I have lived in the house we rent for nearly three years. In that time, we had one mouse turn up when a cat were were fostering left one for us. After replacing the the fridge with a "craigslists special" last summer, however, we have had mice periodically. Not sure if the connection is justified, but its the only thing worth mentioning. Traps have always sufficed, usually in a matter of days or less.
About 4 weeks ago, a mouse made his presence know by running right in front of us after we returned home from a grocery shopping trip. I set traps immediately, and had no response. a week or two later, I saw the guy again. And then again. I set more traps, and also introduced glue traps, live traps, and rodent-specific bait. He avoided all attempts at capture while simultaneously making himself more visible. For the past 1-2 weeks, by sitting patiently on the couch with dim lights for 3-5 minutes, you could count on him coming out. Enough was enough, and I began stalking him with my 10/22.....at first only mornings because i didn't want to wake up the wife and kid. I had a few fleeting glimpses, but the heavy activity was in the evenings.
Tonight, my wife and I put the boy to bed and settled in for an evening of sipping bourbon and watching movies. She set up a zombie flick on netlix, and i grabbed the 10/22 with her blessing and loaded it with a CCI shotshell round. After a few close calls, I finally put my cross hairs on the little jerk and squeezed a round off. It dropped him immediately, but i followed up with one more shotshell round to end his spasmodic twitching. The shot was from 6 yards.
Primarily relating this tale because in my investigation, I found many reports (and youtube videos) of shotshell rounds being ineffective beyond five or six feet. In past experiments, I tried several times to move to get closer to my target but continually spooked him. Tonight, however, I was determined to get a shot off. I saw him dart several times, and finally the opportunity presented itself. He stopped moving for a moment and I got the cross hairs on him and squeezed a shot off. HIT! He twitched and looked ready to make a last ditch attempt to find cover, so I popped one more shotshell on him and that was that. 18 foot shot, more than what I imagined the effective range of .22 shotshells to be.
Vermin eliminated, product effectiveness affirmed.
YMMV, but this ammunition performed better than expected and this shooter feels confident enough in its lack of energy and lethality to use it indoors for hard-to-manage rodents.
About 4 weeks ago, a mouse made his presence know by running right in front of us after we returned home from a grocery shopping trip. I set traps immediately, and had no response. a week or two later, I saw the guy again. And then again. I set more traps, and also introduced glue traps, live traps, and rodent-specific bait. He avoided all attempts at capture while simultaneously making himself more visible. For the past 1-2 weeks, by sitting patiently on the couch with dim lights for 3-5 minutes, you could count on him coming out. Enough was enough, and I began stalking him with my 10/22.....at first only mornings because i didn't want to wake up the wife and kid. I had a few fleeting glimpses, but the heavy activity was in the evenings.
Tonight, my wife and I put the boy to bed and settled in for an evening of sipping bourbon and watching movies. She set up a zombie flick on netlix, and i grabbed the 10/22 with her blessing and loaded it with a CCI shotshell round. After a few close calls, I finally put my cross hairs on the little jerk and squeezed a round off. It dropped him immediately, but i followed up with one more shotshell round to end his spasmodic twitching. The shot was from 6 yards.
Primarily relating this tale because in my investigation, I found many reports (and youtube videos) of shotshell rounds being ineffective beyond five or six feet. In past experiments, I tried several times to move to get closer to my target but continually spooked him. Tonight, however, I was determined to get a shot off. I saw him dart several times, and finally the opportunity presented itself. He stopped moving for a moment and I got the cross hairs on him and squeezed a shot off. HIT! He twitched and looked ready to make a last ditch attempt to find cover, so I popped one more shotshell on him and that was that. 18 foot shot, more than what I imagined the effective range of .22 shotshells to be.
Vermin eliminated, product effectiveness affirmed.
YMMV, but this ammunition performed better than expected and this shooter feels confident enough in its lack of energy and lethality to use it indoors for hard-to-manage rodents.
