Great British Rat Attack weekend

Busy weekend? Why not spend a couple of hours helping us nail Britain's biggest rat?

We have been sent a picture of a monster that measures 18in from nose to tail.

Viewer Mark Lowery of Hartlepool shot it with an airgun in his chicken run this week. When he sent it in, Mark wrote: “I got this rat in my chicken pen with my old trusty springer air rifle this morning, one of the largest I've ever had, a 11in body, and 18in tip to tail, can anybody better that? Keep up a brilliant show!”

But we reckon you - the UK's shooting public - can do better. Last year The Sun newspaper ran a story about a rat shot by Brandon Goddard in Bradford, West Yorkshire, that was 30in long! Click here to read it.

Now we are asking you to go out this weekend (24-25 September 2011) and beat that record. Any (legal) method is allowed: dogs, shotguns, airrifles, traps. Email us a picture of your record rat by 6pm on Monday 26 September 2011 and the winner gets a BSA Meteor Mk7 airgun worth £185.

Simply email us a picture of your rat, full length, next to a measuring tape. Brown rats only (African cane rats need not apply!). Send your entry to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The BSA Meteor has probably accounted for more British rats than any other rifle. The Birmingham-based firm has sold more than 2 million of them since it started making them in the 1950s. Visit www.bsaguns.com.

It's going to be a bad weekend to be a rat. Shooting is one of the biggest participation sports in the UK – more popular than cricket and twice as popular as rugby (Office for National Statistics figures). With around 4 million airguns owned by British citizens, as well as the number of terriers, lurchers and other great ratting dogs, wev are confident we will be able to set a record.

Mark's monster rat, 18in tip to tail