It’s early summer, which usually means grey squirrels should be out in force and rats should have left the farm and headed back into the countryside.
And yet, in my locality at least, it’s the other way around. I’m struggling to find a squirrel and there seems to be more rats on the chicken farm than ever. I’d like to think the squirrel situation is down to me, but nearly everyone I speak to says the same thing.
I’m guessing, but I don’t know, that the wet winter has dampened the squirrels’ enthusiasm for breeding this year. Or perhaps these things go in cycles. It’s a fine balance, isn’t it? On the one hand, we do what we do to reduce pest populations. And then when there’s not many about, we complain.
If anything, we should be stepping up grey squirrel control as there’s no better time to deal with a harmful invasive species than when it’s on the back foot. But I suspect what will happen is that most airgunners will take their foot off the pedal because they’re fed up twiddling their thumbs in their hides. As a result, the furry pests will exploit the opportunity to build their numbers up again.
Rats, on the other hand, are abundant on my chicken farm permission. To be fair, the constant supply of food means there’s always a healthy number of them but even so, I’m beginning to suspect the rodents that flocked to the farm during the winter have decided to stay.
As a result of the topsy turvy pest situation, I found myself kicking my heels about the house all day earlier this week when I should have been sat in the woods doing nothing there instead.
At last, when I was starting to go stir crazy, the light began to fade, and I was able to set out for a bit of rat control. Even so, I arrived at the chicken farm far too early and despite taking my time to sort out my gear – a 12 ft/lbs BRK Ghost Carbine and DNT Optics ThermNight TNC225R – I still had time to waste.
Below: Rich kitted himself out to tackle the rat infestation with thermal and night vision tactics.
Eventually I convinced myself it was dark enough to start shooting. I switched on my HikMicro Habrok HH35L thermal binoculars and after a quick scan about, slung them around my neck. Evidently the rats also thought it was too early to come out to play as I couldn’t see any in the usual spots.
I’ve been shooting on the farm for nearly a decade, and it seems like the more rats I shoot, the more there are. Last year was my most successful with just over 2,300 accounted for and when the farmer asked me why the numbers were going up rather than down, I couldn’t really give him a good answer.
Back to my last visit though, I made my way around to the back of one of the sheds because it is a known hotspot. I opened the gate to the scratching field where the hens spend their time during the day and in the quickening gloom picked a route through the bushes in the hope of getting into position without spooking any rats.
Rats love the cover of a pallet and a few usually hang around a small stack of them at the back of the chicken shed. I stopped 50 or 60 metres away and looked through the Habrok, steeling myself for the disappointment of seeing no rats. I needn’t have worried though as I could see three or four sat on the second pallet in the stack.
Below top: Rich seeks out rats through the Hikmicro Habrok.
Below bottom: Even in total darkness, it is impossible to miss rats heat signatures through thermal binoculars.
As quietly as I could, I picked my way through the low bushes and weeds to take up a position with my back to some conifers, wincing as I set my trigger sticks up then unslung the Ghost Carbine to place it on them.
Not wanting to risk any more movement by looking through the Habrok binos once again, I switched to the thermal function on the ThermNight TNC225R – a simple
press of a button – to confirm the rats were still there. A couple had disappeared, but two were sitting in place without a care in the world.
I pressed the ThermNight’s button once again to swap back to infrared mode, then the adjacent range finder button twice – once to read the distance at 19 metres and then a second time for the ballistic calculator to revise my aimpoint from its 15 metre zero.
The whole process took only a second and I shuffled into a more comfortable position before pushing the rifle’s cross bolt safety off. Holding my breath, I took up the first stage on the trigger…and the rat ran off, followed a split second later by his pal.
Just as I was about to curse the shooting gods, one of the rats stopped by the corner of the chicken shed. I re-lasered him and the ballistic calculator gave me a new aimpoint for the 23-metre shot. This time I was quick enough and the 19.9 grain Rifle Super Magnum pellet thumped home, rolling the rat over on its side.
Normally I stay mobile but as it was still relatively early, I decided to stay put to see if any more rats would put in an appearance. It turned out to be a good decision as I managed five more over the next 10 minutes – four from under the pallets and one as it peered at me from the end of an open support beam.
Below: Rich's Rifle Super Magnum pellets hit the rats hard and with deadly precision.
After another 10 ratless minutes, I picked up my trigger sticks, slung the Ghost and moved off.
As with many farms, the farmer has done his best to diversify and he rents out several large storage containers. He’s just as concerned about the prospect of his tenants’ property being damaged by the rodents as he is of the impact they have on his egg business.
Troubled by an increase in ratty activity near the containers, he asked me to take a closer look. I tucked myself in about 20 metres away and peered through the Habrok for any ratty indications.
I didn’t have to wait long before seeing one, then two rats appear and make their way from the containers, across the corner of the scratching field and into the chicken shed. Clearly, they had taken up residence amongst the containers for some reason but were raiding the chicken feed in the shed.
I observed several more rats popping out for dinner in the same way, but none of them stayed still long enough for me to take a shot.
Rats are naturally suspicious of anything new, even the food they are used to eating but located somewhere they are not used to finding it. However, putting some bait down was the only thing I could think of to try and make them hang around long enough for a shot. So, a quick trip to the feed shed later, I lay down a sprinkling of chicken fed along the fence line I’d seen the rats travelling.
I then retreated to the yard for a cuppa to give the rats time to hopefully find the bait spots. Returning half an hour later I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see the piles of chicken food looking undisturbed.
I scanned the back of the containers with the Habrok thermal and caught a flash of movement behind some scrap machinery. Three rats sat no more than a couple of metres from one of the piles of bait.
Below top: A quick press of the DNT ThermNight's range button and Rich is back in action.
Below bottom: With a rat in the crosshairs, the ThermNight uses its ballistic calculator to present the correct aiming point for the range.
I set the Ghost on my Trigger Sticks. The rats were too well hidden so I lasered the distance to the bait at 19 metres and set the ballistic calculator. For once the rats had read the script and one of them broke cover and cautiously approached the chicken feed. I lined him up and the Rifle Super Magnum thumped home.
The other two rats disappeared but I decided to hang around anyway and was rewarded with another three rats over the next 20 minutes.
Over the course of the evening, I swapped between the pallets and the containers, giving each one 15 or 20 minutes before moving again. As a result, I was able to keep knocking over enough rats to keep myself entertained and the farmer happy, ending the night with 20.
GUN: BRK Brocock Ghost Carbine .22 (12ft/lb) brocock.co.uk
AMMO: Rifle Super Magnum .22 19.9 grains ihunter.co.uk
SCOPE: DNT Optics ThermNight TNC225R scottcountry.co.uk
GUN REST: Primos Trigger Sticks Gen 3 bisley-uk.com
THERMAL SPOTTER: Hikmicro Habrok HH35L Multi Spectrum Thermal Imaging Binoculars scottcountry.co.uk
FLEECE: Jack Pyke Sherpa Fleece Pullover www.jackpyke.co.uk
Article first published 4th June 2025
