Old AGW articles about Rentokil pest-control air rifles - help, please.

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me - does anyone know which (two?) Airgun World issues from sometime between 1990 and 1992 had a series of articles about how Rentokil researched the ideal pest-control air rifle?

Thanks for any help, and Merry Christmas,

Spikey.

Merry Christmas Spikey, and good luck in your quest.

Thank you, @Ramma22! Merry Christmas to you, as well.

An update: I've found the one article I have (March 1992), and I believe the previous month's issue dealt with how Rentokil ended up choosing to use a "modified Daystate Huntsman". The articles were written by Mike Nicolson.

More interesting info from A1 :-

"In the 1980s, Rentokil predominantly used the Daystate Huntsman, a rifle specifically commissioned for their professional pest control operations.
Key Air Rifles Used
Daystate Huntsman (Original): Commissioned in 1980, this was the first modern smallbore Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) air rifle. It was designed to deliver high power—approximately 40 foot-pounds in .22 caliber—making it highly effective for extermination tasks.
Daystate Huntsman HL: A simplified, lightweight version of the Huntsman specifically developed for Rentokil technicians to use in the field.
Daystate Air Ranger: While Daystate's first product was originally a tranquilizer gun for larger game, it was the precursor to the specific pest control models adopted by Rentokil.
Why These Rifles Were Chosen
Accuracy: As PCP rifles, they had virtually no recoil compared to traditional spring-powered air guns, allowing for extreme precision in urban and industrial environments.
Power: The custom-built nature allowed for power levels far exceeding the standard UK 12 ft-lbs limit for unlicensed users, providing the "stopping power" needed for professional pest management.
Reliability: The partnership with Daystate was so successful that many of these original rifles were still in service or being repaired decades later".

Hello @spikey , what an interesting thread.
I did a bit of research on the Daystate Huntsman for the book I wrote with John Bowkett, and tried to find out more about its use with Rentokil, but failed .
Please may I ask you if you could share photos or scans of the article from March 1992? If easier via email: titanairrifles@gmail.com
I would appreciate it very much.

This is my Huntsman, serial number H.L. 1067.
I really like it.

Kind regards,
Louis

IMG_5943 by Louis van Hövell, on Flickr

My mate worked for rentokill for about twenty years he left to go elsewhere in the mid nineties, he said he remembers using a brass cylindered daystate at first which was later cut up.due to its age which he said broke his heart , then a rapid but they had a bsa S10 as well all in .22 , he said the pellets they were issued with were bisley magnums or hollow points because it was they were insured to use .

I can vaguely remember an article about them, but I could be confusing it with a later article in the pest magazine.

Blimey! Best pest control air rifle, that’s a minefield for sure.

I worked for them very briefly in the early 2000s and we had a theoben break barrel to use too as well as pcps ( not sure what they where tjough )

While not directly related to Rentokil, I remember an incident back in the mid to late 1970’s.
A workmate of mine had a close friend who was contracted to carry out pest control for Barnsley Council. The new college was being readied for use but had a pigeon problem and he was sent to deal with it. He had been on the roof a while and had shot some pigeons, but they had got wise and were avoiding the roof, he decided to leave and return the following day. As he walked back along an upper level corridor, suddenly all hell broke lose, windows were smashed and he was set upon by men in black fully armed with pistols and rifles.
Roy Mason the local MP at the time was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and his security team had spotted a ‘bloke with a rifle’ sneaking around the rooftop which had a clear field of vision to his residence.
Fortunately for him they didn’t shoot him, but after the tussle and some questioning did release him, presumably to change his underwear…. Lol

Hi all,

Interesting stuff!

I've also been doing some re-reading of my old airgun magazines, since I remembered reading an article when I was a kid which mentioned Daystate building an air shotgun for an unnamed pest-control firm to control sparrows in a food barn.

The article was in the November 1987 issue of Airgun World and was written by John Fletcher. It was entitled "Hi-Tech Pioneers" and was about the Daystate company and their products.

Anyway, I'll quote the section about the air shotgun:

John Fletcher writes of "an air shotgun which they built for a pest control firm who had the task of clearing sparrows from a food store - and so could not use lead shot because of the risk of contamination."

"The solution - those little silver coloured icing balls used to decorate cakes."

The article then quotes Mike Seddon (one of the Daystate founders) as saying:

"Some of them turned to powder in the barrel, but they really were surprisingly effective."

In the mid 80's I had a friend working at Rentokil and she told me they were recruiting, so I applied and I would have been hired, but I'd not passed my driving test, but a day after the cut off date, I took my test and passed, sadly it was too late.