How To Call Bobcats

How To Call Bobcats

By Troy Hoepker

A doe peacefully munched soybeans in the field out in front of me as I sat hidden in the shadows overlooking the field behind my calling partners Larry McKnight and Mark Johnston. Sounds of the agonizing wails of a dying rabbit pierced the air every few minutes as Larry called from his mouth call. A thin line of trees separated us and we couldn’t see one another but we all had our designated assignments to cover different fields of fire. Mine was to cover Larry’s backdoor in case anything approached behind him from the north. The doe would perk her head up whenever Larry would call but wasn’t overly concerned with the distress noises she was hearing.

It was completely quiet when suddenly her body language changed. Abruptly she began to blow and stomp her foot as she looked directly away from me to the other end of the field. Her warnings continued for a few moments until she finally bolted from her tranquil surroundings almost as if in fear. I knew I hadn’t made her jumpy, but what had?

Moments later my question was answered as I saw something move through the brush and down to the field edge on the other side of the field exactly where the doe had focused her attention earlier. As I peered into the scope for a better look, the surprise of what appeared to my vision immediately made my heart skip a beat. A bobcat!

This was November 6, 2010 when legally harvesting a bobcat in the state of Iowa was still in its infancy. That year we were excited that the harvest quota had been expanded to 250 cats for the season. We had called in bobcats in previous years, but never during the open season before the quota was full and the season closed.

Now here stood a real live bobcat before me the first day of the fur season! I had just sighted in my Tikka .223 and knew exactly where my point of impact was at 110 yards, the precise distance from my barrel to this cat. The bobcat stood on the field edge surveying the situation, like bobcats do, likely waiting to hear Larry’s next call so it could move in for a kill. I steadied the crosshairs and remember telling myself to touch off the trigger on the exhale. I had a frontal shot at the standing cat and that was enough. I never lost the sight picture as I sent the V-Max bullet downrange and watched the cat go stiff and fall to the ground dead before she knew what hit her. The bullet went perfectly between her lips and never exited the body. The only mark on the cat was a tiny bit of lower lip disturbed from the bullet. My taxidermist was pleased. We had done it! We had accomplished our goal of the day, to call and kill a bobcat!

The guys were all smiles when they came over to see what I had shot. Up until that time, most bobcats that filled the previous year’s quotas had been trapped and taken by bowhunters. Very few had ever been called in. Larry’s great calling had perfectly enticed that cat and we had taken one of the very first bobcats to have ever been legally taken by the method of hunting it in the history of the state of Iowa!

Bobcat Behavior
Since that day, I’ve called dozens and dozens of bobcats and there really is nothing like seeing a bobcat suddenly appear when they are stalking your sounds. Every one that shows up is a memorable experience!
Generally speaking, calling bobcats isn’t all that hard. Once they approach your set, they are easier to kill than coyotes. They make more mistakes than coyotes do, and at times are as dumb as your typical house cat. If you are within a relatively close proximity of their location when you begin calling, they are traditionally very easy to call. They will respond to a variety of sounds and you don’t have to worry about the wind very much at all when bobcat calling. Bobcats also withstand calling pressure much better than coyotes.

Find the Habitat
The things that make bobcat hunting tough are finding them and spotting them. Finding them involves finding the places where they frequent the most, thus upping the odds of having a cat in close proximity when you begin calling. Bobcats inhabit thick, nasty terrain that a human would struggle to travel through. That’s where they live; their bedroom so-to-speak. They love cedar thickets, and plum thicket choked ravines and ditches as well as brush piles and dense pine groves or thick timbers. The ideal spots include these terrain features mixed with good rabbit habitat and a water source nearby. The top menu choice for bobcats is a fine rabbit. Find rabbits and you’ll find bobcats.

Bobcats also hunt turkeys, pheasants, quail, songbirds, squirrels, mice, rats, beaver, and a variety of other small mammals. That is why you will also find them in areas that aren’t always considered to be ideal rabbit habitat, but generally speaking, a bobcat’s core area usually involves good rabbit populations. Bobcats will roam away from their bedroom areas on patrol nightly and even during the day hunting for whatever they can find. They spend more of their time, however, in those bedroom areas where they feel safe and this is why you want to look for those areas when calling. It may surprise some, but I’ve called a majority of the bobcats I’ve ever called hunting between the hours of nine and four instead of first light or last light. The reason for this is because I’m calling their bedroom where I know there is a larger chance of them being home when I’m there during the day.

Understanding Territorial Ranges
Male bobcats are a little harder to pinpoint. Their territorial range will be twice as large as a female’s if not even larger. A male’s range will overlap into multiple female’s territories. The best way to pinpoint those large older males is to pay attention to the female. A female’s territory will be fairly small as her kittens are small and increase in size as her kittens grow and she shows them how to hunt throughout that first year of adolescence. With trail cameras, studying tracks, and visually spotting the mother and kittens you can monitor the kitten’s size and get a good idea of when the mother will kick them out and be ready for breeding once again. About this time, you may also notice increased activity of tracks of a larger male in the area where the female calls home. Keep in mind that bobcats can breed at any time of the year although the majority of them will do so between the months of December and March.

The female’s territory may only be five or six miles wide or longer in cases involving wooded river bottoms. Within that area she will usually have only a few areas that she considers her core area where she spends a good amount of time during the day. Mother bobcats are near the top of the food chain and they are not afraid of venturing far and wide. However, like any mother their fear for the safety of their young keeps them tied down to a smaller area. The very nature of the way they hunt and the habitat of the prey they hunt keeps them seldom seen by human eyes, but they are there. This makes hunting a female easier than hunting a male in general.

Getting Set Up
One of the best ways to bobcat hunt is to start near one of these habitat areas I’ve described and then spend the rest of the day moving from spot to spot saturating the entire area with sound. If the area is good, you should move from one set only far enough to the next one that your sound almost overlaps with your last set location. Keep doing this throughout the day, set after set, and you’ll likely be calling to a set of ears at some point during the hunt. Remember, cats won’t travel as far as coyotes do to investigate the sound. It can take them a little longer, so being closer is somewhat important.

Keep Calling
The last tip is to increase the amount you call. Sporadic calling can work as well, but cats hunt with their eyes and ears more than their nose. They want to hear it until they can see it, so keep the sounds coming. You certainly don’t have to play sound continuously and that can be detrimental as well, but definitely increase the amount you call when trying for bobcats. Bobcats get distracted easily on their way to the call. The more you keep their interest, the more you keep them coming. Once they arrive to the area where they can see the sound, keep in mind that bobcats will often stop and watch for a bit, especially if it’s quiet when they get there. Their natural camouflage blends in perfectly with their surroundings. This is why it’s important to keep them on the move so you can spot them and there’s nothing better in all of Iowa’s outdoors than seeing a bobcat stalking your call!