Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Would you have shot?

Sitting in a box blind yesterday afternoon and about a 1/2 hour before the end of legal shooting light i see movement on a logging road. This was about 75-80 yards away. The was some dried cobbed corn on the roadbed. It was a Bobcat , and a big one at that. About the size of a german short hair. I put the crosshairs on it and watched it. It took a piss in the corn!
We , meaning my best friend and who also owns the land , my wife ,sonand myself have been having an "off" year on this land. It is usually very productive. Several 8-11 pointers have been killed here over the years.It is only 40 acres ,but it is long and kinda narrow and bordered by a high tension power line that we can hunt. Effectively making it hunt much larger than it is. It is also out in the boondocks.
We have feeders,food plots and all box blinds and are careful about leave no trace. stuff like pee in a jug and bring it out with you. There that sets the stage for my ?
Is it possible that this large bobcat being around has the deer spooked. I had the crosshairs on him for 15 to 20 seconds and it was legal to shoot but I passed. (Wish I had of shot now) .
A friend up in Va, shot a (weighed) 45lb'er and this was was ever bit as big.

Also we have never seen a coyote there. It wouldn't last long before dying of lead poisoning.

Shoot or not?

Absolutely shoot.

If it was legal and you had a shot then it is up to you. As for me, I ran a trapline as a kid and made my spending $$$ trapping fox, coyote and bobcats. Last bobcat I shot I had done as a lifesize mount since the furbuyers didn't want to pay any real $$$ for him. I will never shoot or trap another one. I think they are a really cool animal to have around and a bobcat is NO threat to a healthy full grown deer. He would have gotten a pass from me.

Can't speak for other regions

Around here, bobcats and coyotes eat whatever
is too slow
They eat deer, livestock, many pets of every size,
whatever they run across

Ha Ha ,I did think of that. It went thru my mind if I pull the trigger it's gonna cost me several Hundred $$$.

I'm on the fence on this one. I guess it just depends on how you feel at the time. I have shot several. And I have let the last 2 or 3 walk. I don't like the fact that they kill and eat small game. They are pretty cool to watch. One time I had one walk up and start rolling around in a fresh scrape that I was hunting over. He most have fooled around rubbing in that scrape for 10 minutes. When it got dark I climbed down from my stand and meet up with my hunting buddy. I told him what I had seen and that I probably should have shot the bobcat. He told me that he doesn't shoot them any more either. He explained that what if a nice buck was close by and heading your way. If you shot the bobcat he would have headed for the hills and you would have blown an opportunity at a buck. Makes sense, so I don't shoot them anymore when I"m in a deer stand.

Adult deer, no. But have you noticed the game bird and small game numbers are way down?

Same as any coyote I see from the stand. Have killed coyotes and had deer come in within minutes.

Dead pussy.

I have no use for em as I deer hunt and turkey hunt the same places. Guaranteed they are hard on turkeys.

One place I hunt has cats, coyotes and a nesting pair of bald eagles. Any legal predators are dead on sight.

Shoot what you want. Only thing I will shoot at while deer hunting is a nice eater pig or a nilgai

Utter BS to blame that on something like bobcats. Bobcats have been preying on small game animals and birds for a heck of a lot longer than both you and I have been on this earth. That is their role in nature. Bobcats do what nature designed them to do and intends for them to do and as such they will not seriously alter the ecosystem. Habitat destruction by people will have a bigger impact on small game and birds than a natural predator will. Look at the farming techniques today vice what they were 40 years ago. Fencerows are pretty much a thing of the past. Ditches get burned. Crops planted from fence to fence with no weed filled corners.

Yep. The practice of fence to fence farming and habitat destruction, along with Fireants from S America making it to the USA is the main cause for the decline of quail populations in the South. And the introduction of feral hogs into the equation.

That being said, Bobcats get a pass here on the Ranch. I enjoy seeing them. Killed plenty when I was a kid while trapping and hunting.
Coyotes and Hogs DON’T get a free pass though.

Dead kitty

yep i would have killed the BOBCAT but i got to watch a big fisher for few days but did not shoot him mainly because fishers eat red squirrels and porcupines up here.

I usually don't shoot coons - possums when I'm deer hunting but the rest of the varmints die.

To each their own, but generally speaking, I do not kill what I do not plan to eat.

I don't generally shoot bobcats now unless I have a reason.

Just seeing them is more fun than shooting them.

I guess if I'd never taken one I would.

It's the only one I have ever seen, that wasn't already dead.

i will kill every predator I can

Shoot the bobcat and save a turkey

Yeah Spring turkey hunting is my favorite and bobcats are hard on them so i shoot every legal bobcat i get an opportunity at.....Hb