That is when from when I was just a kid, very young kid. We Live at a farm house which I think my parents were renting at the time, if it was that way back then. Think 1965-70 now.
Anyhoo. Guess my first hunting experience was rat hunting. You heard me right boys and girls. You see, farmer had pigs and I remember helping cleaning the pig pens out, in rubber boots and that was bare enough too keep that slop from going over the top. Pigs bite, BTW.
So back to rats. Lots of rats in the pig barn. So one day I looked behind one of the pig feed stalls as there was a gap to look down and you could hear the rats.
Welllll! I made a pointy stick and went at her, kill, kill. There were what felt like hundreds of them, so was a good pass time.
Never have kill anything else with a pointy stick since then but have moved on from a pointy stick...not counting bows and arrows. I am a hunter.
Disclamer: No pigs were hurt at any time, except if they try too eat you.
Our son is our rat hunter around here. He goes out to the chicken coop with my grandpa’s old 22 loaded with birdshot and usually dumps 1 or 2. He’s been so efficient that we haven’t had any rats in the coop recently so it’s a success.
Where abouts on Vancouver Island are you? I used to spend a lot of time up around Parksville/French Creek north of Nanaimo at my buddy’s beach cabin. We’d fish there and Port Alberni fairly often and occasionally run to the West Coast of VI to Ukluelet. I enjoy V.I as well as the people up there. 👍🏼
My rat killing weapon of choice was a tobacco stick with a gutter spike attached to one end with hose clamps. I sharpened the gutter spike on a bench grinder. Pretty wicked little stabber.
My grandfather moved to Memphis in the early 60’s. He always had a big garden, did the same in Memphis. The problem was that the city’s squirrels liked home grown tomatoes as much or better than he did. He had us on the lookout for 22 ratshot to solve the problem. We finally located and procured some for his dilemma. He had an old Winchester 67 22 with the finger groove stock and he loaded it up and went outside to cull the tomato eating SOBs as he called them. The first was atop his garage ready to jump into his garden. He took aim at his head and fired away. He said the SOB just dusted his head and ears with his paws went right ahead into the garden. Didn’t faze it at all. Next, the search was on for CB caps. We couldn’t find any and he settled for Winchester 22 shorts. He would pick his shots; either having a backstop or them highlighted against the sky. He wired a baby bottle nipple on for a silencer. He enjoyed squirrels almost as much as tomatoes. Guess he could have been arrested for shooting inside city limits, out of season, and shooting over bait ( the garden) but he never did get caught. Solved his problem tho.
My .22 smoothbore was a rat killin' machine when I was a kid. I miss those times.
What kind of range can you get out of those smooth bore 22s with a dose of rat shot? I've always wondered about those things. 20 feet?
Seems like they would be a fun way to clear birds out of a barn.
CCI shot shells were effective out to maybe 20' to 25', especially on rats and blackbirds. I killed bunches of them. Rifle was Remington Targetmaster single-shot.
I never sot rats but I shot a rattle snake with some .22 magnum bird shot. I had one piece of lead enter his head and must of got into his brain. From 8 feet 2 pieces of lead hit him. The one in his head and one across the side of his face. That was it. I never bought the .22 magnum bird shot again.