The big mangy black dog came sneaking in the
barnyard with murder on his mind. He apparently had been watching where my
chickens roosted and decided to have supper. I had just come in from the barn
when my wife yelled, "Jim! There's a dog in the chicken pen!" My single action
.45 Colt was laying on the table and I grabbed it as I ran past and out the
door. I could hear squawking coming from the chicken pen and hoped I was in
time. Just as I came to the corner of the barn the rooster ran out of the pen,
closely pursued by the big black dog. In his excitement the dog did not see me,
intent as he was upon the rooster. I crouched down by the corner of the barn and
as the rooster ran past me I raised up and fired an SSK 270 gr. slug into the
chest of the oncoming dog. He yelped and turned away from me and I fired again,
this time into the side of his chest. The dog began to holler and flop around on
the ground. He was apparently trying to get away, but his body wasn't working
right by that time. After he had thrashed or flopped around about 15 feet I was
upon him and put a finisher in his head.
Growing up on a ranch we used our guns for a number
of jobs, one of which was to protect the livestock and animals from marauding
critters. This included dogs and feral cats. And while the cat population in
itself was a problem at times, the dogs gave us the worst fits. Our neighbor
lost 3 cows and their calves during calving to wild or mean dogs in a single
attack one Spring. We usually either wore our guns every day or else had them
handy in the truck or on the tractor. If on horseback we sometimes carried a
rifle in a scabbard also. The last few years if I had a rifle along it was the
.32-20 Marlin Model 1894CL which worked well on dogs. The foreman of a ranch
next to us carried a Remington bolt-action rifle in .222 Remington. It was a
great dog-stopper also.
One morning as I was enjoying my wake-up coffee I
heard dogs barking and cows bawling. My 18 1/2" 12 ga. was setting next to the
door and I grabbed it as I ran out. One barrel had a hand-loaded round ball and
one barrel had a 3" Magnum BB. As I ran up over the hill behind the house the
barking got louder. Looking down below me as I crested the hill I could see 2
dogs chasing the cows, which were bawling in panic. I took about an 80 yard shot
at one of the dogs with the round ball load but it was a clean miss. At the shot
they broke away from the cattle, one running south and the other running towards
me. I watched it - a large German Shepherd - with the shotgun at the ready.
Dimly in the back of my mind I registered a shot towards the south but I was
concentrating on the dog running at me. At about 30 yards he saw me and without
slowing down started to circle away from me. I let him have the load of BB and
at the shot he instantly went stiff and fell over. As I stood there realizing I
had no more ammo I heard a horse coming. Looking around I saw the foreman of the
ranch ride up and put a finisher in the head of the dog I had just shot. He got
off his horse and pulled the collar off the dog, then came over to me. He
congratulated me on the shot I just made and said he got the other dog with his
.222 Remington rifle. He took the collars off the dogs and filed complaints
against the dog owners. The law stated that any dog that had been "wounding,
chasing or harassing" livestock could be hunted and killed. The dog owners are
liable for any damages their animals do to the livestock.
Lest anyone think me an animal hater, let me
explain that while we have dogs and cats of our own around the place, there is a
big difference between a pet, a guard and a thief. The raiding dogs were many
times wild dogs of several generations. Sometimes they were "town" dogs that had
been dumped by irresponsible owners. They were hungry, probably scared, and
trying to make it on their own in a hostile environment. Because they chose to
prey on our livelihood, we protected ourselves from them. I will not abide a dog
that will chase and harass livestock. Not even a dog of my own.
The usual gun I had on was either a .22 Ruger
Single Six or one of my .45 Colts, either a Ruger, Colt or some Colt "clone". At
times we have had a rifle or shotgun handy, but the handgun was mostly used as
it was easier to carry while working and was more "out of the way" than any of
the long guns. The .22 will do a good job if the bullet is placed correctly.
This is not always possible in every circumstance. The roundnose .22 Long Rifle
will drop a critter quickly if the hit is in the spine or brain. Hit other
areas, even the heart, and the animal can last quite a long time. I have shot
several dogs with the .22 that came back weeks later looking none the worse. The
.22 hollow-point or the SGB will do a much better job, though if the body weight
is much over 40 pounds it can get a bit "iffy". Of the 35 or 36 dogs I shot one
year, about 20 of them were killed with the .22 Long Rifle. Many ran off quite a
ways before dropping. Cats can be tough critters to stop also, but that is
another story.
I have not had much experience using the .357
Magnum. What little I have had seems to indicate to me that the 125 gr. JHP
would be the best bullet. I recently shot a dog in our pens with the .357. The
load was the Hornady 158 gr. XTP at about 1450 fps. The sideways shots gave
complete penetration with exit wounds about dime-size. The one full-length body
shot did not exit. The dog came at me after I had emptied the gun and I had to
whack it on the head with the pistol to knock it down. In truth looking back at
it I think it was just trying to get out the gate where I was standing. But I
had to get the .22 to finish it which upset me. I was not real happy with the
performance of the .357, though much of the problem was most likely my shooting
and the fact that the dog was very excited. It seems to me that if an animal is
scared, excited or in some kind of "frenzy", they are a lot harder to stop than
if they do not know you are there. At least that has generally been my
experience.
I shot one German Shepherd with the Colt Combat
Commander in 9mm. The shot was at about 20 yards or so in my Bull pen. The dog
was sideways to me and did not know I was there. The first shot dropped him
immediately. The load was the Black Hills 147 gr. JHP. He started to yelp and
bite at the wound and I shot him again, this load being the 147gr. CCI Gold Dot
JHP. I fired twice more into him but most likely would not have needed to as he
was done. The exit wounds were about the same as the .357, dime-sized. He never
did get up after the initial hit.
The .45 ACP has been a good dog-stopper,
though I have had some run off after being hit hard in the body. A little too
far back behind the lungs and they will run quite a ways. I was out in the hills
and heard a cow bellowing and some dogs barking. As I came over the hill I saw
in the valley down below a cow backed into a corner by two dogs. The dogs saw me
and ran off. I followed a while but lost them, so I sat down and blew on my
varmint call. Soon they came trotting up the trail with their tongues hanging
out. I whacked the first one with my .45 and before I could shoot again the
other disappeared. The first one rolled around then got up yelping and ran off.
I watched him for several hundred yards but never did get close to him again. I
also used a Colt Officer's ACP .45 on several dogs that came after my daughter
and I while we were on the horses. I hit the lead dog and they both ran back
into the brush. I jumped my horse up onto a ridge and shot at the dogs several
times before they got out of range. I did hear another "whop" as a bullet landed
on one, but neither of them stopped before they were out of sight. The load was
a CCI 200 gr. JHP, and while it surprised me that the
dog ran off, I am sure the hit I made was a poor one.
These dogs attacked us in broad daylight
while we were mounted and while we had our dog with us. He was a small dog
and had uncommon good sense. When these bandits came out of the brush at
us growling, ole George just advanced to the rear until he was on the
offside of my horse where he waited until I got my gun in action. The wild
dogs never paid him any mind and went directly for my daughter's horse
(she was in the lead) until my first shot interrupted their plans.
The .45 Colt has been a good one for me,
mainly because I shot it the most and used it more than anything except
the .22 Single Six. The loads I used were usually the SSK 270 cast bullet
at around 1200 fps. I tried some of the Federal Hollow Point lead bullet
factory loads but did not like them. I also tried the Winchester
Silver-Tips and did not like them either. Mostly because of personal
preference for cast bullets. The above- mentioned loads did drop the
critters they were fired into, but I did not like the lack of penetration.
The cast bullet penetrated much better which is important if you happened
to have to shoot a bigger animal than a dog. When out in the back country
I liked to be prepared for most anything I may run into, be it a dog,
coyote , bear or other large creature that needed to be shot. I also did
not like the lighter bullets out in the open country since shots tended to
be fairly long. And while I do use heavier bullets a lot, I found the SSK
bullet held up well for long shots. The best group I ever shot at 150
yards was with the SSK bullet and 18.5 gr. of 2400. The group measured a
little over 4" if memory serves me correctly. Paco Kelly and I were doing
some target shooting at 150 and 200 yards and he saw me shoot that group
so he may remember. The gun was an open-sighted 8" barreled Ruger .45 that
Linebaugh had customized for me. I remember the shooting was done sitting
on the ground, leaning back against the tire on my truck and resting the
gun over my knees.
I was riding out into the grazing lands one
day and about 5 miles from the house I heard some cows bawling and dogs
barking. As I got closer I saw the cows on a ridge above me, running up to
the north. I rode the horse on up the mountain and around, coming in from
the east through the cover of a small grove of trees. Just then some of
the cows came trotting back past me and behind them were 15 or so dogs,
chasing them. All kinds of dogs. I sure was wishing I had a pump shotgun
about that time! I left the horse tied to a tree and slipped up closer to
where the dogs would pass. When they were in front of me I opened up on
them. I know I got 3, two killed on the spot and one running off on 3
legs, howling. I may have hit one or two more but I was not sure. I do not
remember for sure what the load was, but I believe it was a cast 300 gr.
bullet. I have seen dog packs in the mountains, but this was the largest I
had ever run into.
In years past the ranchers would get together
every once in awhile and have a drive, rounding up as many of the wild
dogs as possible and killing them. Today with many ranchers having dropped
out, been pushed out or starved out, the wild dog population seems to be
on the rise. Because the areas are remote and access is limited, the only
people who run into them are backpackers, hunters and cowboys. Not
everyone understands what it is like to run onto these creatures. They
have nothing in common with "Fifi" who sleeps on a pillow in your house.
They usually are mangy, filthy, and have no fear of man. My hunting
partner of old, Jim Mork, was on foot up in the hills looking for a deer.
As he came up the trail through some thick brush two wild dogs came at
him, hackles up and teeth bared. Jim dropped one with his "06" and before
he could chamber the next round the other dog was gone. There was no
barking. And that is common among the wild ones. They learned long ago
not to advertise their presence. It is one reason we never traveled those
hills and mountains without a gun.