it back to his buddies and bragged about his hunting abilities.

[tn_junk]

There is a place near me, the riprap at a dam at one of the large reservoirs, that is just loaded with rats. I got run off by the police a couple of years ago for shooting them with my pellet gun. Maybe I will try the slingshot thing.

alan

[woodchukhntr]

When I was 20 (a looooong time ago), I had just gotten my NY pistol permit and was hunting a small dump in the evening with a friend.  We were having a ball, when a state trooper dropped in since it was adjacent to a road.  We was wondering what all the shooting was about.  So we told him.  He spotlighted the area , got out of the car, drew his revolver and was just about to start shooting, when reality struck him and he realized that there was no way he was going to be able to explain why he used his ammo shooting rats.  Even though I was young looking, he never asked to see my permit.  Boy things were simpler in those days!

That was the night I stepped on a skunk.  I had a flashlight taped under my .22 rifle and was paying more attention to what was happening some distance in front of me and not enough about what was happening right in front (the next step).  I stepped, felt something moving under my foot, and heard it squealing.  Oh-oh, this couldn't be good, I thought!  Pointing the light down, there was a skunk pinned to the ground with my foot at the base of it's tail.  Apparently it couldn't spray in that position, and it couldn't turn around and bite me!  Kind of like wrestling where you have your opponent pinned!  I pondered shooting it, but figured that it would somehow spray as it died.  My buddy had no solution and was too busy laughing to be of any help, so I picked the clearest path, jumped off it and ran like the devil was chasing me!  After clearing what I figured was a safe distance in record time, I saw the critter shake itself off and sort of rapidly walk away.

Boy, I miss rat shooting!

[IMshooter]

Once upon a time I was a young airman stationed in Spain.  One evening a couple of friends and I decided to take our pistols to a nearby dump and shoot rats by flashlight.  It was almost dark when we got there and started loading up on the hood of our car.  Just then a couple of Guardia Civil policemen drove up to check us out.  Seeing our pistols they jumped out of their Renault patrol car, pulled the bolts back on their 9mm sub machine guns, and shouted, "Que pasa!?"  That is Spanish for "What's happening!?"  We told them in Spanish we were hunting.  Then they asked what we were hunting, and we did not know the Spanish word for rats!  But the cops got the idea, put the machine guns away, and mooched our cigarettes before telling us we could not shoot the rats at night and to come back during the day.

[ihuntbucks]

Back when I was a teen,we would go to the local dump to shot rats.Hit them with flood lamps and pop'em off with out .22 autos.Man that was a great time!!You're lucky if you can do that today.Too much government,red tape,ect...HAVE FUN..............Rick

[woodchukhntr]

I guy that I worked with in the '80's took a girl on their first date to a dump to shoot rats.  They have been married now for 35 - 40 years.  It must have been a good night on the dump.

[jamaldog87]

rats and varmints are what i  cut me teeth on. I have been hunting them with all kinds of things form the age of six up to now. Form 6- about 8 we use home made spears,bows, slingshots and rocks to kill rats and snakes.