ratshot effectiveness

I had a pretty bad experience with .22 snake shot & a cat a few years ago. It's definitely not something that I'm proud of, in fact, it haunts me to this day. Information on said experience is offered as a deterrent to others who might think too highly of the cartridge.

(Trying not to be too descriptive)

I live out in the country on an acre, part of which is fenced yard. I had a spayed female cat who was born in that yard, and has *never* left it in her 14 years with us. A very large and wiley feral tomcat started coming over the fence, kicking our old and feeble pet cat's butt and eating her food on a daily basis. I tried every non lethal way possible (from the beginning he would quickly disappear on sight of me at any distance) to discourage the tom from ripping our pet up in her own yard.

One evening, I caught sight of him entering my garage through a partially open window. Since the rest of the building was completely closed, I strolled over and closed the window. Now what? Besides having a concrete floor & concrete block walls, my garage is piled with tons of other stuff that .22 bullets would love to richochete off of, not to mention that I really don't want to shoot up my possessions. In such close quarters, this really looked like a job for you-know-what.

So, after donning a pair of shooting glasses covered by a pair of shop safety goggles & loading up six rounds of you-know-what, I made entry. I found the cat hiding in a corner, & carefully placed a shot from 4-5 feet away (it patterned exactly the size of his body). To my dismay, the result was not terminal, as I had expected. I spent the next minute & a half chasing him around the garage, taking several shots from a distance of 1-2 feet. All six shots had scored direct hits, I was out of ammo & he was still running away.

Sound hunting ethics have always been at the top of my list & I now found myself in the middle of my worst nightmare. I HAD to put this animal down, and FAST (but I still wasn't willing to risk shooting myself by bouncing a solid bullet off of concrete). After reloading, I finally got the critter cornered & was able to place the muzzle behind it's ear, point blank. It was BARELY enough.

Again, this was a mistake that I made & still have trouble living with. By relating it here, I would hope to prevent others from making such a mistake.

DO NOT SHOOT ANIMALS WITH .22 SHOTSHELLS !!!
 
thumping the cat with a paintball gun could kill it. have you ever been paintballing? those suckers leave welts with a 2" radius. a good shot to the head would probably kill it and you might hit its head even if you were aiming for the body b/c paintball guns aren't exactly your 600yd range varminter...
 
I've had trouble killin small critters with 22 "birdshot". Nuisance chipmunks have required follow-up shots, even though the first shot was from < 10 FEET.

I would agree that shooting a cat with .22cal shot loads is unethical and immoral. I'm not one to preach morality, but a shot fired at an animal should only be performed with lethal intentions. If yer not gonna kill it, dont shoot it!
 
I still vote for lethal cats are stubborn creatures and do not learn quickly I shot them with an airsoft gun on top of my truck for walking all over my nice new chevy and the kept on doing it. I took out the 597 and a mag full of CCI mini-mags last night and a single HP to the head ended one big tom cat right there.

Now every time I see a cat on my truck the offender is going to get a mini-mag between the eyes until they learn or we run out of cats. You may think I am being unreasonable about cat tracks but I just bought the truck and when the tom cats pee on the windshield and the whole thing stinks for months I get a little edgy... and a little shooty.
 
@birdy

If you have a properly matched freak barrel kit on your spyder or whatever you can get a 10" group at 20 yards witrh cheap paint (warped and football shaped).

On topic

If you don't want the cat around you need to kill it or trap it and take it to the pound. If someone owns it only kill it if it is causing damage cause you might end up with a lawsuit for shooting someones cat or property. Take it to the pound and the owner will probably get the message. Otherwise the kitty just might dissappear :p
 
I guess the world will never know why cats think that they have to climb *over* vehicles when they could easily walk around or under them. It's also a mystery how a cat walking on clean, dry cement can track wet sand across a shiney paint job. I feel your pain- & cats generally do not learn from non lethal deterrents.
 
a good cat deterrent is at lest .308 or higher. god i hate those little demons. less cats equal more rats ok, buy more rat traps. They are quieter don't wake you up at 2am, don't scratch the crap out of you, don't stink. +1 for less cats and more rat traps.


and for the cats owner/lovers, if you loved your cats soooo much keep em locked inside so only YOU have to deal with them. The way i see it is that if i dont own it and its walking in my property then its a wild animal/varmint and WILL be dispatched as such.
 
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