I have some friends that have serious pigeon & rat problem in and around a few of the buildings on their farm.
In some spots I have safe line of fire to use 22CB's or even stingers. But in some places I think shot would be best idea to prevent damage to the buildings.
Which shotshells will give enough penetration to drop pigeons and rats but nothing more?
I was thinking of getting a Marling Garden gun and using a 22 shotshell like one would use a 12 gauge for Turkey shooting (ie head shot).
Another option would be high velocity .177 pellet gun. I used to hunt squirrels with a pellet gun that was less than 500fps.. one of the 800-1000+fps varieties should have more han enough juice to take down pigeons & rats.. would be fun too! Pellets are also a heck of a lot cheaper than 22MAG shot shells.
Have traps been used yet?Being a trapper that's always my first answer.
You can buy traps and even a gallon of rat trap glue at www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com
For rats, first minimize whatever sort of food supply attracts them. Warfarin, spring traps and even small HavAHart traps; just drop the latter into a bucket of water to train the rat in learning a new habitat.
Pigeons? Yeah, pellet rifle or smooth-bore .22 with ratshot...
Several of us used to use four-foot 1/2" OD aluminum tubes for blowguns. Darts from those 3" upholstery needles, stuck through carved balsa cones. Pigeon-killing little doofers! "Silent Death"!
A good pellet rifle will penetrate tin, so will CB,'s and a .410. A 22 With ratshot is Ok for tin over 25 feet or so. My ex brother in law filled his old mans barn roof with holes from a Benjamin pellet rifle. The best way to get rid of the pigeons is a 12 Gauge OUTSIDE the buildings when they are flying. For rats and mice as Art says minimize the food supply and get a FEMALE cat and kind of minimize her food supply...............it works. I had rats and mice up the yazoo from spilled horse feed in the barn. I tried everything known to mankind from .22 ratshot to poison to traps and they were overrunning me. I got an old female cat and within a month they were a rare sight.
I can definitely agree with the cat...they are hell on four legs to varmits.
The down side to having a cat around (other that just being a cat) is that they will also deplete the rabbit population. If you enjoy hunting rabbits, forget the cat, but if not then get one.
Females are definitely better at hunting, but have you ever heard one when they are in heat???
Shooting is more fun anyways. And any excuse to get another gun is always a plus.
Some years back a very good friend of mine was the warden of the Louisiana State Prison at Angola, LA. He approached me and an ex-brother-in-law of mine about the problem of pigeons in and around the hog barn. They had gotten a taste of the hog feed and there were thousands of them.
We cooked up "the plan", over a six pack or two. That Saturday there were 5 of us that showed up at the hog lot at about 7 AM (this was the time the convicts fed the grain to the hogs).
My Rem 1100 was actually getting hot to the touch. I was using handloaded max loads of #5 Lead ( This Cajun don't shoot no steel shot............ever). when you would shoot and down some the rest would circle and come right back again. When the shooting was over there were hundreds of dead pigeons.
We had the convicts clean them and we used a special pot made from an old sugar house kettle with butane heat to make a gumbo for the whole hunting club, and our guests. We told everyone to bring their wives or their girl friends....hell bring both of them.
The shooting was great and the eating of them was just as good....pigeon makes a gumbo about like his first cousin, the mourning dove.
If i were you, i'd do it the fun way and not get a cat...use your .22 or .410 if you can. Pidgeons are some tough birds... if you go the pellet gun rout, id use a good one, thats accurate and like the other guy said, no less than 800 fps there.
, Art