Your Ultimate Rat Hunting Gun Guide

I live in the desert of Texas. There are a few things we have a lot of; Sun, Cactus, and Rats! Now, I don't have anything against rats.  But unfortunately, the rats that I have around my farm like to chew on things. Things like the FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM ON MY TRUCK! When you have to drop a cool grand to replace the whole fuel injection harness on your truck, that is when you decide that it is time to declare war on the little gnawing critters!  You may have your own reasons for wanting to hunt this pesky little pest, but for me, it is an issue of defending my stuff against the invading horde rat army.

So what do you need?

First, you need a good gun.  Depending on your situation and location where you will be rat hunting, your weapon of choice will change.  I hunt out in the woods and am always shooting toward the ground, so I use a Ruger 10/22 because it is the easiest and ammo is cheap.  In all honesty, though, you really do not need something this powerful for rat hunting.  A break barrel air rifle like the Hatsan Model 95 or a PCP air rifle like the Diana Stormrider would be just fine.  It does not take a lot of power to kill a rat.  The main thing is hitting it.

 

 

In my situation, I am shooting at rats that are moving round in cactus and weeds, so I need quick target acquisition in tight quarters.  What I use and what has worked very good for me in this situation is a green laser sight like the Pinty Green Laser Sight.  I prefer the green laser over the red laser because you can see the visible beam of the green laser at night and this helps you get on target faster.   I own three of these green lasers and I use them all the time and have never had any problems out of them.  

 

Before you can get a sight on a rat, you have to see the rat , right?  Well, I use a system of two flashlights to help me accomplish this goal.  I use bright LED headlight to locate the rat, and another LED gun light that is attached to my gun to track the rat while sighting in on him. 

If your gun has a Weaver/Picatinny style accessory rail you could use an all in one Laser/Light system like this one.

If your gun does not have a built-in accessory rail, you can add one by installing a clamp-on adapter on your barrel like this one. 

Now if you want to go for the ultimate rat hunting experience that you can share with your friends, and price is no obstacle for you, then go for a good night vision scope.  There are quite a few good night video scopes out there, but I have had my hands on the ATN X-Sight and I think that for the money, it is hard to beat.  I don't own one myself, because just can't bring myself to spend that much money to hunt rats, but if one day I win the lottery, this will the scope I will buy.