Bobcat?

[Scotsman1886]

Just saw a syntheytic stocked sidelock at wally world for $59. Its a "Bobcat" anyone know about these?

[tscott]

It's a nice deer rifle, and is very easy to use. I learned on one of these, and I'm sure it will last a lifetime. Mine likes 70 - 80 gr of pyrodex (777) and a 295 powerbelt bullet.
I've seen these between $ 49 and $99 at the major dealers... I guess CVA discontinued. Go for it, you'll make it shoot!!!

[Slamfire]

My youngest gave me one for Christmas 5 or 6 years ago. It shoots patched round balls very well with anything from 50 to 80 grains of FFFg. And with the 245 grain Buffalo Ballets it only increases in group size about 1/4". The butt of the stock is hollow giving it a strange feel, but if that bothers you you can put a couple pounds of modeling clay inside.  Some owners have had a bit of trouble with the hammer alignment on the nipple, but judicious heating and bending can correct this. All in all, a good little rifle, at an excellent price, although you may end up, like I did, spending more on accessories than you did on the rifle itself. 

[Biff Mayhem]

You can't go wrong at that price. Go for it!

[Scotsman1886]

Welllll,,I picked one up. Once I saw it has a 1:48 twist I figured it was worth a try. I wanted one that would shot patched round ball since it will be mostly for plinking and such.
I'll let you know how it shoots once I get out there.

[whitesmoke]

Hi Guys, I am brand new here - hail from South Africa where the muzzle loader sport only recently took off. We have a licensing system here and muzzle loaders came off license about two and a bit years ago - which caused quite a renewed interest in black powders shooting. In any event, we got the Bobcats here too - mainly I think because they are so cheap/affordable especially with our exchange rate.

I have one and it is a fine little gun. One word of caution though - the one's we got here have a pressure rating stamped on the barrel of 700kP/cm3 - which only translates to about 10 000 psi. This should be fine for around 90gr of FFg with the round ball and maybe a little more, but with the conicals this makes for max charges of around 60 to 80gr of FFg. While there is no case on record of any of these barrels bursting on traditional guns shooting these types of loads, there have been a few on your side with inlines shooting 3 pellet Pyrodex charges.

Being far less advanced and advantaged than yourselves we have to make our own plans over here - a local company makes drop in shotgun barrels for these Bobcats in 12 gauge with a 29" barrel. Mine now does duty as a shotgun while the rifle barrel does duty on a CVA mountain rifle as a shorter "brush barrel" for closer shooting in the brush.

[Slamfire]

Welcome to the site, I sure wish we had drop in shotgun barrels available. I'd like to put the rifle barrel on an old underhammer I have. 

[whitesmoke]

Hi Slamfire, thanks for the welcome - looks like a bunch of good people here!! In some respects we are fortunate here as we have to make do with what we have and have to be a little innovative, but in general you guys have it so much better than us, it is hard to believe. You have such a wide choice of good quality stuff you can buy off the shelf with no hassles it makes us drool!!! And when we get stuff here it tends to be pretty expensive - first our market is small, second the exchange rate, transport etc doesn't help and third whoever has got any good stuff tends to have  a virtual monopoly so mark ups are high. That drop in shotgun barrel for instance would retail for about $185, which considering the gun costs as little as $50 your side, is a bit stiff.

Works real well though - I lengthened the stock on my Bobcat a little so's to allow me to get down on the bead better and have taken my share of pigeons with it. I am now improvising some rear sights for it - removable ones - so's to be able to shoot it as a .72 smoothbore. Just off the bead I get about 2.5" groups at 35yards, so I reckon with a little load development and some rear sights it will be accurate enough at short range to make meat with.

[Dalton Masterson]

I bought my Bobcat on clearance at Wally last year for 40.00. Havent shot it yet, but need to soon. The stock isnt bad, and is balanced alright, but does have a plastic feeling to it. Need to get a wood stock made for it eventually. DM

[dmurphy317]

Whitesmoke,
I wouldn't worry to much about that 700KP proof mark, that is the minimum required to export from Spain. The Bobcat can handle all the loads listed in the manual with no problem. This includes the 400gr conical with 100gr of 2F powder. I have tested one of my Bobcats to see if it could be damaged by heavy loads and it passed the testing with no problems. One of these days I hope to do similar testing on a CVA inline but haven't found one for the right price, limited funds you know. Anyway, I have full confidence in the strength of the Bobcat when loaded properly within the limits set by the manufacturer.

Have fun and enjoy your Bobcat, I do.

[captchee]

here is a bobcat dressed for the ball . alot can be done with these little rifles . most shoot also very well

[Oldtimer]

Captchee, that is one good looking gun.  I was out this morning with my Bobcat, the day being rainy and I did not want to take out my flintlock.  It was perfect for a day like today.  Unfortunately, the weather has warmed up enough to slow down the rut, so I did not get anything.  I bought my rifle at Walmart since it was only $49 and I wanted a plinker and knockaround gun.  It fills the bill quite well.  When the rain got heavy, I went to a gunshop that I had not visited in a while and found out how out of touch I am. I was looking for round balls, and they looked at me like I was one of those cavemen in the Geico commercials.  No telling what they would have done if I had requested Kentish flints.

[wanderer]

Don't worry about the 10,000 PSI stuff, I suspect that whoever designed the rifle used a design that he knew would work and the limited testing is to keep the price low. You would be surprised how many things are designed using rules of thumb. Testing is incredibly expensive. It is sometimes much cheaper to use a little more steel than may be required than to test to higher pressures, especially if you must test a certain percentage of guns produced.

[captchee]

 as to barrel pressures .. I happen to know  of one test with the bobcat barrels  that went ell over 30,000PSI with no  breech  or bolster leakage  and no barrel deformity measured in 10 places along the barrel . The barrel also passed  fatigue X ray .

remember these tests are ran under controlled situations  and a person should always , always follow the manufactures recommendations and  standards  .

 Understand  also that all European barrels to include  muzzleloading  have to pass the minimum  standards for export as tested by European government proofing houses , that’s what probably stamped on your barrel .
 Now  unless things have changes here in the last year ,barrels from the US have no such proof past those  of  the individual companies . IE no one checks those barrels for compliance but the companies themselves . We have no proof houses here  and no requirements that im aware of that  any muzzleloading barrels meet any minimum standards but those of the manufacture themselves .
 That being said I have full faith in the American barrels as well  Imo some of the best barrels in the world .
 Most all the manufactures have very high standards  even though  as I understand it  the government has placed no standards upon them 

[footsimoto]

here is a bobcat dressed for the ball . alot can be done with these little rifles . most shoot also very well

Captchee, I was looking over this old post and I came across that beautiful dressed up Bobcat you customized.  You have inspired me to do something like that to my rifle.  So, if you don’t mined, can you tell me were got the stock and brass hardware?

[captchee]

sure no problem .
 the stock is  a fusil de chase  taken down considerably and  was purchased from pecatonica river
 The but plate is also from a fusil de chase .
 Trigger guard  and nose cap  are brass   styled after a late hawkens  half stock rifles .

 All the brass I go t got  track of the wolf  or made myself .
 I kept the original trigger set and just cut off the guard. rear sight is original . Front is a brass blade
 Ramrod thimbles are  brass golden age  era , octagon with ring bands .
 I did not use the standard entry thimble  for this set . Instead I placed one of the 5/16 thimbles into the  3/8  ramrod hole for the stock  . The Tulle has a good size ramrod and this  reduced the size  of the entry so that the own could use a standard 5/16 RR.
 Now the front  RR barrel is tricky  as you have to keep the separation from the barrel as the bob cat does not have an under rib . For this I cut off the plastic  , stock barrel being careful to  save the  mount section .  I then screwed the new brass RR barrel to the plastic mount . This way  you can use the stock mounting hardware
 If you want parts numbers I  will have to look them up , they will be in my records for that rifle so that’s not a problem 

 here are some  shots of  the bobcat at diffrent angles

[Dalton Masterson]

Sorry this reply is a few years late. I havent had any reply notifications in a long time, and havent been back to GBO in quite some time.

Captchee, that is a beautiful rifle you built from a sows ear.
Was that stock a pretty much drop in affair, as far as the barrel channel, and lock, or did you have to do a lot of custom fitting?
What I am wanting to do to mine is just make a nice wood stocked rifle, and maybe do a little wire inlay work in the stock.

Thanks, DM

[quickdtoo]

Captchee hasn't been here in over a year.

Tim

[Dalton Masterson]

Heck, neither have I. Not sure what happened, but here I am again.
DM

[dustyr]

Here's my Bobcat (aka "The Mutant")





With the exception of the trigger assembly, everything was purchased from Deer Creek Products.

[Glanceblamm]

I have one and it is a fine little gun. One word of caution though - the one's we got here have a pressure rating stamped on the barrel of 700kP/cm3 - which only translates to about 10 000 psi. This should be fine for around 90gr of FFg with the round ball and maybe a little more, but with the conicals this makes for max charges of around 60 to 80gr of FFg. While there is no case on record of any of these barrels bursting on traditional guns shooting these types of loads, there have been a few on your side with inlines shooting 3 pellet Pyrodex charges.

This is what it is all about and what to pay attention to.

Once upon a T/C test, they loaded the thing with 1,000gr of black powder & six patched balls before they were able to get a bulge in the barrel. I believe that it took the same powder charge with ten patched balls before they had a rupture. The breech plug with it's 19 fine threads stayed in place just fine.

On the other end of the scale (an early to mid 80's CVA that was made in Spain) was likely to blow out the barrel at the rear dovetail that holds the barrel to the stock or even have the breech plug which was tack welded in place blow out with a much lesser charge and a single ball. There was also controversy over the 12L14 cold drawn steel as some reckoned that it became more brittle through usage untill failure happened.
There was some real life injurys and even fatility's with this and other models.

Please Note that this reply has nothing to do with the Bobcat but is more about following the manufactures guide lines on the loads. It does (IMO) pay to do as much research as possible on any muzzle loader that you would consider to buy.

[ChrisK]

Mine is synthetic