Burro Defense Gun

Water. Lots of water.
Yup. I lived in Phoenix back in the 1960s. Two things that were always the the boot of the MG (and there wasn't all that much space in the boot) were five gallon jugs of water and two reflective blankets. We never needed it but twice when we were on day trips we found folks broken down on the side of the road with out of state tags. We stopped, gave them a couple gallons of water and the blankets for shade and said we'd send help from the next gas stop.

Never got the blankets back.
 
I believe they are considered a pest. I know the LE type rangers in Death Valley would shoot them on sight and leave them for coyotes to clean up. They carried 308 M1A's in their trucks.
 
We had a male donkey that came originally from blm roundup. Many years later we had to put him down. Now we have his daughter. She pals around with our goats and protects them.

Months after we first got her dad at about the same time she was born he figured out how to escape. He had never got out before. Found him down the road with his daughter amd the mother, visiting. Coincidence or not, it was Fathers day.
 
That burro heard the old family legend about what happened to the LAST relative to get in the way of a jeep...

If we're REALLY down to a "what gun for donkeys" thread, a Single Action Army backed up with a .357 Registered Magnum was Patton's choice.
 
Well, they average about 350 pounds and top out at about 500, so I'd say anything a fellow would use for deer hunting should do. I figure .357/10mm make a sensible minimum, and .44 territory on up would be ideal.

I'll also note that wild burros are federally protected, and when they turn up dead with bullet or arrow wounds, rewards are usually offered. I spend a lot of time in the Mojave and surrounds, and have never been attacked by a burro, nor heard of anyone else being attacked. Occasionally a lone male will stare me down, and the solution is to walk around him. Otherwise, they tend to be placid meat sacks and the biggest risk is nailing one with your car on the way home.
That is correct, which makes absolutely NO sense. They aren't native wildlife, they're an invasive species that in some cases destroys habitat of other wildlife. Bighorn sheep for example. Same with wild feral horses.
 
Over the years, I've found about the best equine or bovine defense tool to be a nice, straight, hickory 36" double bit axe handle. Usually one application to the noggin will do the business, occasionally repeated applications are required to get your point across. It would probably be easier to explain to the DNR/Feds why you're standing next to a dead or maimed jackass with an axe handle vs. a firearm as well. Of course, there aren't that many wild burros running around the Ozark hills so I could be horribly wrong; but the hickory stick works great on Dad's cows when they're trying to stomp your guts, so there's that.

Mac
 
Water. Lots of water.

Things non desert people don’t know about the desert:

The desert will kill you. In 24 hours, you can die of heat stroke, dehydration, freeze to death, drown, get bit by something or, fall to your death.

If I’m out and about, I carry a satellite rescue beacon. You can be 10 miles out of town and have no cell coverage.

My trunk:
A case of canned water.
72 hours of food.
Full size spare and a baby spare.
Tire plugging kit and compressor.
A huge reflective tarp and magnets to make a lean to to change a tire. Or, wait for help.
A sleeping bag.
A first aid kit.
Jumper box.

I’m going to win this one.
 
I'm on the burros side, I consider humans an invasive species. It isn't their fault humans brought them to some new place and abandoned them there. Humans are the dregs of the planet.

Is that you, Mister A. I. ?
I thought at least you were going to take the job first...
 
Does "invasive" equal "introduced"? (no but...)

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Just an update...I was able to survive but we were besieged by burro constantly....

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However it seems like the locals seem to think they are pretty smart creatures. We also saw Chukar, quail, doves, road runners, and a ton of reptiles. The burros were all well behaved in the end and did not seem to take notice of us at all.

All in all it was it was a great trip. We went from Ballarat to the Barker Ranch, through the Mengel pass and out Warm Springs Canyon to Furnace Creek.

My Burro defense gun was a Glock 26 and I felt well armed.

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The Desert was absolutely incredible and there were literal seas of wild flowers. We had perfect weather and a great time.

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I had forgotten how many mines are in Death Valley. They were all over the place and still in good shape. It was neat to see that part of CA history.

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ETA: It appears that some of the desert locals have even trained the burros for entertainment purposes:

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Realistically (I am not from the desert and have never encountered a burro outside of donkeys at the zoo and a mule or two on farms so my firsthand knowledge is negligible on this one) defense is defense (ergo what I have in my holster for everything else would probably do the job if necessary) I’d probably fire a warning shot first given federally protected. Can’t imagine one running toward gunfire. Am I off base on that?
 
Realistically (I am not from the desert and have never encountered a burro outside of donkeys at the zoo and a mule or two on farms so my firsthand knowledge is negligible on this one) defense is defense (ergo what I have in my holster for everything else would probably do the job if necessary) I’d probably fire a warning shot first given federally protected. Can’t imagine one running toward gunfire. Am I off base on that?

I own 2 and have played or lived in the desert most of my life

My experience is that they're not aggressive but are territorial and protective. Ex. They'll protect cows against coyotes/dogs etc.


What works good to keep them away is a stick.

Wave it... swing it. Poke a little at their face. If you whack them they may get mad and more aggressive.

They aren't stupid and don't look to fight.

Interestingly, mine arent bothered much at all by gun shots and I dont shoot on my property often


Give them an apple/ carrot and you'll have a new best friend.... that you may need to wave a stick at when you run out of apples.
 
My experience is that they're not aggressive but are territorial and protective.

Bought a flail mower from a fellow years ago that had a donkey he had to go "put up" before I went back to the pasture to load it.

He told me it would even run off his wife. Said it wasn't friendly with him but he feeds it and nothing messed with his sheep after he got him.
 
Does "invasive" equal "introduced"? (no but...)

Well, you would have to get everyone to agree on exactly what those terms mean and apply them across the board equally, and that just isn't happening. "Invasive," for example, has been defined by scientists, the government, and lay people, the the criteria not applied equally. In other words, there is a lot of fickleness in the classification of these animals depending on the whims of humans. So, this is actually an interesting question on many levels.

By 'introduced,' I take it we are talking about by human action, both intentional and unintentional. Otherwise, we have critters like cattle egrets and armadillos that apparently arrived here naturally. Cattle egrets came over to the New World from Africa, apparently via the trade winds in the late 19th century, although they may have been come additional times via trade winds and storms. The advancement of the armadillos from their breakout from the Rio Grande valley into Texas and then out of Texas has was well documented in the early 20th century, initial spread being quite natural. Then, the plots started hopscotching as armadillos apparently managed to benefit from mechanical travel to other regions. Armadillos are invasive everywhere they are located, despite being in some areas quite naturally.

Coyotes, are a mixed bag. They are naturally expanding their range eastward, in part, due to the lack of wolves. However, because they are native to North America and are occupying an open niche left by the wolves, they are not considered invasive. The problem here is that when an animal does expand its range into an area where it can survive, it will be in competition for resources and/or do harm to other species there already. That would be one of the parameters of being classified as invasive by the federal government (environmental harm).

With that said, not all introduced species are considered invasive, particularly those that don't survive very well and don't seem to be harmful to other species, like pheasant.

Strangely, cattle would be very much an invasive species if we didn't eat them so readily. We actually keep their invasiveness in check, yet things like burros are invasive.

Part of the problem is with the definition of invasive, both in layman's terms and as defined by the government.

As per Executive Order 13112 (Section 1. Definitions) an "invasive species" is a species that is:
1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and,
2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

So, a species that is naturally expanding its range may be invasive if we don't like it for some reason. An introduced species may not be invasive so long as we have them nicely managed, but may be "invasive" locally when they get out and do their thing.

By and large, as near as I can tell, "invasive" means that an animal wasn't here previously that is here now and doing well and 'we' don't like it for some reason. The animal may be a natural or cultural range expander and may be native or non-native. Of course, "nativeness" also seems to be a dubious point. An animal may be considered native if it was present is a generalized region (e.g., North America) even if it didn't occur across the whole of North America. An animal may be invasive if it occurred in one area of a generalized region, but has expanded its range within the general region.

So, the burros in question are not invasive despite being non-native and known to do environmental harm https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/invasive-burros.htm but we like them for their historical contribution to the development of the USA and so they are protected. Go fricking figure.
 
Realistically (I am not from the desert and have never encountered a burro outside of donkeys at the zoo and a mule or two on farms so my firsthand knowledge is negligible on this one) defense is defense (ergo what I have in my holster for everything else would probably do the job if necessary) I’d probably fire a warning shot first given federally protected. Can’t imagine one running toward gunfire. Am I off base on that?
For what it's worth, I have fired guns in the presence of burros (though not at them.) Generally the first shot makes them jerk their heads around, maybe give a little start. Subsequent shots cause them either to go back to whatever they were doing, or to slowly move away. I wouldn't at all count on "warning shots" as a deterrent; I assume they simply don't have any idea what the sound represents.
 
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