Changes To French Gun Laws

[Coypu Hunter 486]

You seen the price of the ProSport in France? 1218€ for the 12 fpe .177!!!

 

Don't forget, his wife is tapping her foot and holding a very large carving knife while he's considering his budget...

[Nicepix 5,650]

You seen the price of the ProSport in France? 1218€ for the 12 fpe .177!!!

 

Don't forget, his wife is tapping her foot and holding a very large carving knife while he's considering his budget...

Nowhere near that in the UK - around £480. Cheaper than a quality PCP and plenty of second hand ones about. No requirement for a pump or air tank either.

[Coypu Hunter 486]

 

You seen the price of the ProSport in France? 1218€ for the 12 fpe .177!!!

 

Don't forget, his wife is tapping her foot and holding a very large carving knife while he's considering his budget...

Nowhere near that in the UK - around £480. Cheaper than a quality PCP and plenty of second hand ones about. No requirement for a pump or air tank either.

 

 

£480? Bûgger that.

 

All he needs for ratting is a solid .22, like the HW50S. 230€ at DB Schietsport in Holland, 250€ shipped to his door in a few days.

 

https://www.db-schietsport.nl/en/air-guns/weihrauch-hw50s-55mm.html

 

Then, all he needs to do is add a scope. The DBS Elite Leapers clone is excellent, and has an illuminated reticle, ideal for ratting at dusk/night.

 

https://www.db-schietsport.nl/en/optics/scopes/dbs/dbs-elite-3-9x40-ao-ir-md.html

 

No, I don't work for them, but I've ordered from them. Dave Butler (DB) there speaka da English, and is very helpful.

[Hump101 17]

Thanks for all the ideas - food for thought on buying in the UK, lots of availability, but how easy is shipping a secondhand gun over to France? I already have 300bar dive bottles, so I'd only need an adaptor.

 

However, I've still not heard back from the ONCFS, so my wife is calling them today to chase them up.

 

Edit: Regarding weight, I have a torn rotator cuff tendon in my shoulder, hence weight is a bit of an issue, but I would support the front of the rifle on a stand when shooting. With my shoulder I had no issues holding the Gamo, but struggled with the Stoeger, hence my comment about the weight.

 

Edit 2: My wife spoke with the local ONCFS office today. They said that they had received my email, and it had been discussed in the committee meeting this morning. They assured her that they are preparing a response but that it is "complicated" so make take a while.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Hump101

[Hump101 17]

This morning I received an email from the ONCFS:

 

Bonjour Monsieur,

Quand vous parlez de rat brun (Rattus novegicus), je présume que vous voulez parler du rat noir (Rattus rattus) commun chez nous. Cette espèce est un commensal de l'homme. A ce titre, il ne relève à notre connaissance d'aucune réglementation. Vous pouvez donc le détruire en utilisant une carabine à air comprimé sur votre ferme. Pour votre information d'autres moyens efficaces peuvent être utilisés pour arriver au même résultat (le piégeage, l'emploi de raticide homologué du commerce).

Je reste à votre disposition pour tout renseignement complémentaire.

Cordialement

Xavier LE MENACH

Chef de service

Service départemental des Côtes-d'Armor (22)

Délégation interrégionale Bretagne et Pays de la Loire

02 96 33 01 71

06 20 78 97 47

xavier.le-menach@oncfs.gouv.fr<mailto:xavier.le-menach@oncfs.gouv.fr>

So I've been wrong on several accounts:

1. It looks like we have black rats, not brown (they look brown to me, light brown in fact, and are great diggers, which I thought black rats weren't, but I'm no expert).

2. They aren't just nuisible, but are commensal. I'm not sure that he means commensal in the English way (a species that benefits from another without harming the other) as clearly the rats can cause significant harm to humans, so would be parasitic, but I'm not going to try and reinterpret his statement.

3. There are no specific regulations describing the acceptable destruction methods.

4. I'm allowed to kill them with an air rifle on my farm.

5. Even poisoning (using an approved type) is allowed for rats, despite all the regulations I've quoted earlier.

This has clarified my situation so I'm ordering a Discovery PCP from the UK. I can't get one here with the extended barrel, so I'm compromising on power a little (16J limit in the UK) to avoid having to remove the silencer every time I need to recharge it. My wife was easily persuaded in the end, as she's also an engineer so I played the "PCP is a better engineering solution" card. We went to the local gun shop so she could see the different options, and the proprietor gave her a €200 springer to compare with a €1250 PCP. She did her undergraduate degree in an army University and I can see a little glint in her eye at the thought of shooting again!

[Nicepix 5,650]

Still waiting for the ONCFS to reply to my e-mail. Brown rats (rattus rattus) are called rat de grenier in France and tree rats eleswhere. They are sleeker in shape, quite cute really, and a lighter chestnut brown in colour. The ones under chicken huts are more likely to be the black rat (rattus norvegicus). They are more grey-brown in colour.

 

Best of luck with the hunting of them. Just remember that traps work 24/7 not just when you are there so I'd consider them as a second line of attack. As for poisons; there are new regulations that have put the better, more efficient poisons out of the amateur domain. Traps are the way to go IMO.

[treecreeper 1,136]

Think you have some crossed wires there nicepix? Black rats are black and not common in the uk (ratus ratus) and the brown rat is the common/Norway rat, ratus norvegicus and grow alot bigger.

Edited May 31, 2016 by treecreeper

[Nicepix 5,650]

Think you have some crossed wires there nicepix? Black rats are black and not common in the uk (ratus ratus) and the brown rat is the common/Norway rat, ratus norvegicus and grow alot bigger.

Yes, you are right. Black is the new brown

 

Sorry for the confusion.

[treecreeper 1,136]

First time for everything ?

[Hump101 17]

Best of luck with the hunting of them. Just remember that traps work 24/7 not just when you are there so I'd consider them as a second line of attack. As for poisons; there are new regulations that have put the better, more efficient poisons out of the amateur domain. Traps are the way to go IMO.

I've still left my trap out, baiting it every night, but I've not caught a rat in two weeks. The first week I caught one or two per night, six in total, then nothing, but the bait disappears.

 

Last Friday night I spent an hour just sitting and watching, and we have a large rat who is able to stretch into the first section of the trap, keeping his rear legs and tail outside, then he supports his front legs on the sides of the second section trap door, and eats all the bait. He then, very slowly, extracts himself backwards. Bear in mind that the entrance to the first section is barbed, to prevent just such an escape, it is a pretty impressive feat.

 

We've tried putting bait just inside the second section, but they burrow underneath and hook it out with their front legs. If we put the trap onto a solid surface, they just leave the bait where it is. I could construct a bait platform inside the second section, but I think they've already worked out that they can't escape from it, hence not bothering with the bait if they can't get to it from the outside or the first section. The problem at the moment is that, even with all the chicken feed removed, there is still loads of natural food around with the grass seeding, insects, wheat in the field next door, etc., so they don't need to take any risks. Hence the shooting option.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that, whilst I was sat out in the dusk, I could hear the sound of air guns going off in our neighbouring farms, so we are not alone with this problem!

Edited May 31, 2016 by Hump101

[Nicepix 5,650]

My Dutch neighbour is still getting a few with my air rifle. In the meantime another neighbour has told me that they have rat problems in the chicken run. Seems that there is a vast increase in the rat population this year. I put a break-back trap out in a box, baited with a chocolate spread / cod liver oil paste and have taken two rats in two nights. My other old traps are at my Dutch neighbours and I don't want to use any more of my new stock on non-paid jobs so I'm just down to the one across the road and two that are permanently set outside my house.

 

The break-back traps are a doddle to set and monitor. I put them in a box and use a cable tie that goes through a hole in the side of the box to set and monitor the trap. The one over the road in the chicken run has a piece of red tape on the cable tie. When I walk the dog past the garden I can see whether the trap has gone off. And you don't have to handle the rats. Just pull the cable tie and empty the body. Doddle.

 

I will be glad to get my rifle back though. There are some young magpies that need teaching a lesson

[Coypu Hunter 486]

I have a break-back, which has only ever caught one rat. I also have a two-chamber jobbie like Hump's, which has never caught any. Nowadays, I use a trapdoor cage, which seems to work if placed at 90° to a rat run. Rats will avoid anything new in their path -- they're neophobes -- but wil investigate anything new off to the side of a run. A small handful of wheat inside the trap and a slice of carrot on the hook seem to do the trick.

 

Oops... shot it...

 

 

[Nicepix 5,650]

This is what I use...............

 

 

Put a piece of electrician's tape on the cable tie and you can see at a distance if it has gone off. Setting the trap is just a matter of pulling the strap until it clicks. If you superglue an 8mm halibut pellet in the cup, smear the pellet in chocolate spread and also smear a few traces of chocolate around the entrance to the tunnels you can kill three or four rats without having to re-bait the trap. Just pull the strap to empty the trap. Simples

[Hump101 17]

I have a break-back, which has only ever caught one rat. I also have a two-chamber jobbie like Hump's, which has never caught any. Nowadays, I use a trapdoor cage, which seems to work if placed at 90° to a rat run. Rats will avoid anything new in their path -- they're neophobes -- but wil investigate anything new off to the side of a run. A small handful of wheat inside the trap and a slice of carrot on the hook seem to do the trick.

 

Oops... shot it...

That last photo is what our rats look like, which was why I thought they were brown rats?

[Coypu Hunter 486]

That last photo is what our rats look like, which was why I thought they were brown rats?

 

 

I believe they are -- rattus norvegicus. The ones I shoot are huge. That's a size 11 boot...

 

 

Their young are often darker, and the adults can be greyish.

 

https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat

 

The Black Rat, rattus rattus, is normally much smaller and usually black, although colour variations exist.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat

Edited May 31, 2016 by Coypu Hunter