I am interested in hunting caracal, and would like to know what rifle any of you have used for these little cats. I don't want to use a shotgun as I collect the skulls of the animals I hunt that do not have horns or antlers. One piece of shot might ruin a caracal skull. I shot a klipspringer this year with a .270 WSM and the 130 gr. Barnes TTSX. The exit hole was only about .5 inch and did almost no hide damage. I was thinking about using a Barnes TSX bullet in either the .22 Hornet or the .22-250 for a caracal. I am open to suggestions. Thanks.

I would certainly not go with the 22-250, unless you are only wanting to keep the skull. I presume that you will be hunting over hounds, so in that case, the cat will be treed. The 22 Hornet will work just fine. Just make sure that they tie the dogs before firing. The 22 calibre does not have the shock to stun the cat, so it will end up jumping. Once the dogs chase it again, you will get there too late, and you will have the dogs fighting with the cat and causing damage to the hide. Once you go through the chest cavity, it will be a simple job of tracking the cat over the short distance.
We have hunted many Caracal over hounds. If you are hoping to hunt one by "chance" , you are very little "chance" at success. Hounds is really the only way if you are serious about getting one.

On one of my African hunts I wanted to take a Caracal and a Civet cat. On a previous hunt I shot a Cape Grysbok with a borrowed .308 Win shooting a 150 grain FMJ bullet. That combo worked great so for the Caracal hunt I loaded some 150 gr FMJ bullets for my .300 Weatherby.

Before I shot the Caracal, I killed a Klipspringer with a 290 yard shot with one of the 168 gr TSX bullets that I was hunting the other animals with. My PH said to shoot the Klipspringer a little back and luckily I did or my taxidermist would have had a very large whole to patch.

On my Caracal hunt I hunted all of the other animals that I wanted on that trip, then re-zeroed my .300 Wby for my 150 FMJ bullets. The property that I hunted had a blind on a hill overlooking a flat area where they threw all of the animal parts that they or their staff didn't eat.

The blind was 125 yards from the "bait" pile. The first animal to come in was the Civet cat and my 150 gr FMJ bullet dropped him on the spot. Instead of going to get the Civet, my PH said we should wait to see what else would show up.

A while later a Caracal came in and when I pulled the trigger there was just a click. My first thought was that I didn't re-chamber another shell after I shot the Civet, but when I opened the bolt a case came out spilling unburned powder. Evidently the primer did not ignite the powder but it pushed the bullet into the barrel.

We did not have a rod to try to get the bullet out of the barrel, but there was a .22 LR rifle that another PH had left in the truck.

My PH asked if I wanted to try the .22 LR on the Caracal so I did. My first shot hit the Caracal but didn't kill it. We then learned that there were only two .22 LR cartridges with the rifle. Luckily my second shot killed the Caracal.

When I got home I shot all of the other FMJ cartridges in that box, and every one fired perfectly.

I shot an african wild cat with a .22 hornet with very little skin damage.

Samir, what type of bullet were you using? Thanks, Dale

22mag or a 17rem

I loaded some 220 grain solids for my 3006 and used them on a caracal. No pelt damage at all. I’m

quote:

Originally posted by Dale:
Samir, what type of bullet were you using? Thanks, Dale

It was the PH’s gun and ammo so don’t really know. Also shot a steinbok with minimal damage

I shot mine with the dog handlers .22 LR.

On my 2021 trip to SA, I shot my 1st caracal with the dog handlers 12 shotgun, didn't come out to bad as far as hide damage. Cat was deemed to "small" and not a trophy so it was free. 2nd & 3rd caracals I got on the trip I shot with my 6.5 c
Creedmoor using Nosler 140 Accubonds. this is not a real fur friendly combo, but I got lucky and didn't get full on body hits, but good enough that both cats died quick. All three were treed using hounds. My mount choice was all three cats on a africa shield piece, so the taxidermist only used the faces and part of the upper body. Maybe some day in the near future I'll even get the mount if customs in NYC gets of thier asses and clears my trophies for further shipment to me in Idaho.

In what country did you get to shoot 3 Caracal on the one trip ?

Getting the permits before hand would normally be very hard !

quote:

Originally posted by Sarg:
In what country did you get to shoot 3 Caracal on the one trip ?

Getting the permits before hand would normally be very hard !

If it was in South Africa, not all provinces are the same. Some provinces you don't need to apply for a permit beforehand.

Just use a solid whatever caliber.

What Fairgame said. As a side note, I shot my Caracal with my Browning Citori 12 gauge, as had been recommended by my PH. I had shot my Blue Duiker earlier that day with the same shotgun. I have the Caracal and blue duiker skulls as well-didn't damage either.

quote:

Originally posted by KMG Hunting Safaris:

quote:

Originally posted by Sarg:
In what country did you get to shoot 3 Caracal on the one trip ?

Getting the permits before hand would normally be very hard !

If it was in South Africa, not all provinces are the same. Some provinces you don't need to apply for a permit beforehand.

Thank you Marius, I'm in the Limpopo & only really know the rules here & getting permits can be a hassle !

PS I shot mine with a .22LR & a 22/250 that the property owner used to shoot Baboons as I normally carry my .458Win for every thing.

But yes using solids as Fairgame noted is the right move on most guys hunts.

.

Never shot a Caracal. Have shot plenty of Bobcats. Can’t go wrong with a .22 Hornet. A .22 LR will do the job.

quote:

Originally posted by samir:
I shot an african wild cat with a .22 hornet with very little skin damage.

This summer, I shot my African Wildcat with my 9.3x62. No problems.

For what its worth, I used a friend's 222Rem loaded with 52gn match bullets to shoot a 15kg caracal and several other small cats on my friends farm. The match bullets are quite frangible and dropped it on the spot without tearing up the skin.

I have decided to just borrow a .22 LR from the PH. I appreciate all the input from everyone. I am still working on loads for my .17 and .22 Hornet rifles to use around here for small critters and varmints. They are a lot of fun.

Dale, make sure the .22 goes bang first.
Hounds started baying in the bottom of a deep valley. The houndsman said "We have to run down there as fast as possible before he jumps and runs again".
I replied that at my age we do "dignified approaches" rather than running down steep hills.
So we ran down the hill anyway.
Caracal was up in a small tree. The hound man handed me his 12g semi auto. "Shoot him quick!"
Gun goes click. Try again, another click. Broken firing pin.
He got on the radio and eventually a Xhosa arrives with a Russian-made hammer gun. That one went bang. No damage to the skull until the Xhosa scooped the brains out to eat them.