[jyl]

Kind of a random question for those who have shot rats, squirrels, and other rodents.

I somehow stumbled on a Youtube channel where a guy shoots rats and squirrels with air rifles, often using bait and night vision scopes. Lot of super slo-mo video of pellet in flight, impact, eyeballs blowing out, blood spurting, etc. He always takes head shots, and I'm impressed at the accuracy. On the other hand, it feels like watching killing porn.

So I was interested in how quickly a head shot actually kills a rat. Looks like the rats often don't die right away, they struggle, thrash around, throw themselves around, sometimes even run out of sight. This seems to happen more with the shots that are aimed at the side of the head or base of neck (broadside shot). The shots that are aimed at the front of the head (aimed "right between the eyes") seem to usually result in the rat immediately falling over and laying inert.

The squirrels seem to usually be shot at a bait station, head on, and seem to succumb pretty much instantly. I don't really understand the point of baiting and shooting squirrels, which I don't think of as vermin that need to be eradicated like rats can be, but oh well.

So, is what I described with the rats consistent with your experience? Is it correct that even if you get clean head shots, the rodent often doesn't die right away?