I am trying to call cats on a ranch in South Texas as part of a survey. There will be no shooting, just video.

We have cameras out around areas with tracks.

My electronic caller has a good selection of rabbit, turkey, baby pigs and others.

Also looked at youtube and there are videos of females of various species calling.

Are these worth trying?

Would appreciate any tips or suggestions.

Thanks,

Jeff

Woodpecker in Distress is my go to when calling in cats

Best of luck

Agree on the Woodpecker in Distress. Would suggest any bird call you can round up. Would also suggest that you include, as part of your set up, a sharp stick with a good sized feather tied to it with thread. The feather moving in the wind will get and then keep the cat's attention and keep it from spending too much time looking around for danger of any kind.

Be patient. Cats come in rather slow most of the time.

Woodpecker, grey fox fight, or baby cotton tail in distress. Like said above be patient, had cats show up after 20-30mins of nothing. They are sneaky, most times I never see them come in I just spot them sitting and watching me.

Yep, when you get tired of looking/calling doze off for a bit...when you come to, they will almost be in your pocket!

try the tufted titmouse.

Don’t overthink it just stay with higher pitch birds or baby rabbits and you will call bobcats pretty easily in STexas if you setup correctly. I have called triples multiple times in that part of Texas so don’t give up just because one shows. On decent property I would expect to call 6-12 in a weekend.

I think Chital just puts a can of cat food by the fence in his backyard and shoots house cats without even having to call them.

You got a real hard on for an 18 year old kid.

I'm new to this too, but I can tell you what not to use if you want cats to come in. I had tried calling in the same area 3 times over a three week period. My hunting partner and I were more or less trying to call in coyotes and were using rabbit in distress mostly, with some crow calling too. Before leaving I would try a coyote call or two. We were hunting about 30 minutes or so then leaving; and we were also trying to pull something out of the woods into the edge of corn fields. Saturday, I went back to the same area (alone) but set up in the woods along the edge of the field. I called with the rabbit distress call for about 15 minutes, then switched to crow fight for about 3 minutes, then paused for a couple minutes. Then I put on the mole squealing, started it low and worked the volume up. Within 2 minutes the bobcat popped into site 50' +/- in front of me, with lots of coverage behind it. I dropped it with my .243. I'm guessing we were doing two things wrong on previous hunts (1) using coyote calls, (cats don't like dogs), (2) we were leaving a little too early, and perhaps trying to draw the animals out of their comfort zone? Keep on trying, and don't give up!

I was going to suggest "Here Kitty, Kitty"........lol in all seriousness i have been planning on getting into calling during down time and calling in bobcats was something ive wanted to do and ive enjoyed all the advice here!!!

Bobcats hunt along creeks, rivers, and briarpatch fencelines (undergrowth) where I come from. Redbirds are a favored meal, as are any small animal that hangs/nests in those areas. Baby rabbits, quail, thrush, mice, etc.

Bobcats will readily come to the sound of a lost baby kitten. If you know someone with some nursing kittens, take one of the kittens away from its mother, when it is hungry, and record the sounds. Also, If you get a small stuffed toy cat, set it on a low hanging limb, or on top of a fence post, and tie a feather on the tail with a string. If you also have some cats, just put the stuffed toy in the cats bed to get some natural cat scent on it, after you have washed/air dried it with scent free washing detergent. Try it, you may be surprised at the results...