Rat shot and its appropriate use in residential areas

ivanthehunter

Can i use 22lr rat shot in a residential area if it is used in a controlled and safe manner and then only to dispatch caught vermin.

Surely this is ammo is safe if used with caution.

Regards IvanTheHunter

IRLConor

What vermin do you catch alive in a residential area? I've lived in built-up areas all my life and all you ever need to catch are mice and rats and regular, ordinary traps rarely catch them alive. (If they are still alive when you get to the trap then it's a job for a priest, not a firearm.)

Why complicate things by trying to figure out how to safely use ratshot in a residential area? Personally, I'd be afraid of ricochets, backsplash, annoying the neighbours or giving my local super the idea that by having the firearm I'd present a "danger to the public safety or security or the peace".

It wasn't me!

No reason I can think of to use it.

Grizzly 45

True enough,a bunch of rat poision or traps will do the job just as well.Not only that it will feck up the rifling somwhat,and is inaccruate as hell,and for it to be effective you have to be within 12ft of the "rat" .A high power catapult will do the job aswell then.:)

fathersymes

perhaps a childs crossbow would suffice!

pm.

IRLConor wrote: »

What vermin do you catch alive in a residential area? I've lived in built-up areas all my life and all you ever need to catch are mice and rats and regular, ordinary traps rarely catch them alive. (If they are still alive when you get to the trap then it's a job for a priest, not a firearm.)

Why complicate things by trying to figure out how to safely use ratshot in a residential area? Personally, I'd be afraid of ricochets, backsplash, annoying the neighbours or giving my local super the idea that by having the firearm I'd present a "danger to the public safety or security or the peace".

well said. why the hell would you even bring this up ? if i seen someone with shooting a rife in a residential i would give the local station a ring, how would i know what type of round is in the rifle or as conor said ricochets backsplahe kids playing. come on tell me you are pulling my leg

touchyie

I laughed when I read this, it reminded me of tom and Jerry and the lengths tom goes to trying to catch Jerry. Perhaps you could use a canon or maybe drop a piano them!!!

seriously though if you enough firing your gun that much and are looking for reasons to do it, take up clay pigeon or target shooting.

Scoogles

Em, are firearms dangerous or the people who have them?, now I know.

It wasn't me!

Please try not to take one ridiculous notion as being representative of 200,000 people. The vast, vast majority of us are perfectly safe and discrete, but we're the quieter, less notable part of the group unfortunately.

Scoogles

its alright "it wasn't me", I'm one of those, like yourself it seems, that thinks before I shoot and seems not one of those who speaks before he thinks.
god help me if the animal rights crowd are reading but i used to work in a warehouse where we couldn't lay poison, foodstuffs in the place, and we had sticky 12" squares of card that the vermin would be stuck to in the morning when you'd arrive in. part of my role was to dispatch them with the shovel. Jeysus if I brought in the olde gun over my shoulder I think ther'd have been a bit of craic.:rolleyes:

gofaster_s13

Rentokill etc regularly use air rifles to shoot rats and pigeons in built up areas

Scoogles

Noted, but you'll find they operate under licence, ie; their individual gun licences specify this type of use. the conditions they use the air rifles in are limited and very specific. There is a marked difference between a vermin control company entering a controlled environment and dispatching a shot and you or I using it in a built up area. Also event they use alternative methods to and alongside firearms. If they have caught the vermin like the original poster said, they would not fire on it. A sledge hammer cracking a walnut.

Sparks

Bit of a difference between a low-powered airgun and a .22 though gofaster, even if it's just using ratshot. Though I don't know why they'd bother with an airgun for rats (pigeons, that I could understand).

gofaster_s13

Sparks wrote: »

Bit of a difference between a low-powered airgun and a .22 though gofaster, even if it's just using ratshot. Though I don't know why they'd bother with an airgun for rats (pigeons, that I could understand).

I agree that there is a differance between a .22 and an air rifle but in the eyes of the law a firearm is a firearm. As for why rentokill use air rifles for rats is that in an area plagued with rats sometimes the rats can get smart to poison also the fact that its more fun to shoot rats than lay poison:D

Sparks

I didn't mean legal differences gofaster, I meant technical ones (such as noise).

Mellor

Sparks wrote: »

I didn't mean legal differences gofaster, I meant technical ones (such as noise).

And level of danger

Grizzly 45

[

god help me if the animal rights crowd are reading but i used to work in a warehouse where we couldn't lay poison, foodstuffs in the place, and we had sticky 12" squares of card that the vermin would be stuck to in the morning when you'd arrive in. part of my role was to dispatch them with the shovel.

Yup,that one would drive them spa allright!!They are off banning glue traps at the moment.

ivanthehunter

Well in my particular circumstances, residential referees to ribbon development along back roads in the greater Dublin area, with individual houses being build on sites of one half to one full acre or thereabouts and all there properties back out on to fields. So as you can see I'm not talking about housing estates.
In this area and other similar area i set (or will soon set) traps. I see rat shot as a convenient option of dispatch.
Having tested rat shot on lines of Budweiser cans at different ranges i know it to be of limited power as grizz has noted.

People failed to mention the so called guild lines of discharging a firearm in term of distance form a dwelling and discharge direction in relation to that building and any servicing roads.
Also no body bothered to discuss the limited effective range of such small practicals. (except grizzly)

My sole intention is dispatch of live caught rats..without damage to human health and of course i want to stay on the right side of the law and i the neighbours.
In terms of ricochets & backsplash, i dont see these as a problem if shots are taken in a safe manner, AFAIK rat shot has been use for years around farm yards and out buildings and even inside these buildings with no ill effect to shooters who take precautions.

Sparks

ivanthehunter wrote: »

My sole intention is dispatch of live caught rats..without damage to human health and of course i want to stay on the right side of the law and i the neighbours.

:rolleyes:

Hagar

Isn't there legislation stating that a firearm may not be discharged with x metres of a public road? It doesn't mention the ammo type afaik.

I can't remember x just now but 50 has a ring to it.

It wasn't me!

Hagar wrote: »

Isn't there legislation stating that a firearm may not be discharged with x metres of a public road? It doesn't mention the ammo type afaik.

I can't remember x just now but 50 has a ring to it.

It's not legislated for, but good practice advice is 60 feet. It is illegal to fire from a public road however.

Realistically, if you have trapped rats, there are far better ways to dispatch them than a firearm, and if you must, I thought you had an air rifle, Ivan?

pm.

Ivan if i seen someone at the back of my house firing a rifle and i live on 5 acres rural i would calling the boys in blue, first of all i got 2 young kids and 2nd how the hell would i know what type of round you had. i love shooting but i will always respect neighbours safety. if someone fired a rifle at the back of your house all be it half an acre what would you do ?

ivanthehunter

pm. wrote: »

Ivan if i seen someone at the back of my house firing a rifle and i live on 5 acres rural i would calling the boys in blue, first of all i got 2 young kids and 2nd how the hell would i know what type of round you had. i love shooting but i will always respect neighbours safety. if someone fired a rifle at the back of your house all be it half an acre what would you do ?

depends on who is doing the shooting and whether or not i knew them but you can be sure that i wouldn't be calling the cops unless things got nasty.

IWM i don't have an air rifle:(

ivanthehunter

Hagar wrote: »

Isn't there legislation stating that a firearm may not be discharged with x metres of a public road? It doesn't mention the ammo type afaik.

I can't remember x just now but 50 has a ring to it.

no legislation on the distance but there is a mystical guide line issued by some shooting body.:rolleyes:

And yes the legally irrelevant guide line gives no allowance for different types of ammo or for that matter different types of guns.

If you look at the UK you find lots of folk shooting air rifles in large back gardens, i dont know how this relates to their legal system but it seems to be an accepted practice i.e. shooting match heads at 10m etc etc

Dvs

Sparks wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Sparks,
I am sure a number of us here would like to see you try and take a live rat out of a cage trap and hit it with a hammer.


My money would be on the rat coming out on top in that contest!
can you video it and post it on youtube.




Dvs.

Sparks

Sorry DvS I thought we were talking about glue traps here.
For cage traps, the answer is somewhat simpler:

Half-cocked

Ha ha. Reminds me of a story about a proffessional ratcatcher in Wexford years ago. His favourite method was to prop an old door up with a stick and pile rocks on the back of it. He'd put bait under the door and yank the stick out when enough rats were underneath. Rumour has it he'd often kill in excess of 30 rats in one go.

Hairy Hunter

Barrell of Water???

Drowned Rat,

Silent, cheap, safe (as long as you dont drink it afterwards:p)

Regards,

HH.

Trojan911

Hairy Hunter wrote: »

Barrell of Water???

Drowned Rat,

Silent, cheap, safe (as long as you dont drink it afterwards:p)

Regards,

HH.

And cruel?

Hairy Hunter

Cruel??? Are you taking the MICK?

Reliable sources ( drowned rats:p) say drowning is one of the least stressful\painful ways to go.

I am trying to understand your view point, but failing.

HH.

Trojan911

Hairy Hunter wrote: »

Cruel??? Are you taking the MICK?

Reliable sources ( drowned rats:p) say drowning is one of the least stressful\painful ways to go.

I am trying to understand your view point, but failing.

HH.

Any links to these reliable sources?

Grizzly 45

This thread now reminds me of a scene
from Ronin Atkinson's BlackAdder II, episode Beer.:D


Edmund: [calls] Baldrick!

[Baldrick enters, wearing an apparatus on his head which is dangling
a piece of cheese from the end of his nose. Edmund begins to speak
about something, then notices.]

Edmund: [calmly] Why have you got a piece of cheese tied to the end
of your nose?

Baldrick: To catch mice, My Lord. I lie on the floor with my mouth open
and hope they scurry in.

Edmund: ...and do they?

Baldrick: Not yet, My Lord.

Edmund: Well, I'm not surprised -- your breath comes straight from Satan's
bottom, Baldrick. The only sort of mouse you're going to catch is
one without a nose.

Baldrick: That's a pity, because the nose is the best bit on a mouse.

Trojan911

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

This thread now reminds me of a scene
from Ronin Atkinson's BlackAdder II, episode Beer.:D

Only this thread? .

Go over and read some threads on other forums & you will say to yourself, WTF. Are these people really what they say they are.... It's like trying to interact with idiots, only a small minority have sensible comments/contributions to make. We are lucky here as most of the posters know what they are on about & are seasoned shooters.

Remember this one? ... two pencils up your nose and a pair of underpants on your head....

Grizzly 45

http://foamy.libertech.net/for33.swf

Strong lingo and un PC and graunteed to pi"s off somone somwhere off in HR or wherever..Not rat related either[although there is a Cat doing the narration:D]

Sparks

To be fair, we only really have about two or three posters you could call dodgy, and to be even more fair, damn near every poster in here (myself included) has had "one of those days". And to be incredibly fair, I'll happily compare our dodgy-to-useful post comparison figures against those of the Digest or any of the four or five forums out there which were set up to compete with boards.ie or to act as a better-suited niche group, or against any of the private email lists out there. Boards.ie just does more good for more people than any other outlet we have - that's why all the mods have put so many manhours into it over the years.

All that said, it's still a funny cat

Trojan911

Hmmmmmm.............. Maybe I should have been more clearer.

Sparks

See, if you're just going to say it's a boards.ie thing, I'm going to have to call shenanigans, because I'm getting pretty browned off hearing how this club and that club has unwritten rules that you don't post here - so if you're saying it is just boards.ie, and not other closed forums or other open forums or other publications or other private email lists, well, we'll have to discuss that.

maglite

i see no problem using rat shot in the manner i'm thinking,

YOu have one of the live catch cages, rifle gets put up near the cage point blank and poof dead rat.

It is loud, will attract attention but is safe and effective.

And as for humane drowning have you ever tried it it takes ages a rat can hold its breath for a while and try to chew through the cage for up to a minute trying to get free. IT IS NOT HUMANE

ivanthehunter

Maglite- thats how i see it.

But here on this forum there are mixed opinions and people often simply attack any method with out considering the alternatives.

Rat shot (although bad for rifling) fits the bill.

Sparks

You might think that ivan; you might also wind up in court over it for reckless discharge of a firearm (which doesn't need you to be worrying about distances from roads, you can get done for that one anywhere at all).

maglite

Sparks do you know what what type of round we are on about?

its tiny pieces of metal that have trouble going through cardboard at 10yrds. In you must know some backwards people o think this is wreckless discharge. I would question if people would even know what was going on, the number of shots involved are tiny 1 maybe 2 on a good day.

Obviously if ivan is doing this he has been asked, once he explains when someone asks i can see no one complaining about the dispatch of rats. Some people live outside major urban areas where is this perfectly ok and acceptable. I'm really struggling with the idea that someone can complain about this being unsafe when they know nothing of the situation.

As for this 60ft that is not law anywhere and some people need to shoot within 6ft of a road and indeed inside major urban areas. Its all about where the shot will land/could land and the max potential damage it could do on impact.

ivanthehunter

Sparks wrote: »

You might think that ivan; you might also wind up in court over it for reckless discharge of a firearm (which doesn't need you to be worrying about distances from roads, you can get done for that one anywhere at all).

Well i suppose i have a lot to be greatful for!!! Your not my neighbour:D

Vegeta

maglite wrote: »

Sparks do you know what what type of round we are on about?

its tiny pieces of metal that have trouble going through cardboard at 10yrds. In you must know some backwards people o think this is wreckless discharge. I would question if people would even know what was going on, the number of shots involved are tiny 1 maybe 2 on a good day.

Obviously if ivan is doing this he has been asked, once he explains when someone asks i can see no one complaining about the dispatch of rats. Some people live outside major urban areas where is this perfectly ok and acceptable. I'm really struggling with the idea that someone can complain about this being unsafe when they know nothing of the situation.

As for this 60ft that is not law anywhere and some people need to shoot within 6ft of a road and indeed inside major urban areas. Its all about where the shot will land/could land and the max potential damage it could do on impact.

I think what Sparks is saying is that it doesn't matter what we think but what a Judge might think and what people who enforce the law may think.

Ivan where's the field craft in shooting a rat in a cage