Handgun shot load for rats?

Back in the day a friend and I would hunt barn rats using our 357s loaded with Speer shot capsules. We used 9 or 7 1/2 shot because that's what we had from shotgun loading and usually at a very light .38SPC load or it really blew the pattern.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010935619/speer-empty-shot-capsules-38-special-box-of-50

It was pretty effective at close range.

Chuck

I've shot rats with an air rifle, think it was a .22, but could have been a .177.

I would think that a .22 shot load would work at a distance where the shot pattern was dense enough to put a good portion of the pellets on the rat. Firing at a dot on sheets of paper a various distances would narrow this down quickly.

Beyond that a jump to a larger cartridge like a .38 would be logical.

Four legged rats?

The absolute best medicine for killing rats is a Fox or Jack Russell Terrorist, er, Terrier. Two are even better as they work as a team.

Living in the country with horses and livestock to feed there is always a meal laying on the floor for mice and rats. Grain fed mice and rats get pretty plump. 22 Rimfire Shot is made to take your money. It will probably kill small mice at close range...if you can get that close. It is easier just to set traps. What my dogs don't get the traps will.

Likewise I have never found 38 Special shotshells to be effective rat killers. For 22's 22 Short cartridges are ideal. For centerfire I handload shotshells in 44 Magnum and 45 Colt cases.

CCI makes commercially available shot loads, but I find their choice of shot to be too small for practical work other than snakes at 6'...

Lots of info on the net about rolling your own rat/snake shot cartridges...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?253-Shot-Shell-Loads-For-Pistols

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/rat-shot-snake-shot-reloads.678276/

http://www.jamescalhoon.com/snakeloads.php

And on and on...

What about CB Longs or Shorts? Out of a pistol they're loud, but out of a rifle they're similar in loudness to an air rifle. I absolutely slayed rabbits and squirrels around the garden when I previously lived more urban.

Get a contender with a "Hot Shot" or ..410 Barrel with choke.

Monac said:

shot would seem preferable to bullets in an urban area.

Click to expand...

I don't know Monac. To me, shot indeed does sound preferable to bullets in an urban area, but it seems like either one might get the police called. I mean, even in Pocatello, Idaho (the largest and closest "urban area" to where I live) if someone was seen shooting a .38 or .45 revolver, a SWAT team would probably be called out.
If I, myself lived in an urban area, I'd find some other way of dealing with rats rather than shooting them. Maybe one of those Jack Russell Terriers like BSA1 has.

A few years ago my noticed a rat while she was working in her flower bed. I bought some rat bait from Home Depot and put out which proved pretty effective. I found a few dying rats and dispatched them with .22 CB caps in a Marlin rifle. As noted, BB or CB caps in a rifle is a very muffled "pop." But they are rather loud in a handgun.

Bob Wright

If you are close enough to hit the thing, I don't think it matters. I've killed many with a Gamo air rifle. But a cat works the best.

Years ago I bought a farm where no one had live in the yard for years.... lots of clean up..... Buckwheat had been left in piles on an old barn foundation which was feeding a hoard of rats.....

Now in that rural area no problem shooting so I used a single six 22 rnd nose(in town area substitute good 177 springer) and declared all-out war... I found the best way to achieve total victory was to use a good poison but also put bails of straw around all buildings near the problem area.... At the same time put out ample poison..... Wait 2 or 3 days.... you will start to see rats dying...

Now take your dog and gun and start picking up the bails.... Any rats that did not eat enough poison will have eaten some and they get kinda drunk acting and will usually take refuge under the bales.. You pick up a bale and out comes a drunk rat.... You give him a good dose of lead poison and move on to the next bale... Be careful because your dog will try to grab the rat and you don't want to shoot your buddy... The best dog I had charged between my legs to grab a rat one time as I pushed my single six forward to shoot and the gun barrel hit the dog in the back of the head.... The dog stopped right there as he knew what that gun did.... He turned back and growled at me but got the he$$ out of the way.... Real learning experience for the both of us... Did this maybe 3 times and was rat free.... That was some of the best shooting I ever had.... you would get 3 or 4 rats come out of a bale sometimes and that is pure fun for you and the dogs...... good luck dirt

They look cute, but they're cold blooded rat killers:

CCI shotshells. .38Special is $12 a box for 10 rounds on Cabelas. They don't make some in .40 so Ill be picking some up in 9mm.

On the Verge? More rats in NYC than people. Estimated at 20 million last I heard. Although some say it's only 2 million.
"...shot load..." Unreliable out of a rifled barrel. The shot string flies in a spiral sending the shot all over and leaves big holes in the pattern.
Zerodefect's attack dogs would be best. Not just hairy Dachshunds are ratters though. So are Jack Russell's. Rat control is why there are Jack Russell's. Maybe you can get one of the pythons from Florida. And warfarin isn't just a blood thinner.

Get a Paintball gun. Put a wad down the barrel. Follow with shot, then another wad. CO2 shotgun

Rats are not difficult to kill.

You can use .22 Shorts just like your dad used. I like the CCI Quiet-22 ammo best but the CCI .22 Shotshell ammo works very well too at shorter distances.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...nition-22-long-rifle-40-grain-lead-round-nose

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...tion-22-long-rifle-31-grain-12-shot-box-of-20

Any of the CCI snake shot ammo will do the job but at a louder report. If you don't have a good .22 LR you can chitchat you have in 38/357, 9mm, 45 Colt, 40 S&W or 44 Spl/Mag. I think they have them in .22 Mag too.

CCI had .22 Mag shotshells. I haven't checked recently but I did buy a box for my .22 mag a few years ago. I have had no occassion to use them beyond patterning tests. Marlin made a number of smooth bore .22 WMR garden guns for use with .22 WMR shotshells.

I have used CCI .22 LR shotshells -- missed a northway rat with a Garcia Bronco but a few years later nailed a 2' snake coiled under my mother-in-law's clothes hamper in the bathroom from about 2 feet with a Ruger Mk II. The shot shell does not functon the action so you use it like a Fiala manual repeater pistol.

Rat Invasion (sounds like a SyFy channel / Asylum studio movie of the week). Last time I tried CCI .45 ACP shot shells they would function my 1911A1 clone but I had bad results in a TM1 Thompson semi-auto replica (that would not stop a good CGI FX crew).

Honestly i'd use a pellet gun.

Carl N. Brown said:

Rat Invasion (sounds like a SyFy channel / Asylum studio movie of the week).

Click to expand...

Mr. Brown, Rat invasion ? syfy movie of the week... your words not mine....

As I said earlier "Rat Infestation" hum.... my words are not as glamorous as yours and with a movie of the week option.....
Geez, I better rethink my options. Do a rewrite:
Spice it up with a little literary liberty and call it the “Great Zombie Rat Attack Invasion”… coming to a movie near you.
and go for the movie option.... Thanks.... dirt

You could use any of the CCI shotshells for handguns, I'd prefer a pump pellet gun myself.

Monac wrote:
"America is on the Verge of Ratopocalypse"

Click to expand...

The answer to mice and rats is a hungry cat.

I shoot foxes and large birds with the 22LR sometimes as far as 200-220 yards when they get to the largest fruit trees on the back.
So imagine what a 22 does to a rat even from a pistol. Just make sure it is safe if there is anything behind.
A 4.5mm or .22 airgun will also blast them with little expense.
There are inexpensive repeaters that can feed with CO2 cans vs more complex 2000 or 3000 psi PCP repeaters.
Barn cats, jack Russel terriers, etc... do a good cleaning too.