Another session on the razz erm I mean Rats

[Phantom 631]

Hey Guy's n Doll's

 

Dillon picked me up yesterday evening to take me over to the Pig Farm for another session on the Scaley Tailed Rodents

Again Many thanks to you Sir

 

Within seconds of bringing my baby out of her slip, I noticed an open window type thing at the end of the third shed. It was still light but me being nosey had a mosey over to the opening where I saw a large Rat climbing down the walls of the pens, half a second later, I had the gun at my shoulder and slapped rat straight between the shoulder blades as it ran away from me.

"That sounds like a hit" Dillons voice said as I lowered the gun; a big grin on my chops

"One shot one down" I replied, Dillon was still over by the car getting his HW100 set up with the Video Camera ready for the recording of his session

 

Wandering around to the nursery (there is a term for this shed, but I forget it) I opened the sliding door a few inches and slipped the gun through, The heat in there seemed immense this time and the humidity was high. Scanning around I could see nothing in the way of rodents. I closed the door too and moved to the next sliding door, opened all the way I decided to have a wander through the shed and even if I didn't get a shot at a rat, I'd take a pic or two of some of the cute lil piggies I worked my way through the shed methodically sweeping the ground, the walls of the pens and the rafters along with the pipework using my gun and lamp.

As I came to the end of the walkway I could no longer see through the scope as the humidity had built up on the outside of the objective element of the scope and on the occular also I tried a couple of images with my camera phone but the bloody thing turned itself off as I pressed the shutter release

 

I Left the shed and turned to the left and waited for the condensation to clear, this took a good few minutes and it was now almost totally dark.

Turning on the IR I swung the rifle to my left raising it as I did so and flicking on the lamp. Directly in front of me were a good half a dozen pairs of eyes glowing, some moving some still. Homing in on one rat I let loose the deadly force of my 11ft/lbs baby who spat her lead exactly where I wanted it to go, the rat fell and dropped to the left. The rest of the eyes just stayed put!

Reloading I took aim at the next set and the next rat rolled over, then the next and finally one more.

If I hadnt have missed the next rat hitting the drum they would probably just stayed still until I popped them all, but the noise of the pellet on the drum caused the rest to give it legs.

 

Wandering back to the second shed I took the precaution of sweeping the top of the doorway as I approached, I was not going to be used as a springboard again!

All clear, I propped myself against the gate behind the door and swept the shed with my rifle and lamp, nothing. Back to the thitrd shed, the side door was open, perhaps Dill's in there I thought, but no he was round the back atop of the low loader.

He had mentioned that he would be pretty close to the far end of the R1 highway so I had to be extra careful as I didn't want to be the one slotting a pellet in his lugole after all he had to drive me back home

Seeing the door open, I entered and swung my baby right and up to my eye, flicking the lamp on as I did again immediately a largish rats eyes glowed in front of me, click, phut crack the rodent caught the pellet gracefully in the top of its face rolling backward, comming to a stop then flapping about. Realoading I set my crosshair on another one that was making its way down the line, I hit it in the back near the shoulderblades but it made its way through a hole in the wall.

Turning 180 degree's as I reloaded another rodent sped out of a feeder running across the walls until it got to the end where it jumped down as it landed it narrowly missed being hit in the brain by the fast approaching FX Micromissile.

It was up the next wall and out of the door before I could reload.

 

Eventually after killing another dozen or so Rats I swept the rest of the sheds a couple of more times taking the odd one or two that happened to be lit up with my torch. Going back towards the R1 and taking a shot at one rodent, I heard it squeal as the pellet ripped through it. It turned and ran away from me only to land directly in the Dillan's line of fire where it receivd a second .22 through it that brought its escape to a halt! Nice shot Buddy.

 

The next shot that went down the R1 missed its mark and whizzed passed Dillans ears by about 4 feet clattering into the shed at the other side of the farm. I must stress that from where Dillan was, there was no danger to him at all as I knew roughly where he was and there was no chance of the pellet turning 90 degrees left to hit him. And if I had not been able to see the barn at the other side I would not have taken the shot.

 

As I got down to ground level, I could hear a plastic sack behind me rustling, at first I thought it to be the wind, but then another sound from it and there was noooo wind. I flicked on the lamp in the direction and just to the side I noticed a pair of eyes at the corner of the shed wall. They seemed quite a space apart and at first I was wondering if they belonged to a rat or not, if they did, the head was going to be the size of a tennis ball

 

As the light went on, the eyes ducked back behind the brickwork. I left it a few seconds then on again with the lamp hey eyes lit up again and vanished behind the wall, this happened a few more times as I played this game of Cat & Mouse with this creature. Eventually the eyes made a run for it, I saw the shadow in my red lamp and couldn't believe the size, can't be a rat, can it? I ripped off the red filter and sure enough this extremely long and fat Rat made its way along the wall, raising my gun I just managed to put the eye to the scope in time to see the last of the boddy and tail vanish as it turned the corner.

That classic Line from Jaws played in my head where Chief Brodey says "We need a bigger boat" only boat was replaced by gun. I was thinking 17HMR Dill had said there were some truely monsterous rodents about but that thing was the size of a full grown buck :shock:

 

Dillan and I met up again as everything seemed to go very quiet, no rats, I told him of the 'King' rat and he laughed "I told you there were some bigguns about"

Making our way around we decided to recover some of the many that we had shot, Dillan had taken 13 shots and had bagged at least 10 on video, I had had substantially more shots and I stopped counting at 15 I even managed to bag another one climbing up the outside wall of a shed as we collected some bodies.

 

Before We left I had one more look down the R1 and Dillan was with me, I flicked on the lamp and there in front of my scope was another monster, I had to take my eye away from the scope because it looked like it was sat eye to eye as it were with the scope on 3mag. Feck me, I didn't get the shot off, but Dillan will vouch for the size of it. Now I'm thinking a .308 Win Mag may be a better option.

 

I hope in the future that I will be able to have another go at these Monsters

 

Here are just a few of the ones shot, My best shot of the night was the neck shot on the young rat. Thats the size of rat I would expect to find in a back garden somewhere perhaps a little bigger.

 

Again Many; Many THANKS Dillan for letting me share your permission again :notworthy:

 

Phantom

Edited September 21, 2010 by Phantom

[festa 206]

some cracking shooting there lads you seem to be getting into the ratting lark tony mate

 

atb gary

[willy17 1]

great write up and keep killing the rats

[Phantom 631]

Thanks guy's,

 

Yeah I'm enjoying the challange Gary. A 10shot conversion is however needed

 

I was totally prepared for them this time, so knowing what to expect helped greatly.

 

Phantom

[kingoftoosh 15]

Thanks guy's,

 

Yeah I'm enjoying the challange Gary. A 10shot conversion is however needed

 

I was totally prepared for them this time, so knowing what to expect helped greatly.

 

Phantom

Phantom just go get the 10 shot conversion,it will come in handy.I've heard you mention it a few times..go on,you know you want one

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hiya Tony & Dillan.

 

Great read mate, and some excellent shooting too guy's.

 

SP incomming.

 

Bill.

[zini 1,939]

Brilliant write up there Tony yet again mate

 

You really give a good image in peoples minds when you write your articles buddy.

 

I know someone who may be interested in this article and a few more

 

Si

[trapper123 7]

excellent post phantom.as usual nice one :thumbs:

[dillan 19]

Good write up Phantom, yes it was all fun and games, all seemed quiet on my side, probably due to the full moon lighting up the whole yard. Good session buddy look forward to some bunny bashing tomorrow. In the meantime feast your eyes on these

Dillan

 

 

 

[Phantom 631]

Thanks guy's

 

Dillan,

That second one looked like another Monster

 

Your set up and footage is Brilliant

 

Phantom

[dillan 19]

Couple more

 

 

 

[stealthy1 3,964]

Some nice splatting there lads, have a slut each

[Lewdan 17]

Well done Phantom , cracking write up and great vids from Dillon ive just done a little rodent control in my back garden ( post ) and i realy got the bug now i hope i can eventually get some permission like yours you never know but i will have to get the gear first all the best

LD

[Phantom 631]

Some nice splatting there lads, have a slut each

 

Why; Thank you, Sir Stealthy

 

 

Dillan,

Let me know when you want em all archiving onto dvd

 

See you tomorrow for da bunny bashing session

 

Phantom

[Phantom 631]

Cheers LD

 

The ratting Permission is Dillans

There used to be two Pig Farms both within 30mins walking distance from here, but they've both closed down now

 

Tell you what, as si said on your post, Rats when hit with a full power gun just don't know how to be dead and even when they think they have gotten the idea and they are down for the count, ifyou pick em up by the tail, the sodding things still have enough electrical impulses in the nervous system that they can swing up and bite your hand.

 

Never, EVER pick up a rat with your hands When collecting them last night, I used a pair of 10inch forceps and I was still warey of them biting me even though they'd been dead a good while.

 

Phantom