Experience with .22 rat shot

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Tinker

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I have a rat problem in the barn that is not been affected much with traps. Poisons are out because I have small stock that might eat it. Don't have a cat. The little air rifle can put a hurt on them but they usually have enough juice left to escape. .22 shorts bowl them over, dead, but, because of neighbors and animal stock, I'm limited on shot angles. Even bought a laser beam sight for the air rifle so I can get on them faster in the dark.

Bought a box of rat shot for the .22. That should take care of the rickoshays but I've heard that they can screw up a .22 rifled bore if you shoot too many through it. How many RS's are too much? Do you have to clean the bore every time you use the shot? The rule of thumb for rats is: "If you've seen one, you have 20". I've shot 5 and trapped another 6 after finding out I had a rat problem originally. That means one box of fifty shells should keep me busy for a while. :) I'm wondering if 50 rat shells is going to mess up my rifle. Thanks.
 
The only way I could see it hurting the bore is if it's steel shot.
The only thing lead shot might do is give a slight increase in leading, though I doubt it. Even if it does, it's easily cleaned out.

Maybe they're talking about plastic deposits in the bore from the capsule that holds the shot. If so, just run some patches with lacquer thinner, or MEK down the bore.
Wear a respirator if you mess with that stuff inside though, the fumes are very harmful.

One thought, can food for the small stock be exsposed to the lead shot pellets, and the stock ingest that stuff?
That wouldn't be good for anyone concerned.

Have you tried short, or long "CB" caps for your .22? Those things kill racoons well enough, they should handle rats without any problems, and don't have the range of regular shorts.
 
I never noticed any leading problem from ratshot. Years back, I used a .22 S&W kit gun. I could use it inside my well house/storeroom if I was careful about angles. :)

The only drawback is the quick spread of the shot. A smoothbore pistol would be perfect.

I killed one rattlesnake, but I was pretty cautious about getting to within two feet of his head before shooting...

Art
 
The rat shot will be fired from a single shot rifle. The little shells look like those crimped power loads you use in a power nailer. Just longer. No plastic unless unless there's some sort of wad inside. The box says the shells have #12 lead shot inside.

Maybe what I've heard about rat shot ruining a bore is just an urban legend. Going to check the patterns is makes this evening to see what kind of range limits these things have.

HighVelocity,

I've had to mercy kill animals from time to time and hunted wild game for food. I've never killed anything for "kicks". Always had a purpose to kill. The rats are different. It is pure freakin' enjoyment to send those suckers to happy rat heaven. :) Plus, they're getting twitchy as wild turkeys of late, so that makes them more sporting.

Thanks for the input, guys.
 
The shot is too soft to damage your barrel, but may lead it significantly. Given my experience with rats and .22 shot, I recommend centerfire shot loads. If you simply must use .22 LR, the range has to be CLOSE, like 8 feet.
 
Try the CCI brand shot shells. They are in a little plastic capsule and are suppose to stay in it until it leaves the bore then it breaks apart. May help with lead build-up.
 
The rat shot will be fired from a single shot rifle.
Click to expand...

Boy, this brings back memories. When I was a kid, my brother and I spent a lot of nights in the barn hunting rats, sparrows and pigeons. We put a lot of shot rounds through a single shot and it didn't hurt it a bit. Once in a while we would sneak Dad's 69A Winchester out and if we got caught we got that "look". It didn't hurt that rifle either, but I didn't like getting the look.

I always had pretty good luck setting in the dark with some rat goody at a pre-registered distance and when I heard the munching, flick on the light and blast away.

Dad always yelled at us to not shoot into the feed as he didn't want to feed the lead pellets to the stock, and that is probably good advice.

It's amazing that the older I get the smarter my dad gets. :)
 
ditto on 22 shorts..they are not loud at all. I shot shot loads through an old mossberge single shot at pigeons and rats as well but you have to get close to get them.they are tough to kill.the shot loads didnt seem to hurt the barrel.you can always maybe buy a cheap bolt action 22 with poor rifling.


or get a rat terrier and turn it loose. we had 1 and it killed rats as big as it was and proudly plopped their chewd up corpses onto the front porch.no noise just a bag of dog food and water.Im not sure if fruity bubblegum will work on rats as well as groundhogs.they eat it and cant digest it so its down hill.
 
i have shot rats with a crossman co2 revolver,and they flipped over and died.
 
I have a squirrel problem, when I walk outside and see five I start shooting. CCI has a mini round, primer powered only, I've knocked squirrels off a fence with them at 10 yds and they ran off. Did hit one in the head and killed it.


rk
 
I tried the rat shot 2 days ago. Stood off about 10 yards and popped an empty milk jug to check how well they pattern from my rifle. I could only count four holes in the jug. All four were in a 2" circle around the spot I was aiming at. The farthest I'll be shooting is about 5 yards so these might do the job.
 
Tinker, the problem with the rat shot is the spin of the rifling tends to open up the patterns significantly past a few feet and the penetration of #12 shot is questionable.
I think a better suggestion would be to try .22 shorts, CB shorts or Aguila Super Colibris. The Super Colibris have a velocity of about 500 fps w/ a 20 gr bullet and are about as quiet as an air rifle. From my own experience, they put the smackdown on tundra squirrels and other furry and feathered vermin at rat shooting distances.
I doubt you would need more power than CB shorts afford if you find the Super Colibris to be unsatisfactory for your purposes.
Full power .22 shorts could create some over-penetration problems you wouldn't have with the CBs or Super Colibris, limiting when and where you shoot. I use shorts to hunt foxes and have had quick clean kills every time.
 
As a kid on a farm in Pennsylvania I learned to shoot with a .22 single-shot in the hog pen. Range was about 20-25 feet, ammo was crimped # 12. It worked very well. I sat up with a new litter of collie pups in a chicken coop to protect them overnight.

Saw a rat run across the top of the wall into a corner, and shot... 7 rats, one after another, dropped out of that corner... Well, that memory is more than 50 years old... :D

#12 ratshot works. if it only cripples 'em, a quick application of gunbutt or bootheel solves that. :eek:

Tom
 
stevelyn,

My main problem with CB's, shorts is rickoshays (sp?) and semi-close neighbors. My barn is oak clad with tin so projectiles tend to bouce around inside. I'd rather have BBs', or pellet or fine shot bouncing around than bullets. The air rifle works great except that the rats have grown wise to me.....they see me move to draw a bead and they ske-daddle. I'm thinking the little pattern the rat shot has might allow me to get on them quicker. I have .410 bore on that same gun(M6 Springfield), but that'd probably be a tad much for inside a building. :)

Also I read on another web board where a guy uses a red light bulb over a bait pile. He says the red light doesn't scare them too much but gives enough light to see them by. Going to give that go this weekend. If that method works I'll probably just stick with the air rifle. It's easier on the ears. :)
 
smooth bore

I had one years ago and it was deadly on rats and sparrows. I believe Savage still makes a single shot smooth bore for around $150.00
 
Now you're talking my game

dude, I've used shot hundreds, maybe thousands of times. We used to have "Pest Contests" in FFA. Used .22 shot to kill rats and pigeons.

The guys that tell you it's good for 8 feet have never used it. We used BB guns for sparrows and starlings (the cheaper way to go), but the pigeons and rats got the .22. Had tons of fun going to the stockyards to shoot rats.

I will say that the pattern opens up at longer ranges. Now, the way old bolt .22 we used never, and I mean never got cleaned, so the bore was probably smooth or close to smooth, but we could whack pigeons from maybe 30' or so. Bullets would go thru the roof of the barn, but the shot wouldn't. At extreme ranges, we'd shoot off to the side of the intended target. The center would thin, and the pattern looked like a donut.

12 shot is flat sided and cuts thru whatever it hits.
 
Get your hands on a single shot .410 shotgun. Go here: http://www.mcace.com/index.htm and ask them for an adapted to shoot .22 shot. They should make it smooth bore and offset so the centerfire pin will strike the .22 rim. Now you have a perfect rat gun.

Marlin's old garden gun employed a barrell that started as a 22 smoothbore, then opened to .410 about 10" from the chamber, so a 10" long chamber insert inside a 20-something inch .410 bore should be perfect.

No donut patterns like with rifled bores.
 
Shot out of rifled barrel flies in a sprial with lots of holes in the resulting pattern. CB's should be stopped nicely by your oaken walls. The CCI .22 Short CB ammo uses a 29 grain bullet at 710 fps. A ricochet is unlikely. Cabela's sells it at $21.99 per 500. Not exactly cheap. Your air rifle is likely the way to go.
 
The trick for that would be to get a old POS .22 bolt gun and ream the rifling out of it so the shot does not go all to heck for paterns. Years ago you could buy them that way and thats really what the crip shot loads where designed to be shot in.
 
Sounds like some of the 'old timers' have already answered the question but...You could just buy one of those $59 Yogo trainers that are around and then at least you would not have to worry about damage to your rifle. I have a couple and they are reliable, if not elegant. I mean if you're going to go with the shot shells.
 
If you ream the rifling out of a rifle barrel, you might want to make sure its over 18" so it will be a legal shotgun. For a handgun, might want to check on legality.
 
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