What Gun for Cattle Rustlers?

From The Firearm Blog:

As many readers know my family and I have a cattle ranch in the highlands of central New Mexico. In order to effectively manage our herds and mitigate calf mortality, coyotes and other predators must be culled. Aside from coyotes…there has been a recent surge in cattle theft across the Western States. The idea of coming across cattle thieves armed with a scoped 30-06 hunting rifle personally does not sit well with me. Usually when I go to the ranch I have at least a handgun, but with the rise in cattle theft a Smith and Wesson M&P15, accompanied by a handful of standard capacity (30 round) magazines, has been my primary ranch companion.

Joe Biden will tell you that all you need is a double barrel shotgun. Most of the people who are advocating for banning modern firearms have never done this kind of work in their lives. They can’t even imagine this kind of work. Oh, but they’ll certainly tell you what you do and don’t need to do it.

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9 thoughts on “What Gun for Cattle Rustlers?”

  1. Sounds like he’s got it handled, but if he wants to get fancy, maybe a silenced (fully paperworked) SBR in .300BLK, with mags loaded for both sub- and supersonic rounds? The silencer could be handy cover if the rustlers outnumber the rancher, and then he’d have appropriate rounds for body armor or not. The subsonic rounds could be soft/hollow point (haven’t really seen those on the market, but he could load his own)

    Also probably want some kind of scope/red dot. I’d say free-floated barrel but I don’t really know that means for a gas-operated gun, because no matter what you’ve got the gas block and tube reaching several inches out from the receiver.

  2. Of course, in addition to the cattle thieves, ranchers/farmers/etc. have to worry about running across drug/immigrant smugglers, marijuana growers, bootleggers, and other unsavoury types.

    The traditional ranchers tools of a lever action and a six-shooter just don’t cut it anymore. Not when the bad guys are getting their weapons from the Mexican army or the black market.

  3. Go back to the days when this was a free country with free people and check out the old Thompson SMG catalogs…
    Cover drawing is cowboy wearing chaps and fending off rustlers with the muzzle blast of his Thompson.

  4. Nothing says “git the hell off my land” like a machinegun!

    If you got the cash a bulletproofed SUV with a minigun turret on top would be awesome rustler/drugrunner/bootlegger medicine.

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