bobcat calling » Wildlife Callers

New Year’s Resolution – Introduce Kids & Adults to Predator Calling

Posted February 3, 2010 By Mark Healy and has 4 comments.

Since a peak in the mid 1980’s, the number of hunting licenses sold in the United States has been on a decline. Source: ESPN Outdoors. Anti-hunting groups are relentless in their legislative attempts to take away our legal & ethical American pastime. Our best defense is to make sure our voter ranks are filled up with new/ethical hunters every year. Take a kid or neighbor predator calling and get them addicted too!

I’ve always had the hunting bug, but my father was not a hunter – not even a little bit. He used to take me deer hunting and tell me to “go look for some over there” pointing to a mountain. He’d nap in the truck and I’d wander around aimlessly. Then, a local teacher and predator caller, Ken Brink, took me hunting in 1986. Bang!! Three coyotes on the first stand and I was forever hooked. After a good day calling, there was never a string of bad days that could deter me from going again – I always knew my next good day was eventually coming.

Here are a few predator callers who are passing the fun and addiction to people who can spread the word and keep the fire burnin’.

Ned and Liz Burris spent a cold November Sunday calling together, and Liz called in her first bobcat. Liz could have been discouraged after 5 gray & rainy stands without seeing anything (she didn’t even see the coyote Ned shotgunned on the first stand until it was dead & down), but Ned kept her spirits up and it paid off. What an outstanding day calling!

Liz Burris and Her First Arizona Bobcat - Nov 2009

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Categories: Books & Education, Predator calling, bobcat, coyote

Tags: Arizona outdoors, Arizona predator hunting, bobcat calling, calling coyotes, coyote, electronic predator calling, predator callers, Predator calling, wildlife callers

Nice Bobcat Down and a Response to a Pair of Sounds Most Callers Wouldn’t Expect

Posted January 22, 2010 By Mark Healy and has 2 comments.

One of our Arizona blog readers & veteran predator caller, Danny Avey, reads several of our posts about sounds & tactics, gives the techniques a try and calls this 28lb female bobcat in Southern Arizona. He openly shares his tactics and sound list with other readers.

We’d like to thank Danny for the open and candid way he shared his story and tactics. We hope these tips work for you too.

Danny was hunting near the Arizona/Mexico border (US side). He was calling for a mixed bag of predators, and although he wanted to call up some bobcats or a lion, he was perfectly happy chasing coyotes. About a half-hour before dark on a still & clear afternoon, this bobcat arrived on his stand. Two shots from his .223 dropped the cat 12 steps from his Wildlife Technologies KAS-2030-ML.

Danny Avey and His Southern Arizona Bobcat

Side Note: It appears that Danny’s hair slipped off his head and got stuck on his chin.

Here is a full run-down of his set-up and the sounds, times, and volume settings: (more…)

Categories: Predator calling, bobcat, coyote, electronic callers, mountain lion, wildlife technologies

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, bobcat calling, bobcat hunting, calling coyotes, calling mountain lion, digital wildlife calling, electronic game callers, electronic predator calling, Predator calling, predator hunting, wildlife callers, wildlife technologies

Gray Fox & Bobcat Calling – What Sounds? When? How Long? How Loud?

Posted January 11, 2010 By Mark Healy and has 5 comments.

We get asked often what our “sequences” are when we’re calling predators. It’s truly more than just a sequence of sounds that calls critters in, and I’ll explain my process of choosing sounds on a stand, the volume, the length of time I play them, etc. To kick this series of posts off, I’ve chosen Gray fox and bobcats as the target animals. I’ll write additional blogs about my successful processes and sounds for coyotes, mountain lions, and bears shortly.

Choosing gray fox and bobcats to write about was an easy choice. The hard & fast way gray fox come to the call is a confidence booster for any predator caller, and I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to call more bobcats – ever. And, the truth is, bobcats aren’t terribly hard to call – they are terribly hard to see. I absolutely believe that most bobcats called in go unseen by the caller.

Generally speaking, bobcats come slower to a call and use cover all the way in. There are always exceptions to this rule, but more often than not they will be slow and methodical about their approach. Also, if you’re serious about harvesting more bobcats, take binoculars on every stand. Once a bobcat has gotten a visual on the speaker or the bush it’s in, they will stop coming and sit down. A motionless bobcat in a bush at 30 yards is nearly impossible to see without binos.

Here is my fox & bobcat method and my typical sound list: (more…)

Categories: Predator calling, bobcat, electronic callers, fox, wildlife technologies

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, bobcat calling, bobcat hunting, calling coyotes, cougar, cougar calling, electronic game callers, electronic predator calling, electronic wildlife caller, gray fox, predator callers, Predator calling, predator hunting, wildlife callers, wildlife technologies

Bobcat Caller Education – Two Good Books to Help You Locate & Call More Cats

Posted December 31, 2009 By Mark Healy and has no comments yet.

One of our blog readers asked if there were some good books we’d read and would recommend for guys looking to improve their bobcat calling results. Yes we do - here are two good reads.

Hat Tip to Alan N. of Sonoita for the great question.

You might wonder why we’re recommending trapping books. Well, both of these books are dedicated to successful bobcat locating and are full of information on behavior, travel patterns, terrain, and how to read land formations to locate more cats. Knowing that trappers must know bobcats well enough to get a bobcat’s foot in less than a six by six inch spot to trap it, then it stands to reason their locating & trap placement tactics will get us close enough to call them (or smack ‘em with a hammer).

Bobcat Trapper's Guide by Mitchell Ricketts

The Bobcat Trapper’s Guide by Mitchell Ricketts gives a lot of information on bobcat habitats across the United States. The level of detail this book offers about bobcat behavior and how to identify what the author calls “key activity areas” is outstanding. I keep this book in my calling equipment box. This book as available from Amazon both new and used.

The Competition Line Bobcat Trapping Guide & Gray Fox Refresher by Tom Miranda is not as data-driven as Ricketts’ book, and has several photos of terrain, travel areas, lay-ups, and practical advice on how to locate more bobcats. This book is an easy read and one that I keep with me in the field. Be advised, Miranda talks briefly about bobcat terrain across the US, but the focus of this book is mainly in the western US.

As always, thank you for reading and posting comments. If any of you have any book recommendations, we’d like to read them and put them on the blog. Please put them in your comments.

Subscriptions to the blog are FREE. Just put your email address in the “Subscribe” box on the upper right side of this page.

May all of your stands be productive in 2010!

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com

Categories: Books & Education, Predator Scouting, Predator calling, bobcat

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, bobcat calling, bobcat hunting, bobcat scouting, Hunting, predator call, Predator calling, predator hunting, Predator Scouting, wildlife callers, Wildlife Photography

Traffic Jam Bobcat – While Others are Commuting Ned Burris Goes Calling

Posted November 24, 2009 By Mark Healy and has 4 comments.

Ned gets caught in a typical Arizona traffic jam last week and takes full advantage of his delay getting home.

We appreciate veteran predator caller, Ned Burris sharing another success story with us. There are several informational calling tactics & take-aways in this post.

Have you ever been driving on the freeways/highways around your hometown and thought wow, that would be a great place to make a stand? The brush looks right, there are no homes nearby, there’s a good water source, you’ve seen a few coyotes and small critters killed on the road nearby, but you’ve never taken the time to call it or had your gear with you when the urge strikes and time permits. I’ve been there too, and here’s how a serious predator caller makes the most of his opportunities.

Ned Burris - AZ Predator Caller

Ned Burris was headed home from work last week in west Phoenix and like every other work day, he jumped on the freeway and headed east. Traffic on the AZ freeway system is never good at 4pm, but this particular day it was exceptionally bad. Ned knew he was going to be stuck for more than an hour trying to get home. Most people would have cranked up the radio, or called their aunt they haven’t talked to in a year and crawled along the freeway. Ned, on the other hand, hit an exit ramp and got back on the freeway in the opposite direction. In just a few minutes he was past the residential sprawl on the west side of Phoenix and looking for places to call.

Ned, who knows how to maximize opportunities like this, keeps a few hand calls in his truck, a reliable 20 gauge shotgun, and a camo jacket. He exited the freeway in some agricultural areas that were surrounded by thick stands of salt cedars and mesquite trees. He’s called around areas like this in the past, and knows that bobcats love to lay-up in the thickets around the fields. Today was no exception. (more…)

Categories: Game Callers, Predator Scouting, Predator calling, bobcat, hand calls