Air rifle for vermin control - advice please.

[hendrebc]

As in.... the terrier eats the rat?

They surely cannot require the same level of disposal as Yokel describes above for a naturally killed rat, but you never can underestimate the FA wallahs....

Well does away with a lot of the hastle bait brings with inspections and things like disposing of carcasses. I dont know what the dog does with the rats she might eat them the FA inspector will have to ask her herself

 

[milkloss]

Not use poison because of rules like this. Hence the terrier

We’ve not had to bait for years as we don’t have a rodent problem

When we milked the assistant had a nice little spaniel, the old man bought it for him as he moved a fair way away from home and felt a bit isolated. Anyhow, inspector didn’t like the dog trotting through the parlour to come and find us so we scowled at it and sent it packing. Just then the biggest rat you ever saw trotted across the collecting yard, inspector bod turns to me and was about to say some niggly comment when I piped up “if you hadn’t been such a pr,ick about the dog that rat would’ve been a gonner!”. Him and I never got on after that and he did his best to make life difficult.

 

[Danllan]

...Anyone use .22 shots shell or floberts for rats?

When I was a child my oldest uncle still had my grandfather's 'Garden gun', that's what we called it anyway. It was a .22 'shotgun' that my father and his brothers use to use to shoot the finches eating the buds in the apple orchard. This would have been before and during WWII, my father regretted doing it looking back but at the time the apples were important and he was a boy, so it happened. I think a cousin still has the gun, I had a few goes with it and it was fun, but then guns are when you're a boy.

 

[mushnt grummmble]

Still trying to fill out the risk assessment for using bait - "How will you dispose of rodent carcases?", How will you dispose of spent bait"?

Look at the label:

Dispose of dead rodents in accordance with local requirements. Poisoned rodents may be disposed of by the waste producer at an incinerator or landfill permitted to accept that type of waste, or collected by a registered waste carrier and taken for disposal at a suitably permitted site. Remove all baits after treatment and dispose of them in accordance with local requirements.

Really?
Really really?
Do all other farmers out there now swing into action when they find a dead rat and arrange for an appropriate waste carrier to convey dead rodent to a place where it may be incinerated (with the required permits and in accordance with all local requirements??

I presume the "right" answer is to write that dead rats will be handed over to a registered waste carrier and leave it at that, but (serious question) what DO you other farmers do?

They must die underground as you dont see any carcases

 

[slackjawedyokel]

They must die underground as you dont see any carcases

Yeah- I think I phrased that bit of the form “ IF found, dead rats will be...”

 

[devonboy]

we"ve got a webley 10 shot air rifle and we"ve got a few rats about, thought about a nv sight before , so all i need is a yukon photon 6.5 x 50 and thats it?nothing else?

 

[milkloss]

we"ve got a webley 10 shot air rifle and we"ve got a few rats about, thought about a nv sight before , so all i need is a yukon photon 6.5 x 50 and thats it?nothing else?

Time. Lots of time. Oh, and bait because you will never get all of them.

It is fun though I’ll admit.

 

[Err0l]

When I was a child my oldest uncle still had my grandfather's 'Garden gun', that's what we called it anyway. It was a .22 'shotgun' that my father and his brothers use to use to shoot the finches eating the buds in the apple orchard. This would have been before and during WWII, my father regretted doing it looking back but at the time the apples were important and he was a boy, so it happened. I think a cousin still has the gun, I had a few goes with it and it was fun, but then guns are when you're a boy.

I have a 9mm garden gun and it's bloody useless but I have shot a few rats with it. I also bought an smk pr900w air rifle, it's pcp and you can get a new one for about £150 and a pump for £50 offline. It's not the best gun out there but it does a job and is fairly well built. I bought a barrel band to improve accuracy so I will have to see how it goes once I try it out.

 

[Danllan]

I have a 9mm garden gun and it's bloody useless but I have shot a few rats with it. I also bought an smk pr900w air rifle, it's pcp and you can get a new one for about £150 and a pump for £50 offline. It's not the best gun out there but it does a job and is fairly well built. I bought a barrel band to improve accuracy so I will have to see how it goes once I try it out.

I'm not sold on barrel bands being de facto improvers of accuracy, the opposite seems more probable to me, it will be interesting to read your conclusions.

 

[Sonoftheheir]

When is the best time to go out to shoot rats in sheds? Would having the lights on put them off?

 

[beefandsleep]

Inspector: fx.....Big intake of breath.

"Well Mr Yokel, I am pleased with the Inspection I have carried out today, however, you have not shown me the Carcase disposal records for the rats you claim to have shot, or indeed the headage count on a per day basis that must tally with disposal records and the ammunition used. "

"No Mr Yokel, thowing them on the Barn roof for the crows is not deemed acceptable by RT, and I must point out that neither have you shown that you are using a non-toxic ammunition for environmental safety.... "

the sound of gently despairing sobbing is heard from a corner......

So if you shot the rats, would you then need a receipt from the kennels covering you for carcase disposal?

Tell him you eat them.

 

[beefandsleep]

Can you recharge them (air rifle) from the workshop compressor rather than hand pump or gas bottle?

 

[Bury the Trash]

Can you recharge them (air rifle) from the workshop compressor rather than hand pump or gas bottle?

quick answer is no.

anyway my workshop compressor trips out at about 10 bar. Me gun likes it at 200 220 bar and the gun and pump is kept indoors in the dry and warm (air) .....

 

[Pasty]

I think you can buy dedicated compressors now for airguns but yeah, the damp air would knacker it pretty quickly.

 

[Pasty]

When is the best time to go out to shoot rats in sheds? Would having the lights on put them off?

One tactic is to set up bait stations under a light. Something mushy they can't drag away. They will soon get used to it and you'll know the range etc. Also apparently red filter help if you have a scope mounted torch or similar.

 

[joe soapy]

The old way for rats was to get some in a cage, then turn the survivor out, he would be a true cannible

 

[steveR]

The old way for rats was to get some in a cage, then turn the survivor out, he would be a true cannible

 

[steveR]

I think you can buy dedicated compressors now for airguns but yeah, the damp air would knacker it pretty quickly.

Hugely expensive.... Start from around 400 quid when I last looked.

 

[Wombat]

You pass the inspection?

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Yes thanks - our inspector has a family farm and they didn’t seem completely up on the current rules re. Rodent baiting... anyway I did make an effort to get the paperwork more or less up to spec - still think it’s mainly a waste of my time tho.
I asked what SPECIFICALLY you were supposed to do with a dead poisoned rat. The inspector had a shufti at a technical note and the easiest thing does seem to be to bag it and bin it...(with the caveat that you should seek permission from your local authority).
Still fancy getting an air rifle tho, esp if we ever have quite a few rats going about. Prob budget about 1K for a half decent outfit incl night vision.
Only thing I got picked up on (another thread in crops) was not recording the sanitiser/detergent used in my temporary grain store. Still not quite sure of the right answer and I’ve been trying to pin down the good folks at Acoura