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Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on June 13, 2026, 01:09 PM:
.............. called in a Feral Cat ????
I was thinking back on critters that I've called in, including bobcats and mt. lions and realized that I've never called in a feral cat (that I know of).
What say the Peanut Gallery ?????
Posted by NVWalt (Member # 375) on June 13, 2026, 03:26 PM:
Yes I have. In fact I called in two that I shot but that was it. One was up in Washington on the edge of a clear cut and the other was in Nevada. The first one was pretty young and stupid. The other one was on an ghost town relic of a place and it was big enough I took it to the truck and weighed it and it was 18 pounds. The thing was the size of our female bobcats there. That was outside of McGill up Duck Creek. So yes you can call them up. If they are around and feel like checking out that racket your making.
Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on June 13, 2026, 03:32 PM:
just pheasants and geese with WT. sounds, HORSES AND COWS, DEER.
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on June 14, 2026, 03:50 AM:
Never close to farms or ranches.
Did call in a badger. Didn't know I could walk backwards on my butt.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on June 15, 2026, 09:03 AM:
Yes, a couple times. One was a large orange Tabby, at night, Looked enough like a bobcat. Another was in Rosebud canyon, black cat also at night. I let him go when I spotted a white blaze on the chest. Come to think of it there was another orange cat and it was over in Walt’s direction. I let him go, the ears weren’t right, even though he was behind brush. I do not shoot and then Identify, I’m not surprised, although there was a horse that surprised me for a while, thought it was a lion, but he/it was behind an embankment and he was completely in the dark, just eyes, until he turned his head, Over half of my hunting is at night. Normally, there is no question of identification. Daytime, even less.
Another thing on cats, daytime, heavy cover, you might not see the approach, you just make out a cat sitting beside a bush that wasn’t there, before. In other words, you didn’t or it wasn’t possible to see him approach, he’s just there, one minute, They don’t usually look through a bush, seems like they want a clear view, so they are besides a bush. But occasionally they look over a bush.All you see is the head.
But, it is uncommon to call in a feral cat, when in the wilderness.Close to town, that’s another story….and something to be aware of.
LB 🐝
Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on June 15, 2026, 03:59 PM:
Interesting..............
I was reading an old article that implied millions of feral cats killing off all of the songbirds, gamebirds, and most small creatures at large.
I'm kinda thinking that feral cats don't survive all that well when totally on their own, away from the farm.
Posted by Az-Hunter (Member # 17) on June 15, 2026, 04:04 PM:
Never gave it much thought, but I have never called a domestic cat. Lots of dogs, never a cat?
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on June 16, 2026, 11:41 AM:
WE have had kind of a scorched earth in this neighborhood with coyotes becoming extremely bold, and they have seriously thinned out the pet outside cats. Basically, if you want to keep your cat, keep it inside.
Our city is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and most of it is National Forest, with a Ski Lift operation every season up at Mt Baldy.
So we have rock quarries on both sides of town, east and west. All kinds of forest creatures follow down out of the foothills and then they branch out into the city streets on any given night, and sometimes they don’t make it back to quarry property until broad daylight.
Anyway, according to the chatter on local chat sites, they are really raving about how bold the coyotes are this year. They have always been present, even before when Upland was all Lemon Groves. Now, in the 50+ years since they started building houses in North Upland, the coyotes have always been here. They seriously thin out the tabby cat population. In fact, most people have learned to keep their cats indoors, or lose them. It’s pretty bad!
I’ve seen them here and there all over town. No, it’s not an every day occurrence but it’s not a big deal either. I was tempted to shoot one, once, but didn’t. Right out the passenger side window while stopped on 15th and Euclid. Lately, I have heard reports of coyotes fighting with dogs, and that’s not supposed to be because we have leash laws in this town, dogs seldom run free.
El Bee 🐝
Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on June 19, 2026, 11:25 AM:
Koko those cats do raise hell on birds, its not something someone made up it does happen.
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on June 20, 2026, 04:15 AM:
In total rural areas with coyotes feral cats don't stand a chance.
Coyotes and red fox are fairly hard on them.
Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on June 20, 2026, 06:15 AM:
Oh sure. In my area though the coyotes or fox don't seem to bother them much. Had old guy I hunted with off and on would drive back roads every day, something you can do when retired. He would thin out the cats and coon or anything else that came into gun range, he just liked to kill shit all time.
He use to keep a score card on dash of pickup and I saw it one time he had like 75 cats for that summer and half that in coon and gophers.
Posted by JoeF (Member # 228) on June 28, 2026, 04:54 PM:
In farm (barn) country - yes, rarely.
Even then I can't remember one that didn't stop a couple of hundred yards away, watch for a while, and then take off like a stripe-ed-assed-ape. I want to think the few at night skipped the pause part, but were they even a feral cat?
Thinking about it, it would have been quite some time ago when running tape calls.
Deer can be annoying here - I have even ruined a couple of night hunts with shooters I wasn't familiar/comfortable with where we had both coyote and deer coming in.
I have never mistaken a deer for a coyote but I have twice called shooters off when we had a coyote heading in at us at a fast trot while crossing rows of picked corn at a right angle - that rhythmic bobbing up and down looks just too much like a deer.
I don't have the mountains of night experience of most here.
Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on June 29, 2026, 06:16 AM:
A priceless nugget; When in doubt ...... DON"T SHOOT !!!!
Sorry has never called a bullet (or arrow) back !!!
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on June 29, 2026, 08:48 AM:
I think that is an interesting comment, JoeF. I very very rarely hunt around corn crops, but I can see what you mean, up and over the rows. I have had just a couple coyotes run in corn rows and it’s erratic enough to bother getting a bead on him.
El Bee 🐝
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