Ben's First 'Cat...then another...and another...and.... PART 1

tt35

New member
I guess this will be a pictorial of sorts. Gotta do the Christmas shopping thing today....

Ben (AKA Verminator2) has called in bobcat for several people over the years but had never connected on one himself--at least before yesterday. We were actually hunting a ranch that had asked us to do some coyote control.

Here's the country.

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It's great looking 'cat country but we've only called coyotes here in the past.

Ben's stand.

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About seven minutes into the stand I hear Ben shoot. I haven't seen anything but I hope he got his coyote. Four minutes later I hear another shot. Sweet, maybe its a double. I finally can't stand it anymore and I call the stand to see what we've got. Ben comes down the hill beaming. "Double", he says. "Dogs or 'Cats?", I reply. "Cats!"

Well killing 'cats is only half the challenge. Here's the retrieval.

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Here's the hero shot.

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The next stand has three coyotes coming from different directions at eight minutes. Dad misses his coyote at WAY too close. I think Ben immediately misses him again. We both spend some ammo at the retreating coyotes. Turns out Ben couldn't see the first one and was shooting another at around 250 with his first shot.

Ben's on a roll.

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Part 2 is coming.
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Tim
No Off Season
no-off-season.com

"No crowds, no limits, no seasons...no bad days."




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Thanks. I was just about to start glassing when I saw the first cat jump down off of the rim and into the brush where I couldn't see him. I caught movement up the rim and saw the other one! I was shaking pretty good so I was a little nervous at trying a 150 yard shot off of sticks on a little cat. He had me pinned and then disappeared. About 30 seconds later I see him sitting on top of the rim just watching. I decide I better shoot because I'm pretty sure that he wasn't going to come in anymore after seeing me. I get locked down the best I could and squeeze the trigger. The .17 Fireball put it right down. I rack another one into the chamber and am looking all around for the other cat. About 4 minutes passed and I was just about to start looking for coyotes again when I see him run up a chute in the rim. I swing my gun and sticks over, but scrape them on a rock. He looks back and sees me, but stops to look. I put the crosshairs on its shoulder and the .17 Fireball dumps him back down the rim! I was pretty stoked and was about to just blow the stand and run down the hill to tell Dad.

On the coyote stand I was set-up with a large rock to my left, leaving a pretty big blind-spot for me. I figured since Dad was up the hill he would see anything that was coming in from that direction. At about 5 minutes into the stand I see a coyote pop out of the brush almost 250 yards out. I get set up and am watching it through my scope. It is holds up and pretty soon I hear Dad barking, so I know he has a different coyote coming into the call. I keep my eye on my coyote when Dad shoots. My coyote turns and trots off a couple yards but stops again. I shoot and the coyote acts like its hit. I take another shot as it is walking through the brush. I then see another coyote leaving the stand and I am about to take a shot when I catch a coyote running down 75 yards below me. I swing over to it and take a shot but miss. We both proceeded to empty our rifles as the coyotes left. I had a short tracking job on my coyote, but we found it. I estimated it at over 30, somewhere near 32-34 pounds. Beautiful dog, the picture doesn't do it justice. We are going to send it off, along with one of the cats, to get tanned.
 
Part 2.

We dropped one of the cats off at Ben's cousin's place to skin for tanning and headed to another stand. Maybe 20 minutes in, I gave up on a coyote coming and started glassing the rim. A few minutes later I spot another 'cat! It was peaking over a rock from the middle of the rim at 230 yards. I talk Ben onto him (This seemed more like rockchuck hunting than predator hunting!) and Ben says, "I think there's two of them!". Sure enough, we watch as the first bobcat starts to mess with a second 'cat.

To make a long story short, they wouldn't commit to the call. We were going to try to do a simultaneous shot on them but it was just too far to be messing with something like that. I finally told Ben I was going to take the next good shot. I switched sounds (again) and the female came out far enough to present a shot and the 35 gr Berger put it down. Seconds later the male came out to see what happened. Bad mistake! V2 let go with his .17 Fireball. The 'cat ran a few feet to the right packing a front leg. V2 and I shot almost simultaneously and the 'cat did the Cowboy Fall off the rim. A Double Double...on 'cats!

(See previous note on 'cat retrieval!) My 'cat.

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Ben and number three for him for the day.

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Packin' out.

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The days "work".

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Two days of fur.

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We made one more stand and had a big coyote that wouldn't commit. I think it was over its territorial boundary. I ended up taking a rather quick 300 yard shot on him but we didn't find him. Dad missed again I guess...
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Five stands, four coyotes called, one killed. Four 'cats called. Four in the truck.

I know this ain't much for you Texas boys but this was just plain nuts for Oregon! "Exceedingly, abundantly more than you can imagine...."



Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Here's one last one of my bumper sticker...just 'cause.

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Tim
No Off Season
no-off-season.com

"No crowds, no limits, no seasons...no bad days."

 
Wow, awesome.

It's so hard to imagine hunting territory that beautiful. You are extremely blessed, both with success and with gorgeous terrain to hunt on.

Good job!
 
That has to be $1000 in cat pelts.. At the prices I've seen online....I read somewhere, they are getting $345 per..

Is that true?
 
Do me a favor, go buy a lottery ticket and we will split the proceeds K?

Way to go guys, man you are lucky sons of guns.
 
That's awesome! I'd say yall did your homework and got into the right spot. Way to work those rocks for the cats. Very cool!

Tony
 
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