I have a job for a VERY large company. They have a few filtration ponds and the muskrats are eating there cattails. (cattails are use in the filter process) They don't want me wading around trapping because of the liner under the pond. So they decided they want them sniped.
They are supplying me with a night vision scope for my .17. All I have to do is pick one out. I will be shooting about 100 yards max. If anyone uses one I would greatly appreciate any in put on a purchase.

Yep I'm ready to shoot. It has been 3 months of safety forms, interviews, phone conversations and so on.
Some questions to me were rather funny and ridiculous, like whats your protocol for poison ivy and oak? I told them I don't touch it! lol
I understand they have to cover all there bases. I may even have to put a back up beeper on my truck. They don't leave anything out. Very detailed with everything. Even where I will be sitting and shooting from.

Must be dealing with the lawyer's, not the maintenance folk's.

I'm dealing with the environmental company

Cool job, I'd almost just take the 1,000 dollar scope as payment lol

I here ya. He just emailed me and they picked one out. [url=mehttp://www.opticsplanet.com/opmod-pvs-14-night-vision-monocular-with-night-vision-head-gear.html]mehttp://www.opticsplanet.com/opmod-pvs-14-night-vision-monocular-with-night-vision-head-gear.html[/url]

And to think that I wondered why Antczak left Wisconsin for Tennessee! If I mentioned this before, forgive me, but a classmate of my son went college in Nashville. Well, her mother is a customer of mine and she told me that all three of her kids went to college in Nashville and none of them ever came home, except for vacation. ( I probably should add that if the rest of the family can sing like the daughter I heard, it's no wonder they stayed in Nashville! )

Its a great place Paul. right now in the smokys its only 85 in the shade! I bet its warmer than that there?
The scope the chose is the OPMOD PVS-14 $2895.00 NIIIIICE!

Wow that's nice.
question: won't that .17 make a lot of noise, kind of defeats stealth at night?
Would not floating in a boat using .22 subsonic get you more shots?

Kurt Temple

The ponds are about an acre. I think me in a boat would spook the rats. This way I can take one out let it rest and wait for another

It might but then they would not have bought the scope;-)

From my experiance with NV. I think you could save your scope from having problems with muzzel flash by making a flash supressor out of PVC. Make it a long one, fill it full of holes and put a spongey pipe wrap on it. A bunch of slits in the wrap, and some duct tape will finish it off. Funny thing is that it makes the report of the gun much less noisy. This is a flash supressor, not a sound supressor. ( It just happens to act as one)

Mike do you have a picture of that flash suppressor? If it looks like a sound suppressor and kind of acts as one, is it legal?

mine has built in protection from flash,,,,,,,,,,,(auto sensor)

I make them as I need them, about once a year. They are pretty cheep to make and I toss them when I am done.

Sounds like fun , I can't see it working . A muskrat rides very low in the water . Seeing threw the cattails . Maybe get a x-ray vision scope . One thing for sure your bullet is going to skip like crazy . There's no need to wade in the water when trapping ponds .

The pond is 80% open something killed off the majority of the cat tail last winter and the rats are taking care of the rest. They are very picky about there liner and they prefer I stay out of the pond. I'm not worried about getting a shot

Sounds like the perfect rat breeding area . I'm sure you will get a few . Them things breed like crazy if the stars ar in line . Ive seen rats depleat 700 acares of cattails . Theres was almost 14.000 rats taken out and that only brought back the cattails kinda .
If you could get up high on them and shoot down there kill area would be more exposed . If there was floating logs for them to climb up on that would exposes the kill spot . Muskrats are kinda stupid till there's attemp on there life's . They get wise fast . They also learn to watch out for each other by slapping there tails kinda like beaver do so when shoot one and there's a splash it's going to send off a warning accross the pond . Is there a fence stopping these rats from migration . It's in a muskrats nature to not over pop . They migrate like crazy . There's two ways to farm muskrat . One is to fence them in so they can't leave . The other is to feed them like crazy so the ones born there stay there and new ones move in . I'm surprised there not eating up the liner yet . There's ways to trap rats with out getting wet . You could hold a float set Inplace with a cane pole . They must be denning in the pond banks and have runs coming and going . Colony traps really shine in that . Are they paying you per rat

Pesky, you can tell this to your muskrat customers ( And sound really intelligent for a change, because it's the truth ) Muskrats have a wanderlust twice a year, spring and fall. This is when you get calls to get muskrats out of window wells that are nowhere near water. This is nature's ( God's ) way of preventing inbreeding. Muskrats travel until they smell water and then they call it home. We call it the fall and spring mix. It keeps muskrats from marrying their cousins.

There paying me per hr. ($75) The out flow into the creek is wide open they can come and go. The banks are littered with dens. Yes I would use colony's if we end up trapping. If we do then its more safety training.
I told him he needs to worry about the snapper population also. Due to there hibernating. I wonder if they are ripping the liner to burro in the pond bottom.