After many years of calling at critters both day and night, I finally bagged a bobcat.
I took another trip to Virginia that last weekend of January as the rest of you guys were preparing for your LBL trip. I accompanied my uncle Kent and his wife Linda on their trapline. We checked traps in the mornings and did our calling in the afternoons and evenings. Hunting predators with a light at night is legal in Virginia. :readthis:
We made several daytime stands in the late afternoons with no luck. On one stand just before dark however, an owl attacked my whirling woodpecker. That was quite a site. I had the fake bird just a few feet from the Foxpro with the "Lucky Bird" sound going at pretty low volume. The owl came outta nowhere in less then 4 minutes. He hit the woodpecker very hard but it stayed right in place with it's wing just a spinning. The owl jumped up and down from underneath the woodpecker two or three more times. I was thinking the owl was going to tear up my brand new decoy so I ran the volume up as high and as quickly as I could. In my haste I also changed the sound to ANYTHING else trying to scare the owl away. It must have worked because he eventually lit in a nearby oak tree humbled and confused. I think the Foxpro ended up on "groundhog in distress" at full volume. It almost scared me away too.
Anyways, we stayed on the stand another 20 minutes or so hoping a gray fox may show, but darkness sent us packin' before that happened. We moved to another farm that had produced 5 bobcats in the previous two weeks of trapping. Earlier the same morning I had noticed plenty of sign on the in-road to this deer lease. There were fresh cat tracks, scat and scratches right in the road. We knew there were more cats in there.
We entered the gate from the hard surface road and set-up about a 1/4 mile in. There were tall planted pines on one side of the road that were very open. The rows had been thinned so you could see a long way through these trees. On the other side of the road it was exactly the opposite - a pine thicket you could hardly belly crawl through. But there was about two rows of tall pines between the road and the thicket. We all had a feeling a cat would come from the direction of the thicket if one were to come. We started the first stand with a rabbit distress at low volume. Linda was panning the light and saw eyes in the thicket after about 5 minutes. She didn't have to get my attention as I was ready with the shotgun. Kent was resting and trying to stay out of the way of the light work. The eyes appeared and disappeared a few times before going away completely. We felt sure it was a cat and that we had done nothing to spook it. We were also pretty confident that if we were patient, curiosity may bring that cat back.
I carefully switched the sound on the Foxpro to "bobcat in heat". After about 30 seconds the eyes reappeared coming closer and closer then coming to a complete stop. Now we knew it was a bobcat. Next was some excited-whispering conversation as the cat sat down. That conversation lasted only about ten seconds as Linda and I agreed it was time to shoot. I put the red dot of the twelve gage right on the two eyes and squeezed the trigger. Linda was sure it was a clean kill. With the recoil I lost the sight picture and wanted to see a dead cat to be sure. She was right, the cat did not move. It was an adult female that just folded under the Remington Nitro Mag #2's. Kent and I approached and found the cat limp as a dishrag with no fur damage at 29 steps. There was some undergrowth that made the shot seem longer. :whew: Darkness always does that to me. I was really excited to get this cat...and I had two hunting partners that seemed even more excited for me.
We bagged a gray fox on a different stand. Here's some photos from the next morning:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/jbeanes/Critters/catfox.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/jbeanes/Critters/catfox2.jpg)
Looking back at all the stands I've made over the years in the daytime; I can honestly say that if I were hunting alone and sitting on the ground, I would have never seen this cat come in through the undergrowth. The light showed us her eyes at night. Something to remember for future daylight set ups.
Thanks for reading the post,
JB
Congrats on getting the monkey off your back. Nice kitty! :highclap: :highclap:
Great story and pictures. Congrats. :highclap: :congrats:
Pat
YEP!! Good read & nice lookin cat & fox!! Congrats!! :congrats: :congrats:
A great hunt!! Thanks for the pictures and story.
Nelson
Nice writeup and an even nicer cat. Congratulations.
Jerry
Nice, very nice. Congratulations :congrats:
Congratulations !! :yoyo: :highclap: :congrats:
Thanks for sharin it with us.
Good job Bluesman, enjoyed the story and pics. :yoyo:
Nice job JB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :biggrin:
Brent
Nice cat! Thanks for the detailed story.
Jim
Good Job JB, The night calling and seeing the eyes of the Cat coming in is a event that every Predator Hunter should experience, I did that one time and Boy what a rush, Congradulation's and hope you will be able to do it many more times. :highclap: :congrats: :biggrin: cc
:yahoo: WTG Bluesman!!! :yahoo:
Thanks so much for sharing the adventure w/ us all. :biggrin:
:yoyo: nice lookin cat