Cockroaches

[birdmove]

We have a chicken coop and the rats get in at night. I bought a small red led flashlight from Amazon for about $8.00. I used two small velco straps that came with a guitar cord (for guitar to amp) to strap it onto the barrel of a Crosman Model 66 air rifle. It's a .177 caliber. Verified the 2x7 powered scope to be sure it was zero'd in at 7 yards. Put a lawn chair at a 7 yard distance from the feeder in the chicken coop. The Crosman is a multi pump air rifle, so I loaded it and pumped it to 8 pumps (10 is maximum, and I had verified the guns zero using 8 pumps).Waited till maybe 8:30, when it was dark, and went and sat down in my lawn chair. Turned on the red flashlight. After a while a rat appeared. You can easily see the glowing rat eyes reflected by the red flashlight. It has to be red, as red doesn't spook them. Put one shot in his head. There was no rat suffering. The crosshairs in the scope are a bit hard to see. You have to wait and let your eyes get acclimated, then you can make out the crosshairs and see the rat to aim.

And, yes, a night vision rifle scope would work better. But, I can't afford one. The cheaper ones aren't very good, and the good ones could easily be over $1000. An $8.00 red led flashlight makes night rat hunting very doable. I find that the battery lasted for maybe an hour and a half, and the light got a bit dim. Put in a fresh battery and it right right up again.

I'm not an avid hunter, but I have no remorse for shooting and killing rats. And, the rear 2x6 and plywood of the coop would never allow a pellet to get through. Plus, I am shooting towards the ground, so a miss would go into the wood chips and ground.

A $40 pellet air gun (do not get a "bb" gun), a decent scope (maybe $40-$50) a red led flashlight for $8. Some pellets, and some target shooting to zero the scope, and a lawn chair, and a safe direction to shoot them. Maybe a jar lid with some peanut butter, and you are lessoning your rat population.





Jon in Keaau/HPP