Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Coyote, Small Game, Varmints => Topic started by: PastorJoel on November 12, 2016, 10:21:02 PM

Title: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 12, 2016, 10:21:02 PM: Well, I had set out rat traps near my chicken coop. Several times they ate the peanut butter and lived! Tonight I tied granola bar chucks to the traps with fishing line.

I feel like a big game hunter again (deer season was too long ago)

:hunter:
1 confirmed kill, a mature female
1 unconfirmed kill. Lots of blood, I tried to follow the trail in the dark but no luck.
:hunter:

:mgun: Die rats!!!

If I have any kills in the daylight I will post a pic.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Loki_762 on November 13, 2016, 01:21:37 PM: Put a red light out by your coop and leave out your bait where you have a good shot. Get your pellet gun ready, and drill the little buggers when they come out to the bait. If you don't want to sit around and wait, get a driveway alarm from Harbor Freight and leave it near the bait. It will beep when you have a visitor. I've gotten lots of rats this way - it's a ton of fun.
Chris
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 13, 2016, 02:24:48 PM: Quote from: Loki_762 on November 13, 2016, 01:21:37 PM
Put a red light out by your coop and leave out your bait where you have a good shot. Get your pellet gun ready, and drill the little buggers when they come out to the bait. If you don't want to sit around and wait, get a driveway alarm from Harbor Freight and leave it near the bait. It will beep when you have a visitor. I've gotten lots of rats this way - it's a ton of fun.
Chris

No safe shooting lane, believe me, I thought about that. :)
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Bill W on November 13, 2016, 05:40:01 PM: Quote from: PastorJoel on November 12, 2016, 10:21:02 PM
Well, I had set out rat traps near my chicken coop. Several times they ate the peanut butter and lived! Tonight I tied granola bar chucks to the traps with fishing line.

I feel like a big game hunter again (deer season was too long ago)

:hunter:
1 confirmed kill, a mature female
1 unconfirmed kill. Lots of blood, I tried to follow the trail in the dark but no luck.
:hunter:

:mgun: Die rats!!!

If I have any kills in the daylight I will post a pic.

Wait about 30 minutes before you follow the blood trail. Gives them time to die or stiffen up. Oh wait....that advice is for deer.

Best time I ever had was when my dad and uncle took me to the local dump at night. Shame dumps aren't sanitary and don't still exist.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: ghosthunter on November 13, 2016, 06:25:41 PM: Ahhh the memeroies.

My first big game as a child was hunting rats after school in the family chicken yard.
Laying on my belly under burlap bags for hours ,shooting rats. Ahh the best fun.

Use bacon chunks as bait.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: TONTO on November 13, 2016, 06:33:12 PM: I changed up to a Big Snap-E trap. It's a plastic trap simple to set, easy empty, and they're not going to get the bait. It's a rat killing machine, but even though I was constantly dumping dead rats I wasn't keeping up. So I put out some rodentex, not a sign of a rat for a week now :tup:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: brew on November 13, 2016, 07:22:25 PM: i remember a time about 38 years ago when my cousin had a rat problem in his chicken house...we waited until after dark to go and shoot those buggers with a 22 semi rifle and a 22 pistol. he was adament about not shooting a lot of holes in the chicken house so my brother had the rifle and my dad had the pistol. opened the door and turned on the light and saw two rats running around the eaves. my brother killed the first rat with the second shot from the rifle. my old man, who was many beers into the night, kept banging away at the second one with the pistol---after about the sixth shot that rat fell to the ground and upon further inspection he had not hit it...must have had a heart attack and died as there was not a shot in the dam thing....i never got to take a shot but still remember it like it was yesterday.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 14, 2016, 07:54:51 AM: Quote from: Bill W on November 13, 2016, 05:40:01 PM
Wait about 30 minutes before you follow the blood trail. Gives them time to die or stiffen up. Oh wait....that advice is for deer.

:chuckle: :chuckle:

Last night I was cutting up a bunch of venison for some meat loaf (:drool:) and had some fatty scraps left over. I attached those to the traps with tooth picks and had one big rat this morning!

3 down, many many more to go!
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Special T on November 14, 2016, 11:17:18 AM: Any kind of poison and chickens is bad stuff. We have lots of rats where we live and it's the main reason why I don't get some birds. I keep poison out all the time.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: salish on November 15, 2016, 01:14:03 PM: We have a pretty healthy rat population in north Seattle, too. In past years I've used a brand of rat poison that has been removed from the market (D-CON in the little trays). It seemed to work well. I'm no longer using poison because I have dogs and I'm concerned about them catching and eating a rat who has ingested the poison. My understanding is that canines can become sick and die as a result from ingesting a poisoned rodent.
So, I'm currently using RatX, a non-toxic bait. The jury is still out on how well this stuff works. I may supplement it with this Big Snap-E trap I'm reading about in this thread. I've had mixed success with the traditional Victor rat traps.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: pianoman9701 on November 15, 2016, 01:34:46 PM: When I was growing up in NH, we used to go to the dump and shoot rats with .22s. Tons of fun.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Dr. Death on November 15, 2016, 02:11:33 PM: Use the bucket & water trick.... :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM: If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 15, 2016, 03:33:26 PM: I didn't get any rats last night but I did get my dog's nose. Thankfully the tomcat didn't break anything. (trap bait is still venison scraps, no poison for the dog to get into)
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: drakehntr on November 15, 2016, 09:10:34 PM: I get them by my coop too. Traps were mildly successfull, but also killed a lot of tweety birds. So i now go out some eves with a headlamp and Remington .22 fieldmaster. It just shoots birdshot. Lots of fun and i have killed a ton of them.

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fuploads.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F20161116%2F7bb523d845a8fb255aa139a31fe377c3.jpg&hash=013c9ec1c64e3602f5bfcf5a318cfd6c2addbfd1)(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fuploads.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F20161116%2Fe417b71dedaef491a36efadad20e6591.jpg&hash=163fc8b9936ac3a6426c57f0ad709a582bfaf21b)

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Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: crowinghen on November 16, 2016, 06:11:20 PM: Quote from: Loki_762 on November 13, 2016, 01:21:37 PM
Put a red light out by your coop and leave out your bait where you have a good shot. Get your pellet gun ready, and drill the little buggers when they come out to the bait. If you don't want to sit around and wait, get a driveway alarm from Harbor Freight and leave it near the bait. It will beep when you have a visitor. I've gotten lots of rats this way - it's a ton of fun.
Chris

great idea! I've done all of the above except for the driveway alarm!
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: brew on November 16, 2016, 06:31:15 PM: those are some Boone & Crockett rats ! by the looks of things you have to wear the Danner style romeo's to sneak up on them :chuckle: better not post too many pics or the F&W will start making you buy a tag for them
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: sandman76 on November 16, 2016, 06:57:12 PM: My boss scored this booner today
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: dreadi on November 16, 2016, 08:47:13 PM: Don't see many Fieldmasters around.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: lokidog on November 16, 2016, 09:04:34 PM: Quote from: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM
If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.

That looks like a pack rat not a Norway rat...?
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Bill W on November 17, 2016, 06:50:26 AM: Quote from: lokidog on November 16, 2016, 09:04:34 PM
Quote from: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM
If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.

That looks like a pack rat not a Norway rat...?

Maybe it's like elk. Cascade vs Roosevelt. The east side rat has the bushier tail and the westside the bigger body diameter.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: JakeLand on November 17, 2016, 05:33:40 PM: Quote from: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM
If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.
That's a wood rat they are a lot different
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Pygmy on November 20, 2016, 08:01:35 PM: Spot and stalk at the dove pen...44 mag with shot shell
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fuploads.tapatalk-cdn.com%2F20161121%2Fbc34ebe3767dc1c4af0ece455185c3a2.jpg&hash=168f9d822dba9fe118c337d4229eba2a31e4f8be)

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Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Fieldp66 on November 21, 2016, 08:21:29 PM: Quote from: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM
If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.

Whiskers outside ears killed me. :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: ELKBURGER on November 22, 2016, 04:53:51 AM: Quote from: Fieldp66 on November 21, 2016, 08:21:29 PM
Quote from: Buckmark on November 15, 2016, 03:25:03 PM
If you get a booner post it up :chuckle:

I should of done a full body mount on this one, real trophy as the whiskers are outside the ears.

I shoot them if i can, but if you are only using traps the Tomcat rat traps work real well, get a dozen and set up a trap line.

Whiskers outside ears killed me. :chuckle:
:yeah: :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: deerhunter_98520 on November 26, 2016, 11:32:33 PM: Here you guys go....looks fun to me :tup:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: nwwanderer on November 27, 2016, 06:51:40 AM: At 3:43, is that a pig? Yikes, this guys feed bill for the rats is more the than porkers. Good study on shot placement and did they have a couple of five gallon buckets to cleanup the carnage? Excellent practice with benefit. Thanks for the post
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: Boss .300 winmag on November 27, 2016, 09:16:04 AM: That's a rat hotel, must be a pig feed lot. :tup:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 28, 2016, 09:38:46 PM: Do these critters hibernate or something? I haven't seen any in a few days.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: lokidog on November 29, 2016, 09:25:41 AM: Cool video, I sure wouldn't want to be the one having to pick all of them up though.

Not as bad as rats, but I've trapped 9 mice in the last 8 days in our basement, nothing last night though, yucky things. >:(
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on November 30, 2016, 10:10:18 PM: There will be backstrap tonight! :drool: :drool: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: nwwanderer on December 01, 2016, 06:50:02 AM: Get a stick, tape your pant legs shut and pickup that blue tarp. How fast are you?
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on December 01, 2016, 05:00:58 PM: Quote from: nwwanderer on December 01, 2016, 06:50:02 AM
Get a stick, tape your pant legs shut and pickup that blue tarp. How fast are you?

LOL. It took me a minute to get the "tape your pant legs shut" part. :chuckle: That tarp is actually very very small. I don't think any are under there.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on December 05, 2016, 09:50:17 PM: I stepped up my game tonight and got out the old trusty pellet gun. I am pretty sure I missed... Maybe it's not so trusty after all. :'(

My problem is that I only have about 1 second to find them and shoot from one side of my chicken coop fence to the other side before they make it into some blackberry bushes. I might need to go fully auto.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: haugenna on December 05, 2016, 10:17:21 PM: When I was younger we would empty the corn crib and there would be rats running everywhere. We shot some but it got a little western and we put the guns away and got out the riding lawn mower. Parked it in the open and the rats ran under it for cover. Ground them up pretty good.
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: nwwanderer on December 06, 2016, 04:59:59 PM: Put one through a 55H chopper once, one foot rat became a three foot rat. That is a JD combine for those away from the farm
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on March 08, 2017, 07:03:52 PM: I have run into a serious problem and need some advice from my fellow hunters.

After getting a backstop set up and a good pellet gun, I have, inadvertently, killed all of the rats. Now I have nothing to hunt. :cryriver:

If anyone wants to live-trap their rats and let them go in my chicken coop, I would be glad to shoot them for you. :tup:

Maybe I should develop my rat habitat to draw more in, you know, like how deer hunters make feed plots. :dunno:

Perhaps I could high fence my property and really get the population going.
:dunno:

:chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: 2labs on March 08, 2017, 07:19:42 PM: Trophy hunter! >:(..... :)
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: ghosthunter on March 08, 2017, 07:19:57 PM: Ahhhh brings back fond memories .
After school when I was a little guy. Shooting rats in the chicken yard with my Red Ryder. :chuckle:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: biggfish on March 08, 2017, 09:32:29 PM: I got a opossum running around here looks to be 20#+ if I can catch it it'll be all yours but a pellet gun may not be enough

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Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: PastorJoel on March 08, 2017, 09:35:44 PM: Quote from: biggfish on March 08, 2017, 09:32:29 PM
I got a opossum running around here looks to be 20#+ if I can catch it it'll be all yours but a pellet gun may not be enough

Sent from my RCT6873W42 using Tapatalk
Deal! :tup:
Title: Re: The great, big, rat hunt!
Post by: nwwanderer on March 09, 2017, 08:36:15 AM: Look close, they just see you coming, hone those skills. Pesky little monsters