[cavedweller]

I need to rid a wooded area of a rat infestation. The buggers are quick and used to my plinking at them with slingshots. They dart about in the undergrowth so fast I can hardly ever get a good shot at them. Firearms aren't allowed in this situation nor is poison or traps because of other wildlife complications in the area and it's a sort of public animal reserve with a lot of stuff living there, but it's overrun with rats that eat all the bird eggs and dig tunnels everywhere. Every time I go out there I try to shoot rats with my slingshots but they're canny buggers and hard to pin down.

I know the Right Honourable Reverend Jörg Sprave Of Infinite Wisdom made a cracking good shotgun slingshot but he did a lot of work making a shot holder for it (out of metal I think) and I'm not that talented.

When I was a kid I used to sometimes get up to stupidness and one of my little tricks was using BB's. Back then apart from the usual cardboard tube containers of BB's you also used to also be able to get these little individual cellophane packets of like a hundred or so BB's for almost nothing and they were fun to use with my Wrist Rocket.

I'd cut a little split in the packet with my pocket knife but not let the BB's spill out, and then shoot the packet over the rooftops of the nearby trailer park and listen to the rain of BB's clattering down on people's roofs, followed by a swift getaway on my bicycle.

I also remember having some of those weird .22LR shot things that were basically tiny little shotgun shells for a .22 and they were sort of fun but I can't use anything like that here.

I do a bit of slingshot creating and have a welder and a garage full of basic tools, nothing fancy, so I'd be interested in what you all think might make a shotgun slingshot.

I've also got a 50# pistol crossbow and an old speargun that I could sacrifice to the design maybe, but the whole thing needs to be discreet and portable on a motorcycle without looking like an extra from Mad Max, so it needs to be not much bigger than a slingshot really.

 

[mattwalt]

Yes - there was in fact a commercial frame which was designed to shoot a number of small shot.

https://slingshotforum.com/topic/75210-the-asc-blackhawk-slingshot/

I used to shoot lead pellets from time to time.

 

[cavedweller]

Right, that double cupped pouch design has me thinking now. It's a nice idea that will go on any standard slingshot design so it's not too much to ask. I'll keep mulling it over in my head until I can think of some way to do it.

 

[Ibojoe]

My friend Flatband sells a cupped pouch on eBay that I load 10 or so bb’s in. It’s kind of an open bore pattern but it might just help you out.

 

[cavedweller]

My friend Flatband sells a cupped pouch on eBay that I load 10 or so bb's in. It's kind of an open bore pattern but it might just help you out.

Thanks, that's worth checking into.

 

[Pebble Shooter]

The idea of a shotgun slingshot sounds good at first, but then one realizes that the velocity at which rubber returns from its stretched state to its normal state (elasticity) is somewhere between 70 and 80 m/s (229 and 262 fps) on average, albeit that tapering does increase that velocity to some extent. This implies that the intended .177 BB's with their extremely low mass (0.3 grams roughly) will not have a velocity sufficient to kill rats, even at short range.

If nailing those unpleasant (intelligent) disease-ridden critters is indeed too challenging with a slingshot using heavier ammo (say 0.38 to .40 caliber, ideally lead), I would resort to using a 12 ft/lbs (UK legal limit) scoped air rifle, and if possible, use night sights when the rats go foraging in the dark: an IR illumination system will make shooting them significantly easier. A PCP air rifle with a mounted sound moderator can hardly be heard: if anything, the impact of the pellets will make more noise than the rifle itself. Of course, a regular spring-piston air rifle will get the job done too, but there is more noise.

I would suggest .22 caliber pointed lead pellets for maximum penetration, either H&N, or the Bisley brand pellets - see here:

https://www.hn-sport.de/en/air-gun-hunting/hornet-22

and

https://www.bisley-uk.com/product.php?i=BIPMA&c=274

This should help to solve the rat infestation problem to some extent. Too much of a challenge with a slingshot, unfortunately.

 

[Reed Lukens]

When I was a kid, we used to fold paper into the little triangles and we would play tabletop football. I got the idea back then to fill them with bb's and it worked great out of my Wrist-Rocket because, as soon as I would let the little thin paper football of bb's go, the paper would tear apart and fall and the bb's would fly at the target. You could hear each bb hit the target individually in a rapid sequence and it would have about a 6" wide pattern at maybe 15 yards. There was maybe 20 or more bb's in each pouch. Then I would also use small shot out of old shotgun shells that we would cut open. My family had a hardware store and we ended up with a case of 10-1/2gauge magnum shot shells after the store sold. Nobody that we knew had a 10-1/2 gauge, so we cut the tops open on the shells, poured out the shot to use with the slingshots and then taped marbles or steel balls to the bottom of the shells on the primer and throw or shoot them up in the air. When they came down or hit, the marble would set off the empty shell and it would explode. It was really loud being that it wasn't coming out of a shotgun.

 

[ghost0311/8541]

I would dig a hole and put a 5 gal bucket and a little water in the bottom and let them fall in.

 

[cavedweller]

The idea of a shotgun slingshot sounds good at first, but then one realizes that the velocity at which rubber returns from its stretched state to its normal state (elasticity) is somewhere between 70 and 80 m/s (229 and 262 fps) on average, albeit that tapering does increase that velocity to some extent. This implies that the intended .177 BB's with their extremely low mass (0.3 grams roughly) will not have a velocity sufficient to kill rats, even at short range.

If nailing those unpleasant (intelligent) disease-ridden critters is indeed too challenging with a slingshot using heavier ammo (say 0.38 to .40 caliber, ideally lead), I would resort to using a 12 ft/lbs (UK legal limit) scoped air rifle, and if possible, use night sights when the rats go foraging in the dark: an IR illumination system will make shooting them significantly easier. A PCP air rifle with a mounted sound moderator can hardly be heard: if anything, the impact of the pellets will make more noise than the rifle itself. Of course, a regular spring-piston air rifle will get the job done too, but there is more noise.

I would suggest .22 caliber pointed lead pellets for maximum penetration, either H&N, or the Bisley brand pellets - see here:

https://www.hn-sport.de/en/air-gun-hunting/hornet-22

and

https://www.bisley-uk.com/product.php?i=BIPMA&c=274

This should help to solve the rat infestation problem to some extent. Too much of a challenge with a slingshot, unfortunately.

That's what I was thinking. Small shot would not be heavy hitting enough. It's a nice idea but I can't really see it working very well as a scattergun effect in the weeds. I think 11mm and good aim is probably the best bet. Unfortunately the critters are always on the run so it's hard to get a good shot in.

Yes a good air rifle would be ideal but it's not allowed in this setting because it's a public space where people walk their dogs and things, but I can get away with some illicit slingshot carnage when nobody's looking.

The problem is that the moment I draw back on the slingshot the rats take off running. Would be easier with a pistol crossbow that takes steel balls so it could be primed and ready to go the instant a rat poked his head out, but most of the crossbow pistols I've seen that will fire steel shot seem to be low velocity and small shot, like around 100fps with 4-6mm shot and that's not really very good.

 

[hoggy]

what about the folding bb shot things that used to shown on the back of a pocket rocket slingshot? i know there was a thread where directions were shown folding one one here too. the thread is called shotgun slingshots - new ideas. it has a diy for the bb shotshell box

 

[hoggy]

slingshotforum.com

 

[Riusfer]

 

[Riusfer]

 

[Riusfer]

 

[Bob E]

Live traps would let you kill the rats that wander into them and release anything else.

 

[Riusfer]

 

[Konrad]

G'day cavedweller,

No one mentioned this one, At my local Bow hunting club I spoke to the Chairman about the foxes I have on small acreage I live on. He told me to put cat food out for them. Not whistling or stalking but putting food out and waiting. I tell you what, I haven't shot them yet for a number of reasons but it works like a charm, I have seen them with a Night vison monocular. They are around like clock work if I put food out.

I don't have much about the shotgun approach to add that has not been said but putting food out and waiting will help you get a bead on them, I am sure. It works in my end of the woods. I have Indian mynar birds and I can't shoot into the trees in case I break a window 300 yards farther out but getting them on the ground pecking at some bread gives me a very health aiming window. Cheers mate and Happy hunting. PK.