feralcatkillr

[SemperFiGuy]

All Right....You Made Me Do It

Gotta tell this Feral Cat Killing story.

Used to be a beautiful little hunting spot at South Bend, NE, maybe 20-25 minutes from Omaha.   Before they put up the I-80 exit at Mahoney Park.   Lovely place.   Golf course now, more damnation.

I used to slip away and go there for a short hunt whenever possible.   Never saw anybody else.   Took my beagle there to hunt rabbits, but a pack of wild dogs killed her.   Whole 'nuther story.

Went back next week w/.22-250 to get the rest of the dogs that I didn't kill first time.   Beautiful sunny day.  No dogs.   Anywhere. But....as I looked down this very long set of twin tire tracks in the weeds, as the set of tracks went up the next hill there was this big black thing sitting in the left-hand track.

Threw down my pack, laid down, put the scope on it.   Biggest darn fattest cat you ever did see.   Put the crosshairs right in the middle of the cat, held breath, squeezed trigger, ka-boom.    Scope settled back down.   Cat piled up in a heap.

Walked the 250 yards or so.   Pretty kitty.   Looked like he was sleeping in the sun.   Picked up cat.   Heavy.   Really heavy.   Maybe 20-22 pounds.   Beautiful Russian Blue, a Perfect Twin to our own Russian Blue at home.   For a minute I had the dream-feeling I'd just shot my daughter's pet cat.   Day was February 28, late winter.   That cat had been eating incredibly well all winter long.   Never missed a meal.

Was shooting 55gr HP bullets at about 3600fps.   Back then I loaded hot.   Expected to find cat in parts and pieces.   Maybe red mist, like prairie dogs hit w/spire points.   Got there.  Picked up cat.  Nothin'.   Not a drop of blood anywhere.   Felt the cat.   Felt like a beanbag of crushed bones.   Couldn't find an entrance hole.   After carefully checking the back side, finally found what appeared to be a a tiny exit hole.   

I've never been able to figure out the terminal ballistics of that kill.   Still a mystery why it was so surgically clean, but shoulda been a mess.

And I never see your Forum tag without thinking--in a most satisfactory manner--of That Darn Cat.

sfg/feralcatkiller

[Dan W]

Really?  UR killin me here

[ILoveCats]

Twenty two pounds!  Good for you.  Just think about the horrific damage that invasive species member did to the game and songbird population, to get that big.

You took care of it exactly the way the University of Nebraska suggests......

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/index.jsp?what=publicationD&publicationId=1284


 

[bigmountainskiercfg]

Ha ha ha This is great!

[RedDot]

I'm waiting for Paul Harvey's rest of the story where someone get on talking about the time they were digging worms in their pasture and "some nut" shot the skunkskin hat they were wearing right off their head and forced them to low-crawl ot of there faster than they've ever moved in their life.

[Gary]

..........................

[SemperFiGuy]

Quote from the above NebGuide [EC1781]:   

Proper euthanasia involves a gunshot to the head.

Shooting
Shooting is an efficient method to reduce populations
of cats in specific areas.   Use shotguns with No. 6 shot or
larger, .22-caliber rifles, or air rifles capable of shooting 700
feet per second or faster (inside 20 yards and with pointed
pellets).    Aim shots between the eyes or in the heart/lung
area to ensure a humane death.

Gotta love that East Campus bunch at UofN!!!!!!!!!!!   No BS with Those Ag College Guys.

With a little urging, they might even work up some loading data for us.  Wonder if I can get a funded grant or a sabbatical to follow up on this most important work..........   

Say what you might about the Liberal Professoriate, but I am Deeply Proud to be a Member of the Right-Thinking Faculty of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.


sfg

[GreyGeek]

Shooting cats found in the wild is probably a good idea.

The National Geographic & Univ. of Georgia Kitty Cam project showed that even well fed house cats who are let out to "do their business" often kill birds, lizards, mice, rats and about anything else they can find.   They eat only about 30% of what they kill. Some are calling them "serial killers".

http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/


Here is a link to a lot of photos and videos:
http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/photovideo.html

I had a cat problem (both  feral and house) on my front deck last summer.  My wife and I were feeding and watering squirrels and birds.   A couple squirrels became brave enough to take almonds from our hands, and paid us no mind when we came out the door and walked pass them while they were on the rail or floor of the deck eating almonds.   Then, over a period of a week or two we stopped seeing our squirrels and the birds stopped showing up.  My wife was startled by a cat hiding under the juniper bush right next  to the steps of the deck.   I got a cat trap from animal control.  It was set off on the first night but didn't catch the cat.  Fur stuck in the door catch  suggested the cat was too big to fit into the trap and merely backed out after feeding on the bait.  I got a raccoon trap.  I took 13 cats off that porch over the next week.  I saw the big Tom, which I assume was the one which robbed the trap, come near the trap one morning and sniff around at the food from three sides, but would never go into  the open side to get the bait.  So, I had to resort to throwing rocks and sticks at him while making scary noises and chasing him away.  I would rather have put him in the scope on my .22 caliber Benjamin C92 air rifle and squeeze off a round, but that is against the law.  After I chased him a couple times he didn't show up and the a few squirrels came back, but we never saw "crooked toe" or "fatty" again.

I drove into my drive way one day and startled a big Tom cat that was setting in the grass next to my driveway,   beside a pile of bunny fur.  All that was left besides the fur was a strip of skin 1/2" wide and 1" long, with  fur on it.   No skull, no feet, no guts, no ears.   I suspect that a falcon got it and ripped most of the fur off before flyingit back to the capital building nest to feed its young, and the cat was just scavenging.   I came to that conclusion because just a month  or so before my wife and I left to go shopping and just about 200' from my driveway I saw a falcon setting on the carcass of a bunny, tearing it up.  it was  beautiful sight. It was about 5' off the curb, and  about 15' in total away from me.  It watched us drive by but didn't show any fear or concern and continued eating.

[Hank]

Neat story..man I bet that was a weird feeling about your daughters cat.
I have shot a couple coyotes w/ .223 Rem. and no exit wound and difficult to find entrance wound, never with the .243 Win. and 58g V-Max though.