Are Rats small game?

[bcworkman1983]

Man It's the best pass time, summertime, at night, its cool, and there is a nice breeze, shooting rats is so much fun. I would like to find more places to do it, the dumps around here wont let me. We have a friend of the family that has a dog food plant, and the rats there are basically ROUSs but they run 24 hour shifts and wont let me shoot.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Man It's the best pass time, summertime, at night, its cool, and there is a nice breeze, shooting rats is so much fun. I would like to find more places to do it, the dumps around here wont let me. We have a friend of the family that has a dog food plant, and the rats there are basically ROUSs but they run 24 hour shifts and wont let me shoot.

Yep 40 years ago we could go to any landfill and shoot all day/night long, 50 years ago some of the rivers/streams that ran through small towns were polluted and believe it or not people would dump there household garbage into the streams. Always a lot of rat shooting.
Dairy Farms were another good place to hunt rats, starlings, pigeons.
Now with all the liabilities can't hunt Landfills.
Polluted Places have been cleaned up (which is a good thing)

 

[Muddyboots]

HOLY COW!! Talk about memories! I used to go to local "dump" with cousin and couple friends. Flashlight taped to iron sight Marlin 60 weapon of choice! We all had one and 2 bricks a night was norm. Barrels so hot you couldn't touch them. Ammo of choice was Montgomery Wards (Monkey Wards!) at 2.99/brick.!!

We would stand shoulder to shoulder as safety precaution, shoot until critters disappeared, turn lights off and stand quietly. That could get unnerving when you heard them around your feet! Once you heard lots of them dragging the dead ones back into burrows, you turned lights back on and unleashed!!!

One in a while one of us would have one try to climb a leg! Talk about entertaining! Blood curling scream and flamingo dance later! I still talk to cousin about this now and bet this was 55 + years ago!

Be nice to buy bricks for $2.99 though!!

 

[Muddyboots]

Oh yeah, that ammo was so crappy that I had to learn how to strip that 60 down to nothing. It would gum up so bad it wouldn't cycle. Nothing like $2.99 ammo!! OMG run brush down bore with kerosene and it would run out black as midnight. Yes kerosene! My cousin tried it on his Mod 60 and came out slick! Heck, crappy alum cleaning rods, old T shirts for patches, cheap brushes, its a wonder we didn't burn down something! We always cleaned in my Dad's garage and he would walk in and "strongly suggest" we do it someone else's garage! Then we would burn off the patches and kerosene residue in steel 5 gal bucket in backyard. Beautiful nasty black plume!! Surprised FD didn't show up.!! We didn't have Hoppes etc so we made do. Holy Cow! The good old days! How we survived is anyones guess.?

 

[Pro2A]

I looked through the first three pages and didn't see any rat posts! So I decided to post this one. I love shooting rats at night. In my opinion the ATN Xsight 4k pro scope isn't good for anything else except shooting critters at night time. If you want to challenge your marksmanship skills, get you a tripod and try shooting rats in the head from 20 yards from a standing position. those little bastards are hard to kill.

Anyone else enjoy shooting rats?

Do you hang them by head or tail to field dress???? If not, they are targets rather than game. Asking for a friend........

 

[JungleShooter]

Great thread, great stories, great memories!

bcworkman, you say dog food plant? I'm getting more ideas.... — all around here in the desert there are chicken farms — there's got to be plenty of feed ready to be stolen by rats....

Certainly worth an inquiry....!!

Matthias

 

[Radman]

Oh yeah, that ammo was so crappy that I had to learn how to strip that 60 down to nothing. It would gum up so bad it wouldn't cycle. Nothing like $2.99 ammo!! OMG run brush down bore with kerosene and it would run out black as midnight. Yes kerosene! My cousin tried it on his Mod 60 and came out slick! Heck, crappy alum cleaning rods, old T shirts for patches, cheap brushes, its a wonder we didn't burn down something! We always cleaned in my Dad's garage and he would walk in and "strongly suggest" we do it someone else's garage! Then we would burn off the patches and kerosene residue in steel 5 gal bucket in backyard. Beautiful nasty black plume!! Surprised FD didn't show up.!! We didn't have Hoppes etc so we made do. Holy Cow! The good old days! How we survived is anyones guess.?

Speaking of the good old days, "way back when" in high school during squirrel season, nearly every young boy's truck had a .22 or a .410 hanging in the back window...and no one thought anything of it! Good times....good times.
Today? I know a young man who got permanently expelled because he had a well-worn machete under the seat of his locked truck! Days before - he, his dad & I had used it hacking a path to some targets in the woods! Times are changing, not for the better sadly.

 

[bcworkman1983]

Do you hang them by head or tail to field dress???? If not, they are targets rather than game. Asking for a friend........

Always by the legs, like a deer. You don't want to rip the tail and I've never liked hanging game by the neck.

 

[Mike Matteson]

You have to watch out in Mexico-North. aka Calif. They Rat Preserve there. Riverside county you have to set aside land for them and others.

 

[FrogFire7]

Do you hang them by head or tail to field dress???? If not, they are targets rather than game. Asking for a friend........

I believe the gutless method is all the rage right now

 

[Muddyboots]

I believe the gutless method is all the rage right now

 

[C-130 Dude]

The city also used to put on a Pigeon Shoot. All shooters were invited, and of known ability. Everyone shot them with #9 shot from rooftops downtown. It was a hoot. Don't think they do that anymore either.

We used to shoot pellets at pigeons in our hanger when i was in the AF. We got tired of getting crapped on and complained. Not to mention having to scrub every aircraft down. Nothing got done. Then the big boss got his. Civil Engineering was on site the next day. They used to try to poison them, but EPA had a fit and we vollenteered to go in on weekends and shoot them with pellets. I can tell you there were piles of carcuses. A lot of side bets on who got how many garnered lots of $$$ for some. HA!

 

[mnoland30]

We used to shoot lizards with our bb guns. When I got a High Standard .22 pistol, my buddy and I shot 5,000 rounds through it the first year. I hunted dove and rabbits with that gun. I wish I could shoot that well now. I wish I could afford 5,000 rounds of .22, and 12 gauge, and 7mm WSM and.........

 

[cornshank]

Fun times , from long ago , we shot ground squirrels, the rim of an abandon rock quarry with .22's , from above . I would walk a couple mile through town with cars driving by and me with my .22 slung over my shoulder no one said anything, I did have local pd stop me one time and ask if it was loaded and where I was going , but that was it , no problem .

Pigeons at the feed mill in town with pellet guns .

Before that at home we had a big chicken pen ,with an inside roost where we fed them , scratch and mash and we would hide in another room in barn and shoot mice with bb and pellet guns when they came out to steel the feed.