Say your deer hunting Part2

The other thread got me to thinking, if everyone is so quick on the trigger when they see a coyote, what would you do if you see a bobcat? I've witnessed them stalking deer, and they take fawns every year.

Please refer to my answer on the coyote thread.

I'm a cat lover, and I don't think their density (in my area) nor predation numbers warrant killing them.

I let 9 bobcats walk last year. Don't really think of them as a major predator of deer; turkeys maybe,but we got enough to go around. Shoot every yote I see though

I agree wont shoot one unless im going to mount it.

I don't shoot bobcats

I have only killed 3 bobcats. I've let way more than that walk. I kill every coyote I see but I rarely kill a bobcat...

Same as the yote if it presents a good and stops long enough that I'm confident ill kill it ill shoot every time. With a bow ill shoot at most any thing regardless of the time

Wow, 9 bobcats in a year is a lot. Were they different cats, or 3-4 that you saw at different times? I saw 4 different bobcats in 1 day, my son took a 46lb bobcat, with a bow, that was stalking a yearling doe a couple years ago. I usually don't shoot them, unless i start seeing them a lot, and i'll take out 1-2. Amazing that hardly anybody else shoots bobcats, but are so quick on the trigger with yotes. I find deer hair in bobcat scat all the time. They are probably more successfull at hunting deer than yotes, when you consider their numbers versus coyotes. They sure look beautiful slipping thru the woods.

9 different about 5 totally different areas. One group of 3,two different pairs, and and 2 other random ones. I doubt they're more successful at taking deer then yotes are; how are you sure hair you see in their fecal matter isn't from another critter?

Typically give bobcats a pass...I think I will change my view on them.

I don't discriminate on predators they all get a ticket to the truck if possible.

Shoot.

I can tell the difference between deer hair and rabbit or squirrel. Cats are the most prolific hunters that there are. They have to be, their lone hunters for the most part,except for lions. If you think a 46lb cat can't take down a yearling doe, you better think again. Not trying to convince anyone to shoot bobcats, just thought it was funny how there's a big discrepany between pulling the trigger on yotes versus cats.

a 46# bobcat is rarer than a 200" buck in Alabama, most are under 30#s

I have spent thousands of hours in the wood over the last eight years and have not found one single dead deer that I attributed to a bobcat, a BUNCH from yotes, esp fawns. Turkeys, skwerls, rabbits, birds all fall to cats, but I doubt cats kill many uninjured deer or any grown deer.

Deer hair in cat scat dosen't mean the cat KILLED the deer only that it ate some deer.


I still ain't shooting bobcats...

Fred, your right, most bobcats are less than 30lbs, and yet we've killed 2 in the last 4-5 years that went over 40lbs., weighed on our scales and at the taxidermist. And i'm not trying to convince anyone to shoot bobcats.I saw a fawn recritment study done, somewhere in northeast alabama, that said after the bobcats and coyotes were hammered, the recruitment went from .6 to 1.6. so apparently i'm not the only one that realizes bobcats take their fair share of deer. I doubt they take as many grown deer, but if well populated, they could put a dent in fawn fatalities.

If it hunts and kills turkeys and I have a good shot at it BOOOOM!!

bobcats can , and do, kill fawns. I suspect from my experiences that a yote kill 10x as many as a bobcat and there are a LOT more yotes out there.

I mounted a bobcat 40+ years ago that weighed 45# from Marengo Co, biggest by far that I've ever seen.

I snuck up to the top of a ridge once, hearing turkeys shuffling the leaves just down the other side. I got my head up high enough and saw a group of gobblers. I watched em for prolly five minutes before I noticed a grown bobcat crouched maybe ten yards to my left, watching the turkeys. He saw me, turned to look at the turkeys, and then eased off to the lft out of my sight. I stood and spooked the turkeys. I may not shoot bobcats, but I didn't want him eating my turkeys either....

I don't know the bobcat population, however, i do know they are very sneaky and use stealth as their means of hunting. You typically will never hear a bobcat. They move slow and thats the reason we don't see that many. Coyotes on the other hand, are almost always trotting and you can hear and see them from several hundred yards away. Frequently, there will be more than one. Sightings are not a good indicator of population, although i know there are a lot more yotes than cats.

We shoot every bobcat we see. But we are also big turkey hunters.

i like watching them and i could care less about a turkey. i shoot them because i like quail and on my baldwin county lease the quail are coming back pretty strong. if i saw a bobcat stalking a turkey i would give him a pass.

I shoot em. I don't see very many around d here. I've only saw 3 in my life. Only killed one. It's at the taxi now.

I agree sightings are not a good indicator of populations. I can only go by trail-cam pictures, and I generally get 50 coyote pictures to every one bobcat picture.

Here's my all-time favorite trail-cam bobcat picture:

Once again I would kill the predator. A bobcat is like a coyote to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZQFqxl5AHk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video of one last year hunting about 35 turkeys. All the noise in the video is the turkeys raising hell behind me

Great picture BSK. Someone had a trail cam picture of a bobcat with a fawn, on the Qdma website last year.

That picture is in the latest issue of Quality Whitetails.

Great pic!! That a homebrew cam?

Yup. One of my original homebrews using a Sony digital camera. Although I don't use homebrews anymore (I only use black-flash cams, and no one has figured out how to adequately black-flash a homebrew yet).

I love to watch bobcats, they are amazing creatures, some of the most graceful in the woods. However I love to watch turkeys also, so if I can get a shot I will shoot a bobcat. I bow hunt 95% of the time so I get to watch a lot more bobcats then I get to shoot.

I hate turkeys. They are seed and acorn-eating feather rats. I hope bobcats eat every one!

Choot 'em.

i shot one , had it mounted . i had to shot a old tom cat in the chicken pin a few years back . all his teeth was gone and he looked badddd. i see no reason to shot them .

I kill every one I can, just like coyotes. They eat my turkeys.

Kill'em all, jack!

you guys want to help the turkeys ,,, coon hunt !!!!

I never thought so either until we started trapping coyotes. Even on places where we see few bobcats and lots of yotes on cameras, we kill nearly 1:1 bobcats to coyotes. Killed 26 yotes and 24 cats on one place last year and 28 yotes and 25 cats this year on same place!



Hate to say it Troy but you sound a LOT like the biologists a few years ago trying to justify that yotes were NOT a problem to the deer herd!!

You may be right gobbler. But in 27 years of hunting my place, I've seen 2 bobcats. I get about 6 bobcat picture per year. I get about 1,000 coyote pictures, and see them regularly. Not saying my system makes sense, but I like cats, so I don't kill them without a good reason. I don't like dogs, and coyotes are basically a dog, so I shoot them from time to time.

go hug a pine tree.... you will not convince me that cats equal yotes in killing fawns, much less grown deer.

I've seen a lot of Bobcats over the years. Some still hunting, some walking around, some called up with calls. I've never killed one. I've thought about taking one just to mount. Other than that I like to see them and let'em walk.

They have always done their thing in the predator/prey game as they should as a native predator. Lot of difference in a native predator and an invasive one such as the Coyote.

Bsk thats a great trail cam picture. you get that on one of your?

Yes. Bobcat got his picture taken at about 2 feet from the camera. I bet that flash scared the crap out of him! I know how jumpy cats can be...

I feel the same way. I would never attempt to manipulate a game animal population by eliminating other NATURAL predators. A bobcat has just as much right to a deer as I do. But coyotes are not native predators to Southeastern deer. They are an invasive, and invasives are fair game for elimination.

Gob, we see about the same number of cats as yotes also. But I get more pics of yotes. I believe Bobcats are the superior predator of the two. They are some kind of stealthy.

X2 ... coyotes, cats, coons, and feral dogs do not get a pass.

My first bow kill was a bobcat. Proud of it too, to be honest!

I'll kill one with a bow. Coons too. We have a trapper that comes in February, and that's what he makes his money off of (bobcats), plus he doesn't charge us, so they get a pass with a rifle. Coyotes, different story. They get shot on site!

OK, I'll bite... here we go Red wolves (basically between a wolf and a yote - actually our southeastern yotes are closer in size to red wolves than western coyotes or grey wolves) were our "natural" predator. We wiped them out and now we have yotes. Just nature making up for the loss of red wolves - kinda "natural". Also, Change deer to quail and bobcat to coon, possum, skunk, etc... and tell that to the quail plantation folks, or the USFWS endangered species managers for that matter!

[/quote] Change deer to quail and bobcat to coon, possum, skunk, etc... and tell that to the quail plantation folks, or the USFWS endangered species managers for that matter! [/quote]


Quail always coexisted with bobcats, coons, possums, and skunks. They never had to compete with large scale habitat destruction, pesticides, fire ants, and coyotes until very recent times. If the quail could not coexist ecologically with the above said animals...........we would only know of quail in the fossil record.


I suck at quoting obviously

Kill some, let some walk. We have no shortage of cats. I see way more bobcats than coyotes.

quoting is easy - I fixed a few typos for ya

Touche

now if we wanna get into what is natural as how nature works . we "humans" are predators by nature that alone gives us the natural right to kill all other predators that might compete with us .

If we had wolves (red or grey), I would not advocate the killing of wolves to protect deer numbers. I would not advocate, and would fight against the reintroduction of wolves because I believe they are a threat to humans, livestock, and pets. We (TN) are close to having a reintroduction of mountain lions from the northwest. They are already in Southeast MO and southern IL. Mountain lions are EXTREMELY efficient killers of deer and individual lion kill multiple deer per year. Once they get here, and they will, I would not advocate killing mountain lions for the purpose of limiting their impact on deer. Hunting them for sport is perfectly legit, as is killing them to protect people, livestock, and pets.



And now you know why I'm not a quail manager. I believe the evidence is quite clear that the high quail populations of the first half of the 20th Century were far more due to predator control than habitat. I would not and do not advocate predator elimination simply to improve quail numbers.

This is my 3rd one with my bow.

Shoot nearly every coyote I see, but I NEVER shoot bobcats.

I understand and generally agree. I neither think we can get rid of coyotes, nor IMO, should we since they are taking the role of another natural predator - aka red wolves. I trap and shoot them where needed and leave them alone where they are doing our population control for us! Same with cats.

Quail populations in the early 20th century were a function of everyone living scattered about the southeast (more rural folks per acre by far then than now) and killing and eating everything that walked or flew. However, the habitat was FAR superior in quantity than now. The southeast was basically recovering from the cut-out and get-out era and everyone burned every spring. I would say habitat was the driver and lack of predators was an influential secondary.

I've heard the habitat argument over and over, especially the part about needing more contiguous acres of quail habitat. But I've done mapping work on some of the big quail plantations in south GA--20,000 contiguous acres of exceptional quail habitat--and they still struggle to keep viable populations of wild quail. The big difference between now and the "glory days" of quail was massive predator control. In those days, not only were predators trapped for fur, the government offered bounties on some of those predators, which put food on a lot of rural tables. In addition, in those days, it was common practice for farmer to shoot every hawk they saw. While working on a quail-managed property on the GA coast, I watch hawks pick off quail after quail.

The difference is between range wide declines and local population declines. I spent 10 years as a quail researcher in s ga/n fl/s al on quail plantations. Right now the quail plantations in s ga are experiencing the highest populations ever recorded, 2-3 birds per acre - on the ones practicing good management. Year round feeding, intensive predator control and habitat. Thomasville ga plantations make up 500,000 contiguous acres of good, managed habitat. Yet the state of ga is still experiencing range wide declines.

Ive got places here in al that are "managing habitat" but not practicing predator control and we see populations in the bird per 20-30 acres. On the bigger places here in al that manage well and trap, maybe a bird per acre. However, again, alabama has been experiencing a decline of 2-3% per year for decades - primarily related to habitat declines in both quantity and quality. There are places in alabama that quail are virtually extinct and it is not habitat loss per se but habitat changes that result in good habitat for deer and turkey maybe but not quail.

It may be "chicken and egg" concept since both were happening at the same time but I know quail can exist in viable numbers without predator control, but they will go extinct without the correct habitat.

Very interesting information gobbler. Thanks for posting it.

last time I quail hunted south Ga one of their predator control practices was shooting every hawk they saw.

First day out guide sees a hawk and gets his rifle out. I ask if he knows it's illegal to shoot hawks. He replies no GW is ever going to know. I show him my Federal ID. He says he was just kididng about shooting the hawk.....LOL

Dang, that was one fine place though. Antebellum home, orange juice delivered to the bed at wakeup, BIG breakfast, LOTS of birds, good horses, great dogs.

you do it like this:



With dogs like this:



get off and do this:



All just for this:



Spend the night here:



Kinda reminds you of this from the 1930's:



Beats the heck out of goat hunting! And we have officially completed the highjack!!

Gobbler, I see you are well versed with the quail. Thanks for the on the ground input.

What happened to the bobcats!

gobbler, that looks like the house we stayed at. We rode the horses, had a man to hold em while we got off and shot. All the guides/handlers wore white coats so they would be seen, said you'd be surprised at the crazy folks they get there.

I was a guest of a friend from England, he didn't hunt the first day due to business. His teenage son and I hunted, I let the boy do almost all the shooting. The guide finally said I didn't shoot because I was afraid I'd miss all the birds and look bad. Next rise I killed two bambam with my double 20, maybe two feet apart.....he didn't say anything else while I let the boy shoot.

Whats the name of the place in the pics????

the buggy we used had 16 dog boxes on it, rotated dogs pretty quick.

Top pic is Pineland plantation (Albany Ga area) owned by the Mellons - close to 30,000 acres of fine bird habitat. 2nd pic is my bird dog on Nilo plantation owned by the Williams, I think around 20,000 acres, very historic place designed when Olin Mills folks owned it. Third pic is Peachburn plantation in Union Springs. 4th is right after third was taken. 5th is Rosina plantation in Thomasville Ga area. Last is Herbert Stoddard and Henry Beadle on Tall Timbers in North Fl.

I spent 3 years riding horses with the hunting parties tracking quail while hunting - very interesting. They rotate out dogs quick like 30 minutes or so and usually bring a lot of dogs. True wild birds are also hard to hit. I hunted with a friend in Union Springs the last week of season last year and we found 6 coveys in the afternoon - shot into all 6 - I shot 13 shells, he shot 15 - we never cut a feather. It was embarrassing!

Well, i guess, we killed them all.

I get more out of messing with them from 25' up making quick squeaking noises and watching them attempt to figure out what and where that noise is than I do pulling he trigger on one. I enjoy just watching them. I don't think they take that many fawns or enough to consider shooting one. Turkeys either, I suppose.

Always wanted one...
now I want more...