Rats?

[Bowspirit]

Just wondering if any of you all have any experiance bowhunting rats. Currantly trying to put a "hex" on one right now. Don't really need any tips on tackle or technique; this is pretty much going to be a very unexciting "hunt" if everything goes right. Just curious, and could use a good story or two as I'm sitting up against our wood shed...

[Shawn Leonard]

Chris, I know ya may not need tips but some steaming hot dogfood always helps. I have shot tons of them, used to shoot them at the dump as a kid and not too long ago shot them with my recurve near a dog kennel. Shot one in Dads house(which you are familar with)right in the kitchen with a .22 pistol. They are great fun and with a bow very tough to get the draw on, ya better use your new blind!!     Shawn

[bushytail]

Hey Bowspirit,If you get em,you otta take it to the taxedermas and get em mounted.    Would be a great conversation piece.You could tell people how you shoot him as he charged you.HA!Ha!  

[Bowspirit]

Shawn, I'll definatly try the dog food if things are tougher than they seem. Right now I have my own bait; little bugger comes over every day to feed on the corn we spread for the squirrels, who happen to clear the area when he arrives. Nasty little guy...

[Rufus]

Hey, rats chewed a little hole in my tent, a little hole in my food bag and a great big hole in my bread sack and ate all my bread. A man just cain't eat without bread. A bread sack blind might get one some really close shots. Hope you shoot bunches.

[Killdeer]

Peanut butter cups.
I will look up some rat recipes for you.
Killdeer  

[Jedimaster]

I got my start in archery by bowhunting rats in my grandad's barn.  I would sit up in the windows which were very high (about 5 feet, I was 11 y/o) and wait silently.  Usually only took about five minutes for the mice to start rummaging around.  It taught patience because the rat's wouldn't come out until they were sure the mice were safe.  I killed a whole bunch one summer with some home-made dowel arrows and an old fiberglass bow. I proudly say I had no formal instruction, it was just kill or be killed.    

I almost wish I had a place to let the kids get in on some of that action ... almost.

[Bowspirit]

Now, if I can keep my shooting from falling apart like it did at the JLMBH, we should have a dead rat shortly...

[R.V.T.B.]

We have a chemical company here that runs cultures on various things.  They have a huge warehouse full of bags of grain powder.  Bags are big as a refrigerator. I got permission to hunt the large population of rats in the ware house at night, if I used only rubber blunts. It is surprising how many rats have taken a solid hit from a rubber blunt off of a 60 pound bow and then ran off.  Can't do it for long though as the overwhelming smell from the grain makes you sick to your stomach.

[BANNOCK-.PT]

I started hunting rats and woodchucks. I used to sit on top of a manure chute and shoot the rats in the barnyard as they ran out in the evening to go to the corn pile. Great fun minus the manure smell!

[Terry Green]

I actually set up and hunted this buggar.......raiding the bird feeders...got him with a longbow.


   

[TonyW]

Brown rats and roof  rats were eaten openly on a large scale in Paris when the city was under siege during the Franco-Prussian War. Observers likened their taste to both partridges and pork. And, according to the Larousse Gastronomique, rats are still eaten in some parts of France. In fact, this recipe appears in that famous tome.
 
Grilled Rats Bordeaux Style (Entrecote à la bordelaise)
Alcoholic rats inhabiting wine cellars are skinned and eviscerated, brushed with a thick sauce of olive oil and crushed shallots, and grilled over a fire of broken wine barrels.


What won't the French do next?

[Jake]

My yougest connected on this bugger last Spring for her first bowkill.  Set her up by the dog kennel.

 

[Jeff U]

Raiding the bird feeder for the last time...

 

Since they are rats (pests), I'm not sure it's a good idea to set out bait to attract them?

[Aeronut]

Cool picture Jake.

Years ago the local CO-OP gave us permission to shoot rats in the grain warehouse.  We shot hundreds with pellet rifles that summer and I tried a few shots with a bow but never connected.  Didn't take but a few minutes between shots for them to show again.

Dennis

[WidowEater]

If anyone has pictures of the rats shot with a Whisperstik send them to JD as Im sure he would post them on his site.

[Jeff Roberts]

Being raised in the Old  South during the 60's and 70s we had plenty of rat killings around the barns during rainy weather. We would block off all the holes we could find but a couple and then channel water into one of the holes filling up all the tunnels under the barn with water. The wet rats would then exit out of the only hole available or drown. We started off with shotguns then sticks and eventually bows. We killed thousands that way. In my teen years working at a dairy I would set up and shoot them around feed troughs with an old Bear bow. Those rats were bigger than most squirrells. That was the only way the farmer would let me shoot them around his cows.

[GingivitisKahn]

I used to hunt them all the time as a kid with my slingshot (shooting instinctive, of course - hehe).  My buddies and I just walked around in the fields around our houses and kicked over bits of junk out there (old plywood, aluminum thingies, etc.) and shot the snot out of em.

As to eating them - bleah.   Pass.

[ishiwannabe]

Chris...I wish you luck. Rats have been a plague(pun intended) for humans since history was recorded. If there is one, there are more. How many arrows you carrying?

[ksbowman]

In the early 70's a buddy and I had permisson at a quail farm to shot rats.They would come in under the quail pens and clean up the feed grain as it fell from the pens.The pens were elevated about 2 1/2' so you could stand back about 20-30 feet and be quiet and in they would come.The biggest I shot weighed 1 1/2 pounds.It was alot of fun.We used aluminum arrows and they still would mark them when they bit them!  Ben