Thread: First blood for the 6.5

Just happened to have my How 6.5 handy when this guy decided to show himself. Having zeroed the rifle about 3 hours previous, it wasn't a difficult shot. Its not a black panther, I've seen one of those and have it on film. But it is a well conditioned male, have seen him cruising around the farm on several occasions. 84 cm long from tip of tail to nose, 5.15kg.

Can we see the panther video? Good work on the bird killer.

Unfortunately somebody decided they needed the panther video more than me and have failed to return it. But it made the TV, and we went back with some post grad students from the film unit at Otago University and they made a doco type movie called the Prints of Darkness. I think thats somewhere in Google land. That animal was somewhere in the 1.2-1.3 metre length from the measurements we took of the bushes etc it was walking past in the video.

I would have expected a bit more carnage for 6.5 v cat....?? this is where the derogatory banter stems from I'm guessing

Great stuff, shoot as many as you can. I can’t stand the things.
On top of that, they really are New Zealand’s pinnacle trophy species.

At one stage I was shooting at least one per month for over 18 months. Then they tapered off. But I still see the odd one around, probably more seeing as its coming up spring. The 22 usually does the job, but have used a 30-06 to good advantage too.

Originally Posted by charliehorse

I would have expected a bit more carnage for 6.5 v cat....?? this is where the derogatory banter stems from I'm guessing

The off side shoulder was munted, wont be skinning or tanning this one.

Originally Posted by Husky1600

Unfortunately somebody decided they needed the panther video more than me and have failed to return it. But it made the TV, and we went back with some post grad students from the film unit at Otago University and they made a doco type movie called the Prints of Darkness. I think thats somewhere in Google land. That animal was somewhere in the 1.2-1.3 metre length from the measurements we took of the bushes etc it was walking past in the video.

I've found the best calibre for cats is the one you've got in your hands

Originally Posted by charliehorse

I would have expected a bit more carnage for 6.5 v cat....?? this is where the derogatory banter stems from I'm guessing

A good while back in WA I was helping a mate with load development for his 6.5-284 goat culling gun. It was already quite a tired rifle with unknown round count but shot well enough. He says to me… Dave, what bullet will we use? I says Mate, I reckon no need for anything fancy, a good light HP will do, see what you can find. So he bought a bulk pack of 1,000 Sierra 100gr HPs. I can’t remember how fast we got them going but it was pretty damn quick.

The very first thing he shot with the new load was a big black outback tomcat. Let’s just say that everything forward of the liver looked like that party spray string, except for the head which was intact and about 20 yards away from the rest of it. I’ve never seen a red mister like that, before or since.

Don’t worry cat lovers, it didn’t suffer.

Shot a cat on Stewart island that nicked one of our blue cod in broad daylight. Remember hearing the Doc guy at Nelson lakes say some of the Tom cats they collared had huge ranges, but the females had a much smaller range.

Interesting.
Out rabbit shooting the couple of weeks back, at Springton. Disgusted at my ability to judge distance with combiation of cheap thermal & night vision using a PCP air rifle. I saw something approach threw the thermal that I thought was a medium sized dog, problem was it moved like a cat, it didn't hang around, had smacked a rabbit that made cover so probably after that.