No cats

[Lookn4Fur]

Jaspr1, That is my go to call.  Now my Super Secret is out.  Seriously it is.  My cat area is 3 1/2 hours away.  I wish I had a 30 minute drive like some.  I would be there every night.  And no, I don't think you can over call a cat.

[uncle buck]

L4F 3 1/2 hour trip to your bobcat hunting spot.  I hope you score you deserve it.. I have a friend that has caught two bobcats in Dauphin County. One with a restraint and one just a few days back with a leg hold set for a coyote...He left both go of course.. So that WMU is now open for bobcat trapping and hunting..  So I'm hoping to go so I will be hitting places I know in that WMU.

Tim as you know I can go out in my back yard and spit on your house...    Virginia border is  2 hours from us.. Places like Winchester, Woodstock, New Market. all have public lands to hunt in theGeorge Washington State park.. Where I hunt if there is traffic it takes  2 and  55 Min... It's down by Harrisonburg va...  For $109.00 the out of state small game license for Va... You can shoot all the small game and that your furtakers hunting license too.. Coyotes, Fox, Coon, and now get this.....Unlimited bobcat for the entire season.. I say for the entire season since you can shoot them in archery, regular gun,  regular predator hunting season.. .So that like from 1 Oct to the end of Feb...  As you know the Maryland border is  40 min from us... I just wonder what their furtakers hunting license cost? as you know the mtn there over the border are large and wide.. This would be where Camp David is...Thurmont area of Maryland... Go the other way by Hagerstown ...Boonesboro is down around there.  they have many trapping events there. th Va small game license.. If you purchased it today..20 Jan 2016 you can use it all the way up to  Jan 19 2017.     

[uncle buck]

Also don't get me wrong... I have a bobcat permit just like every other pa hunter... I'm just informing people of what is available in near by states.. maybe people in the Northern tier need to check out NY bobcat hunting seasons and cost..   Just say you have a cabin in Potter county.. You hunt cats there a few days and then you shoot up to NY and hunt some too...Kind of like having a lot of things going for you. Also from what I can see the coyote hunting in upper NYS is just awesome!!!

[uncle buck]

Maybe someday we will have to have a bunch of us meet for lunch somewhere and talk about Va hunting..

[uncle buck]

Has anyone ever called in a cat using the forever always load of the Bobcat In Heat on all the electronic callers you buy?  Same for the distress house cat... Maybe I don't use that enough for coyotes. also the sheep  distress.. The Good Ole Jack Rabbit and Baby Cottontail always seems to be the go to for coyotes for me..

[coyotejohn]

Just how it is out here, they will start out fast but as they get closer to the sound they will proceed a lot slower and occasional stop to survey the area.  Then they creep in closer to the sound.   If you have Lucky Bird on your caller I would suggest you try it, also use a small decoy slightly above your caller.  You may also want to have a set of binoculars with you to scan the are when you fist start calling and again when you are ready to leave.

If you are going to hunt VA would suggest Camp A.P. Hill, it's a Army installation but open to all.  Check with their game management people for requirements.  When stationed at the Pentagon I hunted it on a regular basis and did quite well. 

[scott]

most of the cats I have called in have come from a pretty good distance, they would walk like it was no big hurry to get there, stop once in awhile to listen and look.   last year or two years ago I called one in 3 days after the season, it came across an open snow covered field, every time it would stop it would twitch its tail like it was excited but that one also took its time, I could have killed that one 100 times..   called it in to about 20 yards..   

I have tried aggressive bobcat and bobcat in heat with no success.   my house cats like them though especially the aggressive bobcat which is weird.   

never had any luck with cat distress for coyotes (chicken distress either)

[coyotejohn]

Jaspr1, That is my go to call.  Now my Super Secret is out.  Seriously it is.  My cat area is 3 1/2 hours away.  I wish I had a 30 minute drive like some.  I would be there every night.  And no, I don't think you can over call a cat.

Anybody that would travel 3 1/2 hours to kill a bobcat surely deserves to kill a bobcat.  Agree that you can't over call a bobcat.  Before we moved into the city I could call them in off our back patio.  Even now living in the city but with a dry wash behind us I have seen coyotes  using it and have found bobcat tracks. 

[uncle buck]

John thank you for the info about A. P. Hill.. Now that would be just about 1hour and  30 min from many of us in this part of Pa...

I am going to start to use the ICOtec now with the decoy... I called in quite a few coyotes this year and I know if the decoy would have been on the caller I would have nailed them.  just to understand why we have a problem here in SCPA... The coyotes are after the deer.. the farms that have the deer on them have the coyotes on them.. I do call in deer all the time.. So...I have to make sure it's not a deer.. That give coyotes in this populated small farm area a little jump on you.. I know this ICOtec and the attached decoy is going to be an awesome tool for me.. especially when I hunt alone.. See when I hunt with others... i'm the caller and they are the shooters.   I have only called in two cats here in Cumberland county.. What was something I noticed their eyes seemed like the size of a quarter..

[uncle buck]

Many of the well known callers say:  "Bobcats aren't the smartest animals!" Something to the effect they don't even use scent much but visual.. Don't know if this is true or not but it would be good to start a discussion on "THE BOBCAT!"

[Lookn4Fur]

I use to hunt NY all the time but it became too expensive and too time consuming.  Killed lots of fox and a couple coyotes up there.  Turkey was always good also.  never called in a cat there but had them on trail camera once.  This is the south west portion of the state.  I would love to hunt Virginia it's just not in the cards right now plus it would be nice to be able to share the gas and other expenses with someone.

Anyhow.  Bird and rabbit sounds work best for me.  I have used bobcat in heat and aggressive bobcat but have had no luck with those sounds ever.  Although I hunt mostly for cats at night, I have hunted them in the daytime.  Never called one in during daylight hours although I have seen them in the daylight hours.  I have trapped several cats and they are a creature of habit.  they are more sight driven I believe rather then scent.  I look for cat toilets.  If I can find one, that's like money in the bank.  A good one will show different ages of scat.  Swamp edges, draws that funnel down from the mountain to a swamp or creek are great places also.

I found a roadkill deer once in a draw close to the road that led to a swamp.  The cats hit that deer up every night until it was gone.  When I investigated further, I found the cats where using that draw to get to the swamp.  I started looking at other draws and finding even more sign.  Just this past weekend the cat I saw crossed the road and headed up through a draw towards the top of the mountain.  I tried to cut him off but no luck.   

[Bigcat]

I found a new cat today.  I went to the place where I found tracks Saturday made 3 sets nothing. I didn't go investigate to see if they had been back through the area the tracks were at. Next stop was a farm I have done good on for fox and I knew there were cats in the area. Made a set nothing picked up the call and decided I would check out the rocks there and about 20 yards from the call fresh cat tracks. I followed them up the cliff, wasn't sure I was going to make it, they went across the top and I found some more tracks from a smaller cat. Never ran into the cat but I think I I know where I'm going to be spending the rest of my cat season. They are only about 10 miles apart and the one I saw in turkey was in between these ones. Thinking of going back to night shift for awhile.

[TheBig1]

That's great news Cat. Hope you're successful.

Chad

[uncle buck]

Coyotejohn...I wonder if the Army has a lodge at A. P. Hill?  I am a man from Uncle.. DOD retired and we can use all the 5 armed forces military housing like Navy Lodge etc... Now wouldn't that be something if I could stay at their lodge and hunt on A. P. Hill.. Sadly ...because of Sep 11 2001 many of the military bases get real strict for even entering... Such is the Coast Guard Tracen at Cape May NJ... I had to get a Warrant Officer to sponsor me on the entry to the base.. She was a young lady and once she found out was a Coastie that it was my birthday she met me at the gate and showed my family and me around.. Even allowed me to buy anything I want in the exchange.. Of course I loaded up with some good USCG stuff...  again RETIRED dod MILITARY AND CIVILIANS..You can go and stay at all of these lodges once you retire.. Like I can go to Pittsburgh and stay tat the USAF base for $71.00 a night and they give you breakfast and your room has a kitchen in it.. Gee maybe I need to do more things out in Western Pa.. Even some of the shroomin events out there and stay at the USAF base...

[scott]

Second stand on Saturday night, I get eyes within 2 minutes of calling.   I am overlooking a small field with a brushline to my right, forrest is on the other side overlooking a cornfield.   As soon as I seen the eyes I knew it was a cat he was about 75 yards out and to my left.   he comes up to the edge of the field and walks the edge at about 50 yards,  I can see it is a cat but can't tell if it is a house cat or a bob.  he wouldn't break the edge of the field.  he came up and worked the brush between me and forrest.   He got to about 20 yards from me but I couldn't tell what he was because he was in the thick brush.   Forrest said he can see it working the brushline to him but couldn't i.d. it.     I tried to move because it was going to get between me and forrest, but when I did it heard me and went back down the hill.   

if it was a bobcat it was a small one.   also I made a mistake with call placement,   I put the call lined up with the brushline figuring the animal would come up one side or the other like they would any other time.  but that cat got in direct line with the speaker and worked up the brushline, if I had the call at my feet i think it would have come across the grass field i was standing in.   also i was using the shotgun with my scanning light only.  if i had the rifle i would have been able to scope it for a better id.