Bill uses copper BBs to take out EVIL attacking rat

This is truly an exciting subject. I was 14 or 15 and my parents had Norwegian Tree Rats in their attic, the wood pile, and they would run along the telephone lines between palm trees and bougainvillea bushes. We lived in California near the ocean so the warm weather was perfect for those nasty rats. They were multiplying rapidly.

I decided that to beat them I had to understand them. I would sit for hours at night outside watching them. The mother rat would have her kids follow her from the palm tree or wood pile along the telephone lines right to the bougainvillea branches which were in full bloom. The rats would eat the flowering blooms. I would sit with the moon on the other side of them so I could clearly see them. The adult rats had bodies of about a foot long and the tails would be another foot. So two feet in length was the maximum.

After learning their ways I knew that there was at least 6 families of rats. I went down to KMart and purchased a pellet rifle. It was great. You could pump it up 10 times and fire pellets or BBs. I figured that with rats I would need lead pellets to cause more damage to the internal organs. However I was in for a shock.

I strapped on a 120V light to the top of my pellet rifle hooked to an extension cord. When I noticed a big fat adult rat on a bush I carefully aimed my rifle, flipped on my light and the rat was stunned. I FIRED and Kabammmm! The rat screeched and fell off the branch to the ground. It sat stunned for a second as I quickly pumped up my air rifle. Then just as I was aiming again the big bugger ran into my Dad's shed. I opened the door carefully and looked at a shelf across from me about 3 feet away. The rat hissed at me and bared it's big ugly teeth at me. I aimed my rifle at between his eyes and FIRED!!!! The rat jumped to the ground and ran straight towards me. Hissing and trying to reach me. I backed up and rapidly pumped that gun back up and this time I realized that the lead pellets were not penetrating. So I used a copper BB and fired!!! That knocked that evil RAT down. The penetration was what I needed.

Yes I did recover from this harrowing experience but I learned my lesson. As I crept around my parents backyard for a month firing away at RATS I used copper BBs which gave me the penetration required to knock those families of rats out.

As a side note I used pliers to carry one rat by the tail to my neighbor's house. The ladies of the house did not find it amusing that my rat was leaking blood all over their porch! Oh well.....


Great story Bill ... sounds like that rat almost did you in. Yea, important to be prepared with adaquate firepower before "going in". BTW, one problem with BB's is because of their spherical shape, they aren't as accurate as pellets - keep that in mind for long distance shots. Yea, the ladies of that house probably didn't appreciate you bringing the bloody rats over ... but I bet they gave you a holler when/if they were invaded by 'em.