The Wide World of Wratting

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports... the thrill of victory...



and the agony of defeat...

It's been a little slow in the back yard lately, so my Jim McKay intro is simply a way to say that in this entry I'll be bringing you some of the rat control happenings from the larger world.

Folks, I have a real treat for you today. I found the video below on YouTube and just had to point to it. This is some incredible footage of high-octane ratting. This makes my backyard adventures look like an evening spent at the library. Now let's send it down to Howard Cosell for the tale of the tape...

The shooter in the video is using an Air Arms s410K Pre-charged Pneumatic (PCP) which uses a 10-shot rotary magazine and has variable power that can push .22 caliber pellets out of the muzzle at over 900 feet/second. That's around 30 foot-pounds of muzzle energy! And from the look of things it must be whisper quiet - not one rat appears to get spooked. He also has a Yukon Digital Night Vision Ranger 5x42 scope which he has somehow affixed to the back of his normal rifle scope. He is using an output from the Ranger into some recording device to capture the video. And he's set the whole thing to Killswitch Engage's cover of Dio's Holy Diver. You gotta love it!

Be forewarned - this video is graphic and not for the faint of heart



Wow. The kill at 2:40 alone is worth the price of admission -- the bindi dot shot to the grape that anchors the rat on the spot, his tail shooting out stiff before going limp and the half-beat pause before the blood spills out and down onto the sack he's resting on. That's just pure poetry.

But there is a lot here to be proud of - not least of which, a damned accurate rifle. That's about a thousand dollars worth of fine English-made air rifle, never mind the scope, the digital night vision and the rest of the A/V assemblage. On top of everything else, he has a seemingly unlimited supply of Norway rats. I've never seen anything like it outside a horror flick. I sincerely hope this isn't anywhere near a human habitation. And there are several more posts from this guy on YouTube, so feel free to explore.


The Air Arms s410 rifle in walnut (top) and beech (bottom) stock


A closer look at the 10-shot magazine in the loading port

I have asked the guy if he can post video or images of his gun/scope/night vision set up so I can better understand how he connects everything. I'll let you know if he does so.

The Yukon Digital Ranger 5x42 Night Vision Scope

The latest toy I'll covet but never actually own