Crow Busters Forum

SHANEDOG · Guru

RATTEN KRIEG!!

tarponfan · Veteran Member

Hey, Mr. Dog - I'm glad that I'm not the only one around here who has the airgun sickness.....I have 6 of the damn things, 3 springers and 3 CO2 guns - they are a lot of fun and do open up a lot of opportunities that aren't there for powderburners. My most-used is an RWS 34P in .22 - if you aren't familiar with modern airguns you owe it to yourself to check them out - many, many squirrels, a couple crows, several copperheads, and ESPECIALLY rats, whenever possible. A good quality scoped airgun is pretty darn powerful, and as accurate as you can shoot it. I still haven't gone over to the Dark Side with PCP's, but you never know.......

SHANEDOG · Guru

Yes, Tarpon,you cant get anything cheaper to shoot than an airgun!

I went to the PCP because of arthtritis in my hands and arms. I zapp tons of pigeons also with mine,I just set up a sniper nest and shoot them off of the grain bin.I would rather decoy them and shoot them with a shotgun,but its noisy and the farmer has a small new born.So I shoot with with the silent slayer. smile

I also got a chuck at 50 yards last year!!Head shot of course. biggrin

Pat B · Senior Member

OK , you rat experts.. I don't have an airgun. Dairy farmer asked me to shoot some rats causes he don't want poison around. Small kids and a couple of young dogs. So recommendations. .22 CB or .22 shorts. Silencers are illegal here. Haven't gone over to look it over yet. But will soon.
Tks

Pat

SHANEDOG · Guru

Hi Pat

I guess .22 CB's you dont want any over penetration.You can get a good Gamo air gun with scope at Dicks for about $150.00 in .17 caliber,that and a cheapo flashlight with a pressure switch.

The great thing with the air gun is that the rats and the cows dont get spooked.

jonthepain · Guru

Sounds like fun

shaddart · Guru

I like the cb either short or longs, won't cycle in an auto though. Tarpon, Shane & I have talked about this before, I also have a thing for airguns, 3 pellet & at least a dozen old bb guns, both daisy & crosman. Whole collection isn't worth much, but I wouldn't sell them anyway. Shoot them almost everyday in the decent weather.

shaddart · Guru

Pat; I just checked, I shoot CCI cb's. I shoot them mainly thru a Marlin 39A, but also thru an old Winchester 67A single shot & a Rossi gallery gun. I'm really pleased the way they shoot. All 3 guns are chambered for s,l & lr, hopes this helps. Jerry

tarponfan · Veteran Member

CB caps are great - The shorts are rated at about 730 fps with a 29 gr. slug which is devastating on just about anything up to raccoon size with a well placed shot - also if you are dealing with very close range on the rats, consider .22 birdshot - takes all the guesswork out of it, but you gotta be close.........

SHANEDOG · Guru

Pat,most of my shots are about 40 - 60 feet. I sit in my truck with a coffee and the news on the satalite radio,I have a board that fits in my truck window that I rest the air rifle on. I sit there and scan the target area with my night vision,and Infrared illuminator.The eyes light up like stars,when I see one you get on them quick and shoot,they dont sit still long.With a light you kinda want to not shine the light directly,just scan with the light up,when you see the eyes you get ready to shoot them hit the pressure switch lighting him up, and pull the trigger on him. With lights you may want one gun mounted with a pressure switch and a hand held for scanning.It also a good idea to put colored filters on the lights.

Rats are not stupid they catch on quick to your presance,some times I change up and grab my shooting sticks and a stool and set up at another angle to trick them. I also think that they can see some of the Inrared light that I use,because sometimes I get the gun on them and they disapear quick.

As for speed my Marauder .22 caliber is moving about 860 fps. If I was to buy a air rifle for just rats I would go with a .17 caliber witch will move out at about 1000 fps or more.Reason for the .17 for rats is because I would get more shots per fill.The .22 is real good when shooting pigeons and chucks,with a little wind,and the pellet hits harder with more energy,but you dont need a lot the kill a rat.Its great practice for training your trigger technique,I am into calling coyotes and when they come in you have to be cool,shooting rats is great practice.I used to have to zoom in to get the head shots but now I have gotten better at shooting them I leave it on 4 power,so I can get on them quick. Shane

Tarpon brings up a good point,I chrony my best shooting pellets,with my favorite pellets I can get about 860 fps. but as you shoot your speed will decrease,the great thing is with my rifle at rat ranges I dont get dramatic changes to my point of impact. Todays air rifles are a lot more sofisticated than people think,with the PCP's you can fine tune them to your liking with a little bit of help from other air rifle fanatics.I installed a depinger in my rifle to quiet down the hammer strike sound and it worked great cost $4.50 for the piece of plastic hose. If your the kind of person that likes to tinker,and have some mechanical skills you will love air guns!!

-- Edited by SHANEDOG on Saturday 17th of March 2012 12:32:03 PM

shaddart · Guru

Haven't tried the birdshot, what kind distance is close ?

Pat B · Senior Member

so, what kind of range am I looking at with the CB.?.
What velocity of airgun should I be looking at?

again, tks.
Pat

tarponfan · Veteran Member

CB caps have nice range, I've killed crows out to maybe 40 yards but the effective range is probably longer - they have the added advantage of being REAL quiet because they are subsonic and don't have that "crrrack" you get with a regular .22 LR. - poachers love 'em. I'm not sure on the birdshot range but I think 15 feet would be fine - get some and try my hillbilly ballistics test and shoot a potato at different ranges then take a knife and cut slivers until you see what penetration and pattern density you get at different ranges - birdshot is not nearly as quiet as the CB caps.

Airguns vary wildly ar far as velocity - 600 fps with a .22 15 gr. pellet might be an average - don't believe the manufacturer's claims on velocity - they arer rarely truthful. I like .22's rather than .177 - much better for hunting. An airgun may be louder than you think - If you know someone who has one buy 'em a sixpack and ask them for a demonstration so you can see if it might work for you - I can shoot 30 feet in my basement 24/7 so it is a nice thing to fool around with. Keep us posted.........

tarponfan · Veteran Member

Just to clear up a few points - Mr. Dog is part of the lunatic fringe (just kidding !!!!!) that uses a PCP airgun, which is the Rolls Royce of airgun types - PCP's perform much better than other types of airguns but are a lot more expensive and need extra equipment to use - nice to have, but not needed for rats and other messin' 'round stuff - the guns that you see in Walmart are springers (one stroke ****ing by breaking the barrel open like a double barrel shotgun) or CO2 where all you need is some cheap CO2 cartriges - I would'nt recommend starting out with a PCP - try a springer or CO2 first and if you get bitten by the bug (as so often happens) you can always upgrade to a PCP. If you think the crow people are crazy, check out the airgun network 54 website and learn what madness can really be like.....

tarponfan · Veteran Member

Forgot to mention in the last post - the network 54 website has a classified section where you can find literally any type used airgun at a wide variety of prices - my experience has been that most folks that use it are pretty honest - they don't want to get the reputation as bad dudes..........

SHANEDOG · Guru

Yah,and they even have heated arguments over different pellet wieghts for longer kill ranges!! Can you imagine that? confuse

Tarpon,is dead on,you can get a good air gun for around $150.00 with scope,I had to go with the Pre cahrged Pnuematic because of physical issues with my hands and arms.

8fishermen · Guru

Here is a link for you history buffs and those that like the air guns. I had no idea how long air rifles had been around. This may have come from one of you guys as I cant remember where I got the link originally. It is well worth the time to watch it. Your kids may enjoy the history of the air gun also.

The Rifle That Changed History | Military.com

shaddart · Guru

Pat, I've shot squirrels out to about 50 yds with the cb's, don't see much difference between the shorts & longs. When I shoot them thru my old Winchester, which has a fairly long barrel, they're quieter than my pellet rifles.

SHANEDOG · Guru

Hey All

Went on a barn yard sniping mission last night at my cousins dairy farm,then I sopped at another spot and its a good thing I did it was crawlin with rats!!

At 8.00 p.m. I pulled up to the dairy farm,the rats have been living in the sides of the calf barns,they jump on the calf as its laying down and run along the calf and jump into the feed pales!!! The pour calfs cant sleep because the rats seem to startle the them a lot. Because the barn is full of calfs,I shoot from the outside at the edges of the building,the rats run along in little trenchs,I put some milled corn feed in piles and that lures them out for the shot.I dumped about (8) outside and then I took a walk inside and saw a monster run into a hole in the side,it was a safe spot to shoot so I waited in the dark for a few minutes and curios george got a pellet in the noggin!! biggrin

At about 10.00 p.m. I figured it was time to go home,on my way I hit my pigeon farm,I was there a few weeks ago and did not see a rat.Well I sat on one side of the barn and saw nothing,then I decided to go on the other side and see what was going on. Well I backed into place and waited a bit.I turned on the Night Vision and the Infrared illuminator,and holy cow!! I see eyes everywhere!! I shot till about 12.30.pm. and picked up (15) and I had a ton of head shots where they ran back under the barn or fell back into the holes. The farmer will be happpy when I give him an after action report. smile

Dairy farm

Curios George in the above picture!!

Second spot at the chicken pen.

-- Edited by SHANEDOG on Sunday 18th of March 2012 03:23:09 PM

shaddart · Guru

I have 2 pellet rifles, a Gamo pro hunter which supposedly is around 1400 fps, but it's as loud or louder than a 22 & a Beeman 600gt which is around 700fps. I don't really like the gamo, but the Beeman shoots real well. The Gamo has this huge scope on it & is really cumbersome, while the Beeman has a smaller 4 power on it. Always shot the gamo match pellets in both guns, which weigh 7.71 gr, but just started playing with gamo magnums which are 7.56 & they shoot noticeably harder, probably due to the pointed head. Shot at 2 crows yesterday with them but the birds were out quite a way & I missed both, I'll be interested to see how they work for crows & squirrels.

Pat B · Senior Member

Not having an air rifle, I elected to try the CB's. Got a box of shorts (100 rds) and a box of longs (100 rds) Will be trying them out on Monday for groupings, etc. I have a friend that has an old air rifle. The kind you pump the forestock to get air pressure to push the pellet. He uses it on mice in his house, uses 2 pumps. Would this work on rats? How many pumps? Would pumping it up between shots spook the other rats?

Tks
Pat

tarponfan · Veteran Member

The pumper can generate plenty of energy for shooting rats - the trick will be getting a good hit and that's going to be true no matter what kind of airgun you are using. You wouldn't think that you have to worry about a hit rat escaping, but you do (take my word for it) - once they get back in a wall or someplace you can't get to them they die and the stink for about a week is unbelievable.

Any time I've gone after them they have been very spooky - usually you are going to have to do some waiting after a shot until they settle down - after 2 shots you may have to relocate because they are quick learners. Keeping really still is key - great practice for crow hunting which is great practice for deer hunting, etc., etc......

tarponfan · Veteran Member

EXCELLENT !!!!!!!!!

NGillespie10 · Senior Member

looks like a cheap night of fun

shaddart · Guru

Shane, u ya man ! I wish we lived a little closer to each other. Jerry

Pat B · Senior Member

nice pics.....
thanks much, guys

Pat