I have a pretty good relationship with my permission owners. Some have become good friends, none more so than Martin, owner of the chicken farm on which I’ve been shooting for more than a decade.
However, when he rang and asked if I’d like to try his new glory hole I paused, searching for an appropriate “I’m not into that, but thanks all the same” response.
Fortunately, all became clear a few seconds later when he explained he’d cut some windows into the side of the chicken shed for me to shoot through. And that sounded like an after-dark activity I could get into.
Despite my many years, and thousands of rats shot on the farm, the population has exploded in the last few months, costing a small fortune in spoiled eggs and lost chicken feed.
The problem is that the rats live under the sheds below where the chickens roost, mopping up food that falls through the floor. The rats have everything they need and most never leave the sanctuary of the shed where I can’t shoot them, leaving me to target the few that venture outside for whatever reason. As a result, I am only ever scratching at the surface when it comes to controlling the rat population, keeping numbers in check rather than reducing them significantly.
Below: The ready supply of food and water means chickens attract rats. There is no missing the excavations made by the rats on this farm but, with the rodent infestation under the barn, shooting them was not easy
The only time I really get to pound the rats is when the chicken flock is changed. When that happens, a huge digger drags the shed back into the field so all the muck can be scraped away. With their home suddenly removed, the rats are exposed and it’s not unusual to shoot 500 or more in a week before the shed is moved back again and the new birds installed.
Unfortunately, these rat shooting bonanzas only occur every 18 months. The current problem is the result of the flock change being six months overdue, giving the rats extra time to breed.
Discussing how to address the problem with Martin, he suggested piling up some pallets around the perimeter of the shed and baiting them with chicken feed. However, I explained that while that would undoubtedly attract some rats, they’d scarper back to the safety of the shed the moment I shot a few.
We agreed the only way to seriously cull the population was to shoot them where they lived – under the shed itself. Hence, the next day and with the help of an angle grinder, three glory holes appeared.
Below: Removing the shielding side panels reveals a "glory hole" for clear shots at previously hidden rats
The following evening saw my mates Neil and Kev laid prone in the yard behind their BSA R10 and Daystate Huntsman Regal .22 rifles looking through the holes at the front of the shed.
I planned to shoot the hole at the back and, because I’d be in the scratching field, would sit on my bean bag cushion rather than lay on the dirt. My rifle for the night was a .22 calibre 12 ft/lb BRK Ghost Carbine loaded with Rifle Evo HP Field pellets from iHunter and fitted with a DNT Optics Zulus V2 digital scope, all rested on a set of Primos Trigger Sticks so I could shift aim easily.
Below: Rich has created an awesome rat shooting combo by pairing the BRK Brocock Ghost with a DNT Zulus V2 day and night scope
Hard Hitting Rifle EVO HP Field pellets ensure optimum stopping power
Martin the farmer had sprinkled chicken food through the floor onto the ground beneath. I made a lot of noise undoing the fastenings to the cover on the glory hole and as I returned to my shooting position, expected any rats to have been scared away.
Nonetheless, I plonked myself down on my bean bag in the dark and groped for my thermal spotter. As I focused, it quickly became apparent that the heat signature I’d assumed to be the general warmth from the underside of the shed was in fact a seething mass of rats.
There were too many to aim at and I understood what it must be like to be one of the great ocean predators – a sailfish or marlin perhaps – presented with a ball of sardines. In the end, I focused on one that was facing directly at me and waited for it to stand still before pushing the Zulus V2’s laser range finder which registered a shot of just eight metres. Pushing it again, the ballistic calculator indicated a huge dollop of holdover from my 20 metre zero, placing a green revised aim point on the reticle.
The Ghost popped. So too did the rat. The others scurred around in confusion but I was able to empty the rest of the 11-round magazine and claim a rat with each shot.
Fortunately, I had a second magazine and swapped it over, fumbling slightly in my eagerness to cash in on the ratty jackpot. The furry pests had thinned out a little, but there were still plenty to go at.
Having shot a couple at 14 metres – the furthest I could see under the shed – in my haste I neglected to re-laser the distance to one much closer. As a result, the pellet sailed wide. Fortunately, the rat hopped off only a few feet and looked back at me indignantly. In an instant, I re-lasered the distance at just eight metres, the ballistic calculator increased the holdover and the rat toppled from a clean head shot.
In those few seconds I’d learned an important lesson; the variance in hold off over very short distances is significant, albeit no doubt exacerbated by the scope sitting up high on the BRK’s inter-rail mount.
Below: Rich is confronted by a mass of rats as he takes his first peel through the "glory hole"
Such close shots needs a lot of holdover - which is conveniently and accurately applied by the ballistic calculator on the DNT Zulus V2
By now the rats had twigged that something was up and I was only able to pick off individuals that wandered into my killing field. The others soon learned to give the area a wide birth.
I had a choice: I could either sit it out and ambush the occasional ratty visitor or give the spot a rest and return to the yard for a cup of tea and find out how Neil and Kev had got on. The promise of a cuppa and the chance to show off was too much, so I opted for the latter after putting the gloryhole cover back.
It turned out that I wasn’t all that special as my friends had enjoyed similar success from their glory holes and had also decided to give the rats a rest. Hands scrubbed, tea drunk, fags smoked and magazines reloaded, we set off again after half an hour.
Once again, I removed the glory hole cover and retreated to my shooting position in the darkness. While the thermal showed plenty of rats had moved back, hunting for grains of chicken feed between the bodies of their fallen comrades, there weren’t quite as many as the first time.
Even so, I ran through my two magazines – 22 shots – and despite missing a few, accounted for plenty more rats before deciding once again to rest the spot and pop back for more tea and ammo.
The third trip back was quieter, and the fourth quieter still, but each time I was able to put a dozen or more rats on the floor and before long, the underside of the house was strewn with dead rodents.
I’d been using a doorman’s counter to keep a tally and by the end of the night it read 64. Neil and Kev had been similarly successful, putting the total ratty body count at close to 200 – more than ten times what we’d normally hope to account for when targeting rats as they moved outside the house.
Martin the farmer was delighted when I returned next day to retrieve the dead rats from under the shed with a long pole. Those I couldn’t reach were collected by pulling up sections of the grated floor inside the shed and using a litter picker.
Below: Rich focuses in for another shot from the support of his Primos Trigger Sticks
There was no shortage of rats to frame in the night vision display of the DNT Zulus V2
The BRK Ghost Carbine is my favourite ratting rifle and the fact that it performed flawlessly was no surprise. The sidelever operates with a slick and purposeful action, the trigger is a delight to use and the combination ensured the Rifle Evo HP Field pellets not only went where they were supposed to but arrived with devastating impact thanks to their hollow-point design.
I had only used the DNT Zulus V2 once before. I liked the version one and love the V2 even more. However, one thing I found a tad annoying was that on 5x magnification, the reticle sat low down on the screen although, when I zoomed into to 7.5x or above, it reverted to the middle. I’ve zeroed the BRK Ghost/Zulus V2 at 20 metres and suspect the issue is because I am at the lower end of the elevation adjustment, due no doubt to the fact the Ghost is fitted with a 20MOA inter-rail and the mount on the Zulus V2 also has 20MOA.
I have no doubt that using an adjustable aftermarket mount or swapping to a 0MOA mount would alleviate the problem. As it was, I soon forgot about the off-centre reticle as it did nothing to impair the performance of the Zulus V2.
There’s no ground-breaking new piece of technology, feature or function in the DNT Zulus V2. Instead, DNT Optics has done what it always does well and listened to feedback from customers. As a result, a raft of minor tweaks and subtle improvements add up to make it easier and more intuitive to use.
The rechargeable battery, for example, has been upgraded from an 18650 to a bigger 21700 which prolongs the run time by as much as two hours – there are two supplied. As a result of the larger battery, the cavity is slightly bigger which means the IR lens has increased a little too.
Also bigger is the micro-OLED screen which seems even sharper and clearer if that’s possible. The control buttons are unchanged other than the fact they have been rotated by 180 degrees, so the power button is now the furthest away and record is closest.
However, the biggest benefit is the re-designed magnification control. Zooming the first version of the Zulus meant fiddling with a very small wheel at the back of the scope. Instead, the V2 model has a more traditional collar that is much easier to operate, especially as it comes with a throw lever.
Despite my glory hole session being only the second time I’d used the Zulus V2, I found operating the magnification, record button and focus controls both easy and quick with only a handful of missed opportunities resulting from me faffing about.
Close to 200 rats accounted for the first time we used the glory holes proved the tactic was a winner. However, despite this initial success, the reality was that we could still only target a small portion of the area under the chicken shed which the rats soon learned to stay clear of.
The obvious answer was to be able to access more of the under-shed space by cutting out more glory holes. We discussed the issue with the farmer who offered instead to simply remove the entire rear section, providing us with a significantly bigger area to shoot over.
We’re two weeks into the campaign now and the combination of shooting every night and being able to target the rats pretty much wherever they are has put just under a thousand in the firepit. Even better news is that the number of spoiled eggs has dropped off to just a handful a day.
They’ll be back I know – rats are, of course, the masters of survival – but now we have our tactics perfected with the willing cooperation of the farmer, we’ll be able to control the population ruthlessly.
GUN: BRK Ghost Carbine (.22 12 ft/lb)
SCOPE: DNT Optics Zulus V2 5-20x
PELLETS: Rifle Evo HP Field (.22)
JACKET: Jack Pyke Hunters Jacket
SHOOTING STICKS: Primos Trigger Sticks Gen3 Tall
Article first published 3rd September 2025
