Fumbling around in the dark to find your gun and magazine is no darned good. :(

[Sigarms]

As a raccoon is gnawing through the poultry box outside, to grab yet another turkey. GRRR. I didn't think that he could get through the 2x4" cage wire, but somehow he did. As I finally got loaded and snapped the light on, I heard him running off through the bushes. So far the count is 12 chickens, 3 turkeys. Tomorrow when I'm downstate a couple of dog proof traps are on my list... and I WON'T be relocating them to be somebody else's problem.

Shot lock.

They make them for AR's as well.

Money well spent for fast access to a secure rifle on the wall.

 

[PhysAssist]

Shot lock.

They make them for AR's as well.

Money well spent for fast access to a secure rifle on the wall.

View attachment 560111

Or this [for about $41], if you mount it securely:
https://www.amazon.com/Mounted-Locking-Shotgun-Rifle-Hanger/dp/B06XGNXS2S/ref=sr_1_21?srs=8991689011&ie=UTF8&qid=1530032510&sr=8-21

 

[tallyho8]

My chickens are free range in the day and put up at night in a dog kennel made with chainlink fence. At night the coons can reach through and grab a chicken and pull his head through the wire and eat his head off. I also have barn cats and have learned that the coons prefer canned cat food or eggs over the chickens. At night after I put up the chickens I always set my coon trap with some canned cat food and an egg.

At first I catch the cats in the trap and beat the trap with papers and make noise to scare the cats silly before I let them out then they never go in the trap again. Then I start catching coon and possums. A couple of years ago I caught 20 coon in one month and then it slacked off. Now I usually catch about one a month and rarely do they go after the chickens. I may catch about 3 in one week that are probably out of the same mother then none for a while after.

Living close to the southern Louisiana swamps like I do there are many predators to keep an eye out for. Coon and possums are the easiest to catch and I think that my dogs probably keep the hawks away. The armadillos don't harm any animals but make a terrible mess with all their holes everywhere that can be tragic to the horses in the pasture. There is no bait for them but they make trails and if you put an empty coon trap on their trail they walk blindly into it and get caught.

They were no problem in years past but now alligators are everywhere and are increasing in the subdivisions in the drainage canals even though alligator hunting is legal in most rural areas. The other day my neighbor's 5 year old girl went inside and told her father she saw an alligator in the yard. He didn't believe her but went outside to show her and was surprised to see a 6 footer next to his car. He took care of it like most of us would but now is afraid to let his daughter outside again.

The coyotes are swarming around every spring and people start missing cats but they have been unable to get our chickens and are always out of sight by the time you try to aim at them.

I like country living and love all wildlife but sometimes the wildlife doesn't like me.

 

[mjw]

View attachment 559599

I've never had a coyote stand still long enough to change ammo, but I have had hogs completely ignore me on the tractor and allow me to drive up within 20 to 30 feet of them for an easy head shot. Why they have no fear of the tractor and bush hog going is beyond me, but for whatever reason, it's happened multiple times.

We have noticed this too.
A diesel pickup is the preferred hog hunting vehicle for us. The hogs seem used to a diesel, yet will run from a gas engine vehicle.
I guess they are just used to diesel powered tractors.
Also stopping seems to spook all critters more than slowly creeping by. Keep slowly driving and coyotes just look at you, stop and they are gone.

 

[dragoneggs]

Shot lock.

They make them for AR's as well.

Money well spent for fast access to a secure rifle on the wall.

View attachment 560111

Sig, your link isn't pointing me to the lock. I get a Vernier micrometer! :confused3:

 

[Sigarms]

Sig, your link isn't pointing me to the lock. I get a Vernier micrometer! :confused3:

Didn't post a link, not certain what you're clicking onto?

ShotLock Solo-Vault | Gun Safes | USA

They aren't cheap, but I found the quality of construction pretty good.

Looking, I've seen they've expanded since I bought my last one. I only have the mechanical lock with no key option. You want to keep the code simple not only for speed of access, but in case if you forget the code, you can still figure it out pretty quickly if you don't have a key for back up LOL

Thing I like about the product is it hides the rifle beautifully behind a open door in the home. If it were on the wall where your front door moves to when open, you're front door could be open and no one would even know there is a shotgun there with the front door wide open, added very fast access IMO.

 

[newbury]

Well since no one else has mentioned it -
I was trained in the Army -
"This is my rifle, this is my gun"
"One is for shooting, one is for fun"

Now where's that darn magazine?

 

[Jstpssng]

It must be my year for feeding the wildlife. Tonight I was checking the birds and noticed a squirrel in the pen- on second glance though, it was a weasel, chewing on yet another of my chickens. I came home and grabbed my .22 which had the magnum cylinder in it.
Those little buggers are tough; the bullet went through him, then a SS water dish. Yet he crawled out of the pen, and by the time I got there he was gone. I guess it's time to cut the undergrowth back again, weasels aren't generally a problem as long as they have to cross an open area.
I'm loath to keep a gun in my trucks, as I don't like to lock them; but that plan was changed tonight.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Fumbling around in the dark to find your gun and magazine is no darned good.

Get a lock box to stick under the seat or some such. You can keep the pistol secured to some degree and have it near you in the truck. Rifles can be at least secured with a cable.

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: Fumbling around in the dark to find your gun and magazine is no darned good. ��

Zombie thread, but another year. Today I put the young chicks outside for the first time... Just now I went out to check the pork chops on the grill and saw a fox on the edge of the treeline, downwind of the birds and house. I set my beer down to go inside and grab a gun and-
The first part of that statement should explain why she's still running.

The electric fence will serve better guard duty anyways, I just don't like to have it on during daylight hours because of my dog.