what do you use to protect your livestock?

What "ranch" rifle do you personally use? Why that one?

I'm in the east, upstate NY to be exact. The guns that get used the most are the 22 lr and 410 shotgun. Most of the "critters" are opossums or skunks. We don't have problems with fox or coyotes but there are plenty around.

Remington Model 700 .243. Will kill predators that I see and will reach out pretty flat without much recoil. This is good if I am shooting at a running coyote since I usually miss a couple of times.

Springfield M1A during daylight hours for it's range, power and accuracy. However, the PVS-2 starlight scope is more overweight than my ex :barf: and off balance to boot. For night time use, I grab my AR-15A2 and a PVS-4 starlight scope.

whatever looks good in my safe, I check cattle sometimes twice a day, overrun with hogs and coyotes. my favorites are a mini 14 tactical, Springfield Armory M1A, Ruger #1 Varmint .22-250, an old model 788 in .308 and always, always a good revolver, usulally a Blackhawk .45 colt, 44 mag or .357 mag. decisions, decisions....

I use a 9mm Cx4 Storm with a 30 round mag.
The tac-light and Aimpoint work great since all our coyotes come in the middle of the night around here.

Between my horses and my neighbors cattle, we stay a hoppin' this time of year.
2 Coyotes went all the way up to my neighbors back door 2 nights ago. He ran back to the house and grabbed a 270.
He got one, but the other escaped. They are getting increasingly bold this year compared to years past for some reason.

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that CX Storm looks like something out of Planet of the Apes.

I use a Mini 14, not the ranch rifle but a old 185 series with the pencil barrel. It makes coyotes dead out past 200 yards.

that CX Storm looks like something out of Planet of the Apes.

Lol.....
It's a great lil shooter and I really like how the back up sights co-witness through the lower 3rd of the Aimpoint. It's a light and handy little package.

what do you use to protect your livestock?

A Great Pyrenees and a llama.

Gregg

Gregg, I understand about the Great Pyrenees. But could you please tell me about the llama's role in protecting live stock. We are talking about the four legged variety I assume. Since it was mentioned in the same sentence with the great white dog.

I usually keep an AK in the truck and my Brother in law keeps a Heritage Arms .22mag revolver with a 10 inch barrel on him. Both have worked well for critters causing problems.

.For livestock that really needs protection, most use a donkey. I have all sorts of stuff around but they are generally cheap .22's like old $60 Marlin model 60s. I know that doesn't sound very cool but a big part of being useful is being handy.

This one is a bit more cool than wood stocked .22, its a suppressed SBR so its not as long as a pool cue and you don't blow out your ear drums shooting out the passenger side window. Guess that's another point if you have time to put in ear plugs, they have time to get away.

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I kept my Saiga in the barn for starlings on the silage-face and the occasional feral cat. There was also a Marlin 25 boltgun with rat-shot for rats in the feedbunk.

A neighbor keeps a Mosin and a .22 Magnum in his barn, but that's mostly for poaching turkeys and deer.

Several, I have a Marlin 1894 Cowboy .44Mag at the front door, a 1901-vintage Winchester 1894 .30WCF at the back door. A Savage 93R17 and a scoped AR for longer ranges on smaller targets. Plus this purpose-built 10/22 for night-time duty.

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i taught the bull how to shoot and the cows to duck and cover

That really does sound like shooting bull:o

"A Great Pyrenees and a llama."

We need pics of this. Sounds old world but sure would like to see it.

NEF Sportster in .17 HMR with a 3.5 to 10 Leupold. Mostly ground squirrels and the occasional feral cat.

BTW llamas are aggressive and used around here to protect sheep flocks. The llamas are big enough and tough enough to keep coyotes away from the sheep. Personally, I'd prefer the coyotes.

I didn't know that coyote. I guess I always thought of them as docile animals.

My rancher friends have always kept Mini-14s. But I doubt they do anything with them that I can't do with my SKS. We worry mostly about coyotes with the occasional mountain lion.

Growing up we had a couple mutts that patrolled the sheep and cattle. They did a very nice job, and we didn't have to kill many predators.

Samefly;

I'm in Montana & the major predators on our property are coyotes & cats. I use a 6mm Remington, it's good for either. And, as was previously stated always, always, always, have a sidearm. Usually that's either a .357 or a .40S&W.

900F

Gregg, I understand about the Great Pyrenees. But could you please tell me about the llama's role in protecting live stock.

Livestock guarding dogs are your #1 asset. You can't stay awake all the time. The LGD sleeps most of the day and keeps one eye open at night. We always have at least one. Prefer to have two. Usually a GP although we have had some other types. They are truly wonderful dogs. We used to lose geese and other birds to coyotes. They used to come right up into our barn and take the birds off their roosts. The LDG's keep a "safe zone" around the house, barn, and front pasture. The coyotes are allowed to live in the wooded areas to the north of the house where we don't keep stock. It's sort of a negotiated arrangement. Jimbo never goes more than 100 yards into those woods. And the coyotes stay out of the main livestock areas.

As far as the llama goes, here's the way it was explained to me. At it has worked out for us. But I only have a sample size of one! If you have a herd of llamas, they will stick together and mostly ignore goats and sheep. But if you only have one llama (especially a neutered male) then he will be lonely and tend to bond with other livestock. So you get a young neutered male llama and you put him in with your goats and/or sheep. And he adopts them as his flock. Especially if they have any babies. Our llama is really funny when our Boer and Nubian goats kid. He will go crazy if they walk away and leave a tiny little kid out there in the pasture. He will run back and forth to it trying to push it towards the barn. If you look out in the pasture and see Oliver (the llama) at the far end of the pasture by himself... time to go see what he is guarding.

And llamas just hate coyotes and stray dogs. They will snap their teeth at them. And try to stomp on them. They try to get on top of them so that they can kind of jump up and down with all four hooves at once. The poor coyote is just trying to run away while this crazy animal he has never seen before is hissing and jumping and biting at him. They usually run away never to come back. Combine a llama with a LGD and you've got a good pair.

Gregg

The only livestock I have to worry about these days is my little Brittany. I usually use whatever shotgun I'm hunting with, or whatever pistol I'm hiking with, when I have to repel predators that would make a meal of her.

I have wished for a drilling/combination gun to make hitting a coyote at 70+ yards more likely, since I'd have a rifle option handy that way, but they usually take off and leave her alone when the pistol bullet kicks dirt up in their faces.

I used to have 70 Shetland sheep and 20 Rheas. A kuvasz/pyrenees cross and a llama protected them. "Paco" loved his guard dog companion and they slept back to back. If I had to go, a Ruger Mark 2 with 5.5 inch barrel and a spotlight came along too. Llamas blow like a deer and chase dogs with their long necks low. My neighbors had 4 llamas and continually complained about having to remove dead canids from the pasture.
ll

I live on 185 acres in the woods in Arkansas. My experience is you go with what you got --you can run into a varmit any time you're outdoors. I've shot more feral dogs with a .22 pistol or rifle than anything else, closely followed by a .45 Colt.

However, when I'm hunting coyotes or feral dogs, I use a Kimber M82 in .22 Hornet.

My go-to pasture-truck and tractor-cab rifle is still a well-worn early-1970's Marlin 336 in 30-30 with Williams peep-sights. I have a couple All-weather Ranch Mini-14s that I like a lot too for utility farm-use, but I haven't found a scabbard yet that fits it to mount in my tractor-cabs, so it's still the 336 95% of the time. Yes, the "rainbow-trajectory" of the 30-30 is a challenge, but I'm accustomed to it now, so it's fairly tolerable.

Don't live on a farm or ranch, but I remember "Pops" {Grandfather} had a Savage/Stevens Mdl 94B single-shot 16-Ga propped up by the back door. Took down many a critter after the chickens with that gun

Nice rifles guys but I think Gregg has you beat on the reliability front.

Its hard to beat a pissed off Jack donkey, and if he is in a place with no Jenny he has nothing to do but mess everyone else's day or night up.

And make all kinds of racket all at the same time!!! Pyranees and donkeys are very popular around here. Keep in mind that if you use a donkey to make sure to spend some time with it every now and then, maybe a carrot when you come to feed stock. Otherwise you may have a hard time getting in your pasture.

I mostly use a .22mag these days, although until 6 months ago I used .22lr for most work. I also keep a lever 30-30 in the truck for bigger critters. I also have a marlin 357 I like alot for varmint control.

We have a small herd of horses and now I hear that there is a pack of Canadian gray wolves living about 12 mi. away. They killed a full-grown cow less than 5 mi. from here. I keep an AR-15, A3 format, with a magazine full of handloads featuring 52 gr. Sierra BTHP match. I have a 3-12 scope mounted. It is 300 yards from my deck to the back of the pasture and heaven help the critter that messes with my horses.
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I have a 3-12 scope mounted. It is 300 yards from my deck to the back of the pasture and heaven help the critter that messes with my horses. What if they eat in the dark like most critters?

We had some coyotes coming up into the horse barn at night. A couple of nights up on the roof of the barn with my 300 Whisper ended that problem nicely.

What if they eat in the dark like most critters?
I normally keep the horses in a corral next to the house at night and I am a light sleeper. The dog kennel is right next to the corral. Not fool proof, but close.

SKS, by the door in the barn.

My neighbor, who owns all of the land around me, and raises cattle uses a .22lr. He shoots any animal that disturbs his cattle. I used to raise sheep, and coyotes and pumas were the problem. I never saw the pumas, however. I hung several coyotes on the fence. I used my AR-15.

Used to carry my Buckmark or Blackhawk all the time, now it's a Taurus PT101 on my hip. .22 rifle in the barn or truck too, but been thinking about an "upgrade" there. Mostly possum, coons, skunks and feral cats with an occasional coyote or dog around here. Bear and ML becoming more common but still rare and no problems reported yet.

LGD / donkey / llama is the way to go. As things progress that's the direction I intend to go.

I have used a Ruger Ranch Rifle, a Winchester 94, AR-15, and anything else I had handy. I used the Ruger the most.