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Critter-duty gun?

Peglegjoe

Peglegjoe

Professional
Founding Member
So, all hell broke loose in my yard tonight just before dusk.

I live on 4 acres, nearest neighbors house is 300 yards away. I back up to a couple hundred acres of forest. Back yard is fenced (2/3 acre or so) for my husky mix, my border collie mix, and my elderly (15 years) pug. Watching TV just after dinner, and chaos erupts. I go to the kitchen door and find my husky mix inside a fenced garden (4' tall fencing), fighting with...something charcoal gray. I thought "groundhog", but couldn't tell.

When I get home every day, my XDs EDC goes into the safe in the living room, along with the .308 bolt action and the heirloom .38 Colt. The tactical 12ga is upstairs in the bedroom, which is fine for 'retreat from a human invader, hunker down in a defensive position, and call LEOs'.

None of that was helpful tonight.

So...I grabbed a shovel, and when whatever-it-was saw me coming it hopped the fence and retreated. As it headed across the driveway it looked feline to me - 35 lbs or so, arched back, fur straight up - but I never saw a face so I don't know if it was a bobcat, or a stray/feral cat, or...? I know my neighbors don't have pet cats, so that rules that out.

Now...I love my pug. She's my girl, and if anything happened to her I would be heartbroken. She's so old now she can barely walk, much less hurry...and she was five feet from this mess tonight. Whatever it was, had some juevos to come into a fenced area, with two L-O-U-D, 50-lb dogs. I don't know why it did it. Hungry? Diseased? Arrogant? I'm going to eliminate "curious", just because my 2 big guys are...big, and loud.

My husky did an awesome job. His muzzle is shredded, but I cleaned him up good and that, along with one rear paw web, are the only spots that were bleeding. I think the paw was him jumping over a 4' fence to get at whatever this thing was...and the muzzle looks like claw-slices, not bites. I'll keep an eye on his behavior the next few days anyway, to make sure it didn't give him anything.

But.

What would everyone recommend to have handy, in a situation like this? Another shotgun, kept downstairs? Some sort of .22 pistol with a light or laser? An AR? Or should I swap my EDC (laser equipped) from JHP loads (daily carry) to some regular FMJ range loads, and keep it within reach till bedtime? The .308 bolt-action seems like overkill (and slow to put on target, relatively speaking, along with being locked in the safe)...but with the Leupold dialed in for 500M, I could potentially get whatever-it-is on retreat, as long as that's not too late to protect my 'family' of dogs.

Any thoughts?
 
I hope it doesn’t catch rabies or gets an infection from the attack, personally, if you got an AR open up on his azz if he comes back, again hope all is fine with your pet, after all, there family

Edit: My brother lives out in the country and he has seen several coyotes, he has a Ruger Mini 14 Ranch Rifle for this situation
 
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Yeah, the winery down the road (I love my neighborhood!) has reported bobcats and on nights when I sleep with windows open, I can hear the caterwauling in the forest behind me. Whatever it was...it wasn't domestic.

Hudson (the dog - named after Hudson Hawk) seems fine at the moment. Little spooked, but he did a good job and he got treats for it. I'll keep an eye on his behavior the next couple days to make sure nothing changes. He's UTD, so he should be OK...but he's family and I will definitely keep a close eye on him.

I may pick up a second shotgun, to keep downstairs. Seems the most versatile, especially if I start keeping the EDC handy till bedtime instead of just locking it up when I get home. It's a Mossberg Tactical pump (500, I think) kept cruiser-ready upstairs...any recommendations for downstairs? Maybe I'll just get its twin, for downstairs...
 
Dang, hope your pup is okay. Maybe take him to the vet just to get checked out, even though you've already attended to his wounds. Sounds like a Bobcat possibly.

We had two Huskies yrs ago who were fantastic family members. They're both buried side by side in the back yard.
 
As far as a gun , I would lean more towards a .22 semi auto rifle. If it is fighting the dogs you could still possibly get a shot to protect the dogs where with a shotgun you couldn't shoot till the culprit was away from them .
 
Any dog (pet) injured in an attack like that needs to go to the vet IMMEDIATELY!! It is sad that a test for rabies requires the animal to be put down and I’m NOT ADVOCATING that for your dogs but perhaps being proactive and having them start receiving a rabies vaccine cocktail to stop the disease would be best.
If the animal that was in your yard ran away there is a good chance it is not rabid because a truly rabid animal has no fear and would not have backed down and ran away although in it’s early stages it could have rabies and not be showing symptoms. If the animal returns kill it WITHOUT destroying its head (brain) that is the only way rabies can be verified by testing the brain.
I hope the best for your pets I understand that pets are family.
 
Peglegjoe said:
So, all hell broke loose in my yard tonight just before dusk.

I live on 4 acres, nearest neighbors house is 300 yards away. I back up to a couple hundred acres of forest. Back yard is fenced (2/3 acre or so) for my husky mix, my border collie mix, and my elderly (15 years) pug. Watching TV just after dinner, and chaos erupts. I go to the kitchen door and find my husky mix inside a fenced garden (4' tall fencing), fighting with...something charcoal gray. I thought "groundhog", but couldn't tell.

When I get home every day, my XDs EDC goes into the safe in the living room, along with the .308 bolt action and the heirloom .38 Colt. The tactical 12ga is upstairs in the bedroom, which is fine for 'retreat from a human invader, hunker down in a defensive position, and call LEOs'.

None of that was helpful tonight.

So...I grabbed a shovel, and when whatever-it-was saw me coming it hopped the fence and retreated. As it headed across the driveway it looked feline to me - 35 lbs or so, arched back, fur straight up - but I never saw a face so I don't know if it was a bobcat, or a stray/feral cat, or...? I know my neighbors don't have pet cats, so that rules that out.

Now...I love my pug. She's my girl, and if anything happened to her I would be heartbroken. She's so old now she can barely walk, much less hurry...and she was five feet from this mess tonight. Whatever it was, had some juevos to come into a fenced area, with two L-O-U-D, 50-lb dogs. I don't know why it did it. Hungry? Diseased? Arrogant? I'm going to eliminate "curious", just because my 2 big guys are...big, and loud.

My husky did an awesome job. His muzzle is shredded, but I cleaned him up good and that, along with one rear paw web, are the only spots that were bleeding. I think the paw was him jumping over a 4' fence to get at whatever this thing was...and the muzzle looks like claw-slices, not bites. I'll keep an eye on his behavior the next few days anyway, to make sure it didn't give him anything.

But.

What would everyone recommend to have handy, in a situation like this? Another shotgun, kept downstairs? Some sort of .22 pistol with a light or laser? An AR? Or should I swap my EDC (laser equipped) from JHP loads (daily carry) to some regular FMJ range loads, and keep it within reach till bedtime? The .308 bolt-action seems like overkill (and slow to put on target, relatively speaking, along with being locked in the safe)...but with the Leupold dialed in for 500M, I could potentially get whatever-it-is on retreat, as long as that's not too late to protect my 'family' of dogs.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Sounds like a ****? They would be more of a rabie problem. The bobcats in my parts(more of an open country) tend too stay their distance even without dogs.
 
I figured that.

Not the animal I saw. This was charcoal gray, nearly black, solid color, no bushy tail like a raccoon. I think it was a feral housecat - it was the spitting image of this as it left:

1588854240152.png
 
Yeah I’d look at a 410 or 20ga. With the Tungsten shot available Mossberg 500 in 410 put a light on it to see in the dark and you should be good. I’m also a fan of a 10/22 with a light/laser combo that is offered. Would allow quick shots on target.
D386A5E8-46C6-4267-86F3-B722B258C434.jpeg
 
I’d go with a .22 rifle as well.

When I was living rurally, it took care of almost all my varmint issues...and a shotgun took care of those that didn’t.

And your edc pistol, loaded with your edc rounds, would have done just fine. O reason to change loads out.
 
It could have been fluffed/fighting fur...but it was definitely bigger than my pug. It was nearing dusk and I could only see height, not thickness, so it may well have been malnourished.

Main reason for changing out loads would be $...and with a dirt backdrop, I'm not too worried about through-n-through versus expansion. And I have much more inventory for FMJ than I do for EDC at the moment.
 
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