Thread: Anyone made their own red light for outside/rats?

Been shooting Rats at my brothers place on the farm at night, heaps of the buggers.
But having a few issues.
They simply don't come out with a white outside light on, so I thought 'd be clever and put some red cellophane over a portable LED outdoor light. This helped a little, but it's hard to get the bright light/enough vision mix just right to be honest.

The red torch on the air rifle works a bit, but I only get 4 hours max out of a $17 battery!!

Last night I turned off the LED light, and threw the best bait for them on the lawn (plain $1 bread), turned the torch light on and there were half a dozen of the little shits on the lawn then!

So, I'm a hunting/red light dummy, but know the rats are shy of a "bright" red light and scarper when the red rifle torch is aimed at them. GTried putting cellophane over a standard cree torch but it's useless.

I have ordered a couple of red party incandescent globes (40W) today, hoping to hang them in a tree close to where I biff the bread out, hoping these bulbs give out enough light so I can see the little shits, but not too much as to scare them.

Any other ideas guys for red bulbs? Tried a red sharpie on a small 15w oven bulb, but still glows too bright. The cellophane is either too bright with a single sheet covering the light, or too dark with another sheet applied.

Hoping someone may think of something simple I haven't..(wouldn't be hard).

Last night I shot one and left it there, went back to that spot an hour later for another shoot, and his mates were busy eating him....disgusting little pricks.

Also...would a decent .177 be more accurate at such short distance compared to a .22 air rifle? I seem to miss a bit at this close range, and read about the .177 being more accurate at close range?

Cheers guys, thanks for any advice, appreciate it....I absolutely LOVE rat shooting, becoming an obsession. And for anyone wondering about baits, they have completely ignored my Peanut butter and Nutella, ignore fish heads, ignore mixed nuts, vegetable oil etc...but go mental over plain $1 white bread. Go figure. Suits me, it's cheap!
As for pellets it's accu-pell, or JSB Exact Jumbo suiting my air rifle the best.

Cheers

Get a decent sized 40 gallon drum.

Whack the top off with an angle grinder

Use an old hole saw to cut. A hole roughly the size of a wine bottle. Put a wine bottle in the whole and then put some white bread in the end.

Oil the neck thoroughly so they should slip into the drum of water.

Not as much fun as shooting but hopefully should get a few

lol great idea! Guess shooting them in a drum would be some humour...I'm not allowed to drown them bugger it....cheers

I was thinking about getting my electrician mate to wire me up a mains powered nail plate steel pad..then I can flick the switch for a second when I see them on that...then take bets on how far they fly

flat headed airrifle pelleta hit harder than pointed ones.... what we used to do was set up 40ish yards away,with light turned off,reload,put rifle across rest aiming roughly where rats would be,switch on light,shoot,switch off light and repeat.....used to sit on ground behind an old school chair,have pack of slugs on seat and rested rifle across the back.

variation on above theme
smaller steel drum....oil or the old kero ones work great,fill to within a couple of inches from top with water then tip in a couple of cups of hot fat.....tip out the meat dish after cooking roast of mutton works too. leave it against shed,the rats jump in for a feed,break surface and with slippery feet cant get out....chuck out the carcassess....kid proof,dog proof...well it wont hurt them anyway.

Yeah, I have been give half tin of Norica flat .22 pellets, forgot to take them last night. Be interesting to see how they go.

at your distance either cal will do cant see 22 vs 177 being more accurate it will be the actual rifle that's accurate not the cal have you tried a red tail light or brake light bulb from a car or a spotlight with a red clip on lens

Cheers, yeah tried the red spotlight thing, but they run as soon as it gets turned on..they can't see red, but can see bright light. my air rifle has a cree torch with red lense but the bloody things costs like $4 per hour in battery..lol..and that's turning it off and on.

Does your torch gave a meter on it? Seriously though i suppose you mean battery price have you considered rechargeables instead. Alternatly red floodlights get the rats used to them tben whammo.

I have a night force but mainly use 18650 batt on led set up. If you are up for build on a C8 from Aliexpress.
I've seen some major red lens setups.
Two types
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VjZ4GQsWF0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpampys6PxM
If you are seeing that many rats you need a poison program as well.
Bait can begotten from a number of places even some locals are supplying it.
Key industries and I am not connected with them but they carry what I use first strike ad contrac.
You wont shoot them all and once the car wires are chewed you screwed or the house wires can cause house fires.
KH

Cheers guys, just been on TradeMe and bought some cheaper batteries, I'll give them a go just in case..maybe I bought a dud battery, and I'm a mug for paying supermarket prices. Torch does not have a meter, its a cheapie which came with the gun but its actually quite a good one. I'll fit the touchpad switch. and try leaving it off longer..just too impatient to shoot the pricks.

man we didnt have flash torches back when we did it and batteries lasted all night the way we used them.... shite even an old 6volt dophin would last 3-4 hours on a single battery.

Yeah I thought LED torches went for days without going flat..in fact when they came out years ago they used to advertise saving your flat batteries from clocks, remotes etc to use in your LED torch. Either these cree torches hog the power, or batteries are crap nowadays!
Have tried a "standard" 9 led torch with three AAA batteries but it does not give out any light with cellophane over it.
I too can remember dad having huge torches in the 70s which took many "D" size batteries and they were fantastic, used to shine for a long way, can't ever remember him changing batteries much.
Apparently in the summer these rats are out whilst still daylight hunting for food about 8pm..will be fun times then!!

Fairly certain others on here have a better solution, but made a poor man's IR setup using an old smart phone with the glass IR filter removed from the camera and an IR spotlight.
Takes some fussing to get far enough inside the phone to get the lens out of the camera without damaging it, then it needs to be re-assembled and attached to your scope, then a hood over that to keep from showing all the light made by the screen, but it does work. Made the mount for the back end of the scope out of an old PVC pipe heated and bent to fit, and the hood out of an old blanket. Ordered the IR spotlight off amazon - they're used in conjunction with IR security cameras. You can get IR lasers and torches on there as well - probably worth having an IR torch on the airgun too, though I didn't have one. Looked dumb, but it worked, cost next to nothing using a junky old phone, and never had a rat catch on to what was going on (until it was too late).

If you don't fancy doing open heart surgery on a smart phone yourself a phone repair shop would probably do it once you explain what you want.

Originally Posted by altair

lol great idea! Guess shooting them in a drum would be some humour...I'm not allowed to drown them bugger it....cheers

I was thinking about getting my electrician mate to wire me up a mains powered nail plate steel pad..then I can flick the switch for a second when I see them on that...then take bets on how far they fly

What about shotgun?
I've heard of a pilot that did that, .... The airplane Tyre on the ground with a steel plate on it with some jelly meat on the plate..... Need I say more.

Look into infrared, not heat based but near-infrared. Most mobile phone and digital cameras will pick it up. Mount on back of scope. Illuminate with IR LED floodlight or IR torch on rifle. Should drastically increase your tally...maybe even make you feel like an evil super-villain. (-:<

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...vL-fm_9bbDKYS2