rat attack (one for the airgun fans)

i used a shovel when i worked on a farm for a summer.
the ground air vents in the grain silos used to be a special hiding place for rats and mice alike. turn on the fan, and they came flying out the end of the vent ready for a 'whack attack' with a shovel.
was harsh the first few times, but after you've seen how many are hiding in there and the potential for disease to be spread among the harvest, you soon realise the purpose!
i'm now deadly with a spade.
did have to use the boot on the odd occasion....not so nice. but swift if you put the effort in. i'm size 11, so i never missed

lumos2000":s0qp6m6q said:

rats are ace, they make great pets

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We're not talking the dinky little rats you get in Pets at Home, here.
Rats are getting bigger, much bigger!
The biggest I've seen, dead, was just shy of 24" long, snout-tip of it's tail.
All these growth hormones the agri industry like to use have a lot to answer for.
Be afraid! Be very afraid.....

suburbanreuben":3rqoq2px said:

lumos2000":3rqoq2px said:

rats are ace, they make great pets

Click to expand...

We're not talking the dinky little rats you get in Pets at Home, here.
Rats are getting bigger, much bigger!
The biggest I've seen, dead, was just shy of 24" long, snout-tip of it's tail.
All these growth hormones the agri industry like to use have a lot to answer for.
Be afraid! Be very afraid.....

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ive kept all sorts of rats, some semi wild, they never seem any bigger in the wild, just wild exaggeration from people who get scared at the site of a rat. not sure i could be afraid of somthing so harmless. the only reason rats get out of hand is because of peoples dirty habbits and lazeyness

B77":d63qc8yy said:

saltyman":d63qc8yy said:

nerves, rabbits do the same....

also, this vid shows you how badly overpopulated they become when they have food and
if a mother dies or cannot feed the young, other rats will help rear them....they are that succseful.

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Just like humans then really.....


Tell me this, how many people a year in the UK die from diseases carried by rats ? How much money/income/tax is lost due to rats ? In comparison to smoking, alchohol, absolutely bugger all.
Overpoulation ? Pathetic justification used by those who get a hard on by reading Airgun World.

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I read airgun world and i shoot rats and rabbits and pigeons the rabbits and pigeons i eat and no i dont smile or get a kick out of it its pest control and thats it 3 local farms gave me permission and i share half my kill with the land owner of 2 of the farms if i didn't shoot the rats at his barn half his stock would be damaged or contaminated costing him half or more of the little cash he makes

ssooooooo ttthhhhheeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ps if you dont like animals being killed or hurt i heard theses a little movement called vegan that are recruiting now

May I bring your attention to....

B77":1l77h45r said:

I'm going to sound like a really holier than thou tw*t now.....the only thing I remember killing as a kid were some spider mites when I was about 5, had fights with the kids with the magnifying glasses, a vegetarian since I was 14, am a member of the anti vivisection society, did a lot of hunt sabbing around the country in my 20's and early 30's, amongst other animal welfare related things (a couple of which I was detained at her majestys pleasure for) and now my wife and I have a smallish animal sanctuary in France.........

Sorry to sound so sanctimonious

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Although I did kill and eat my own food for about 3 years when we had a bit of land in Kent and when living on farms, I had a lovely Theoben Fenman and squirrels taste bloody horrible.
I have no problems with shooting for food it's better than buying at the sermarket but as has been said, if we were cleaner in our ways we wouldn't have the supposed rat/mice/ problems. Killing for the sake of sport or fun an d taking pleasure in it though is a completely different ball game. Also if you genuinely don't get a kick out of it why do you do it ? I find that quite difficult to believe as when I shot rabbits or whatever I certainly got a kind of adrenalin rush.........So there, blows raspberry nyah nyah ny na na etc

B77":2wd7mljx said:

I had a lovely Theoben Fenman

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One of their best they ever made. The gas ram system is excellent.
Rats & mice are big problem and if left alone will over run a farm/building. Rabbits have their own pest control called Myxomatosis.
Shooting when done correctly is the best way to keep there numbers down.

I used to use my theoben taunus .22 with hollowpoints on the local rats on my riverside until the locals started calling the cops (who never used to mind).

You could shoot a rat, sit and wait and it's siblings would come out and start to eat the damn thing!

lumos2000":6ls4m21i said:

rats are ace, they make great pets

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I agree, we had 27 at one point when i was a kid, we loved them. And despite what people say they are very clean (although that is lots of cleaning but shared so not so bad).
They are really quite friendly.
I can see easily how they are also a pest though.


How long was it before the others came out to eat it?! Madness.

B77":24ghcb3v said:

saltyman":24ghcb3v said:

nerves, rabbits do the same....



Tell me this, how many people a year in the UK die from diseases carried by rats ? How much money/income/tax is lost due to rats ? In comparison to smoking, alchohol, absolutely bugger all.
Overpoulation ? Pathetic justification used by those who get a hard on by reading Airgun World.

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Rats will nest in a badger sett and move TB around.



There's not a lot of twitchin going on when this fella pic'd below is around rats, the first five he kopped for he swallowed whole in a nano second and justifiably (in his own head) sat there pulling a face that suggested 'Rat....what Rat, aint seen one boss' whilst the humans in attendance were busy half spewing . He's not shy in going underwater when on one, before today i've stood fascinated watching him choose the correct path underwater to intersect a deep diving rat (fantastic swimmers).

So by your criteria anything that carries disease should be killed, thats fine by me because I'm going to shoot all those sods that come into my shop with a cold and 3 days later I've got it.
It's like foxhunting, everyone blabing on about tradition and 'pest' control, never heard one of them say 'hammering across the landscape on a horse with a pack of dogs and all your mates is a right rush' if there had been a bit more of that......People always try to justify their actions with words like 'population management' or somesuch instead of admiting that killing makes you feel good because it's a rather unpalatable truth.

P.S. In France there are very very few instances of bovine Tb but then again there isn't the increbile land use intensity that there is in the UK, you very rarely see more than 4-5 cattle per hectare per week whereas at home it's around 10-12.