calling in bobcats

I use a birnham brothers cottontail in distress tape and J.S. grown cottontail, bets time is on a new moon night, around the brushiest area availiable, like along a forested stream.
 
what about right before dark..or if at night does the light scare them....how loud do you play the call..and do you play it continuously or off and on...and are bobcats worried about scent...
 
right before dark, you had better be camoed, and face mask, and very still, is it illegal at night or something? use a red lense light at night, a six volt flashlight with red suran wrap will work, when around thick brush. or an equivelent light. don't worry about smell, experts say bobcats have about the same smelling ablility of humans. run the tape for all of its 30 min., continuously, if you use a standard cassette player start out real quiet for 3 min. and then turn it up to what you think sounds realistic. very foggy and while snowing conditions can be just as good as night. make sure its a new moon night though, or very liitle moon.
 
no it is not illegal at nighty but i figured it would be easier to do in the day....where i will be is very thick and you cant see far...so i was hoping that a little bit of light might help to pick them out
 
bobcats like a high pitched sound, And the sound has to be almost constant, so the cat don't lose interest. I use a Johnny Stewart squealing bird tape, And I usually get buy a longer tape and record it to it so I can get the sound to last for about an hour or so. The yellowhammer Woodpecker tape works well also, But i have called more cats in with my JS PC3 hand call, using it as a bird distress, with it I can control the volume and pitch and tone of the call.

I have taken one this year so far. You need to be well camo'ed and if you don't used a decoy, you might want to think about using one. They take the cats eye off you. You don't have to buy one of the expensive ones, You can use a feather tied to a piece of fishing line and that will work.

As for hunting at night versus hunting the daylight hours, I would think you would have an advantage at night if you had a light to do so, you might want to ask them on the night hunting forum on how to hunt at night successfully. I could give you some information on hunting them during the daylight hours.

I have found that hunting really brushy areas can be hard to hunt, the cat has to many places to hang up and watch and you will never see him. i usually back off those areas a little ways so the cat will have to come out of the brush to see whats going on, but you have to find an area that will still leave him a little cover to feel comfortable in, Cats don't like wide open areas. they will used every little bit of cover while coming into a call.

I hope this covered some of the questions that you had, If you have any more you can e-mail me at cree5482@bellsouth.net and I will be more than happy to help you. Its hard to concentrate when you have kids running around you while you are trying to think of everything. :eek:
 
I have found if you call in the daytime put your call further away from you,most people will put yhe call about 40 or 50 yards away which is fine for night calling,I perfer 80 to 100 for day calling.Although I do have alot of open area to hunt and it is deficult to draw them out into the open dont mean it cant be done,I get them out into the open alot.Just takes a little longer at times.I do agree a new moon helps your chances but its not nessicary to get one to come in.I don't agree with the smeller on them critters,no its not as good as a yotes but it is better than a humans and I have had them smell me and cause them to hang up.Besides if you are out trying to shoot a cat and a yote comes in you will most likly take him if if he dont smell you first.My 2 cts.
 
I have to agree with sniper243 with putting the caller away from you, But here in the east sometimes its a little hard to put it as far away from you as you need, so you have to deal with what you have and make the best of the situation.
I usually put my caller about 40-50 yards away from me if I can and set it near my decoy. as for the nose on them, I have to agree with sniper243 again on that one also. I think they can smell better than most people claim. Here in the east we have varible wind currents because of the ridges and you have to pay close attention to your scent, most of the time I use a cover scent, Such as Coon, Because around where I live those things are everywhere.
 


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