# Shooting rats?



## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Tips? Having a problem in the chicken yard.

Likely will buy an air rifle for the purpose, the 308 is probably overkill


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## solsikkefarms (Jun 1, 2013)

I like my .17 HMR ; )


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Can you hunt them at night with a light? We killed hundreds as kids at the town dump at night with a pump up Sheridan with a scope. Great sport. Maybe bait them to get them into shooting position. The dump stunk to high heaven, full of festering food and lots of living quarters. For the rats, not the kids. It was a sad day when open dumps where outlawed. Thanks Nixon, between that and Vietnam you dang near ruined my life!


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## Snowfan (Nov 6, 2011)

On the other hand, if you can hit a rat at 50 yards with a .308, no whitetail will be safe come fall.


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## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

Snowfan, DH said if you hit a rat with a .308 you won't have to clean anything up...


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

308 brass , mark them with a file , then drill out the flash channel with a 1/8th drill bit , then load 2.7gr bulles eye , and a 90gr lead swc sized .310 or .311 and rolled in some alox 

if you have a set of dies and the 20 dollar mold you can make these for about the same price as 22lr and it will give you more trigger time with the 308 

so not an air rifle but an option


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

A decent air rifle will do the job, and pretty cheap. I can't think that .308 ammo is cheap. And .22 ammo has been pretty hard to get in some places.

A .177 steel bb will take out a rat with a good shot. Maybe not quite as accurate as a lead pellet but if you're close enough, it'll get 'er done, cheap.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

you might want to use lead free pellets , the chickens will eat them, I butchered a chicken that had a 22lr spent brass case in it's gizzard actually we found 3 in 100 chickens so not a lot but there wasn't a lot of 22 brass in the chicken coop area either.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Well, we just borrowed my FIL's Marlin 39A and he gave us three bricks of 'rat pills'. 

Hubby seems a bit giddy at the prospect, he hasn't shot for a while and he just drew some rather endearing rat drawings on a piece of cardboard and had a quick practice..lol.

He got two of his pretend rats through the eye and a couple of heart shots from 30' or so


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Of course they were not moving


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## longhairboy (Feb 16, 2015)

You could always look around and see if you can find the 22 shells that have bird shot in them. Might work good for shooting into groups of them


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

I used 22 with 'mustard seed' 'bird shot' whatever you wanted to callit, you developed a fast paced skill set..It was fun back in the day when I was a kid...


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

Hey T, I am looking at a Ruger Air Magnum (.177 1400fps @ 1 pump) for **** and rats.


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## Forcast (Apr 15, 2014)

are you taking up the chicken feed at night? it might help.


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