SmallCaliberCentral

Hello all,

Well I finally killed my first bobcat after many attempts over the past few years. It wasn't too terribly exciting, but special none the less.

To make a long story short, I didn't even make it to my calling spot when I spotted the cat sitting, like a dog, in the middle of the small frozen river. The bobcat saw me but didn't seem to care much since I was about 180 yards away. As I got steady and waited for my crosshairs to settle down the cat turned to walk away. One shot with the 35 gr Berger put her down right there. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ice was indeed thick enough to hold both the 23 pound bobcat and myself. I slightly pulled the quartering away shot and put the round through the bobcats head. The exit hole is thumb-sized, so not too bad.

I also noticed that she was missing a digit from one of her hind paws. She must have narrowly escaped a foot-hold trap within the last day or two. Perhaps the sore foot is why she chose the walk-and-sit method for her hunt.



cheers,
Ben

Congratulations on a nice looking cat Ben!!

Nice work Ben.Thanks for posting.

Ben--Congratulations on bagging that nice looking bobcat!!! Tell us a little bit about your rifle too.

The rifle is nothin special.. 12 twist Remington 700 sps chambered in .204 ruger. The stock is a Bell & Carlson. The scope is a 4-16x50mm Monarch. The medium mounts keep it nice and low. As for the handloads, the 35 grain Berger HPs are propelled by 30.6 grains of BLC-2. I've struggled with the 39 SBKs and keyholeage, but I've picked up some reloader 10x and plan to keep trying to get those to shoot. (I'm hoping some hotter loads will overcome the slow twist rate.) Time will tell.

Thats only my second critter with this rifle. Fall for me is extremely busy, but I have no excuse in the wintertime. Hopefully more to come. Silverfox, I've hunted coyotes a couple times out your direction. Some beautiful country for sure! I'm jealous of your topography! This part of Minnesota is FLAT.