I MET Steve at the shooting club when he overheard me talking about a night’s lamping rabbits with my air rifle on a small five acre plot grazed by horses.

Steve was interested in shooting and lamping but like a lot of people he could not get any permission to shoot. He was envious of me for being able to go lamping two or three times a week so we swapped numbers and went our own way.

Although I like lamping on my own as it can be very peaceful, it is often handy having a second person who can help with the shooting, carrying the lamp and battery pack and any rabbits bagged.

The next day I was working on a poultry and dairy farm that had a serious problem with rats. I had called there on a regular basis over the previous month, putting down poison and monitoring the situation, but although the rats were eating the poison I knew there were still some of the pests about.

There were so many rats because they had access to the farmer’s home grown barley, wheat and maize silage which was then milled and given to the cattle in open feeding troughs and the several thousand chickens that were fed on open trays in two large sheds.

There were also potential areas of cover around the farm in the form of nettle banks, building materials and machinery which provided the rats with a home and protection.  

The farmer’s son told me that every night when he checked the cows there were always rats scurrying along the inside of a cattle trough and down a hole in the far corner.

Under different circumstances I could have laid poison for these rats but with the cattle eating from the trough it meant the farmer and I were not happy with that option.

He invited me down that night to see for myself and possibly shoot some of them. I accepted, not just because it was a good idea but that it would be a bit of good sport. The farm was also near my home so a visit would not involve a long journey through the countryside at night.

I rang Steve to see if he was busy that night and he readily accepted, agreeing that we should get there by 9pm as it got dark by 10pm. I suggested we take a lamp with us for when it got dark.

When shooting rats at close range I prefer to use open sights, not because I am a traditionalist and enjoy a challenge of open sights but because the shooting can be fast and requires some instant snap shooting.

The shadows were lengthening when we arrived at the farm and all was quiet as we loaded up and attached a lamp to Steve’s gun before making our way around the buildings.

We were talking in hushed whispers when Steve confessed that he was scared of rats. Although he did not mind shooting at them at range, he was very worried about coming face to face with any.

I was aware that I had to get some kills to satisfy the farmer so I inched my head around the corner of a building where I could see the entire length of the cattle feed trough where I’d spotted the rats. In the growing darkness I sensed a movement so raised my rifle into a half aim and watched.

The rat was picking bits of corn out of the silage but did not offer an accurate shot. Time passed and my arms began to ache. Then a cow moved up to the trough and the rat gave way, moving to within ten meters of me to pause and sniff the air for any sign of danger.

I balanced the barrel and checked my aim all in the same second and, as I squeezed the trigger and felt the gun recoil I congratulated myself on the first rat of the evening witnessed by my new accomplice.

Although Steve was impressed he refused to collect it for me, even when I offered him some gloves!

We left the cattle sheds to move to the poultry sheds where I knew rats were living because on previous visits they opened up the holes as fast as I could lay poison and backfill them.

Peering around the corner of a trailer I spotted a rat on the outside of a shed heading towards us, using the wall and clumps of grass as cover.

I pointed the rat out to Steve and he quickly made himself comfortable by kneeling against a wheel of a trailer, motioning that I was going to leave him and return to the cattle shed.

The light was getting dim but with my open sights I was OK. Nothing stirred in the feed trough so I quietly made my way around the back of the shed and up to the silage pit.

There were no rats there so I headed back along the route I had come, stopping to have a look in the cattle trough only to startle a rat which ran back down a hole in the corner.

I thought this was interesting so I settled down in range of the hole. I did not have long to wait.

A dark shape emerged from the dark corner, keeping close to the wall, heading for the feed further up in the trough. I followed its progress through my open sights, tensing for a shot every time it paused then cursing every time it moved.

Eventually it paused long enough and I squeezed the trigger. It made a satisfying crack and that was my second rat of the evening.

Making my way back to Steve I wondered if he had overcome his fear of rats. He had missed the first one but had climber higher onto a pile of big bales which gave him an advantage of height and a good view of two sides of the shed from where he managed to account for two rats.

I continued to check on my rats in the feed trough that evening but no more emerged so at midnight I blocked up the hole with straw and we left. Steve was buzzing and although he still had a fear of rats he desperately wanted to coming rabbiting with me in the future.

Over the next few weeks we both enjoyed another evening shoot and eventually we cleared the farm of rats.