Your persoanl Strategies in calling Bobcats

CWeeks

CWeeks

New member
Fellas I have called many times to try to get a bobcat in, and have never had any success. Now there are very few cats in Idaho and Nothern Utah where I have tried but I have never got on coming in. I am in a new palce now where there are supposed to be a lot of Bobcats. So to the new guy what are your suggestions of things to use and how to call? Persoanl things that have increased productivity .....

I have a FX3 and jack in the box, and will soon have the feather and the string decoy. I have used jack rabbit and cottontail distress, woodpecker in distress, lucky bird in disress, I have Bobcat in heat sounds and aggressive bobcat on hte foxpro but have never used the later 2. I will be using the Dtech .223 with 53 grain Hollowpoints.

Any suggestion you have would be great. For example, calling sequences, times to call(Ihad been leaving the call running for 30-40 minutes straight) ANYTHING would be great thanks guys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
I do nothing different than what I do when i'm calling coyotes. Same amount of time, same sounds, same everything.

I read these stories about folks staying on stand for 30-45mins and can't figure out why. Honestly if you are on a stand for 30 mins doesn't that mean you haven't seen anything? Shouldn't that be a sign that it's time to move to another location?

Maybe the cats in Cali are that much more willing to come to the call than other places?
 
Sit where you can see. Wind direction isn't as big a deal as with coyotes but sometimes seeing them is tougher. Usually coyotes come busting on in, not too tough to spot...sometimes cats do too but usually not.
 
Tim,
Maybe that is the case cause everyone that I have heard is 30 minute min. and up to an hour on stand. That most will come in slow and methodical...yada yada.

But do you think that cali just has a larger population of cats cause it just seems like everytime you cali guys go out you are seeing cats and a lot of the times killing them? If you do have a higher population they could come faster for you because of the competition for food OR they are just closer at the time you start calling. Just my thought, what do you think?
 
Perhaps certain isolated areas have lots of cats in CA. Not where I hunt. They come in REAL slow, just like most other people's experience shows.
 
I really don't know what to think CWeeks.

I will not sit on a stand for 30 minutes so I have no idea what comes in at that time.

What I do know is that of all the cats that either my partners or I have killed whether it be at Night or during the Day have come to the call within the avg time of my stands, which don't last any longer than 20 minutes and thats a long stand. So far this year we have called in a total of 19 cats and all of them came to the call within 10mins, the 4 that were called during season and that are dead came at 8,9,2 and 10 minutes.

Edited: : Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are able to get great elevation and see the cats coming to the call much sooner. I can see where someone with limited visibility wouldn't be able to see the cat coming in at a distance and once that cat got close it sat down or started creeping in and thus took a long time for the hunter to see it, which gives the impression that it took 45 minutes for the cat to show up. Who knows?
 
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Desert cats are NOT THE SAME ANIMAL as Timber cats. Texas, NM, AZ, S.CA, etc. bobcat stories do not sound the same as Mountain and Timber Cat stories. You see them less than 1% of the time on Coyote stands in Mountain/Timber country. They just aren't the same. You have to target them. They rarely mingle here. In the dry country they live and compete with and around the Coyotes.
 
Tim and Ed are correct.

Cats even if they come in at the 2 minute mark, they generally come in slow and seem cautious in their approach.

The thicker the cover the higher the chances of calling a kitty. But I've seen them come in when the brush is knee high.

You need to place your caller and decoy where to cat will have to pass through some open area so you can see them. And they might not enter into an open area for awhile. Depends on what they see and hear. This is where I think a decoy really helps.

I would not use any coyote/pup distress if you really want a kitty.

Twice yesterday around the 15 minute mark, I let loose with a death cry/pup distress and sure as heck a kitty was coming into the snowshoe hare/lighting jack and got spooked and turned around to leave.

But I wasn't out there to call cats. Cats are not my first priority. I want to shoot coyotes...

Now the cat I shot yesterday I saw come it at a fast walk across an open area, go under a juniper and sit in the shade for a minute or so. Then sneek to a bush and hucker down for another minute. Then at a low crouch crossed the dirt road towards the call when I shot him.

Whole episode took about 4 minutes. I have had cats trot right out from the covered areas and right up to the call. Never stopping or slowing.

But sitting on stand for 30 minutes for a cat, I don't think I'd spend that much time calling anything, when I know that alot of them will come in at under 15 minutes.

Just my opinion of course and what I have observed in the past, especially this year.

The cats do like bird and rabbit sounds. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

I've not used the aggressive bobcat sound yet. I would imagine that an old territorial tom might take exception to a trespasser on his turf and come running. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I killed four bobcats last year. Two of them took over 30 minutes to come in, while the other two came in about 15. When hunting bobcats I use the woodpecker sounds, although I have killed a few with the distressed cottontail. Be patient if a bobcat is what you really want.
 
Have called a lot more bobcats than I have shot since they are protected (by landowner) in most areas of the ranches I hunt.

Cats and coyotes do live and hunt the same areas in S. Tx. brush. The cats do prefer the heaviest cover available, so I usually set up near thickets when targeting cats. As has been said, call as you would call coyotes, they like rabbit and bird sounds and when they hang up, you can often shake them loose w/rodent squeaks.

Last week, my partner & I sat up at a two track junction. My bud was watching the road where we had parked the truck (off the road in some heavy brush). I was using cottontail dist. & lucky bird when a large tom started down the road toward my partner (call/decoy were not visible to the cat).
When the cat got even with the truck (and saw it), he sat down about 10 ft. from it and stared at truck for a full 5 minutes before leasurely leaving the same way he came. The cat spent about 20 minutes covering 200 yards. This has been typical of most of the cats I have seen, so I tend to hunt a little longer when targeting cats.

Regards,
hm
 
Every cat that I've called has taken 30min plus to come in. They aren't like dogs, they don't run in. They lurk, I have always been glassing and spotted them laying under a tree.
 
That is what I have heard from most everybody. Except Mr. Tim "Soreloser" Lewis. He has had better luck with them coming in sooner or at least maybe the issue is he sees them within 20 minutes.
 
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That is what I have heard from most everybody. Except Mr. Tim "Soreloser" Lewis. He has had better luck with them coming in sooner or at least maybe the issue is he sees them within 20 minutes.



Just to fire you up a little more CWeeks. I grabbed the shotgun and headed out for three stands this evening. 2nd stand had a bobcat sprint and I mean sprint into the call in less than a minute and stop 10yds away from me. He was a little on the small side so I let him have a free pass until I can get the wife out there on Sunday to hopefully take him down.

I am by no means an expert on anything involving predators, be it Coyotes or Cats. I can only share what I have seen personally whether it's the same as everyone else or not, and I know in just the last two seasons I have only seen maybe 2 cats out of 26 or 27 creep in and one of those was at night and it had it's belly on the ground from 100yd out.
 
CWeeks,

I'm no authority on much of anything, but I have killed a few bobcats - 8 to be exact. I usually hunt late evenings and if I can get in a couple of stands before dark, then I'm fine with that. Sometimes I only call one stand before dark. If I know that I will only be calling the stand where I am, I tend to just be patient and call. I've called many times over an hour. I can't say that I've ever had many respond after that long, but I've had cats come around the 45 minute mark. Still, I stay after it. What the heck, what am I going to do but go home anyway, so I just sit still. Last year while on a deer hunting stand, I blew a doe bleat call on and off for way over an hour, actually closer to two hours than one, and ended up killing a cat. The year before I killed another cat while blowing a doe bleat for quite some time.

As to calling sounds to use, I've had success with a variety, everything from rabbit and rodent sounds, to raccoon and even coyote and hurt pup sounds. Those last ones may have been an exception rather than the rule, but it worked that time and didn't seem to keep the cat from responding.

The last cat I called last hunting season, I sat for quite a while and was growing tired. I had about decided to just pack up and head home. But, I then began throwing different sounds out there, with no luck. Finally, I decided to use a raccoon fight sound just for the heck of it. Within just a few minutes, I noticed movement (cat) down the old gas well road on my dad's farm. The call (Fox Pro FX-3) paused momentairily and the cat just kind-of stopped, then when the call began once more, the sound was frantic. The cat suddenly began to run - hard, in the direction of the call, as if it couldn't wait to get there. That supprised me, that a cat would answer a raccoon fight, and in such a hurry. It was very interested in that sound. Again, that may be the exception rather than the rule, but as before, it worked that time too. I had one other cat come "on-the-run" to a call - a doe bleat. All others came slowly and quietly. Seems there are no fast or hard rules with cats, at least in my experience.

Seems that I've had success with lots of different calls and under a variety of circumstances. Other times I've called absoutely nothing even though I felt like it was such a great stand. Sometimes it comes together, but most of the time I call nothing. I guess the fact that I'm addicted to predator hunting keeps me going, even when I get nothing. But, suddently, without warning, I am rewarded for my efforts, and that gives me the strength to keep trying.

In my experience, cats respond to a variety of sounds. One thing I know for sure is, they don't miss a trick. Man, one little movement and they see it.

Just thought I would share my experiences. Take them with a grain of salt and for what they are. I don't claim to have all the answers. But man, I love predator hunting !!

Here is the cat I called while using the raccoon fight sound.
EditedBobcat2.jpg


Last year's "doe-bleat" cat.
444Bobcat3.jpg


The smaller cat responded to a rodent sound. The other one was pure luck - walking down
the gas well road directly to me as I was preapring to enter the woods. Man, talk about luck!
Bobcats3.jpg


Johnny Stewart Rabbit Distress Cat
Bobcat1.jpg
 
Tim,
You are no doubt humble for your skills. Rack another cat up for you. Hopefully the wife can take it this weekend.
 
Carl,
As I have told you, most of my cats have come in between 50 and 70 minutes. I have had the 2 minute runners and a few 20 to 30 minute cats but if your not staying 75 minutes in Colorado, you are missing some action. We aint in Texas where dessert food and water and 1000's of predators fight for food. These cats are well fed, patient and the best hunters on the track. There is a reason you rarely see a cat just driving around. Your going to get as many opions on this as pesidential canidates. You make the call.

* Get in Cat country
* Get comfortable
* Be still
* Use electronic so you don't burn out
* Use small sounds
* Move like the second hand on a clock
* Stay at least 1 hour

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543eb5f4.jpg
 
Nobody using handcalls???? Sigh.. Here is one that took 45 min and came a long ways. Used a Syco Tweety for about 25-30 min then switched to a Death Card Calls closed reed jack. Shot her at 10 yds at a full on run. Lotsa patience and the "feeling" that somethings coming.
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Trashcan the handcaller

DCC
 
Paul your not kidding when you say those kittys pick up the slightest movement at some unbelievable angles to.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I killed a slug of them in Mexico. I never noticed if the stands were longer or not. Some of them we killed within a minute or two, and others were an hour into the stand. I have had them come in fast and slow. At one time I usually made 20 or 30 minute stands depending on how many animals we were getting in the area. Some cats will get interested in something entirely different other than the call on the way in. Some of them will just sit down and never move.

Once, I had one sit down on a hillside at night. I kept seeing his eyes, but never long enough to get the crosshairs on him. I got the shot gun, and a 37,000 CP Stream light and walked out to the hill side and shot him with the shot gun, we worked for an hour trying to get that cat.

I had two speakers on the truck, one behind the grill, and another one underneath the truck. I had a huge bobcat scratching on the grill of the truck trying to get to the speaker. On another hunt, I had one go underneath the truck to get the speaker. We gave both of these cats a pass.

Cats taught me to never shoot at just eyes when that is all you can see when night hunting. I had a cat come down off a big hill about 300 yards out. He got down in the brush at the bottom of the hill and hung up, nothing I did would get him to come out from behind a bush, every now and again I would see an eye. I started to try and slip a shot through the bush to shoot his eye out, but made the decision not to. A couple of minutes later, a cow stood up....really freeked me out.

I think that the whole issue of if you need to make a longer or shorter stand is really an issue on how close you make your stand to the cat. If a cat has to travel 400 yards, it is going to take him a while, unlike a coyote that would cover that distance in 2 minutes.

Some of the stands in Mexico would last an hour or more with animals coming in at various intervals well into the hour mark and the call had been going non stop the whole time. I had this idea that 20 minute stands were about as long as I needed to sit in one place if nothing had shown up. Later on, I had lots of animals show up at 27 minutes and 35 minutes, animals are hard to figure out.

I don't think that you can assume anything. If you feel as if cats are in the area, and have the patience to sit there, then by all means, I would sit there for a while. I don't think that is is prudent to turn the call off if you are hunting cats. I have noticed that cats really seem to like bird calls when they hang up, but most of them I have ever shot was with a coarse gravley mouth call or a coarse jackrabbit tape.

Cats can and will do some of the strangest things. Once, about 10 minutes into the stand, I saw a cat jump up on a rock that was probably 20 feet off the ground, and just sat down. I plunked him off. About 20 minutes later, another cat jumped up on that same rock, right where I had shot the first cat, and I plunked him off. Both of those cats were 100 yards out, and neither of them had any intention of coming any closer to the call. I have often wondered how many cats come in to the call and just hang up that we never see.
 
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