Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Bobcat Load?

I've read oodles of threads on the best fur friendly loads for bobcat, with the usual 2 schools of thought, light and fast, or big and slow.

What's your experience/opinion of a 22 caliber 55 grain Ballistic Tip at 27-2800?

17 HMR or Hornet.....

No and no.......

Hard to beat a .22 Hornet and 45 gr. SP bullets....

Not a NBT...I used a 55 gr Gold Dot at 2700, and I have used the 60 Gr NBT at about 2600 with great results on fur....but I think we are basically on the same page...a little heavier constructed bullet going slow...

Here you go...





and another...




And another.....






Have also had good luck with a basic 50 gr. Hornady SP in a .222 at those speeds...

Thanks Tom.....

I drew a Wisconsin cat tag this year is the reason for the question.

I stopped shooting fox around here when the coyotes took over, so all my 17's went down the road.

I'm not buying anything special gun wise just for this, and didn't want to buy any bullets.

I have plenty of BT's in 40, 50, & 55's, and figured the 55's would behave at 27-2800. I was curious of other's experience doing so.

Are bobcats so scarce in WI that they have a lottery for tags? I’m honestly curious, everywhere I’ve spent time they have been considered a varmint.

FWIW I’ve shot some with 22-250 50 and 55gr loads at standard speeds and not blown them up if I stayed off the bones.

I like them at about 2700, 2600 is the for sure magic number to avoid pelt damage, small hole in and out and it folds them up. Thats about what Im getting out of my .222 and the Horn. 50 grainers.

Im headed to Texas in a couple weeks for some more night predator calling, and I'm toting the .17 Rem and the .222

Killed a bunch of fox and a cat with the .17 last year..REALLY fur friendly...I figure if it doesn't tear up a grey fox, it will be fine on cats...gonna find out....

Incorrect...the Hornet is kind of the gold standard for Fox and Bobcat. 17 HMR, 22 Mag and similar are where it's at with thin skinned little critters.

It's not that they're scarce, there's only so many to go around vs the number that want to shoot one.

Wisconsin harvested 581 in 2018, 574 in 2017.

Takes several years to draw a tag.

Interesting, do they allow trapping for them too? We have a “season” but I’d bet there’s at least as many killed out of season as in. No tagging required so I doubt the game department knows or cares. Like I said people just consider them varmints and shoot on sight like coyotes.

Anyway, I hope you get a big Tom to fill your tag. Good luck

Can you borrow a 17 Hornet?

No limit on # of Bobcats in Texas, I just looked at my last years #, killed 63 calling and 5 from the chopper during game survey's, from the chopper 12 ga. with #6 lead, calling i used a .223 72 gr. sp going 2700, had 2 hides torn up from bad shot placement. Rio7

Here's the complete results from 2018. Easier to skim through than copy/paste everything.

I'll have my work cut out for me, as calling has the least success vs dogs and trapping.

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/documents/reports/bobcatharv2.pdf

Short answer, no.

That's more than a lifetime of kills up here, I'm jealous.

Although, I'll be in wolf country, so that could spice up the day.........

The best for hides is a 12 gauge. A properly choked and patterned shotgun with lead BB or better yet TSS #2's is a killer that the fur buyer or taxidermy guy can't complain about.



Rifles work too...

I killed my first one long ago with a 12ga and a baby mag load of #4s.

My uncle killed several with 8s while quail hunting. Last winter his girlfriend shot one off her back patio that was getting too close to her chicken coop. Her dad’s old A5 with a load of Magnum 4s took half his face off. The finisher she gave him to stop the flopping put a tennis ball size hole through his side. Kept him out of the henhouse.

I assume you’re hunting the northern zone and have an area in mind but if you’re hunting the southern send me a pm and I can point you in the direction of an area I see a lot of tracks in the central forest.

Either way good luck, I’ve only ever seen one and I’ve called a lot of coyotes in areas with them. And that was Iowa county turkey hunting.