Went to our first rat permission last night at 6pm and boy, were there a lot of rats, big and small. We have been wishing for this type of permission for a few years now and we finally got the connection. A farmer told another and another, so here we are.
This is a pheasants farm and the owner told us that he think he could easily shoot 10 rats with his shotgun, but obviously that would not go well with the birds and equipment around. He was very intrigued with our air guns and the night vision setup. When he first took us thru the first door to one of the barns, he warned us to prepare to see lots of rats. He wasn't lying. When he turned on the lights, our jaws almost dropped to the ground. There were some chunky grandpa rats among other sizes of rats just scrammed and dove into the holes and out the openings while the pheasants just stood there watching us. Needless to say my hunting partner looked at me and we both had the grind on our face. Farmer showed us where we should and shouldn't shoot in terms of where the other animals are staying and of course farm equipment. He said "have fun" and left us alone.
Now, I don't have a night vision scope unfortunately but my friend has the ATN. So he was just blasting them rats around after he got the short range POI sorted out. The rats just kept on peeking out of the holes in the ground and running around the area. As they peeked out the holes, they were greeted with a 177 pellet in their heads.
I was shooting my S510 .177 with a green light on top. This didn't work too well as the rats would run away as soon as I shone the light on them. But I managed to tag a couple. Although it was raining hard but we had a great time and super excited with this permission.
We quit by 9pm and collected 19 rats with the biggest two measuring head to tail at 17". I got lucky and got a 17" rat as well. Farmer was very pleased and said the ever pleasing words "come back anytime and get them b@st#ards."
I think it is time for me to finally get a night vision scope set up... Any suggestions?
Here are a couple of pictures.
This is a pheasants farm and the owner told us that he think he could easily shoot 10 rats with his shotgun, but obviously that would not go well with the birds and equipment around. He was very intrigued with our air guns and the night vision setup. When he first took us thru the first door to one of the barns, he warned us to prepare to see lots of rats. He wasn't lying. When he turned on the lights, our jaws almost dropped to the ground. There were some chunky grandpa rats among other sizes of rats just scrammed and dove into the holes and out the openings while the pheasants just stood there watching us. Needless to say my hunting partner looked at me and we both had the grind on our face. Farmer showed us where we should and shouldn't shoot in terms of where the other animals are staying and of course farm equipment. He said "have fun" and left us alone.
Now, I don't have a night vision scope unfortunately but my friend has the ATN. So he was just blasting them rats around after he got the short range POI sorted out. The rats just kept on peeking out of the holes in the ground and running around the area. As they peeked out the holes, they were greeted with a 177 pellet in their heads.
I was shooting my S510 .177 with a green light on top. This didn't work too well as the rats would run away as soon as I shone the light on them. But I managed to tag a couple. Although it was raining hard but we had a great time and super excited with this permission.
We quit by 9pm and collected 19 rats with the biggest two measuring head to tail at 17". I got lucky and got a 17" rat as well. Farmer was very pleased and said the ever pleasing words "come back anytime and get them b@st#ards."
I think it is time for me to finally get a night vision scope set up... Any suggestions?
Here are a couple of pictures.