Baiting

I like your shooting setup. I have a similar situation that I could bait from but do to the terrain and injured knee I can't at this point. Some day..

I could shoot without even getting out of bed!
 

Thanks everyone.

Softpoint, I wish you well, buddy and hopefully you will be back at it soon. Last fall / spring I didn’t get a single coyote due to working a part time job, running here and there for family, and bad weather. I never get very many anyway, but I’m off to a pretty good start with three so far since September. For here that’s not too bad.

 
Hi All! It is that season and time of year again.. . .smelly bait piles, cold nights, and the hope of the hunt. A quick glance over previous pages tells me a few yotes have been taken down. Congratulations to those having success!
I had my 3rd coyote show up at one of my bait piles this year. The game camera recorded her visit.
Video :

So far I shot and missed 2 Reds - found out my scope was off. Got everything true and was able to put my first fur of the season on the ground last Friday night on a Red vixen. She ran about 20 feet then dropped.
Video:
Picture: https://flic.kr/p/2hMs5n4

Good luck everyone!
 
Last edited:

Welcome back, Gobbler. Good job on the red. Too bad you and the coyote didn’t meet up, but hopefully that will happen.
 
I thought it was about time for you to get back on the board gobblergetter, and welcome back as always. I think you'll get that coyote. It was marking territory and that's a good sign they will return. Nice take on the red fox.
 

Last night a bobcat revisited my bait site. Looks to be a fat one. Guess I need to do some calling for this one since it's been staying in the area for a while.

49123546492_8f745e9218_b.jpg
 

Tried calling the cat this evening for over an hour. Totally dry stand, but he is still around I feel sure. Our trail cameras get him pretty often.
 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06

49030414443_3f071f0d94_c.jpg




Love the terrain and the building on the slope, looks awesome. Pretty coyote, too. I see you're using a 6x45 which is cool. I have one as a SBR in my passenger seat for sudden encounters with canines (all canines) at the ranch; it's a potent round and super easy to load for.

--HC
 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06
Tried calling the cat this evening for over an hour. Totally dry stand, but he is still around I feel sure. Our trail cameras get him pretty often.


I've killed 19 bobcats in just over a year and I don't hunt them all the time. That doesn't make me an expert, but I do have some experience.

I live/hunt in north central Texas (WNW of Dallas about 90 miles). The location may impact the usefulness of this information: what works here may not work where you are due to differences in the environment (proximity of humans/housing, food sources, etc.).

Bird distress (particularly "woodpecker") has worked very well for me. I also use a $40 Icotec decoy which I just leave running independently of the caller. I used to use the decoy attached to the caller but it was a pill to activate it manually and I found that it worked just fine separately.

They roam large areas (some sources say 4-8 sq. miles, some say more). Long spells of calling have worked. Letting the call go for minutes and minutes has worked. I've had one cat come in on the call while it was running and I was bored and reading news on my phone...it knocked the top off the decoy and was just wandering around the call and decoy when I stopped reading and looked.

All my hunting is done at night.

FWIW. HTH.
 
Thanks hcb. I have taken 11 bobcats to date, but that covers a period of years. Your success rate is much greater than mine. When cat hunting I generally play the caller non stop, or with only minimal pause, and have called them with a variety of sounds. I even called one Tom to a raccoon fight that brought the cat in a dead run to the caller. This bobcat has been hanging around for a while, so hopefully I can still get him before season ends at the end of February.

I did manage to get one video one time of a cat that responded within 2 minutes of calling. It was difficult to operate the camera and shoot too, so I wasn’t able to zoom up like I would have liked.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nkri0z_azUQ




 
Still looking for my first bobcat with a rifle. Trapped a few over the years and have had a few in the sights of my thermal but couldn't close the deal.

During the day.. nice work 06!
 

Thanks Softpoint. Every bobcat I have taken with the exception of one was during daylight hours. I got one large male one night with night vision. Had that one mounted. He weighed 31 pounds.

49140084096_e2cedaebf2_b.jpg


49139591033_38bac4de97_b.jpg


49140084111_c2847e3742_b.jpg


49139591023_a87e8a33e7_b.jpg


 
That's a big nice looking cat! I've only seen 2 during the day (other than those in traps.) One while trapping and one while Jeeping. If I called them in while coyote hunting during the day I never saw them?

Hope to change that this year!
 
Well it was a good end to a good day. I went fishing with my hunting buddy on his boat. We had a good day, and caught about 50 spotted sea trout like the ones shown on the stringer. We released all but two which I kept for my wife to eat. Then, I killed this female tonight just about 11:45. I had seen a coyote mousing in the field about 600 yds. away but couldn't entice it with calling.

I figured sometimes though they will come sneaking in later after things quiet down. She was at the back corner of my yard. I don't think she ever got very close to the bait pile, but I missed her on the first shot which was not a good angle as she wasn't side to me. She ran a ways and jumped over into the field but the Varminter 4.0 suppressor had her confused apparently as to where the sound came from so she stopped to figure it out, bad mistake. She was 165 yds. at the shot. Here is a picture of a few of the fish, and the coyote. Video of the miss and recovery below.

IMG_20191202_151142236 by Double Up, on Flickr

IMG_0542 by Double Up, on Flickr

 

Follow up shots are sweet when available. You worked that bolt pretty fast, DoubleUp.

Last night the bobcat returned. I only got one video clip of him. He is staying in the general area, or at least is making his rounds fairly often. I have tried twice to call him to no avail, but will keep trying.

49165800807_f7d511360b_b.jpg


 
Back
Top