Rat killing...

15gr jsb exact from my Qb78.

When I used to shoot them in the freed storage, I used rat shot an my .22 buckmark.

Mr_Flintstone said:

I’ve found the shotshells easiest to hit with in the waning evening light, but they don’t always kill the rodents.

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The rats aren’t killed immediately or don’t die at all?

.410 with Rio 2 1/2" # 12 shot will drastically enhance kills without exponentially increasing damage. You can get a Rossi single barrel youth for $140.

I like shooting them, probably my target .22 auto or a .410 with #4 shot. Maybe my savage 24 .22lr/410.

However,, traps and poison and dogs are more efficient.

Air rifles seem to do the job for a lot of rat shooters on YouTube.

Get a Jack Russell

Good air gun and or barn cat

Forgot to mention. Several years ago we had a sudden outbreak of the damn things. I kept seeing them in the back yard. Our dogs were raters but they were both old enough at that point to have stopped controlling them. Tried live trap worked great for a while. Then they learned to avoid it. Was going to buy a Gammo air rifle to pop them. Then remembered I still had some food grade catnip from when we still had cats. Put some out front in the drive. Several neighborhood cats went NUTS for it. Soon they cleared out the rats in the backyard. So got the benefits of having a cat around without having to get one

Benjiman 392 Steroid .22 puts the kill on them but CCI Velociter from a 1022 makes a mess of them. The Quiet (Semi or Standard) with the Segmented bullet puts the stop on them too very nicely.

My thoughts are, why are they there. What is it that brings them.If you can find that out, try to elminate it.

Jack Russell Terriers have been my favorite means of rat extermination for many years. Even the 10wk old pups are fur fighting monsters!

Mr_Flintstone said:

Rats are notorious for running into/under/close to something that can be damaged, and 410 increases the likelihood that I’ll damage something; even if it is just a piece of barn wood.

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Most people are quite surprised at how little damage a 1/2 oz of #12 will do to wood and plastic beyond 25 feet. It's the same shot size as in the .22 shot shells.just twice as much and a little faster.

Varminterror said:

Jack Russell Terriers have been my favorite means of rat extermination for many years. Even the 10wk old pups are fur fighting monsters!

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That thing could be in a ninja turtles movie lol. I have seen some big Norwegian rats down in the city when I worked there,

I'd probably opt for my air rifle. We've never gotten anything larger than a small mouse at our current house, though.

Check out Mouse Trap Monday youtube videos.
Shawn Woods tries all sorts of methods to trap or kill mice, rats and in some cases squirrels.
https://mousetrapmonday.com/videos/

Possibly trapping would be the best passive method.

We have 100k bushels of corn storage here on our farm. We are continuously loading and unloading semis. Corn gets splattered in the driveway.
We rarely see a rat, but mice are ever-present. I exterminate them with extreme prejudice. We keep poison out in pet-proof traps.
When the weather starts cooling off, and crops get harvested.....they lay seige to our house and buildings.
You have a dozen for every one you see.

If i were to declare war on them with a firearm, i would probably choose my quick pointing 870 .410 quail gun. Its a .410 bored out .408. (Didn't help) it has been my long-time bird gun, but also doubles as barnlot/garden pest management tool.

I load my own .410s. I'm not a big fan of #12 shot unless you're shooting very close or inside a building. #9 is about as light as i go.

My guess is they ran out of food elsewhere. They are breeding machines so doesn’t take long.

Hi...
I hate rats... disgusting vermin.
Haven't had any sightings here at The Estate and would like to keep it that way.
When I was a teenager we lived next to a lumber mill. Rats were everywhere on their property. I used to shoot them with a shotgun...probably killed a thousand or more, never impacted their numbers at all.

My father used to shoot them at a dump. He shot them with a .22 rifle...we would climb up on a box car on the railroad tracks next to the dump after he got off work and he would shoot rats for an hour or two. He hated them...he would shoot one and other rats would swarm over the dead rat. He would shoot another one and a couple minutes later the rats would come right back. I was probably 7-8 years old when we moved away from that area. The dump was about a mile from our house...long walk for a little kid like me.

D-Con and a barn cat. Hard to stay ahead of them with a gun.

My experience with rats and mice around livestock is that rat poison works for a little while, but gradually loses effectiveness and there's the problems of the dead poisoned rats.

You've got your feed in metal cans so what I have found worked for me beyond that is to catch rat eating snakes and release them in the area. Good barn cats are effective as well. Never tried terriers, but I know people who have and they seemed to work well.