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Hunting & Fishing Calling Bobcats

Bradu

Full Member
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 24, 2011
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Curious to see what you guys use for sounds and what you have had the best luck with. We have a fair amount of them on camera and am looking forward to trying to get one this winter.
 

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I use bird sounds, they are CATS, think like you are messing with cats, they are slow to come in to a call, I set 45-60 minutes most of the time.
Charlie112
 
Use woodpecker sounds, nutty nuthatch, rabbit calls work too . In my area calling bobcats takes a lot longer and have had better success during the daytime with a decoy running. They’ll show up out of nowhere . Wind direction doesn’t matter to them as much either. If going after bobcats expect to call longer at your sets 30 minutes or sometimes more.
 
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I've had the best luck with rabbit sounds. And as others mentioned, plan on staying much longer than if your were hunting coyotes. Bobcats are cautious and take their time sneaking in. It's rare to have a bobcat come running to a call like a coyote.
 
Grey cat bird distress, other bird and rabbit sounds or like a juvenile fox distress. I've always heard if you have a windmill or other tall object, make sure you make that a stand, they like to hangout under stuff like that due to bird activity. depending on the size of property, you have to make longer sits for cats. 45 mins works for my areas I hunt usually. May need to be there a full hour.
 
The one Bobcat I took was deer hunting. Had a pack of 5 coyotes come in on me so I took lead dog. Waited 10 minutes and then hit a pup in distress call on my phone to see if I could get one to come back. My Bobcat can tearing ass down the valley like he was chasing something. So loud I thought it was a deer trotting in and already had the rifle up. He hopped up on a log and was watching my dead dog. Shot it off the log and had a head in rug made. Probably won't take another, they aren't nearly as bad on the deer as coyote, but I hear they are hell on the Turkeys. Really a beautiful animal, when the numbers are balanced.
 
Rabbit sounds here, damn near had one in the RZR with us one morning, then it ran off about 50 yards stopped and looked back at us. Got her then! One of the nicest bobcats i have gotten.
 
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A little off topic from the OP but I’ve never hunted bobcat before but saw a nice male come out the other day while deer hunting and I’ve seen him three more times since then. They aren’t in season until December 1 so I can’t shoot just yet.

My question is what caliber do you recommend shooting them with? I have a 223ai and the rest of my stuff is a variation of 6, 6.5 and 7mm. I’m thinking the ai with my 80 grain hybrids would be best so I do as little damage to the hide as possible as I’d like to have him mounted.
 
Busy high pitched sounds while varying volume from wide open to barely audible works well for me. I think some people make the mistake of using constant volume with the same sound sequence over and over. I’ve watched cats come in from a long ways away over the years and have witnessed how you can get them jacked up and excited or board and stuck on here butts. For me, the busier the better and think about what’s you are trying to immitate. Nature sounds are variable and off and on. Never at 11 and non stop. Just my .02
 

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