Airgun Hunter: Ratting

Initially, that may seem a strange introduction! But there’s no doubt that this increasingly abundant, destructive, scurrilous and quite frankly abhorrent rodent always has and still does help the 12ft lb airgun hunter either attain shooting permission; or more often than not, is the species that many first get the chance to target. When I got my first air rifle as a lad, it was the rat my mates and I targeted – long summer evenings at the side of drainage ditches from the mine workings and along the sides of the canal that cut through the town where we lived was our hunting ground. Fast-forward to the present day and even now there’s very few airgun hunters of all experiences and ages that’ll turn down the offer or chance of a good bit of ratting!

NATURAL PROGRESSION

Over the years although - like many others - I’ve targeted them in virtually every conceivable situation (and possibly a few more) what stays with me most is that I’ve definitely lost count of the amount of long winter nights spent in freezing cold barns or around the farmyard. As I search them out, or wait for them to show where I know they frequent – often operating in total darkness – and there’s always a point in the session I do question why I’m there.

My non shooting friends tucked up warm in bed (including the farmer) think me mad; especially if I have to admit I bagged and/or saw nothing. But the nights when the rats do appear in numbers and I’m dropping them off overhead beams or as they appear from hidey-holes, like many other airgun hunters, I’m in my element. At times such as those I’m sure I must subconsciously be realising why I took up hunting with an airgun in the first place.

TECH MOVES ON

The kit I use now though is far removed from the open-sighted BSA Airsporter of my youth. In fact, when it’s the tool for the job I use a Weihrauch HW80K I had radically modified for specialised hunting situations. Not only is it ‘bull pupped’ but although it has a compact scope on board I can still use the ‘irons’ because the optic sits in ‘see-thru’ mounts.

Strange then to think that as I progressed as a hunter, my kit getting more sophisticated, my accessories more plentiful, that many times the target is still the rat. So why do I/we do it – well, it’s simple really - because we have to admit that although many times we’re shooting in grimy, undesirable, uncomfortable conditions where the shooting can equally be as infuriatingly difficult - after a good ratting session - quite frankly we’ve had fun!

However, as the years have passed, the rat has without doubt become harder to target, their ability to sense danger and learn from near misses has on some of my permissions had me use tactics and specialised kit I’d never have thought I’d need. Even so, having said that one day (or night) they seem to have an extra sensory perception that enables them to elude us. But on others they’re as bold as brass, showing themselves in broad daylight and almost crawling up your gun barrel.

AFTER HOURS

This brings me to a prime factor of this piece that being the airgun industry knows the popularity of ratting at night and quite frankly gadgets and gizmos abound to help us shoot them more successfully. With both new and now established companies producing products that in most instances were solely developed to target the rat after hours. So you could say this creature has served a dual purpose for our sport - that being to introduce newcomers to try a 12ft lb air rifle and even helped bolster the industry as a whole.

For instance, in my opinion, lamping kit wouldn’t have become as compact as it is now. Equally, those first, low grade, Gen 1 Analogue nightvision scopes wouldn’t have got a sniff into this country without the airgun hunter looking for methods and kit to help him target the rat more successfully. In fact, I think it’s fair to say generally that the majority of ratting is now undertaken by shooters using NV equipment, no matter what type. Or associated kit we once wouldn’t have thought would ever be invented, like the original Nite-Site unit. It can be attached to a normal day scope and offers a separate, LCD viewing screen, giving a heads up display that allows us to see in the dark and shoot from the hip. I often wonder if what we now take for granted we fully appreciate the benefits of.

SHORT SHOOTERS

Equally, in air rifles we have a vast array of shorter guns, such as dedicated carbines and now even Bullpups to choose from, that allow us to operate in the confined, cluttered, dark spaces this species is most often encountered. Having said that, I’ve had some good sessions during daylight shooting around the farmyard with a reflex sight mounted on a multi-shot PCP. Yeah, we certainly do have the rat a lot to thank for! Not only as we can operate where more powerful ‘guns’ can’t, but equipment that once began life tentatively limited in range, which made it ideal for rats, has been developed and refined to a high level. NV scopes in particular are now more than capable of allowing us to target our most favoured and edible species, the rabbit. In fact, I feel NV is indispensable as when rats are ultra-wary, operating in total stealth and without disturbing the area or giving your presence away with a light can more often than not be the only way to target them.

They say if there was a nuclear war only the rat and cockroach would survive – well, quite frankly I reckon if enough airgun hunters found bunkers to protect themselves from the fall out, once we all emerged we’d at least have something to shoot at…