what do you use to protect your livestock?
- Thread starter samefly
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Grunt
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Springfield M1A during daylight hours for it's range, power and accuracy. However, the PVS-2 starlight scope is more overweight than my ex 
and off balance to boot. For night time use, I grab my AR-15A2 and a PVS-4 starlight scope.
and off balance to boot. For night time use, I grab my AR-15A2 and a PVS-4 starlight scope.TexasPatriot.308
Member
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....
SabbathWolf
member
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.
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.
TexasPatriot.308
Member
that CX Storm looks like something out of Planet of the Apes.
Jeff F
Member
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.
SabbathWolf
member
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.
tulsamal
Member
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.
CountryUgly
Member
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.
jmorris
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.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.
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.
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.
A neighbor keeps a Mosin and a .22 Magnum in his barn, but that's mostly for poaching turkeys and deer.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
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.
Coyote3855
Member
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.
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.
mljdeckard
Member
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.
tulsamal
Member
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
sixgunner455
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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 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.
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