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Post by parson45 on Sept 2, 2009 6:39:44 GMT -5
I've invented (or perhaps re-invented) a new sport. While mowing on the tractor Monday, I kept destroying the habitat of rabbits and rats. I haven't yet convinced my city-girl bride that rabbits are food, so I let them go and used the rats for my targets. From the boucing tractor, I shot 4 rats and 1 mouse. First firearm of choice was my 50th Anniv 357 Flat Top with home-loaded shotshells made with Speer shot cups. Then I changed to my Single Six and CCI .22 lr shotshells. The last 3 rats fell to the .22.
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Post by twbryan on Sept 2, 2009 9:08:36 GMT -5
Sounds like a good sport to me. How do you make up the shotshells in the .357?
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Post by parson45 on Sept 2, 2009 9:16:36 GMT -5
38 special cases and Speer/CCI shot cups. I used reclaimed 71/2 and 8 shot. The instructions and loads are in the Speer manuals. The trick to tight patterns is to keep the velocity down. Don't go over the suggested loads, not for the normal reason of high pressure but because the patterns will open up.
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Post by twbryan on Sept 2, 2009 11:57:00 GMT -5
That's interesting. I read an article some time back. It suggested using a .357 case,an over the powder wad,a shot charge and then crimping the case on .360 round ball. I wanted to try that,but never had enough cases to spare on such a project. What are you gonna call this new sport, 'lawn-ratting'?
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Post by parson45 on Sept 2, 2009 12:03:27 GMT -5
I was thinking 'drive-by ratting."
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Post by twbryan on Sept 2, 2009 14:10:35 GMT -5
Could just go over them with the mower and call it mulching.
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Post by Markbo on Sept 4, 2009 10:37:02 GMT -5
Or put 'em on a stick, roast 'em over a fire and tell her they are doves.
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cubrock
.401 Bobcat
TLA fanatic and all around nice guy....
Posts: 2,842
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Post by cubrock on Sept 4, 2009 20:37:21 GMT -5
Reminds me of a time when I was about 12. My mom was a major gardener. She had three large vegetable gardens and would rotate resting them for a year. When she mowed a fallow plot, there were always rats galore and I'd literally stand shotgun to take them out as they ran from the mower. Was a lot of fun.
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ncdave
.240 Incinerator
Posts: 83
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Post by ncdave on Sept 27, 2009 12:04:34 GMT -5
I , too, have done "drive-by-rat-shooting" while mowing my pasture with my old JD, no cab on it. An obscure sport for most people, but quite fun.
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Post by the priest on Sept 27, 2009 18:27:41 GMT -5
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hoss
.327 Meteor
Posts: 716
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Post by hoss on Sept 28, 2009 12:26:22 GMT -5
Every piece of aged farm equipment we had (Farmall C & Super C, John Deere Flat Bottom B, etc.) had some form of .22 or 410 aboard. Hay baling meant snakes and rabbits: cotton mouths and blue racers. Plinking was, and is, a great nostrum to cure the boredom of agricultural monotony.
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Len
.30 Stingray
Posts: 358
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Post by Len on Sept 28, 2009 14:39:58 GMT -5
Years ago I used to kill them in the horse barn with my 44 mag lots of fun sneaking around and peeking over the empty stall hoping for a shot.
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rigby
.327 Meteor
Posts: 769
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Post by rigby on Oct 3, 2009 10:44:22 GMT -5
I guess its fairly common. On my old job one of the thing we would have to do is haul sludge from the water treatment plant out to the fields with an IH 1466 to spread. I would shoot groundhogs, opossums, crows and the occasional fox. I used my King Cobra loaded with 38spcl. Best was trying to do it at night with just the lights off the tractor, although there where 10 of them. I really could have used a laser back then.
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