Busting Bobcats

I have shot one while deer hunting...the property owner told me to shoot them if I saw one so I did. The cat had just run off all the does I was watching...he was trotting away at 100 yards...the bullet hit in the back of the head...rolled him, and he laid there, so I put my rifle down. While watching him out of the corner of my eye, he got up and ran off. I followed the blood trail in the woods, found him and finished the job with a Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum at about 10 yards...it was dark, and I was looking down for blood when I looked up he was standing there beside a tree looking at me...it was thrilling actually and a little scary...glad I had a good flashlight and my "back-up" .44.
 
I realize it was a bobcat and not a leopard, but it was still admirable and courageous of you to track a wounded and potentially dangerous varmint like that alone in the dark.
 
For the last month and a half, a bobcat has been visiting my yard nightly. It's cute.

If I were to kill it, a K-22 would probably be the ticket, with some heavy (and quiet) Aguila bullets. But there's no reason for me to do that.
 
Just talked to a guy who's been having a bobcat visit his back yard.

It woke him up at 4AM last night because his dog and his inside cat were both going nuts... Coincidentally (?), one of his cats has disappeared.
 
Aw, an old full-choke Model 12 with oh-my-shoulder-ouch high-brass Winchester 7-1/2s at about 25 yards. Sorta centered on his shoulder; he did a somersault and was DRT.

:), Art
 
Who all on here hunt bobcats?
Click to expand...
Me.

Incidentally, bobcats are considered furbearers in my state and you have to have a furbearer license to take them and then only in season. Pelt can be quite valuable... :cool:
 
Population control.

I have "hunted" them, sorta. Not really for sport or fur (just a perk), but population control. My mother-in-law lived, until recently, on about 20 acres in SW Kentucky. There were several cats seen on the property ( I don't think they all stayed there as they aren't generally "group" animals). Eventually they became bold enough to start raiding chickens. Over about three months I took four cats, after which the sightings became much fewer, far between, and almost welcome. They really are attractive animals and are amazing to watch if you get the chance.

If anyone is curious about the method, I used a good 'ol Win 94 .30-30. (A pre-'64 pawn shop find :D ). The distances were all within about 50 yards or so. I just set up in a very large tree near the barn and watched the coop and chicken yard. Seems they were climbing one of the wood telephone pole style fence posts to avoid the wire. Smart little buggers.
 
I shot one in '88 while deer hunting. The lease I was on was overrun with goats, and there were LOTS of bobcats, probably drawn by easy meals of baby goats. I saw them all the time Seeing as how there were so many, I didn't feel any guilt in shooting one. I had the head mounted. That was the first and last one I shot.

Pretty much, these days if I'm not going to eat it, I won't shoot it.
 
1. That isn't a bobcat in that picture

2. Springer45, lol-I suspect you aren't the greatest of hunters if you think lepoards and bobcats live in the same area. They don't even live on the same continents.

3. Unless you're eating it, I see no logical reason to hunt a bobcat.
 
1. What do you think that is in the picture?

2. He never said that they did live in the same area, he was comparing the two different animals.

3. Bobcats can do a number on chickens, turkeys and many young animals that people make a living off of by raising them.
 
??? It was a bobcat when I shot it; dunno what it's supposed to be, now.

A bunch of us used to lease a ranch near Uvalde, back in the 1970s. The owner bought 1,000 goats. The next spring he had a 60% kid crop.

He went on a very active anti-predator program. I recall a comment that his trapper got over 30 bobcats from the 3,000-acre "East Pasture". Plus coyotes, and bobcats from the other 4,000 acres.

The next spring he had an 80% kid crop.

200 kids at $30, grown, = $6,000. That's plenty of reasons to kill bobcats. The school taxes on the ranch at that time were $4,000 per year.
 
Yeah, it's a bobcat. They just look a little skinnier when you hold them up by the front end after some of the middle is shot out.

Don't see many 'round abouts, but that's not because they're not here. They're a lot more cagey than coyotes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top