Moonlight hunt

A full moon out over the farm tonight

Photo doesn't really do it justice but the fields and areas around the barn were so well lit up we didn't need torches to move around.

In fact even inside the barns the moon gave us enough light to reload our airgun magazines!

As usual the rats were our main target for tonight, having now harvested wheat and beans from the fields they have followed the food and are feasting!

The rats we mostly find in the U.K. are common 'brown rats' . They breed throughout the year and the population can quickly get out of control. 

A female can have five to six litters a year with each cycle only taking 21 days before giving birth to between seven and fourteen babies. The young rats are ready to breed after only five weeks! This means that the population can increase by x10 every 15 weeks if left unchecked. 

We can guarantee in a weeks time there will be more of them as rats tend to increase their reproductive rate when the population is low and at the moment the conditions are ideal for them, warm and plenty of food. 

NiteSite Viper kits mounted on our guns. Using a combination of Predator Polymags and JSB Straton pellets in .22, myself and Graham 'sniper gnome' hit another 17 tonight. 

These camera based sights are really impressive pieces of kit. We are using the most basic model (these pictures I took with my phone, they are actually much clearer.) other models allow for recording and better focusing. See the full range on their website. (We are stockists so let us know if you want a particular model)

What we both really like is the way the infrared picks up your pellet, you can clearly see where it's going and the impact point, very handy for a quick zeroing check at any range. The eyes of the rats also light up on the screen as well, this does help with spotting them and getting positive head shots.

Gun mounted lamps also work well and are much cheaper but you need to use a red filter as rats are mostly red/green colourblind and aren't as bothered by it. They (like humans) have no vision of infrared light, which is why the nitesites work so well.  A normal torch or lamp will generally send them running for cover. 

Usually we need to be quiet as rats have acute hearing (but poor eyesight), however the ones we have been hitting recently just don't seem too bothered, possibly due to all the noise with the harvest going on. 

If anyone would like to try out a Nitesite on our shooting range send us a Facebook message and I'll make sure someone is available for you to try mine out. (We can even fit it to your own gun) 

They also work in the daytime, which a few shooters with poor eyesight are finding very useful (no squinting down a small scope)

Anyway, we plan to be hitting the chicken coops this weekend. Lots of new chicks have hatched and the rats are already trying to eat them! Maybe we'll test out some more new toys and give you the low down on them.