They work quite well for squirrels and other vermin too!
Hey, another believer in that "tree rats" are vermin, and are great targets as well. Old time meat hunter once told me- "Son, you want to be a good deer hunter? Then first be a great squirrel hunter"! He'd buy a box of 20 shells for his .32 Special M1894- you could bet serious folding money he'd have 19 dead deer to show for those 20 shells- I like to hunt them, as I do woodchucks- as a sniper- good shadows, no movement- watch, wait and observe- and a .22 HV Hollow-point will do the job just fine- but every now and then, I take either my Sako M759 .243Win Sporter, or my G&H Mauser 98 BA custom .35 Whelan and "bark" the rodents- you put the crosshairs just offset to the rodent's head, works best if they are pinned against a solid tree section- do NOT do this with a large caliber rifles if they are on a limb or on rocky ground--and shoot so the bullet just grazes the head- and blasts the bark to smithereens- the concussion and the "shrapnel" from the bark sure 'ruins their day"--lotsa fun too!
