I have a bolt action 30-30 that I might use to kill a bobcat.

Would a 100gr bullet at 2500 open on a bobcat?

Any suggestions???

Thanks;
Brett

My expiriance with this is to stay away from the high velocity. I load a fmj or match bullit of equal weight as my big game load for most of my rifles.

In my 30-30 I shoot a 150gr. balistic tip for big game and have the same load with 150 gr. hornady fmj's for fur. This should work fine in your bolt gun as it dose in my E.A.Brown single shot pistol. In my mod 94 I use the flat point 30-30 bullets.

I haven't shot a bob cat with this load but I did take a racoon with it and no problem with bullet damage.

I've also taken deer and caribou with the softpoints and it makes a real good all round med and small game gun.

quote:

Would a 100gr bullet at 2500 open on a bobcat?

Yes, it will definitely exit and leave a big bloody hole in the pelt, if you hit the shoulder it'll be a huge bloody hole.

Seen it done.

Which is OK if you just want to take a cat for your own use, if you want to sell the pelt you can expect it to be downgraded a bunch.

What would be a good velocity for a solid to avoid pelt damage?

Thanks;
Brett

Brett, if I were going to take a bobcat with a 30-30, I would load it with a 150-grain FMJ, or as close to that weight as I could find.

Cats are thin skinned. Just shoot through the lungs and the bullet will pencil through, never open up, and the cat will die pretty quick. No pelt damage at all.

Doubless,

Thanks for the reply.

Best regards;
Brett

If you are wanting to use a deer rifle on furbearers, a heavy-for-caliber bullet will work best. Out of the 30-30 I'd use a 170 gr at slower speeds. It won't open up at all on a thin skinned animal like a bobcat. I've used 180 gr. bullets out of my .308 on coyotes with good results, as long as they're farther than 100 yards.

will you be out big game hunting?
IF so, use a heavier bullet like they say.

IF you're stuck with only one gun and you'll be out varmint hunting trying to get the cat on purpose and not doing anything else.

A light plinker load would be good too. Read the threads about it in Small Cal's on AR.

Tells about using Blue Dot and light charges, low vel. I've used 10 gr Red Dot and 115gr cast RN's in 30'06 and they're great for maybe 150 feet or so. Not much more damage to a cottontail head than a .22 LR.

Something like that might be of interest too.

Bobcats are too pretty a pelt to destroy with big stuff. They are also worth a bunch of money again nowdays if killed in cold weather.

George

All of the guys are right about the FMJ bullet. But my buddy shot a large tom last winter with his 30-30, standard factory 150 gr bullets. He hit it low in the front shoulders, we skun and stretched it, did a little sewing and got $400 bucks for it. It can be done, but I would not recemend it, I gave him a 22mag for the next one. They are easy to trap and then there is no damage. A head shot would be better than dead center on the lungs with an expanding bullet from a big rifle.

IMYD (In my younger days) I shot a 14" contender with the Remington Accelerators. HV 22 caliber in a sabot. About 3500fps. Is that something to consider? I'm not sure they even make them anymore.

Good hunting.

As mentioned above, stick with the 150. I shot a coyote once with a 150 factory winchester bullet at about 30 yards and pelt was fine.

I would use 110 gr fmj 307 dia bullets designed for the 30 carbine. I shoot these out of 30 30s with great results. Ialso get great results out of the 3006 rem 700 . I recently shot 3 bullets in a 3 quarter inches at 100 yds . They also shoot great out of 308 rifles. Trust me I know a lot have been reloading and casting for 25 years. 34 to 36 grains of Hodgdon blc 2 works great. You can also use 110 gr soft tips and can even hollow point them with a fine sharpened point on a punch. Years ago i mean many 3030s were sold in 110 gr loads Hey i forgot to mention dont multiple stack them in your magazine they are round nosed and could possibly blow up your gun keep it ot one in the chamber and one in the magazine hope this helped you out

Stick to the fmj bullet for minimum fur damage I forgot to say I sometimes use a lee factory crimp depending on the brass If you are going to load one at a time no needDepending on how close of a shot you think you will be shooting you could also down load some loads with unique powder 13 grains max i would say but dont quote me on it start with 9 or 10 this is also a good squirrel load have fun yes a 3030 can be a varmint rifle

2 sources of information on light loads: http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm (site down had problems) and http://yarchive.net/gun/ammo/lowpower.html

I've been using 30-30 sub sonic loads lately. Haven't shot a bobcat with them, but I think it would work fine.

165gr hard cast bullet an some Trailboss Powder to about 900fps. Quiet like a 22 short. Penetrated 7 milk jugs of water, but no expansion.

I haven't shot a 30.30 much,
BUT: I used to shoot an '06 w/110's for everything except big game.

Thousands of p/dogs with it. Quite a few coyotes too. Just a red triangle from where the p/dogs were when hit. No sign of stewmeat on them.

Coyotes would be huge holes, or hunks blown out/off them. Heads blown off, hind end's seperated from the bodies. That kind of stuff. IF you'd use those in the 30/30, load 'em slow vel's. Don't take much to explode them on animals.
Bobcats are worth way too much to destroy the pelts with too big a gun.

Good huntin,

George

Remington ACCELERATORS!!! Just bought 3 boxes yester at Rileys in NH. They are loaded with 55 gr soft points. I am going to try them for coyotes this year in my 94.

Gatehouse, how much Trailboss do you use to get 900 fps? Been wanting to try that powder, I'm using 7.0 grs Red Dot now but think velocity is about 1100 fps

Like Gatehouse I'm doing the same thing with a 170gr hard cast in my bolt 30-30. 5.0grs of Trail Boss works great, even use them on rabbits. 5.0grs of Trail Boss gave me 817 fps out of 18" barrel.

I also cast 130 grains bullets from wheel weightsand use 6.8 grains of accurate arms no 5 very accurate to 100 yds with no gas check. I do try to tap each shell at the base because there is so small a charge never had a problem. Dont know how fast but will go thriugh a 3 inch maple tree .Also minimal leading use rooster red zambini lube