David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. LXXXI, K-22 Part 3

[Lee Martin]

Sometimes it takes more than a trap.


These guys do a good job on the dirty rats and I leave 'em alone whenever possible.


Noticed a trap missing from a 4'x8' work table. Then, shutting off the shop fan, heard a thrash where artwork wrapped in plastic meets the wall. Figured a rat got a leg caught in the trap then dragged the trap off the table. Now tangled in visquine between art and wall. Better kill it before it chews off its leg and escapes. Load Les Baer 1911 with CCI .45 ACP shotshell. Considering damage potential, switch Les Baer for K-22 stoked with CCI ratshot. Poking muzzle into folds of plastic. Intermittent thrashing invisible through folds of visquine indicate a rat very much alive. Muzzle of K-22 paws at the plastic, exposing a hind quarter and the lower torso of a bull rat. Cannot see forward portion. BLAM----take out left femoral artery. Range: about 2 inches. The struggle for life quickly fades. Reach a Channelock plier, pinch a fold of skin, extract rat.

The trap had crimped not a leg, rather the bail struck immediately aft the rat's skull----without cutting off the airway! Head clamped, the rat had dragged the trap across table, only to plunge into a maze of plastic wrap. For whatever reason, this rat lacked the football kyoons of of the next rat to pay for crowding the muzzle of the K-22.


Barrel fouling from one round of CCI .22LR ratshot.


K-22 chamber fouled by ratshot.


Bronze brush for .22 rifle is best for twisting through revolver chambers. Rifle length precludes use as proper bore brush in revolver.


Parker Hale makes the best jag. Cotton flannel remains superior patch material.


Lead particles infect cotton flannel patch run through bore of K-22; appear to be shot from CCI shotshell. Bore had not been cleaned since passage of 500 to 700 rounds of .22 Long Rifle solids and hollow points


Five rounds fired over trunnion rest from 100 yards-----after one round of CCI ratshot.


A bit of wind drift.


CCI ratshot, so limited, yet handy for putting the crimp on a lousy rat at muzzle distance.



Dog alerted to a rat in studio. Handloader grabs K-22. Rat navigates behind art on shelf. Stalk the vermin, exposing leaned panels one by one. Suddenly, shadow of ears on the wall, like Mickey Mouse with mule deer ears. Muzzle extends, finger poised for double action. Rat makes a run for it BLAM leaps off shelf BLAM, hits the floor sick. Young Fang pounces, crunching rat ribs. Pattern on sheetrock approximates 2 feet from muzzle winged rat as it went airborne. Dents from shot capsule.


CCI 22 shotshell chroographed on Dr. Kenneth Oehler's Model 35P. Cardboard hung from light diffuser of stop screen, velocity 1452 fps. Screen spacing 2 feet, muzzle 1' in front of start screen. Thus, pattern on cardboard made 3' from muzzle. One yard may represent outer limit for .22 ratshot fired from revolver. The sixgun supplies multiple shots without the feeding woes of an auto, a practical advantage as the rat takes flight.


-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[arokcrwlr]

After several squirrel intrusions in the attic, I have declared war on squirrels at my house. I have dispatched them with .22 CCI shot shells at ranges from 5ft to an unbelievable 20 yards (took full cylinder at running target) - this with a 4 5/8" OM Single Six. Scoped CZ455 17HMR used for further targets - deadly accurate!

[jsh]

You are lucky they didn't charge.
When I was about 10-11 fishing/hunting buddies folks had a large amount of egg laying chickens 3-5000 at all times. We started trapping rats one year and his dad found it comical. Offered us a "bounty" of .25 per rat. A few days into this we were not getting rich. One old guy told us to use soda pop, the cheaper the better as the vermin can't pass gas. We took our loot to town a few days later and bought several of the largest bottles of the cheapest pop we could find. We "acquired" several different types of pans to put the pop in. Set our trap line along with a half dozen pans of pop that evening.
We were up half the night figuring on what we were going to invest our cash in. Usually fishing gear or ammo depending on the season. As I recall we decided we were going to combine our haul and invest in a couple of guns.
Next morning we were out before breakfast and gathering eggs. Round the corner in one of the big long buildings and there was dead rats all over the place. Gathered the eggs and then grabbed a wheel barrow. Eggs went to the cooler and our catch went towards the house. His dad came out, looked and said is that all of them. Our comment was somthing to the effect we hoped not. Ate breakfast and his dad gave us both $20.
We were already to get after it again in the next chicken house the next night. We were gonna be rich! Well we were put out of business as his folks proceeded to do the pop thing on their own. We ended up still picking up dead rats, for free some time after that.

[Cholla]

I had terrible luck with the CCI 22 LR rat shot. After nearly losing a small rattler and losing a 3.5 foot-er, I went on the search for better. Somewhere I came up with a box of Remington .22 shotshells. As I recall they're (rather WERE) loaded with #11 shot. They seemed to work a little better and I kept a couple in the H&R .22 my wife carries when she goes for her evening walks. Too bad they're discontinued and I'm down to a couple of rounds. No matter, she now carries a 2" .38 loaded with shot capsules which have proven themselves time and again, and everything I carry begins with "4".

[bradshaw]

jsh.... soda pop trap! Dang, that is inventive. Buried a wonderful Black Lab some years ago. Lady lived to 14, peaceful to the bone yet a natural born hunter. Living on the pecan farm, she put the crimp on beaucoup vermin. One day, bush hogging, vanity overrode me and I set out to impress her. Killed three rats from the tractor with SIG/Sauer P226 9mm stoked with 115 JHP. Laid 'em on the deck of the chopper, lined 'em up in the grass for Lady to inspect. Then, bush hog another two hours. Returned to find 4 rats laid side-by-side in the grass. Lady the Black Lab laying tight by, nose pointing the trophies.

Some say dogs don't count. English bird hunters might disagree. At that moment four dead rats in the grass contained message.
David Bradshaw

[contender]

David,,,, that Lady showed you who was the best,,, but yet,,, didn't brag. I bet she could have brought in more than 4,,, but she was just sharing her love.

[brionic]

Great stuff! The K22 and rat shot beats my late night method of whacking them with a stick or throwing a dictionary at them. "Fair chase mouse hunting." Bah. Traps work well for us, but one of them went off above my head a few nights ago, above the acoustic tiling in my basement-level HQ. I had forgotten I'd placed it there, must have been over a year ago. It was like someone sneaking up behind me and clapping right next to my ear. Anyway, got him.

Our Brittany is extraordinary. Anything that moves or stinks is fair game for her. She lies in wait, more patient than any dog I've ever seen. Snow, rain, mud, wind, or heat, none of them deters her. She stakes out her spots in the yard, waiting for a head to pop up or a tail or shadow to betray movement. She catches them with aplomb, and trots 'em over to me with her stubby little tail wiggling. And she gives them up right away, on command. She'll drop the rodents right into a plastic bag held before her, but not before giving them one final shake, just to make sure, or maybe to savor being the boss. What a girl! What she has done for our family, especially for our little boy Dashiell, has earned her a permanent hall pass, which she has never relied on. We are fortunate beyond words to have such a fine dog.

The poodle... that's a different story for another day!

Thx David, your posts continue to delight and educate, but the K-22 stories may be my absolute favorites.

[jsh]

Yes sir gents a good dog is somthing to behold. Dad used to tell me that "you are only aloted one good dog in a life time". I feel very very fortunate that I have had several. Rat terriers, Labs, Brittany's, blue heelers, aust. shepherds and my newest even though she is 4 now. A German wire haired pointer.
Of all the above this will be the final breed I ever go and buy. I will have one till the day I die.
A good dog is just as handy as the SW .22. Both have some of the same traits and can be trying at times, lol.
Jeff

[arokcrwlr]

Jeff, the best hunting dog I ever owned was a GWP. There was no quit in that dog - he would swim to China for a wounded duck, could track game like a blood hound, and point quail with the best of them - all in a single day of hunting!

I love my current Lab, but I will have another GWP...

[cj3a]

I like adding the nails to the rat trap. Keeps the trap from growing legs.

[ProGun]

I don't understand how anybody could not be a dog person. My chocolate lab, Hoyt, has turned into a snake killing machine. Found him whippin' a cotton mouth around a couple of weeks ago, that was the first time I had ever seen him kill a snake (there's been cats, moles, possums, etc.). Walked down by the creek yesterday and found a few more snake parts... I hope it's not to his detriment, he loves it. 

[bradshaw]

Proven.... to attack a water moccasin with your face and live takes talent. I encourage a canine to alert to a snake, which I believe basically strokes an instinct. Thus, Fang alerts to a speckled king snake, a Texas rat snake with the same poised crouch as for the venomous moccasin.

Gardens my heart to find dog tails coiled in gun smoke.
David Bradshaw

[bradshaw]

Jeff... The several dogs which I personally belonged to were mutts, one saved from death row at the humane society by a high school girl friend. Heathy long lives abiding, a sentient unique individual each, affording a widow on the very earth itself.

Bronic.... throw a dictionary at a rat? Is that the unabridged Oxford, or just a college Webster hollowed out with a pistol inside for final definition?
David Bradshaw

[bagdadjoe]

I hate a rat.
My Dad used to tell us that when he was a young man in the 30's he'd put down a piece of dry board with a block of wood tacked to it, making an "L". Then he tacked a piece of sheet metal on the big piece and put a nail through the block about a inch and a half above the metal....THEN he ran a wire to both, put some cheese, bacon or peanut butter on the nail end and plugged it up...the rats would stand on the sheetmetal and grab the bait off the nail. Kind of an "old sparky" for rats.
He also made another "device"...a board with two blocks on it and a nail in each block, wires to each nail and stuck hotdogs on the nails, plugged it up and electrocuted lunch.
Don't try this at home. ;-)

[bradshaw]

squawberryman.... Part 3.