Using an air rifle for pest control is a practical and smart option. successful. Airguns are quiet and have little power, making them safer and more discreet than shotguns in enclosed spaces such as gardens. When you’re dealing with a pest problem, you’ll almost always go for your air gun. Observance of the law It is critical that you have a secure fallback. You are violating the law if a pellet escapes your property.
A panelled fence will be ripped apart by an air gun pellet. Set yourself up to take shots at a lower angle and securely into the ground if the area you’re shooting only has hedges or weak panel fence. Alternatively, place a huge concrete slab as a backstop. If your boundary walls are made of stone or concrete, however, they will successfully stop an airgun pellet, flattening the soft lead projectile and dropping it to the ground. Discreet and powerful If you add a decent sound moderator to a contemporary PCP air rifle, you may go about your pest control business unobtrusively and silently without drawing unwanted attention.
Getting the quarry to the correct location, the challenge is to position your prey in front of such a backstop so that it may be picked off without fear of ricochet. Put a handful of peanut or birdseed in the area in front of your secure backstop to make it virtually attractive to squirrels and rats. For magpies, use stale crumbs since they are pickier and like bird tables. We maintain chickens in our garden and, in addition to attracting the occasional rodent, they occasionally attract magpies who sit on a neighbouring apple tree. How to lure rats into the sights of an air rifle Use sweetcorn to attract rats.
Because rats enjoy the sweetcorn and is often used as fishing bait, use it to attract them to a location where you could safely shoot them. Using a scope-mounted lamp and night shooting, you will be able to capture many dozen huge rats Pheasant shot vermin control Rats, corvids, and squirrels can significantly limit gamebird egg and chick production. Another place where air rifle pest management is useful is in agriculture. Draw your target to where you want it to be so you can get a clean kill. When required, use safe backstops. Grain can be used to lure rats out of their holes, as well as decoys for crows and magpies.
Grey squirrel activity is normally attracted to pheasant feeders, but in late spring, feeding stops, which is inconvenient because it is peak nesting season, and the greys’ diet shifts to eggs. Kill zones for pest control using air rifles Rats and grey squirrels When shooting grey squirrels and rats with an air rifle, the head is the most reliable death region. Take them from the side and aim for the eye and ear with your pellet. With a blow to the heart and lung area delivered from the side to strike slightly behind the shoulder, a.22 calibre will yield clean kills. A shot between the shoulders will hit the heart and lungs of a squirrel clinging to a tree with its back to you
