Selfbow bobcat
I have been hunting (what little time I've had to hunt) this year with an osage selfbow made by Arvin Weaver. The bow is 53# at my draw length. I was determined to shoot something with it this year because I never have with a selfbow.
Opening weekend, a friend invited me to his place for an evening hunt. I took the selfbow and shot a doe - my first selfbow harvest.
I wasn't satisfied with that, though, and continued to shoot the selfbow. I finally got a chance to spend some time at my least a couple weeks ago. I only saw 4 deer in 2 1/2 days of hunting. All of them were bucks, but all were young deer (even though one of them was tempting me). On the last evening I hunted, I didn't see a single deer, but a bobcat came walking in just a little while before sundown. I saw him crossing a "field" (really just an area we had shredded) coming toward my stand. He kept coming closer and closer and I realized that I might get a shot at him. He got to a point where there was some brush between us and I couldn't see him very well, but I could see through the brush enough to know he was still there. He eventually walked to my right, clearing the brush, and I loosed an arrow. The cedar arrow struck him solidly and he did a couple flips and ran straight toward me. At that time I wasn't sure where the arrow had hit him, it all happened so fast. He stopped just on the other side of the bush my 6' quad pod was hiding behind. I could see him through the bush and it looked like the arrow was sticking out of his head (I later found that the broadhead had gone in at the bottom of his eye socket and had lodged inside his head. He flopped again and broke the arrow, then walked around the bush and laid down on the trail I walk in to my stand on. He was lying down (presumably dying) right in the middle of the trail about 4 yards from my stand. I had already nocked another arrow, but didn't want to shoot another hole in him if I didn't have to. I sat and watched him, waiting on his tail to stop moving so I would know he was dead. All of a sudden he got up and started to walk away. I shot him a second time, shooting just over his spine. The arrow exited onlyl an inch or two from where it entered and cut a huge hole in his hide, but didn't really get into his body cavity. He ran off and I just sat there for a while. The second arrow came out within a few yards so I knew it hadn't hit anything solid.
I went back to camp, got my dog and my .45 cal pistol, and came back to try and track him. Neither I nor the dog could pick up a blood trail past where the trail split so I didn't know which way he had gone. I took the dog back to the truck and went back in. I finally found a small amount of blood and it appeared that he had gone through the thickest brush he could find. It was now dark and, with the aid of a really good flashlight, I began crawling through the thick brush looking for and following the little blood I could find. After only about 15 yards or so (sure seemed like more) I picked him up in the light. He was about 5 yards in front of me and was looking at me. I knew he was hurt bad or he wouldn't have still been there. He would look at me for a little bit then lay his head down. I couldn't get a clear shot at him from where I was, so I had to crawl to the side a bit to find a hole to shoot through. When I found a spot I shot him through the neck with the .45 and successfully ended the hunt.
I didn't weigh him, but he was about the same size as the one I shot with my compound bow about 5 years ago, which was around 25 lbs., according to the taxidermist. I took this bobcat to Scott Shallcross in Tilden to have him mounted. Scott later told me that he had found the broadhead inside the bobcat's skull.
This is my first bobcat with traditional equipment (or primitive equipment) and I am really excited about it. I wish I had made a better shot on him, but am glad to have recovered him.
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