Best Seat, Worse Bag - Ratting

[RemyBolt 420]

Well, this was a totally mixed experience.

 

Set off to a new permission, same farmer friend but he's now taken over another site.

 

He had found their main network and routes, so I decided to set up close in on what is possibly the most comfortable ratting spot I've ever enjoyed.

 

You know when you're a kid and you'd sit on a wall and dangle your legs over the edge of a wall? It was kind of like that, but it was about a meter high, and 10 meters on the upper flat. So there I was, legs dangling over the edge, full night vision up and running.

 

Rat 1 pops his head out. Rat 1 gets his head popped out. Then nothing for 5 minutes.

 

I had planned to use a little bait to speed up the rate of rats coming out, but I could not find it, and the last of the peanut butter had been devoured by the wife, so I couldn't make any more either.

 

Rat 2 decided to play a game and pop is head out of a hole, the back in, then poked his head out again, etc. This went on for a few minutes. I was waiting for him to come out so that I could get a better shot and leave the body retreivable. But alas, he did not. So after frustration got the better of me, I decided to take the shot. I took the shot when he poked his head out of the hole for a bit too long. Rat 2 ends up dead on the floor. Retreivable!

 

Nothing for about 20 minutes now.

 

I was sat on a raised section of wall outside of the house, with the big door open that lead to the chicken poop collection area that I was shooting into. I think it was probably the light difference outside that was the reason so few came out. I was going to do an all nighter, but it was last night (Monday night) and I had to be in the office early on Tuesday.

 

Then it started to rain! My options were small. Option 1. Wait it out and hope it was a short lived shower. Option 2. Go under the outside stairs and wait it out. Possibly still able to get some shots from the sheltered area. Option 3. Brave the chicken crap and go inside. Definitely dry, but there are chances of getting pooped on by a chicken above, or falling into chicken poo (done that before). Definitely able to get shots off though).

 

Initially I went for option 2, waited a while under the stairs. Then persued option 3 and found a nice poop free area. This was a good option to go for, even though the ammonia smell was much stronger (and my boots ended up stinking of chicken poo).

 

Rat 3 sat on a wooden beam. Just outside of my line of view from under the outside stairs section. As I shot, it moved, and the pellet hit the hind quarters. Even if I had left it to bleed out, it would have been more humane than poison, however I don't think it's right to injure an animal. Unless it's a clean kill, it's not a good shot (just my opinion). So I reloaded and finished Rat 3 off.

 

It would seem that the delays between shots was getting bigger and bigger, at least another 20 minutes and nothing. Ended up going home with 3 rats in 1 hour :-( I was expecting to be at least in double figures! The farmer's dog hit 5 out of 5 apparently. I hope to be getting some big numbers soon, but even taking out a few rats is fun.

 

To be fair, it was a pretty unproductive session. The rats were not out as much as usual, and I later find out there wasn't really much of a problem (so much for my double figures) but he just wanted me to pop down and get a feel for the houses. I think it'll be an open permission (fingers crossed) like the other one I have from him, where I can just text and say I am going down there.

 

One thing I did try out before I got to the new site, I tried a little late rabbiting. Just around dusk, where the sun is going in and rabbits coming out. This was a very new experience! I'm not sure whether it's just me, but does anyone else have a feeling of dread and panic, that the time to take your shot it ticking away? Not sure whether it's just because I've not done any dusk shooting before, but the feeling of the light going in and the picture through the scope getting darker was really quite worrying. It kind of felt like a countdown timer where you didn't actually know how long you had left. This caused a real urgency in all my actions and I wasn't able to think very clearly. Has anyone else had this before? I'll be sticking to my morning sessions for rabbits...except at a new permission I got that's 400 meters as the crow flies, from my house. I will try and pop down there after work now and again.

 

Is the dusk urgency normal, or just me being weird?

[PJWmids 35]

If I have no means of seeing when it's dark and I'm hunting when the sun's going down, then yes I certainly have a sense of urgency to beat the setting sun.