Hot Stick Recommendations

[Peanut]

I have a hot stick I bought after a big bull put me in the hospital years ago. It’s a Jolt with a 30” wand. In the 15years since I’ve only used it twice. Don’t like using them but they do have a place on a farm. Yesterday I dug it out of the shop and cleaned it up, put new batteries in it, seems in good working order. The ground is super dry right now. Except for hurricane francine I’ve had almost no rain in 10weeks. In my experience hot sticks don’t work well when the ground is this dry. So I can’t really test it til winter rains start.

In the mean time I posted in another thread the steer I have is becoming a problem. I’m mainly worried about dad. He’s 90 and doesn’t belong anywhere near cattle. But that doesn’t mean he understands that and I can’t watch him every moment.

The Jolt is too long, best suited for moving cattle through a loading chute. I need something much shorter, think ‘get off me gun’. Something dad can easily carry if for some reason he decides to go near that steer. Or I can carry this winter when the muck in the holding pen gets deep. You can’t run in knee deep muck. I’m worried that steer might act-a-fool when I feed him in the evenings and I’m no spring chicken either.

Anyone have recommendations? I saw something online last night called a “Power-Mite”. Less than a foot long with a wrist strap. The size seems about right. Anyone have experience with them?

 

[LadyLocust]

I have a hot stick I bought after a big bull put me in the hospital years ago. It’s a Jolt with a 30” wand. In the 15years since I’ve only used it twice. Don’t like using them but they do have a place on a farm. Yesterday I dug it out of the shop and cleaned it up, put new batteries in it, seems in good working order. The ground is super dry right now. Except for hurricane francine I’ve had almost no rain in 10weeks. In my experience hot sticks don’t work well when the ground is this dry. So I can’t really test it til winter rains start.

In the mean time I posted in another thread the steer I have is becoming a problem. I’m mainly worried about dad. He’s 90 and doesn’t belong anywhere near cattle. But that doesn’t mean he understands that and I can’t watch him every moment.

The Jolt is too long, best suited for moving cattle through a loading chute. I need something much shorter, think ‘get off me gun’. Something dad can easily carry if for some reason he decides to go near that steer. Or I can carry this winter when the muck in the holding pen gets deep. You can’t run in knee deep muck. I’m worried that steer might act-a-fool when I feed him in the evenings and I’m no spring chicken either.

Anyone have recommendations? I saw something online last night called a “Power-Mite”. Less than a foot long with a wrist strap. The size seems about right. Anyone have experience with them?

I don’t, but that is exactly what I was thinking when I was reading why you wanted it. I’ve only used the longer ones.

 

[Hardcalibres]

I started out with a short electric stick and then moved to using a longer one.

Even when I am in the yard/corral, I like the longer stick because it allows you to shock an animal from outside the kick zone.

It also seems to me that the longer stick is more visible to the animals and so acts as more of a deterrent to animals that might otherwise misbehave.

 

[Peanut]

I don’t, but that is exactly what I was thinking when I was reading why you wanted it. I’ve only used the longer ones.

You can't tell a 90yr old farmer where he can or can't go on the land where he was born. Last week I was bush hogging around the main pasture. I saw dad's car in a strip of wood between it and another field. Out of the way, hard to see, if it weren't for sun glinting off the windshield I wouldn't have seen it at all. It was a fluke I went around that side of the pasture anyway.

Here dad was, hobbling around in the woods with his walking stick looking for a sling blade he though he lost 2 yrs ago. 300yrds from the house!!!! It'd have taken me an hour to find him if he fell or something worse happened.

That steer isn't mean, it's just a 550lb baby that doesn't know how big he is!!! Since I can't keep dad out of the pastures maybe if I hung a hot stick at the gate of the bull pen maybe he'll think to take it with him!!!

That event really scared me!!! I have to do something, more than likely several things!!! A hot stick is only $70, cheap insurance! And a place to start!

 

[Hardcalibres]

You can't tell a 90yr old farmer where he can or can't go on the land where he was born. Last week I was bush hogging around the main pasture. I saw dad's car in a strip of wood between it and another field. Out of the way, hard to see, if it weren't for sun glinting off the windshield I wouldn't have seen it at all. It was a fluke I went around that side of the pasture anyway.

Here dad was, hobbling around in the woods with his walking stick looking for a sling blade he though he lost 2 yrs ago. 300yrds from the house!!!! It'd have taken me an hour to find him if he fell or something worse happened.

That steer isn't mean, it's just a 550lb baby that doesn't know how big he is!!! Since I can't keep dad out of the pastures maybe if I hung a hot stick at the gate of the bull pen maybe he'll think to take it with him!!!

That event really scared me!!! I have to do something, more than likely several things!!! A hot stick is only $70, cheap insurance! And a place to start!

The risks of cattle stomping on humans are real......it happens in our area from time to time.

We just spent a lot of money replacing our 30 year old timber corral with a steel one that incorporates all the best new features.

We did that primarily because, as we get older, we are going to rely upon the corral design to keep us safe.

The change in cattle behavior in the new corral has been quite noticeable.

 

[Peanut]

I started out with a short electric stick and then moved to using a longer one.

Even when I am in the yard/corral, I like the longer stick because it allows you to shock an animal from outside the kick zone.

It also seems to me that the longer stick is more visible to the animals and so acts as more of a deterrent to animals that might otherwise misbehave.

Agree, if it were just me I'd just hang the Jolt at the gate. Dad's clumsy and slow, a short stick is the only thing that'd help him.

Been years since I shopped for a stick, thanks for the feedback.

 

[Supervisor42]

Thanks for bringing back that memory....
I looked into new ones, and boy have they changed over the decades!
The ones we had were a long steel tube with about 20 "C" batteries in it.
Heavy!
They only turned on when you shoved the handle forward.
And YES! they could make a 2,000 lb hardheaded bull jump!

And they weren't just regular "C" batteries, they had to be these high-current ones:

(oh I forgot, on topic: not recommended ).