Hunting bobcats in the woods

T

thetrooper

New member
Hey guys. I'm going down to the Daniel Boone national forest in KY to do some predator calling. Mainly targeting bobcats. The area is typical Appalachian NF land with large blocks of pretty open hardwoods and somewhat thicker drainages. There are some large resovouirs around that have winding tributary streams with some swampy brush land and the occasional power line and wildlife clearing/food plot.

Looking to see if you guys had any advice for hunting this type of habitat it's basically all wooded. I was planning on hitting 8-10 promising cat locations by pulling off hiking in 200-400 yards making a brief 20min stand or so and then heading a few miles down the road to the next. Could also hike in and call in the more deeper spots to make a hiking trip out of it.

I have done some yote hunting mostly around agriculture land and mixed timber areas and have called cats in but this has been in Ohio where they aren't legal to shoot. Wanting to bag my first cat.

Just trying to set my expectations up don't know what the typical cat density per square mile would be in the Appalachians. Planning on getting into the thick and using shotgun with e call and a decoy

Any tips from Appalachian mountain cat hunters would be awesome

Thanks
Pete
 



I hunt the national forest in the Ozarks. It is large blocks of remote ground with steep ridges and deep spring branch hollers. All timbered, mostly oak/hickory/pine forest with cedar glades scattered around. Here is something I wrote some time back for new cat callers. It may be helpful...

"Bobcats are beautiful and wondrous creatures. Cats like thick areas of brush near a water source. Brushy overgrown fields, swampy areas, cedar glades, pine thickets, creek bottoms, rocky bluffs, old ponds, or lake edges are all prime places to find bobcats. They prey on all sorts of small animals including wild turkeys, deer fawns, and even the occasional adult deer. The more common fare is rabbit, mice, squirrels, and any birds they can catch. Cats love birds! They’ll pass up a fat rabbit for a stalk on a songbird. If you are a predator caller fast, high-pitched bird sounds or high-pitched cottontail are prime cat sounds.

Bobcats have a short attention span and get distracted easily. They may be on the way to the call, but if the sound stops for too long and they see something else like a bird or squirrel, they may just wander off or sit down and quit coming in. Tip - don’t have too long of a pause between series of calls if you are a caller.

Cats hunt most with their eyes and ears. Not to say bobcats completely ignore their nose, but I’ve had bobcats directly downwind, and even though I know they had a snoot full of human scent, they never batted an eye. A coyote would have been long gone in that situation! Another tip - if you are a caller, a small moving decoy will help focus the cat away from you and tend to keep them fixed on the decoy. Anything that distracts the cat from you is an advantage. Something as simple as a small cluster of feathers tied into a low-hanging bush fluttering in the breeze will do the job.

Cats are stalkers and may take a long time to get to a calling stand. Most coyotes are on a stand within 15 - 20 minutes, but a cat may take as much as an hour. They are extremely hard to see when they stalk into a stand. They use all the available cover to get close. I have been diligently watching as I called and suddenly realized, “Oh, there is a cat! “ when some little something catches my eye from a tuft of tall grass, or from behind an old stump, log, or rocky outcropping. I never knew how long they’d been there before I saw them. Many a caller has stood up at the end of a long stand and jumped a bobcat that was right in front of them all along that they had never seen. Bobcats have phenomenal eyesight and will pick apart a stand as they creep in. Fidgeting around by the hunter has saved many a cat. You must sit still and not be moving or else your chances are very low. They will also hear the slightest rustle in the leaves or creak and bump from you and your gear. Quiet is important.

With all that said, bobcats don’t always slip into the calling stand. I have had them run into a stand as aggressively as any coyote I’ve ever called. The first cat I ever called was a huge old tom that nearly ran me over, sliding to a stop in the snow only a few yards from me. Sometimes they come hard and fast and that is a special sight. Maybe half the cats I call are coming in aggressively and quickly, the other half are the sneaky ones.

Bobcats aren’t all that bright though. As mentioned, they will often ignore a snoot full of human scent. Their natural defense is to hide and I’ve watched them hunker down and attempt to hide, all the while shooters fire at them and miss repeatedly. I’ve seen a shooter miss a bobcat twice with a .308 rifle blowing snow and debris all over it. The cat simply lay low when it could have easily ran off the backside of the ridge. I talked the shooter down and his third shot connected.

Populations of bobcats can be widespread. Home territories can be large, more so for male cats. However, even where there are a lot of them, there aren’t that many."
 
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That's great I appreciate the words of wisdom. Feel like I'm on the right track but should probably stay on stand a bit longer to get the most out of the stand.
 
I know this is an impossible question to answer but when you are hunting the national forest out there would you be expecting to call in a cat during a solid day of hunting with multiple good stands or is it more of a rare occurrence? I think the area should hold some good cats. I also have some spots on the NF down in GA that I know hold a lot of cats from trail cameras just KY is a lot closer haha
 
In the last couple of years, I have called nearly as many bobcats as coyotes. We have also seen more cats while bowhunting than we have coyotes. My son and I were just talking about this. While gun hunting opening morning of deer season this year he had a cat walk by his stand with a squirrel in its mouth. He let that walk but managed to take a crappy cell phone picture. Last year on opening morning he had a coyote come through the woods packing a squirrel. The coyote didn't get a pass. Between the red-tailed hawks, the barred and great horned owls, grey fox, bobcat, and coyote it's tough being a squirrel in the Ozarks! Even a duffer like me takes a few squirrels with a .22 rifle here and there.

I call cat country with the expectation of calling a cat. If you see cat signs, tracks, scat, etc. find a place for a good calling stand and sit for at least 30 minutes. Honestly, that's about as long as I stay on a stand. Cats aren't coming from long distances to the call like a coyote might do. In this sort of country, it is also easy to shorten the distance between stands. With coyotes around here, I might go 600 - 800 yards between coyote stands. With cats I might only go 400 yards if I run into a great-looking place with some sign around.

Another point, if you spook a cat on the stand and it runs off you don't have to wait weeks before you try for him again. A day later, a slightly different stand location and a different sound from the caller, and that cat is as likely to come in as he did yesterday. They don't hold your mistakes against you as severely as a coyote tends to do.

Also, pay attention to the crows, jays, and woodpeckers when calling. They love to mob a bobcat when they catch one out in daylight. I have often tracked the progress of a cat coming to the call by following the progress of loud squawking blue jays or woodpeckers as the cat came in. The birds will follow the cat right in. Squirrels will alert you too. When those squirrels all run up the trees and start that aggressive barking they are telling you something is coming. Deer will blow when they see a cat. I have had all those critters alert me that something was coming in and it is wise to listen to them.
 
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I call mainly at night using thermal 98% of the time. GC is spot on. I've called more Cats in with Grey Fox distress than any other sound (4 to 1) and they typically will come within 20-75 yards with the exceptional of one and I watched him pace back and forth at 300 yds for over an hour. I had fun playing with different sounds and he end up getting a pass because a coyote pop out about 100 yds!
 
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Can’t speak for hardwoods or daytime hunting, but cats love small pines and field edges.
I’ve only had one cat come in from a distance nonstop straight to the call. Most will come in a sit, come closer and sit until they finally reach the call.
I was watching one come through the big pines one night where I had some elevation and all of a sudden got a feeling something was close and watching me. I had to pivot all the way around my tripod to the 7 o’clock position and there sat one of the biggest bobcats I’ve seen not 30yds away. He’d look at me, then at the caller. I’ve caught some “big” cats trapping, but in the thermal this joker looked huge.
We weren’t allowed to use e-callers for cats then, but that changes this season which starts Dec 1!!
Find prey, down here that’s rabbits and cotton rats, and you’ll find cats. Another area that always seems to hold cats are areas turkeys frequent. It’s tough setting traps where there’s a bunch of turkeys, but I can use a lot of guiding for cats which will deter the turkeys from getting in the sets.
 
Lots of good info here, which I will be putting to use on Sunday. Another great resource is MFK’s YouTube. Not a lot of cat stuff, but 90% of it is calling in thick forest.
 
Spurchaser said:
The ones we called in here in Ohio were at night too. We were calling on the edge of pasture next to really thick brush and native grass. They all came right to the edge of the pasture and plopped right down scanned over and they were just staring right at us kinda gave me the creeps lol
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As previously mentioned, cats don’t always come sneaking in. Sometimes they rush in as if their behind is on fire. I called a cat one time while using a raccoon fight sound. That cat couldn’t seem to get there fast enough. I have also called a couple of cats with doe bleats while deer hunting. Mix up your sounds. You never know what might be the magic one.
 
GC said:



I hunt the national forest in the Ozarks. It is large blocks of remote ground with steep ridges and deep spring branch hollers. All timbered, mostly oak/hickory/pine forest with cedar glades scattered around. Here is something I wrote some time back for new cat callers. It may be helpful...

"Bobcats are beautiful and wondrous creatures. Cats like thick areas of brush near a water source. Brushy overgrown fields, swampy areas, cedar glades, pine thickets, creek bottoms, rocky bluffs, old ponds, or lake edges are all prime places to find bobcats. They prey on all sorts of small animals including wild turkeys, deer fawns, and even the occasional adult deer. The more common fare is rabbit, mice, squirrels, and any birds they can catch. Cats love birds! They’ll pass up a fat rabbit for a stalk on a songbird. If you are a predator caller fast, high-pitched bird sounds or high-pitched cottontail are prime cat sounds.

Bobcats have a short attention span and get distracted easily. They may be on the way to the call, but if the sound stops for too long and they see something else like a bird or squirrel, they may just wander off or sit down and quit coming in. Tip - don’t have too long of a pause between series of calls if you are a caller.

Cats hunt most with their eyes and ears. Not to say bobcats completely ignore their nose, but I’ve had bobcats directly downwind, and even though I know they had a snoot full of human scent, they never batted an eye. A coyote would have been long gone in that situation! Another tip - if you are a caller, a small moving decoy will help focus the cat away from you and tend to keep them fixed on the decoy. Anything that distracts the cat from you is an advantage. Something as simple as a small cluster of feathers tied into a low-hanging bush fluttering in the breeze will do the job.

Cats are stalkers and may take a long time to get to a calling stand. Most coyotes are on a stand within 15 - 20 minutes, but a cat may take as much as an hour. They are extremely hard to see when they stalk into a stand. They use all the available cover to get close. I have been diligently watching as I called and suddenly realized, “Oh, there is a cat! “ when some little something catches my eye from a tuft of tall grass, or from behind an old stump, log, or rocky outcropping. I never knew how long they’d been there before I saw them. Many a caller has stood up at the end of a long stand and jumped a bobcat that was right in front of them all along that they had never seen. Bobcats have phenomenal eyesight and will pick apart a stand as they creep in. Fidgeting around by the hunter has saved many a cat. You must sit still and not be moving or else your chances are very low. They will also hear the slightest rustle in the leaves or creak and bump from you and your gear. Quiet is important.

With all that said, bobcats don’t always slip into the calling stand. I have had them run into a stand as aggressively as any coyote I’ve ever called. The first cat I ever called was a huge old tom that nearly ran me over, sliding to a stop in the snow only a few yards from me. Sometimes they come hard and fast and that is a special sight. Maybe half the cats I call are coming in aggressively and quickly, the other half are the sneaky ones.

Bobcats aren’t all that bright though. As mentioned, they will often ignore a snoot full of human scent. Their natural defense is to hide and I’ve watched them hunker down and attempt to hide, all the while shooters fire at them and miss repeatedly. I’ve seen a shooter miss a bobcat twice with a .308 rifle blowing snow and debris all over it. The cat simply lay low when it could have easily ran off the backside of the ridge. I talked the shooter down and his third shot connected.

Populations of bobcats can be widespread. Home territories can be large, more so for male cats. However, even where there are a lot of them, there aren’t that many."
Click to expand...
Awesome 👏
 
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