when i went up for a look around a few weeks ago, there was activity during the day, so i decided to give it a couple of hours last evening until he brought the horses in at 8pm.
they have a 14 year old cat that lives in the barn, and my sister in law assured me that the best place to shoot rats would be the cats feeding bowl
i put 4 backstop boards down, with a pile of breadcrumbs in front, and decided to put a board behind the cats bowl, just in case.
after about half an hour, movement caught my eye in the gloomy barn, in front of one of the backstop boards (i paint em with a bit of white emulsion so the rats show up nicely when they're feeding). it wasnt a rat though, it was ''blossom'' the cat eating the breadcrumbs
then movement against the board to my right caught my eye, and it was a huge rat, feeding in ''blossoms'' bowl 
roland raised his head very slightly, just as i took the shot
he tried to run but only his front and back left legs were working. he managed to run round in a 2ft circle a couple of times before keeling over. i gave him a follow up shot, although i dont think it was really needed, but better safe than sorry.its a tell tale sign with rats and rabbits if the shot is a few mm low, that they try to run, but have no sense of direction, and go round in a circle for a few seconds. its still a fatal shot, as a wounding shot will result in the rat or rabbit running WITH a sense of direction back to their holes.
typically, i shoot one of the biggest rats i've ever shot, and forgot the camera
