Bobcats everywhere!

muzzyman88 · 10-05-2010, 06:06 PM

First day of archery season here in PA found me in one of my normal early season, pre-rut sets. I get settled in and discover that man, its a bit chillier than I thought!

Anyway, the morning progessed without too much excitement, no deer until about 8:30 or so. I caught movement to the northeast of me and found a few deer feeding on acorns, milling around. I pull up the bino's for a closer look, button buck, doe, doe, etc. There were about 4 deer, give or take a few from what I could see as it was a bit thick where they stood, some 75 yards away.

I watched these deer for about 20 minutes off and on with the binos. As I was watching them, i got a glimpse of more movement behind them, only something didn't look quite right about the movement or the sillouette I could see.

All of sudden deer started blowing and running, with 3 ending up directly under my stand, staring back in the direction they once stood. I thought... what the heck?! They continued to blow, stomp, etc., for what seemed like a minute. I was scanning the area where they were with the bino's again and all of sudden, a bobcat leaped into the open. Three of the older, adult does stomped toward the cat, blowing constantly. The cat, seemed like it knew it was out-flanked and out-numbered began to retreat. As he was, the does began chasing after him until finally the cat and does were in a dead run. The does chased the cat out of sight over the hill away from me. I could hear the snorting for quite some time out over the hill, some distance away until it finally fizzled out.

The remainder of the deer settled down and eventually bedded within 50 yards of my stand for the morning.

It's strange, but for the last 2-3 years, we've been seeing more and more cats around our property. But man, what a crazy opener for me!

TRACKER · 10-05-2010, 06:23 PM

Theres always something exciting abought hunting ,
Never no what you will see .
I seen my first Bobcat here in Northern NY last fall during deer hunting from my tree stand .
First Bobcat I ever seen ..
I,ve been seeing turkeys this year like never before .
The thing abought turkeys I,ve seen is they will walk right by brousing deer and they seem to actualy intimidate the deer ..
Go figure,,,,

TheBoneGrinders · 10-06-2010, 03:37 AM

Man that sounded like an awesome time in the woods, i had the same thing happen last year in spring gobbler season. Seen turkeys coming in first thing in the morning and then all of a sudden they all flew up into the air and away from me, i thought what the hell..they didn't see me i was well concealed and no movement on my behalf. Then about 1 min later her comes two bobcats together creeping along the edge of an old cut off where the turkeys roost in a few of the tree's on that edge..It was very exciting seeing two together like that, where i hunt they have never had an open season here yet lower corner 4c which i call the dead zone..

oldshedhunter35 · 10-06-2010, 10:38 AM

What a great story.Looks like you saw something most folks never will.I wish I could have seen it also.

Wildbill51 · 10-07-2010, 06:26 AM

Isn't that the real reason many of us hunt. Congratulations and good hunting.

bronko22000 · 10-14-2010, 05:38 PM

That must have really been cool. To bad you didn't have a video cam. That would have been some great footage.

7MMXBOLT · 10-15-2010, 01:56 PM

Been hunting 35 years and saw a Bobcat for the first time in the wild yesterday. No way to tell if it was a male or female but it was fully mature. Stood about 13-14 inches from the ground to the top of it's back and was about 2 ft long. It came under my stand about 10 yards away and looked straight at me as it knew something wasn't right. Starred directly into my eye's but I just sat still which seem to calm it as it continued along. Then it stopped at a standing dead tree, sniffed it real good and turned to urinate on it were he had sniffed all the while starring at me the whole time. Probably it was out and about marking it's terratory as it just walked off. Yesterday must of been "cat day" cause earlier in the morning, in a different location I also spotted a fishercat bounding through the woods about 40 yards away. It was jet black with a beautiful coat and a long bushy tail. That was the 3rd time I have seen one of them so that didn't excite me as much as seeing the Bobcat. Coolest cat you'd ever want to see and hope to see another someday.

muzzyman88 · 10-18-2010, 04:44 AM

I hear ya. I have been hunting for almost 20 years now and up until about two years ago, I've never seen a bobcat in the wild. Now, I'm seeing them about once a year or so. Of course, I may be seeing the same cats, but I'll take it!

They are a beautiful animal.