Guh, what a miserable day. Dark gray sky, on-and-off rain, about half the squalls come with lightning. I’m bored, the boys are bored, nearly June and it’s in the forties. Sucks. I’m going to post this and unplug the ‘pooter again in case of lightning.
I was drowsing in my sittin’ and thinkin’ chair when I happened to rouse myself, look outside, and find half a dozen cattle nonchalantly eating weeds in my yard. The boys hadn’t even looked up, they were both sawing logs. I got up, opened my ammo drawer, emptied the expensive hollow points out of a Makarov magazine, loaded said magazine with cheap FMJ, took out mak’s mag, put in new mag, shucked hollowpoint out of chamber. opened Lair door, stepped down the stairs…
…and through all this those stupid self-satisfied cattle kept right on eating my weeds. I can’t shoot cattle without getting into trouble, but…
🙂 Yes, cattle can fly.
Ghost, who hates gunfire above all other hated things, was not amused. He’s not letting me have my chair back.
In case it’s useful… Most times cows are left to their own devices such as ‘yours’ they’ll self-organise and a Herd Momma will wind up doing the alpha duties. If you watch your bunch awhile you’d probably be able to pick her out – if nothing else – she usually leads when they’re moving – especially if they’re following in a narrow rutted trail like next to a fenceline.
They can all be dangerous – but she’s the most likely to get aggressive if in her cow brain you appear to be in her way or threatening.
The part that may be useful is that she also has a lot to do with where the rest of them go and hang out. If she doesn’t like your place – by default the herd won’t either. Figure a strategy for the Alpha Momma and you’ll see less cows. Sometimes there’s stragglers or misfits – but that’s against a cow’s instincts. Bulls think they can go where they want – but the same strategy that works for the cow will sometimes work on the bulls – depends?
So – had the situation turned where self-defense might become necessary – do you typically recommend 9 by 18 hardball against freerange cattle? You must be in it for the sport! Oh – I know – the .44 was already belted on…? (a variant of the NY reload)
I don’t know about 9mm Para, but .30 carbine ball will cleanly go through cattle skull with no problem. I had to put an injured cow down with my carbine so have 1st hand knowledge of that.
Would an African ‘boma’ be a solution ? Mesquite limbs stacked end to end to form fence ? Cattle hate materials that trap hooves (think cattle guards) and would hesitate crossing that.
The herd we had here last year gradually learned to avoid my yard, and until recently this one hasn’t been a problem because it tends to migrate north/south rather than east/west. But now lately they’ve changed their habits and the Lair is right in their path. This bunch yesterday was particularly obnoxious because they weren’t even passing through, they were staying to graze. I can’t shoot them – if I did I’d certainly pick a different caliber than 9X18 – but I can break up their complacency and get them running. With a popgun caliber like Makarov, I can even do it without my ears ringing for the rest of the day worse than they already do. Yeah, I could have eared up and gone with the much louder AK, but I was half-asleep myself.